The Tragically Ironic Mercy Of Lord Ding

In 221 BCE, King Zheng of Qin completed his family’s multigenerational conquest of China and became the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Yet, his dynasty had difficulty adapting to peace. Qin’s advantages in times of war—eradication of feudalism, extreme autocratic rule, and the promotion of legalism over religion or moral philosophy—quickly became irksome to the Chinese people when there was no more war to distract the mind. In the end, it was primarily the First Emperor’s fearsome reputation that kept the unhappy population subdued. As a result, in 209 BCE, only one year after the emperor’s death, widespread rebellions sprung up throughout the empire in a mass movement to oust the Qin Dynasty. The rebels succeeded in seizing the Qin capital city by 207 BCE, and the last monarch of the Qin Dynasty (who had demoted himself to the rank of king) was executed by 206 BCE.

The rebellion against the Qin Dynasty was a time of incredible social mobility. It was an age when former nobles and generals were deposed or executed while peasants and swamp bandits became the new generation of kings. Although the Qin emperors had been overthrown and China had been shattered back into a patchwork of kingdoms, few of the new kings could forget the idea of imperial rule. The new kingdoms began to fight amongst themselves, jostling for power in the new order. Eventually, two of the kings—Liu Bang in Han and Xiang Yu in Chu—began to dominate post-Qin China, forcing the other kingdoms to choose a side in an inevitable civil war.

A certain man named Lord Ding chose to fight on the side of Xiang Yu. To the people living in that age, without the benefit of hindsight, Xiang Yu would have, indeed, seemed like a great choice. He had been the commander-in-chief of the rebel forces, and he was the one who granted or affirmed the kingships of the other rebels-turned-monarchs. He was even the one who placed Liu Bang on the throne of Han in 206 BCE. In addition, Xiang Yu was a brilliant military strategist and a warrior with a fearsome reputation. He was also reportedly much more polite and respectful than Liu Bang. Nevertheless, Liu Bang had a clear advantage in one important aspect of rule. Whereas Xiang Yu liked to do everything himself, Liu Bang was adept at recruiting wise advisors and deputizing his followers to accomplish important tasks.

From 205-202 BCE, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu wrestled for supremacy in China. During these years, the king of Han was battered by many defeats as a result of Xiang Yu’s military prowess. In 205 BCE, Liu Bang suffered what was perhaps his most devastating loss, in a battle near Pengcheng, which took place along the Sui River. After the battle, there were so many Han dead in the river that the water reportedly stopped flowing. In the aftermath of the battle, Liu Bang’s family was also captured.

At the time of this catastrophic battle, Lord Ding was an officer in Xiang Yu’s army. He led his force in pursuit of the remnants of Liu Bang’s force, which was retreating back to the west. He reportedly intercepted the fleeing king, or, at least, had the ability to block Liu Bang’s escape. Yet, when he had the defeated king in his grasp, Lord Ding had a change of heart—he was convinced that Liu Bang was a worthy man, so Lord Ding decided to withdraw back to Xiang Yu and allowed the king of Han to slip away and rebuild.

Years later, after Xiang Yu was killed at the decisive Battle of Gaixia in 202 BCE, Lord Ding went to see the man he had spared at Pengcheng. By then, King Liu Bang had become Supreme Emperor and would later be given the posthumous name of Emperor Gaozu, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty. If Lord Ding had been imagining a warm reception with rewards and titles for his past act of mercy, then he must have been quickly disappointed.

