The Memory of an Assassin and Problems of Legitimacy in the Wang Jingwei Regime (1940–1945)

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In early 1942, a poetry exchange about a painting on the ancient assassin Jing Ke took place among top collaborators at Nanjing. Chinese cultural memory of Jing Ke, long contested, shifted in the twentieth century, making him into a Republican and national hero, eventually symbolizing resistance against Japan. Thus, these poems, especially considering their Japanese readership, show that although cultural memory can be evoked as a legitimizing discourse to serve political needs, its plasticity gives it versatility. Wang's own iconography as assassin, central in constructing the legitimacy of his regime, was a floating symbol that assumed varying meanings in different contexts. It simultaneously justified collaboration, assuming that Japan's pan-Asianism would usher in a new unified Qin empire, and also resistance, assuming Wang Jingwei's perceived readiness to make a personal sacrifice to save the nation.摘要:本文圍繞 1942 年初南京汪政權的菁英文人間的《易水送別圖》唱酬，通過荊 軻歷史形象的變遷，探討文化記憶的可塑性如何使其在多種語境下獲得多重意義。 它也是一個漂浮的符號，同時肯定抵抗與合作的合法性。