As the founding monarch of the Western Han Dynasty, although Liu Bang was born into a peasant family, he was brilliant in intelligence and was a great politician, strategist and conductor in ancient history. Liu Bang was open-minded, knowledgeable and good at his duties, able to give full play to the talents of his subordinates, and when he was in a weak position against Xiang Yu, he was still able to deal with it calmly, and finally turned defeat into victory, defeated Xiang Yu, and established the Han Dynasty. However, such a late winner, his reputation is far less than that of the loser Xiang Yu. Compared with Liu Bang, the people of later generations obviously worshipEd Xiang Yu more, why is this?
Images of Ying Kuni
The author believes that the reason why this phenomenon occurs is mainly because of the following three reasons: First, their origins. Xiang Yu was a nobleman of the Chu state, while Liu Bang was a small pavilion chief in Pei County. Second, the character of the individual. In the eyes of the world, Xiang Yu is the representative of a gentleman and the responsibility of justice, while Liu Bang is saddled with the reputation of a villain, compared with a great husband who dares to act, who will worship a villain? Third, the world is influenced by historical records. After all, when authors write books, they will bring personal feelings, and this is biased.
First, let's talk about origin. It should be noted here that it is not that Xiang Yu was born into an aristocracy and Liu Bang was a peasant, but most importantly, Xiang Yu represented orthodoxy. Among the six kingdoms that were originally destroyed, the State of Chu was the most wronged: the State of Chu, whose territory and strength were not very inferior to the State of Qin, was invincible to the Qin State because of the conspiracy, and finally lost to the State of Qin. Therefore, in the army that destroyed the Qin State, if the Chu State was respected, it would get the strongest appeal.
Portrait of Xiang Yu
At that time, Xiang Yu, in the case of the ability to establish himself as emperor, still crowned himself as the king of Western Chu. Whether it was Xiang Yu abiding by the old rules in his bones, or not having enough strength to ascend the throne, Xiang Yu's attitude made more anti-Qin people more accepting and recognized. As a result, the most appealing Xiang Yu did not succeed, but a dick liu bang from Pei County succeeded, how could others calmly accept it? Therefore, more people are sparing no effort to smear Liu Bang.
Moreover, compared with Xiang Yu's bright and upright, Liu Bang's villainous behavior made more people shameless. With a few simple examples, it can be seen that Xiang Yu and Liu Bang's way of dealing with the world is very different. It is said that Xiang Yu did not catch Liu Bang on the way to pursue Liu Bang, but captured Liu Bang's father and wife Lü Yan. Xiang Yu took Liu Fu and Lü Yan hostage and blackmailed Liu Bang. As a result, Liu Bang did not care about the safety of his father and wife at all, and turned around and ran. Although those who have become big things are informal, Liu Bang's behavior of abandoning his father and wife is still shocking.
Hongmen Feast
Moreover, on top of the Hongmen banquet that year, Xiang Yu obviously had the ability to eliminate Liu Bang, but because he was grateful for his old feelings, he did not take a shot at Liu Bang (there is also a saying that Xiang Yu was too arrogant and did not take Liu Bang in his eyes, so he did not shoot), but wanted to duel with Liu Bang on the battlefield. Therefore, although Xiang Yu failed in the end, Xiang Yu's bright and just attitude towards the decisive battle still made posterity admire.
Finally, the main reason why the world admires Xiang Yu more is because of the influence of historical records. In the Records of History, although Sima Qian did not think that Xiang Yu could become a qualified monarch, he did think that Xiang Yu was a hero with flesh and blood. At the end of the hero's road, Xiang Yu thought not only of his personal future, but also in his consciousness, there was also the failure of his father and fellow countrymen, and the reluctance of Yu Meiren, which was the image of a truly ideal hero.
Although Sima Qian's depiction of Xiang Yu adds a lot of personal speculation, it is undeniable that Sima Qian's expression has influenced many people's perception of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. After all, the way later generations understand historical facts is through history books, and authoritative books such as "History" can obviously describe the real history more objectively to a certain extent. However, Sima Qian was also a flesh-and-blood literati, and he would also have subjective intentions and hero worship.
Therefore, under the combination of these multiple reasons, it affected the views of the people of the world on Xiang Yu and Liu Bang.