Perhaps, if Lord Ding had defected to Liu Bang’s side while the civil war was still ongoing, his fate would have been kinder. Yet, as it was, Emperor Gaozu was now the monarch of a new imperial regime and he had important precedents to set. As such, the emperor was faced with a dilemma when Lord Ding arrived. By rewarding the man, he would in effect be applauding the disloyalty of a vassal to his liege. As a new emperor, Gaozu needed to stamp out any hint of disloyalty or insubordination, even if it had been directed at his old rival, Xiang Yu. Therefore, Emperor Gaozu reportedly had Lord Ding arrested and beheaded as an example of what happens to disloyal nobles.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Fresco of two men from a Han dynasty tomb in Sian, Shensi. Housed in the Xi'an University of Technology. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

The Morbid Loyalty of King Tian Heng’s Followers

Tian Heng was one of many unlucky kings of ancient Qi. His family had successfully rebelled against the Qin Dynasty during the widespread rebellions of 209 BCE, and they had managed to stake their claim to the region of Qi even though the powerful hegemon of the rebel forces, Xiang Yu, tried to take the kingdom away from the Tian clan and hand it over to another prominent rebel.

In the struggle to keep Qi independent, Tian Heng lost several kinsmen. King Tian Rong, the first Tian king of Qi, was defeated by Xiang Yu in a battle at Chengyang around 205 BCE. Power then passed to Tian Guang, but his land was quickly invaded by the Kingdom of Han in 204 BCE. King Tian Guang was captured and executed by the general, Han Xin, and Han forces consequently occupied the kingdom of Qi during 203 BCE. Tian Heng assumed power after the fall of his kinsmen and tried to push the Han forces out of Qi. Nevertheless, he was defeated by a Han Army at Yingxia and was forced to flee from his kingdom.

Tian Heng received shelter from Peng Yue, another rebel warlord who was trying to keep his claim to Liang intact during the civil war between the king of Han (future Emperor Gaozu) and the king of Chu (Xiang Yu). When Tian Heng learned that the forces of Han had defeated and killed Xiang Yu in the battle of Gaixia (202 BCE), he fled to an island off the coast of Peng Yue’s domain, as he feared that Emperor Gaozu would label him an enemy of the state. Just over 500 loyal followers reportedly journeyed with Tian Heng to stay with him on his island refuge.

According to the Han historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), Emperor Gaozu eventually sent a messenger with a pardon to the island, clearing the refugee king of any wartime transgressions. Tian Heng did not believe the pardon—during his heyday, he had once participated in the boiling alive of a Han diplomat—and he refused to leave the island. When Emperor Gaozu heard of Tian Heng’s reservations, he sent the messenger back to the island with even more incentives to lure the king out of hiding. Tian Heng was told that the emperor’s pardon was genuine and that he could expect to be granted the noble title of marquis. The messenger also hinted that the Emperor might even have been willing to restore Tian Heng as king of Qi.

The messenger finally coaxed Tian Heng to leave the island refuge, but the king of Qi had no intention of acknowledging Emperor Gaozu as his ruler. Accompanied by two loyal followers, Tian Heng traveled by carriage to meet the emperor at Luoyang. He halted his carriage, however, when he was still a short distance away from the city. As the story goes, Tian Heng pulled his two followers aside and instructed them to bring his head to the emperor. After giving them their orders, the fallen king of Qi proceeded to cut his own throat.

After the deed was done, the two followers finished the job of removing Tian Heng’s head and brought the macabre trophy to Emperor Gaozu. The emperor, for his part, was apparently moved by Tian Heng’s final actions. The two followers who delivered the head were promoted to the rank of colonel in the Han Army. Furthermore, Emperor Gaozu tasked 2,000 soldiers with constructing a kingly burial mound for Tian Heng. The two followers who had brought the head watched as their king was entombed, and, once the funeral was complete, they allegedly dug two holes in the side of the mound. When the holes were complete, the followers supposedly killed themselves so as to stay with their leader.

