Liu Bang:

Emperor Gao (256 BC or 247 BC – 1 June 195 BC), commonly known inside China by his Temple Name, Gaozu (Chinese: 高祖; pinyin: Gāozǔ, Wade-Giles: Kao Tsu), personal name Liu Bang (Wade-Giles: Liu Pang), was the first emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty, ruling over China from 202 BC until 195 BC, and one of only a few dynasty founders who emerged from the peasant class (the other major example being Zhu Yuanzhang founder of the Míng Dynasty). Before becoming an emperor, he was also called Duke of Pei (沛公) after his birthplace. He was also created the Prince of Hàn by Xiàng Yŭ, the Grand Prince of Western Chu, following the collapse of the Qín Dynasty, and was known by this title before becoming emperor.

Early life

Liú Bāng was born into a lower class farming family in Pei (present Pei County in Jiangsu Province). At the time, Pei was part of the State of Chu. He relied on his brother's family for food. After he grew up, Liú Bāng served as a patrol officer in his county. Once he was responsible for transporting a group of prisoners to Mount Li in present Shaanxi province. During the trip many prisoners fled. Fearful that he would be punished for the prisoners' flight, Liú Bāng offered the remaining prisoners their freedom if they would fight for him. In legend, the released prisoners fled, met with a cobra snake and went back the way they came, running into Liú Bāng. Hearing their story, he went and killed the cobra himself. The cobra was supposedly larger than a full grown tree, and its breath was poisonous, killing many prisoners. Liu Bang was brave enough to kill the snake at dawn. From then on, the prisoners respected him and made him their leader, hence Liú Bāng became the leader of a band of brigands. On one of his raids, he met a county magistrate who became impressed with his leadership skills and gave his daughter Lü Zhi to him in marriage.

Insurrection against Qín

In 209 BC Chen Sheng led an uprising against Qin Dynasty and assumed the title "King of Great Chu." Pei was in old Chu territory. At the time that Liú Bāng released the prisoners he was to escort to Mount Li and then became a fugitive himself, Xiao He was serving as a secretary to the county magistrate of Pei County. When Chen Sheng started his rebellion, the county magistrate considered joining the rebellion, and at the advice of Xiao and Cao Can (曹參) (who was then a county police official), he sent Liú Bāng's brother-in-law Fan Kuai to invite Liú and his company of bandits back to Pei County to support the rebellion. Fan found Liú, but on their way back, the magistrate changed his mind and closed the city gates against them, and also, afraid that Xiao and Cao would open the gates themselves, wanted to execute them. They jumped off the city wall and joined Liú. Liú Bāng, apparently at Xiao's suggestion, then sent letters to city elders urging surrender into the city by shooting them in on arrows. The elders agreed, and they assassinated the county magistrate and opened the gates to let Liú in, offering him the title the Duke of Pei.

Liú Bāng served first as a subordinate of Xiang Liang and then, after Xiang Liang was killed in action, became a subordinate of Mi Xin, Prince Huai of Chu, who was also the nominal leader of the coalition of the rebel states. Prince Xin named Liú Marquess of Wu'an. It was about this time that he met Zhang Liang, who would become a chief strategist of his.

Prince Xin made a promise that whoever occupied Guanzhong first, which was the plain of Central Shaanxi, the Qín homeland, and the core of Qín Dynasty, should be awarded Guanzhong as his kingdom. He then sent Liú Bāng for this mission, partly because he considered Liú a kind and merciful man, and partly because he did not like Xiang Yu, whom he considered cruel and impetuous. When Xiang Yu was busy fighting the main force of the Qin Dynasty, Liú invaded Guanzhong with relative ease.

In December 207 BC, the last Qín ruler Ziying surrendered to Liú Bāng and his rebel army, and in 206 BC Liú entered the Qín capital Xianyang. However, as now Xiang Yu was the most powerful rebel at that time both Ziying and Xianyang were instead forced to be handed to Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu even considered killing Liú in one dinner party that would be later known as the Feast at Hong Gate, but decided otherwise.

Chu-Han Contention

Now considering the whole former Qín Empire under his domination, Xiang Yu realigned the territories of not only the remaining parts of Qín but also the rebel states, dividing the territories into 19 principalities. Xiang Yu did not honor the promise by Xin, Prince Huai of Chu, who would soon himself be assassinated by Xiang's orders. Instead, he gave Guanzhong to the princes of three Qins. Liú Bāng was only awarded the Principality of Hàn (modern Sichuan, Chongqing, and southern Shaanxi).

In Hanzhong, Liú Bāng focused his efforts on developing agriculture methods and training an army, through which he reinforced his resource accumulation and military power. Before long, Liú broke out of his principality, deposed the kings of three Qins and occupied Guanzhong, where he launched a war now known as the Chu-Han War, against Xiang Yu. He is quoted in his biography, Establishment of the Great, that "Those who earn their status by war are the most honorable of all."

Although Xiang Yu won most of his battles against Liú Bāng, his ruthlessness put him at a political disadvantage. Xiang Yu kept defeating Liú in the battlefield, but each of his victories drove more people to support Liú. When Xiang Yu was finally defeated in the Battle of Gaixia, he could not recover and committed suicide.

The war lasted five years (206–202 BC) and ended with Liú Bāng's victory. Having defeated Xiang Yu, Liú proclaimed himself emperor and established the Hàn Dynasty in 202 BC, making Cháng'ān (present-day city of Xi'an) his capital. Liú became known historically as Emperor Gāo of Hàn.

