ABSTRACT
Introduction If there is a message in Zhang Yimou’s Hero, it is certainly tian xia (‘all under heaven’). The phrase appears numerous times throughout the film. The conflict between Nameless, Broken Sword and the King of Qin, later the First Emperor when China was united, is diminished because of their vision of tian xia. The hidden logic of tian xia in the film is: on the one hand, terrorism and violence must be abandoned if peace (heping) within tian xia is to be restored; on the other hand, it is necessary to tolerate, and even support, unification of nations by force in order to pursue universal peace. The logic seems self-contradictory. Yet it is this logic of peace that unites the assassins and the King of Qin in the film. Nameless and Broken Sword give up their secret missions and support the conqueror for the sake of eternal peace, while the King believes that he enjoys the Mandate of Heaven (tian ming) because he has the power and the will to bring peace to all. Peace becomes the ultimate justification that resolves all violence in the world of Hero.