Later on, Emperor Gaozu sent another envoy to Tian Heng’s island, thinking that if the rest of the followers were like the two who had brought the head, then the island would be a treasure trove of worthy men. Unfortunately, Emperor Gaozu had correctly predicted that the men on the island would have the same resolve of the two that had accompanied Tian Heng. When the emperor’s envoy arrived on the island, he allegedly discovered that news of Tian Heng’s death had already reached the island and that all of the 500 refugees living there had committed suicide.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Image from "An authentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China," c. 1797, [Public Domain] via Flickr and Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

The Tragic Success Of The Han Diplomat, Master Li Yiji

Around the year 204 BCE, King Liu Bang of Han (the founder of the Han Dynasty) sent Master Li Yiji into the kingdom of Qi to see if they would peacefully submit to Han rule. Li Yiji, however, was not the only person Liu Bang set on course to Qi. If negotiations fell through, the brilliant general, Han Xin, was waiting with an army on the other side of the Yellow River, ready to invade Qi and subjugate the region by force.

Master Li Yiji successfully obtained an audience with Prime Minister Tian Heng and King Tian Guang, the rulers of Qi. Li Yiji’s task would not be easy. Han was definitely one of the greatest Chinese kingdoms at that time, but its power was far from undisputed. Only a year prior, Liu Bang had suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of his most powerful rival, King Xiang Yu of Chu, in a battle at the Sui River. Nevertheless, the kingdom of Han had regained its momentum quickly after the battle, and much of their recovery was due to Han Xin, the very general who was at that moment leering at Qi from the other side of the Yellow River. In 204 alone, he had toppled the kingdoms of Wei, Zhao and Dai, capturing all of their kings in battle.

With Liu Bang offering a peaceful transition and Han Xin positioned threateningly on the border, the king and prime minister of Qi were eventually won over by the arguments of Master Li Yiji. Records of the exact terms of their agreement were vague, with their deal amounting to either a complete submittal or possibly a military alliance against Xiang Yu. Whatever the case, the king and prime minister of Qi agreed to disband or relocate the forces they currently had on the Yellow River and redeploy their army against Chu.

Civil wars, however, can bring about the worst in people. Although Master Li Yiji and the leadership of Qi were happy with their bloodless agreement, there was one other powerful player in the region who did not want a peaceful solution. Conquering Qi by force, as Han Xin had been prepared to do, could bring the conqueror fame, wealth and power. Now that Qi was submitting freely, Han Xin was cut off from these opportunities. Even worse—Master Li Yiji, not Han Xin, would get all of the credit for bringing the kingdom of Qi over to the Han side of the war.

Suffice it to say, Han Xin began to eye the newly lowered defenses of Qi greedily. Disregarding Li Yiji’s successful diplomacy, Han Xin crossed the Yellow River and quashed a startled Qi army at Lixia and seized the city of Linzi.

When news of this invasion reached the king and prime minister of Qi, they quickly arrested Master Li Yiji, thinking that the diplomat had been complicit in the treacherous attack. In the end, Master Li Yiji met the grisly end of being boiled alive. Han Xin, on the other hand, captured King Tian Guang and forced Tian Heng into hiding, finally completing his conquest of Qi by 203 BCE, when he proclaimed himself to be king of the region.

Written by C. Keith Hanley.

Picture Attribution: (Depiction of Zhang Qian, Mogao caves 618-712 CE, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.  

General Han Xin And The Strategic Wei River Flood

Around the year 204 BCE, or early 203 BCE, a skilled general named Han Xin led an army against the kingdom of Qi. His mission was to subjugate Qi and deliver it into the hands of Liu Bang, the King of Han, who would found the Han Dynasty. Liu Bang’s main rival at the time was Xiang Yu, the king of Chu. Although Liu Bang and Xiang Yu only claimed to be kings, they had come to dominate the other minor kingdoms of post-Qin China, with Liu bang lording over the west and Xiang Yu commanding the east. When Xiang Yu heard that his Han rivals were moving against Qi, he sent an army of Chu soldiers, led by general Long Ju, to help King Tian Guang of Qi defend the kingdom.

The forces of Qi and the army of Long Ju combined their strength and marched together to face Han Xin’s invading troops. They intercepted the Han army before it could cross the Wei River. When the two opposing forces met, the Qi and Chu soldiers observed that the river was oddly low and shallow.

