The Meaning of the film “Hero” by Zhang Yimou
A Study in Chinese Thinking
The Meaning of the film Hero by Zhang Yimou – A Study in Chinese Thinking
The Chinese have a great love of making everything more complex, in fact, they delight in making things more difficult, rather than less. If they can make a game with five rules instead of four, they will do so. The movie Hero, by Jang Yimou serves as example of this Chinese tendency.
On the surface, the story of Hero is quite simple. A warrior of no great fame manages to kill – so it seems – two of the three most skilled fighters in the world. This previously unknown warrior, despite being a local official for the Qin government, refuses to tell anyone his name, so he goes by the moniker Nameless for the entire movie. Nameless shows up at the Qin palace with the sword of the greatest warrior, Broken Sword and the spear-head of the warrior named Sky as well as the sword of a female warrior, Flying Snow. The weapons are examined and Nameless is then brought before the King of Qin (better known to history as Shi Huang Di, or as the Chinese now call him, Qin Shi Huang) and he is richly rewarded as befits a man who has seemingly killed three significant threats to the life of the King. However, as the King of Qin hears Nameless explain how he defeated the other three warriors, the King of Qin decides that Nameless is lying to him. Nameless admits the truth of the King’s guess and then he says will not carry out his plan of killing the King of Qin, instead he walks out of the palace and is killed by a storm of arrows fired by the place guards.
Intermixed with this simple story we are shown a number of other scenes. Some of these scenes are told by Nameless, while other scenes are told by the King of Qin. Most of what is told is either imaginary, or it is an elaborate deception, what the viewer sees is rarely true.
Here is the story - as the movie tells us. Ten years ago, a young man raised within the state of Qin, learned that he was originally born in the state of Zhou but his parents were killed when Zhou was conquered by Qin’s soldiers under the direction of the King of Qin. This young man decides that he will will kill the King of Qin in revenge for his unknown parent’s deaths. To this end, he decides to became a master swordsman and he begins training to the exclusion of nearly everything else. He joins the Qin government as a low ranking official, apparently as a person who tries to capture or kill criminals. He concocts a plan with the help of a famous warrior named Sky - to stage a fake fight. Nameless defeats Sky and takes the blade of Sky’s silver spear. Next he stages another fake dual with Flying Snow; in front of a battalion of the Qin army, Nameless runs Flying Snow through with his sword, just like he did to Sky. Sometime later, Nameless goes to the Qin capital holding a third weapon, the famous sword called Broken Sword. When Nameless comes to the Qin palace, his intention is to kill the King of Qin, but – as shown – he changes his mind and is killed by the king’s guards. At some point later, Flying Snow and Broken Sword commit a double suicide.
To the non-Chinese viewers, the story is implausible and somewhat silly, but if you accept the idea that someone might be skilled enough to stab someone with a sword yet not seriously injure them, the movie seems to lurk at the edge of reasonableness.
However, a typical Chinese viewer will understand that none of this story is reasonable from the beginning.
First, the job that Nameless claims – Prefect, rank 20 - likely did not exist within the Qin state. The Qin state was a military state par excellence, it was like a Chinese version of Sparta, though much larger and even more successful. In Qin, as in Sparta, every man was soldier. Every young man was assigned to a group of five, and they trained and fought together for the rest of their lives. Each group of five was in turn part of a larger group of 100 men (20 groups). This larger group also trained and fought together. Even larger groups were organized by the Qin state and every single man in the Qin state always had a rank. The Qin state officials knew the “name and rank” of every man within the entire kingdom. There were no nameless men, and there were no men who were independent of this rigid hierarchal system. All of Qin society was run in this fashion. The idea that a man with no family and no group membership could claim to be a member of the Qin state is historically absurd – and it would be known to be absurd by most Chinese viewers. Certainly Zhang Yimou and his fellow script writers knew this and the historical experts within the Chinese government who approved the film also knew this.