Reign

After Liu Bāng came into power, he re-modeled China based on Qín's example. He gradually replaced the original vassals, granting their lands to his relatives. Since the economy had been devastated by the war following the demise of the Qín Dynasty, he reduced taxes and corvée, developed agriculture and restricted spending. However, in response to what he saw as the decadence of Qín merchants, he restricted commerce by levying heavy taxes and legal restrictions on merchants. He also made peace with the Xiongnu. Under Gāozǔ's reign, Confucian thought gradually replaced Legalist thought; Confucian scholars were welcomed into his government, while the harsh Legalist laws were lessened. Emperor Gāozǔ's efforts laid a solid foundation for the over four-hundred-year reign of the Hàn Dynasty.^{[citation needed]}

Liú Bāng also devoted to subduing the unruly kings. He soon annexed most of the kingdoms and established principalities, with his sons and relatives as princes. By doing so he consolidated his new-born empire.

Liú Bāng tried military solutions against the Xiongnu but was beaten hard in the battlefield. He then decided to appease the Xiongnu by marrying ladies from the royal family to Chanyu, the leaders of the Xiongnu. This policy would not change for about 70 years.

In the 6th century source of the Xi Jing Za Ji, Liú Bang was said to have stumbled upon an entire musical orchestra set of mechanical puppets from the First Qin Emperor's treasury.^[7] The book stated:

Succession

Crown Prince Liu Ying, the eldest son of Liu Bang and Empress Lü, was the heir apparent of Liu Bang. However, Liu Bang disliked him because he considered Ying to be too weak as a ruler. His favorite son was Ruyi, Prince Yin of Zhao, by Lady Qi, one of his favorite concubines. Liu Bang attempted to make Ruyi crown prince but failed because most of his ministers remained loyal to Ying and his mother Empress Lü.

Liu Bang's affection for Lady Qi and Ruyi inflamed Empress Lü, and after she became empress dowager after her son's accession following Liu Bang's death, she poisoned Ruyi and tortured Qi to death.

Evaluation

By historians' account, Liú Bang was the contrary to his rival, Xiang Yu. While Xiang Yu was normally depicted as a romantic and noble man, Liú Bāng was often mentioned as a rogue. Xiang Yu was always kind and gentle to his peer and subordinates. However, he was an inferior politician. Han Xin (韓信) described Xiang Yu as "having the kindness of women," meaning that, in his opinion, Xiang's "kindness" was petty and did not benefit either his regime or his people.

Xiang Yu also did not know how to utilize his talented subordinates; Han Xin, for example, was a soldier under Xiang, and his later defection to Liú Bāng, for whom he served as the commander in chief, would be extremely damaging to Xiang. Other main problems with Xiang's rule was his deliberate cruelty in military campaigns, his inability to accept criticism and wise counsel, and his inability to delegate.

Liú Bāng, on the contrary, was bold and arrogant. He was able to manipulate his peers and subordinates. By giving glory and territory generously while fighting Xiang Yu, he won the hearty support of most of his peer princes and subordinates. However, once he became the emperor, Liú Bāng ruthlessly oppressed them and executed several of them, most notably Han Xin and Peng Yue. Ying Bu, driven to rebellion by fear, was also destroyed. Liú Bāng's strong suits were an ability to make decisions based on counsel of others, an uncanny ability to judge the wisdom of counsel given to him; an ability to delegate; and his ability to figure out what would bring a person to follow him.

While Liú Bāng might have been deliberately derogatory of Xiang, he was not particularly off the mark when he commented on the reason why he was successful and Xiang was not:

An incident involving Ying Bu demonstrates his personality well. Ying Bu was initially a subordinate of Xiang's, and in reward for Ying's military capabilities, Xiang created him the Prince of Jiujiang. However, Xiang also clearly began to distrust Ying, and once when Ying, then ill, was unable to lead a force on Xiang's behalf, Xiang sent a delegation to rebuke him and to monitor his illness, not believing the illness to be genuine. In fear and goaded by the diplomat Sui He (隨何), whom Liú Bāng sent to Jiujiang to try to make an alliance with Ying, Ying rebelled against Xiang, but his army was defeated by Xiang and he fled to Liú Bāng's headquarters. When Liú Bāng received Ying, he was half-naked and washing his feet, and he greeted Ying in crude language. Ying, a great general in his own right and a prince, was so humiliated that he considered suicide. However, once Liú Bāng had Ying escorted to the headquarters that he had built in anticipation of Ying's arrival, Ying became impressed — Ying's headquarters had the same size, same furnishings, same level of personnel staffing, and same security as Liú Bāng's own headquarters. Ying got the impression that Liú Bāng's earlier slights were in fact endearments, treating him as an equal and a brother in arms, and he became a key figure in Liú Bāng's campaign against Xiang.

Xiang Yu was generally remembered as a fallen hero, while many considered Liú Bāng a rogue. However, Liú Bāng treated the commons much better than the former nobles. He was a truly popular monarch, thus establishing one of the golden ages of China.

Personal information

Popular culture

Liu Bang

Contents

Early life

Insurrection against Qín

Chu-Han Contention

Reign

Succession

Evaluation

Personal information

Popular culture

See also

Notes

References

External links