The shallow water did little to encumber the Han forces as Han Xin led half of his troops into the river. Han Xin by this point had an impressive résumé—in 204 BCE, he had personally captured the kings of Wei, Zhao and Dai in battle. Yet, the forces of Qi and Chu found the army in front of them to be underwhelming—when Long Ju led some of his troops to skirmish with the Han soldiers in the river, it seemed to the Qi and Chu forces as if Han Xin had lost his nerve. Not long after the fighting began in the shallow waters of the river, the Han army began fleeing back across the river, where the rest of their troops were still waiting.

Seeing the Han army flee before him, Long Ju apparently believed he was nearing the end of a decisive victory. Eager to deliver the killing blow, Long Ju signaled for the Chu and Qi forces to cross the river and attack the wavering Han army.

Han Xin observed from his side of the river as a significant portion of the Chu and Qi forces waded into the water. Everything had gone exactly as planned—now it was time to spring his trap. Using some sort of signal, Han Xin communicated a message upriver to a group of engineers who were eagerly awaiting orders. These men were overseeing a sandbag dam in the Wei River, which they had rigged to catastrophically fail when triggered by some sort of mechanism. When Han Xin’s message arrived, the engineers collapsed the dam and let the impatient water rush violently back into the depleted Wei River.

Before the soldiers of Qi and Chu could identify the roaring sound coming from upstream, the powerful flood was already upon them. Much of the army was drowned in the flow, but those in the frontlines who had followed Long Ju to the other side of the river were now cut off from the rest of the surviving army. Han Xin and the Han army then charged against the vulnerable troops who had survived the flood and general Long Ju was slain in the resulting massacre. King Tian Guang of Qi, who was watching the catastrophe from dry land on the other side of the river, decided that the battle was lost and fled with what remained of his army. Nevertheless, Han Xin soon intercepted and captured the fleeing king and the last remnants of his troops.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Battle at the River Thi-cau, c. 18th century, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

The Chinese Kingmaker, Xiang Yu, Created Or Affirmed At Least Nineteen Kingdoms In The Intermission Between the Qin and Han Dynasties

Xiang Yu and his uncle, Xiang Liang, joined the rebellion started by Chen She in 209 BCE, which set in motion events that would topple the Qin Dynasty in China. Once the rebels had secured a foothold, Chen She declared himself to be the king of Chu, and several other rebel leaders similarly proclaimed themselves to be the kings of the regions they liberated. In this way, new kings emerged in regions such as Zhao, Yan, Qi and Wei. When Chen She was assassinated not long after the rebellion started, Xiang Liang became the leader of most of the rebel forces. Xiang Liang chose not to make himself the king of Chu, as Chen She had done before him, he instead placed King Huai on the throne of Chu, but kept most of the military under his own control. Xiang Liang eventually died in battle in 208 BCE, and was succeeded by his nephew, Xiang Yu.

Under the leadership of Xiang Yu, the Qin Dynasty was successfully toppled. By 206 BCE, the rebels had defeated the armies of Qin, took the capital city of Xianyang and executed the last Qin prince, Ziying. With the empire in his hands, Xiang Yu let China slip back into feudalism, presumably with the hope that he would remain a hegemon in charge of the revived monarchies of ancient China. According to the historian, Sima Qian (145-90 BCE), Xiang Yu personally crowned or formally recognized at least nineteen kings around the year 206 BCE, giving them power to govern the newly freed regions of China. These are the kings and kingdoms he is known to have created or affirmed:

