聂政 / Nie Zheng
聂政 / Nie Zheng enters the wiki through 《资治通鉴·周纪》07丨两起刺杀（2）, where 严仲子 hires him to kill 侠累, the chancellor of 韩国. The episode emphasizes two constraints before the killing: Yan Zhongzi offers wealth and a revenge commission, but Nie Zheng refuses while his mother is alive because he still has filial obligations.
After his mother’s death, Nie Zheng carries out the assassination in a heavily guarded meeting. The source says he destroys his face, gouges out his eyes, and kills himself so his identity will not implicate his sister 聂英. His story therefore sits between Political Assassination Ethics / 政治刺杀伦理 and Aristocratic Honor Over Life / 贵族名誉高于生命: it is not presented as clean public justice, but as revenge, family protection, and name-making inside a Warring States honor world.
《资治通鉴·秦纪》119-1｜拆解荆轲刺秦必败的秘密 adds a later reception judgment through 扬雄. In the cited typology, Nie Zheng is grouped with 要离 and 荆轲 as an assassin whose death can be named and admired in a limited way, but not called义 under the episode’s renyi-grounded standard.
Connections
- 严仲子 - patron who commissions the killing.
- 侠累 - target of the assassination.
- 聂英 - sister whose later identification makes his name public.
- 韩国 and 《战国策》 - political setting and variant source tradition.
- Aristocratic Honor Over Life / 贵族名誉高于生命 and Political Assassination Ethics / 政治刺杀伦理 - adjacent conceptual frames.
- 扬雄, 要离, 荆轲, and 仁义为本的信勇 - Qinji 119-1 reception frame that denies assassin death automatic义 status.