If we accept the reality of the story, that a man of the Qin state created a plot to kill the King of Qin, then most Chinese who watched this film would know that the Qin government knew everything about Nameless, as soon as he showed up at the gate to the palace. The officials at the palace would know his true name, his family, his unit, his rank, and his service record. That’s the way the Qin state operated. It was a supremely well organized nation of soldiers, the likes of which have never been seen again in Chinese history. Unlike Sparta, which essentially disappeared from history after they lost the battle of Leuctra to the Thebans in 371 BCE, the Qin state created the nation of China. Everyone in China knows about the Qin State because the Qin were instrumental in creating the nation of China, as it exists today.
Now, it is possible that a foundling boy from another state might be brought back to Qin and raised as a citizen of Qin, but it is not possible that the Qin government would not know about this as well as the identity of his adopted parents. So, a Chinese person watching the film would know as soon as we hear him say “I’m Nameless” something critically important: that the film is meant to be understood metaphorically. The question then becomes: how many layers are there to the story?
No one in China is nameless, everyone has a family. Not even the poorest orphans are nameless. Everyone in China has a family, either the family you were born into, or a new family you choose when you were older. The closest we can find to a man without a family in China is a Daoist hermit, who has dedicated his life to attaining some type of Daoist transcendence. Such a man, living alone in the mountains will have a fake name like “Old Man of Mount Tai” but not a real name and no family. However, if such a man ever tried to re-enter society, he would have register with the city government as a Daoist priest, and thus he would have a family, of sorts. So far was we know, this type of person was not allowed in the Qin state. It is safe to say that there was never a nameless man who was a member of the Qin state.
What then does it mean that he is Nameless? He certainly isn’t representative of the common man. He is an extraordinary person. It is a fact that he stabbed two people with his sword, running them through with his blade, and yet they both lived. This was not luck, according to him, he did it deliberately.
No, the meaning of Nameless is that he is a free man. Under Chinese law, collective punishment is accepted as normal. In Europe and the US, the idea of punishing a group of people for the actions of another is treated very carefully. We only punish groups when the group collectively plotted some criminal activity and the group members took some action, beyond just talking about the plot (a conspiracy). But in China, for more than 2500 years, the legal system has accepted as fundamental the idea that that groups of people are responsible for the actions of one, even if the ONLY connection is by blood relation or marriage. Attempting to kill a king was the extreme case where everyone remotely connected to the assassin would be executed. An attempt against a king’s life was always punished not just with the execution of the would-be assassin but the assassin’s brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles – as well their wives or husbands, and their children. Everyone with moderately close family relationship to the assassin would be rounded up, and executed, no matter how far away they lived. Saying “I haven’t seen my brother in 20 years” was never an excuse.
The only way a would-be assassin could avoid having his entire family killed off would be to (a) succeed and have the government collapse or (b) the family is already dead or (c) not have a known relationship to anyone. Criminals in China always changed their name and joined a brotherhood of like-minded criminals who became their new family. Buddhist monks also changed their names, formally renouncing their family, and joining a new family of monks in a specific monastery. Changing your name and cutting all ties your family was the only way to avoid having everyone die when you attempted to assassinate the king.
In the story of Hero, we learn that Broken Sword is also an orphan – but not from Qin. When he says he has no family, this is believable. Other states in China were not like the Qin, and so it is entirely possible that Broken Sword has no known family. As for Flying Snow, we learn that she is the daughter of a former general who fought against Qin – and lost. The Chinese viewers would understand that this means Flying Snow’s family is either entirely or mostly dead, so she can attempt to assassinate the King of Qin without fears for her relatives.
Back to Nameless. He shows up at the Qin Palace, tells the King he has no name, and the Chinese viewer immediately understands “Oh, this is ridiculous. We can’t take anything this guy says seriously. It’s just not possible.” Later, when the King of Qin says to Nameless, “You are lying to me”, the Chinese viewer says, “Yes, I knew this already.”