1. Zhang Han was crowned king of Yong. 
2. Sima Xin was crowned the king of Sai.
3. Dong Yi was crowned the king of Di.
4. Shen Yang was crowned as king of Henan.
5. Sima Ang was made king of Yin.
6. Zhang Er was placed on the throne of Changshan.
7. Qing Bu, previously a lord of Dangyang, was appointed as king of Jiujiang.
8. Wu Rui, the lord of Po, was crowned king of Hengshan.
9. Gong Ao was crowned the king of Linjiang.
10. Xiang Yu allowed King Cheng to remain ruler of Hann (an extra “n” was added by the translators so that it is not confused with the Han Dynasty, formed by another kingdom).
11. Xiang Yu demoted King Bao from his kingdom of Wei, and instead made him king of only Western Wei.
12. Xiang Yu removed King Xie from power in Zhao and placed him on the throne of Dai.
13. Xiang Yu removed King Huang Guang from his domain of Yan and instead made him ruler of Liaodong.
14. With Huang Guang relocated, Xiang Yu made Zhang Tu the new king of Yan.
15. Tian Shi, the king of Qi, was relocated to a new domain in the kingdom of Jiaodong.
16. With Tian Shi gone, Xiang Yu crowned Tian Du as the king of Qi.
17. Tian An was crowned king of Jibei.
18. Not to be left out, Xiang Yu crowned himself the “Dictator King of Western Chu.”
19. Most importantly, Liu Bang, the Governor of Pei, was crowned as the king of Han. He killed Xiang Yu around 202 BCE and eventually became Emperor Gaozu, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty. As such, all of the kingdoms listed above were eventually absorbed by the Han. 

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Photograph of a Chinese terracotta miniature, from the Historian's Hut Archives, on top of a Public Domain rubbing detail from Stone Chamber 1 on the West Wall of the Wu Family Shrine in Shandong Province, China, dated 2nd century AD during the Eastern Han Dynasty).

Sources:

Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

The Valiant Last Ride Of The 3rd-Century BCE Chinese Warlord, Xiang Yu

In 202 BCE, after around seven years of war following the fall of the Qin Dynasty, two major warlords were left in the competition to seize the imperial throne of China. These two leaders were Xiang Yu, the ruler of Chu, and Liu Bang (also known as Liu Ji), the King of Han. Even though Xiang Yu was the very man who had crowned Liu Bang as the king of Han (in 206 BCE), the protégé slowly began to gain advantage against his master. By 203 BCE, Xiang Yu recognized Liu Bang as ruler of eastern China after they had negotiated a truce. Although an agreement was met, the Han forces were in much better shape than the Chu. Therefore, in 202 BCE, Liu Bang broke the peace and invaded Chu to deliver the deathblow to his rival.

Liu Bang successfully encircled the last remaining troops of Xiang Yu in a walled camp at Gaixia. Sensing that victory was near, the Han troops allegedly spent the night singing triumphant songs. Xiang Yu, likewise, recognized that he could not win a pitched battle against the Han forces, so he prepared his favorite horse, Dapple, and along with 800 horsemen, he prepared to puncture a hole through the besiegers. In the Records of the Grand Historian, the father of Chinese history, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), recorded a dramatic account of Xiang Yu’s final ride.

According to the historian, Xiang Yu and his band of cavalry successfully broke through Han lines, but they did so at great cost—only 100 of the Chu horsemen were said to have survived the escape. With Han cavalry hot on his trail, Xiang Yu fled first to Yinling, then to Dongcheng. Somewhere between Dongcheng and Wujiang, the Han forces intercepted the fleeing Chu warlord. No longer able to run, Xiang Yu decided to fight in one last battle.

Sima Qian painted Xiang Yu as being an almost super-human figure. Well over six feet in height, and a man of immense strength, Xiang Yu was allegedly a one-man wrecking crew. In a series of charges and strategic withdrawals, Xiang Yu supposedly slaughtered hundreds of the pursuing Han soldiers, including an unnamed Han general and colonel. Nevertheless, Xiang Yu was eventually cornered and could fight no longer. Not willing to allow the enemy a complete victory, the defeated warlord took his own life.

