introduction:
Qin was rapidly defeated by its tyranny, and history ushered in the Chu-Han War in which Liu and Xiang competed. Why did Liu Bang succeed? After destroying Xiang Yu, how to deal with the new round of challenges? What kind of qualities did Liu Bang have in his personality that made him go from a cloth to a nine-five-year-old? Let's take a look at it with rotten Ke Renjun.
First, Qin lost his deer, and Liu Xiang competed for the lion
"The King of Qin swept away the Liuhe, and the tiger looked at He Xiongya", Qin annexed the Six Kingdoms with the momentum of destruction and decay, and created the first great empire in Chinese history. However, the Qin government was too harsh, the conquest was violent, and the second was too incompetent to clean up the situation. "The world is bitter Qin jiuyi", as Chen Sheng and Wu Guang lit a fire in Yuyang, rebel armies swarmed all over the country, and Qin's rule collapsed in an instant, and the herds of males chased deer in the Central Plains. So-called:"
Qin Zhigang is absolutely relaxed, Shandong is greatly disturbed, different surnames rise together, and handsome Wuji. Qin lost his deer, and the whole world chased them away.
Among the Shandong crowds, the most powerful ones were Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.
Stills of Liu Bang
Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were both Chu people, and the Chu people had a heavier hatred for the Qin people than the people of other countries. The difference in customs between the Chu and Qin people is the largest. Since the Shang Martingale reformed the law, the Qin people have pursued the harsh ideology of the legalists and ruled the people with harsh punishment. The chu state has a vast territory and relatively loose governance, and the people of Chu are living freely. Qin Fa and Chu customs formed a pair of sharp contradictions. In the war against Chu, Qin also suffered strong resistance from the Chu people. Before the fall of Chu, Chu Nangong asserted:
Although Chu has three households, Qin will be Chu when he dies
”。 Therefore, Chu Di responded most positively to the call of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.
(Chu Han legendary Xiang Yu image)
When people look at history, they often divide history and only put Liu Bang and Xiang Yu in the historical environment of the Chu-Han conflict. But if we examine Liu Bang's life in detail, there will be some new discoveries. Liu Bang was born in 256 BC and died in 195 BC at the age of 71. Qin destroyed Chu in 223 BC, unified the Six Kingdoms in 221 BC, and perished in 207 BC. Therefore, before the age of 33, Liu Bang belonged to the rule of the Chu State and accounted for nearly half of his life. And he was only 14 years for Qin Min. In 209 BC, when he was 48 years old, he raised the anti-Qin banner. Xiang Yu was born in 232 BC and accompanied his uncle Xiang Liang in the rebellion at the age of 24. From this point of view, we can better explore the thoughts and experiences of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, and we can also understand the reasons for the success or failure of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.
Xiang Yu stills
Xiang Yu "tried to pull up the mountain and be angry in the world", but it was his youthful arrogance and fearless heroism that caused his tragedy. And Liu Bang, as an elder who has experienced the chaos of the Warring States and the rise and fall of the Qin dynasty, is more able to make the right choice at the right time. The reasons for Liu Xiang's success or failure have been discussed by people who are benevolent and wise. But let's listen to the summary of Liu Bang's own discussion with the group of ministers:
In the midst of the husband's planning and planning, the decisive victory is thousands of miles away, and I am not as good as the sub-room. Town and state, care for the people, give food, endless grain, I am not as good as Xiao He. Even with an army of millions, the battle will be won, the attack will be won, and I am not as good as Han Xin. These three are all masters, I can use them, so I take the world. Xiang Yu has a fan increase and cannot be used, which is thought to be my capture.
”
The two and six kingdoms resumed to the county and the country
When Ma Qian of the Taishi Company summed up the history of the Qin and Han dynasties, he said:
The initial difficulty was caused by Chen Shi; the abuse of Qin, the Self-Xiang clan; the chaos and violence, the pacification of The Sea, the death of the emperor, and the han family. In five years, three masters were ordered. ”
Chen Sheng Wu Guang was originally a grass people, but he had the ambition of a great crane, lamenting that "the prince will have a kind of Xiangning", and rose up in the face of tyranny. However, due to the weakness of his forces and the rapid response of Qin, he soon failed. However, as soon as Chen Sheng called out to the world, not only did the people of Chu land respond quickly, but the old nobles of Han, Zhao, Wei, Qi, and Yan also took advantage of the chaos to restore the country.