The real heart of the story of Hero takes place near the end. For the first time we are shown a true battle, not some fake pretend fight, but the real attempt to kill the King Qin by Flying Snow and Broken Sword. These two, lovers, and supreme sword masters wielding the greatest swords in China, charge into the Qin palace, slaughtering the guards as they run into them. There is no attempt at subterfuge, no sneaking in at night, this is two peerless fighters who take on all of the palace guards and kill them. It is absurd to watch and yet, this actually happened (in the movie). All the other fights we have seen up until this point were pretend or imaginary, but this – this is real. Together Broken Sword and Flying Snow reach the inner palace where the Qin Emperor stands alone, but only Broken Sword enters the throne room while Flying Snow stays outside and continues to kill the Qin palace guards.
Inside, Broken Sword and the King of Qin fight. The King is, naturally, outclassed by Broken Sword, and yet, when Broken Sword has the killing stroke available, he does not strike. We do not see the aftermath of this pivotal scene, we are left to assume that Broken Sword and Flying Snow fight their way back out of the Qin Palace and escape from Qin territory. We learn that for the next three years, the King of Qin doesn’t bother with guards inside his inner palace because he knows they are of no use, should Broken Sword and Flying Snow ever decide to return.
However, the key question for the viewer at this stage of the film is: Why? Why did Broken Sword and Flying Snow not kill the King of Qin when they had him at their mercy? This is the central question in the movie Hero, everything else in the movie is just a beautiful distraction. The answer is, in part, that Flying Snow hasn’t changed her mind, she still thinks they should kill the King of Qin but she can’t (or won’t) do it alone and her lover Broken Sword has decided that the King of Qin must live. So, now the question is: why did Broken Sword decide to let the King of Qin live?
The answer is revealed in the final minute of the film. Broken Sword has apparently decided that he can’t defeat Nameless – so apparently Nameless really is the greatest swordsman in the world because he doesn’t have a magical weapon. Instead Broken Sword writes two characters on the ground in front of Nameless. The two characters are very well known in China: Tian Xia. They mean “all under Heaven”.
All Under Heaven – Tianxia - 天下
This phrase is a very powerful phrase in Chinese history. It has been used by millions of Chinese men for nearly 3,000 years. Tian, or heaven is a complex concept which is roughly analogous to God, the creator under Christian and Jewish theology. Unlike the Christian god, Tian is not personified and is never represented as a figure. Tian is best understood as a divine entity which has a goal – the flourishing of the human race. Men and women who live in accord with Tian’s wishes will lead long and happy lives and they will almost likely be reborn, after death, either in a unearthly paradise (the land of a Thousand Springs) or back on Earth to a good family. Tian punishes the wicked and rewards the virtuous. The code of human conduct which Tian wishes humans to follow was correctly understood by Confucius and a number of other important philosophers.
Every civilized man and woman should follow the will of heaven. Every Chinese person should attempt to follow civilized behavior. Everything under heaven – which in theory includes the entire world – should follow the code of proper conduct. It is proper that there should be one supreme ruler who can set the laws and run the state so that everyone can live good lives in accord with heaven’s wishes.
Broken Sword tells Nameless that the King of Qin is working to create Tianxia. This means that the King of Qin is fundamentally good and he will be a source of good for all humans. Broken Sword does not attempt to argue that the soldiers of Qin have killed many people, he does not deny that the Qin killed Flying Snow’s family. Instead he argues (by his actions and non-actions) that the King of Qin is the best hope for realizing Tianxia.
At the end of the film, Nameless decides that Broken Sword was correct in his assessment of the King of Qin, and so, he walks away from his ten year plan, to his certain death, hoping that – at the end – Broken Sword will be proved right and the King of Qin will bring about Tianxia.
As every Chinese person knows, the King of Qin did unify China, but he proved to be unworthy of heaven, and the mandate of heaven was passed swiftly to a new man Liu Bang, who founded a new dynasty which did create Tianxia. So, while the King of Qin proved incapable of being the just and wise ruler that was needed, he laid the foundations for the state which did succeed. Without the King of Qin, perhaps there never would have been a Han Empire.
That is what Hero means. All the pretend fights are to conceal the truth that the Qin King had to conquer China in order for Heaven’s will to be realized.
This is why the Chinese Communist Party approved the making of this film.