After Xiang Yu was dead, Sima Qian alleged that various Han generals dismembered the deceased warlord and took his head and limbs as prizes. When news of Xiang Yu’s death spread, the region of Chu largely submitted to the king of Han. Sima Qian wrote that only the area of Lu resisted, but when Liu Bang arrived with the head of Xiang Yu, they, too, surrendered. The king of Han allegedly showed respect to his dead rival—he collected the pieces of Xiang Yu for an honorable burial at Gucheng and was said to have taken no reprisals against the Xiang family.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Pinyin- Dahuting Han mu; Wade-Giles- Tahut'ing Han mu) of the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), located in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, was excavated in 1960-1961).

Sources:

• The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.  

A Two-Thousand Woman Army Allegedly Helped The Future First Emperor Of The Han Dynasty Escape An Enemy Siege

The Han Dynasty was said to have begun in 206 BCE. Interestingly enough, Emperor Gaozu, the first ruler of the Han Dynasty, was not technically an emperor at that time, and would not become emperor for several more years. Prior to taking the imperial title, Gaozu was known as Liu Ji or Liu Bang, and at the time of the major rebellions against the Qin Dynasty in 209 BCE, he was the governor of Pei. Serving under and alongside successive rebel supreme leaders, such as Chen She, Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu, the governor of Pei gained a strong following and positioned himself for grants of fiefdoms from the emerging rebel hegemons. In 206 BCE, after the Qin capital of Xianyang had fallen and the last Qin ruler, Ziying, had been executed, the then chief war leader of the rebel forces, Xiang Yu, granted the governor of Pei control of the Kingdom of Han, an action that began the Han Dynasty.

Besides the king of Han, Xiang Yu appointed or confirmed around eighteen other monarchs to rule portions of the former Qin Empire. Although Xiang Yu likely hoped that he could keep his newfound hegemony of kings under his control, the freshly born kingdoms almost immediately began fighting amongst themselves. The coalition of rebels that had dethroned the Qin Dynasty quickly became a free-for-all of kings and warlords, clamoring for the recently vacated imperial throne. The king of Han, who conquered the realms inside the former Qin heartland of “The Pass,” quickly became one of Xiang Yu’s greatest threats. Around 205 BCE, the king of Han felt strong enough to invade the personal domain of Xiang Yu, who was calling himself the Dictator King of Western Chu. Xiang Yu, who was fighting other rebels at the time, immediately rerouted to push the Han forces out of his kingdom. The Han suffered significant losses, usually after the Han king carelessly allowed his forces to get trapped against a river, but the future emperor was able to escape and remobilize his troops.

In 204 BCE, however, the king of Han found himself besieged in the city of Xingyang by the forces of Xiang Yu. Unfortunately, the city was not well supplied or garrisoned. Whatever the case, the king of Han apparently had no illusions of being able to fight his way out of the siege. According to the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), the Han king and his aides gathered to create a plan to beat the overwhelming odds placed against them. Interestingly enough, they decided to surrender—well, they actually planned to fake a surrender.

 First, the king of Han supposedly gathered 2,000 women from the city of Xingyang and equipped them with all of the gear that would be expected on a band of soldiers. Next, the king handed over his royal carriage, fully outfitted with its yellow canopy and its majestic side-plumage, to a man named Ji Xin, one of his trusted lieutenants. Finally, after waiting until the dark of night, Ji Xin rolled out of the city with his ornate carriage and his honor guard of armor-clad women. Impersonating his liege, Ji Xin announced that his forces were surrendering. The besieging forces of Xiang Yu supposedly cheered after the speech, thinking that the Han were crushed. Little did they know that the real king of Han was at that very moment slipping out of the city with a small band of cavalry. By the time the ruse was discovered, it was already too late—the king of Han arrived safely at the city of Chenggao, where he would resume the wars that would eventually make him emperor of China. Ji Xin, however, would not share in his liege’s ultimate victory; Xiang Yu reportedly had him burned alive.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (A portrait painting of Emperor Gao of Han (Liu Bang), c. 18th-century, and women from a Song dynasty painting attributed to Emperor Huizong, both [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.