Although the Six Kingdoms all had anti-Qin divisions, Chu was undoubtedly the strongest of them and also contributed the most. After Xiang Liang raised an army, he supported the descendant of the King of Chu, King Huai of Chu, who became the leader of the Anti-Qin Alliance of the Six Kingdoms and carried out the work of general command of the anti-Qin. King Huai of Chu once agreed with the generals that "the one who enters the pass first is the king." Liu Bang, who originated from Chu Province, came out on top and occupied the land of Guanzhong first. At this time, Xiang Yu was fighting the main force of the Qin army in Julu. Xiang Yu broke through the cauldron at julu and won a crucial victory in the battle against Qin. So it suddenly became famous and shocked the world. Xiang Yu did not claim that the emperor had ambitions to establish a unified state, he just wanted to restore the situation in which the masses stood side by side during the Warring States period, the difference was that the group of heroes had to submit to themselves, and the Western Chu overlord had a higher status than other kings. As a result, Xiang Yu proclaimed himself the King of Western Chu, honored King Huai of Chu as the Emperor of Righteousness, and was widely enfeoffed as a prince. Because of his strength, Liu Bang had no choice but to submit to Xiang Yu, and was first enfeoffed as the King of Han, moving from Guanzhong to Hanzhong.
(Chu Han legend Han Xin image)
However, Liu Bang was not willing to submit to the people, and soon took advantage of the death of Emperor Yi to launch an attack on Xiang Yu. When Liu Bang attacked the overlord Xiang Yu, he was bound to unite with the other princes. In the process of marching, he sent lobbyists to lobby and co-opt, and on the other hand, he used force to bring it to its knees, prompting the rapid advancement of the war. Although the war continued to develop in favor of Liu Bang, Liu Bang also faced many difficult problems. One of the important issues is very critical, the situation of hundreds of years of princes has made people's obsession with kings and princes deeply rooted, and many people have followed Liu Bang to build a career in order to be crowned kings and marquises. But Liu Bang did not want to restore the princes in his heart, he wanted to establish a great empire like Qin. But reality forced him to give in, and the first big problem thrown at him was to open his ears and ask for a seal. Zhang Er and Han Xin led an army to attack Zhao Di. Liu Bang then ordered Han Xin to march into Qidi, but Han Xin used the fatigue of the soldiers as an excuse to stay still, and at the same time requested that Zhang Er be made the King of Zhao. Liu Bang experienced a fierce ideological struggle, and after half a year agreed to this request, abandoning the idea of resetting counties in Zhao Province.
But then he faced a new challenge, that is, the continuous growth of Han Xin's power. Han Xin's power had grown to the point where he could form a three-legged power with Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. Fang Shiputong had advised Han Xin to stand on his own, but Han Xin refused because of his friendship with Liu Bang. However, Liu Bang always had mixed feelings for Han Xin, and after Han Xin attacked Qidi, he wrote to Liu Bang to say that the situation in Qidi was complicated, and asked Liu Bang to make him a "false king" in order to have the right to suppress Qidi's resistance. After Liu Bang received the news, he scolded loudly, and Zhang Liang stepped on Liu Bang's foot to hint at it. Liu Bang immediately turned around and scolded: "
The great husband has set the princes, that is, the ears of the true king, why should they be false!
Liu Bang was extremely reluctant, but reluctantly accepted for the sake of the situation.
3. From a king with a different surname to a king with the same surname
After Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu, he did not achieve the ultimate goal, because The Kanto alien wang Linli made him feel like a fish in his throat. Liu Bang wanted to establish the capital at Luoyang, but Zhang Liang and Liu Jing wrote to him to explain the threat of the Kwantung princes and the benefits of the Guanzhong garrison, which made him change his mind. Liu and Zhang agreed that Guanzhong had geographical advantages and could "control the princes from the east". When Liu Bang first became emperor, he did not establish a Qin-style imperial industry that ruled the world like Qin Shi Huang, but a Chu hegemony that commanded the world like Xiang Yu.
(Chu Han legend Zhang Liang image)
Liu Bang worked to weaken and eliminate the princes in the east, and his original idea was to abolish the princes and establish counties. After Han Xin was renamed king of Chu from king of Qi, Liu Bang changed his name to a county in Qi. After the rebellion of King Gong of Linjiang, he also changed his territory to Nan Commandery. But reality gradually made him give up this idea, because the homeland of the Six Kingdoms was indeed not as easy to directly govern as he thought. Han Xin said at the time of the seal: "
The Qi people became deceitful, and it was difficult for the county to govern them, but they had to establish a king.
"This is a pretext, but it is also a fact. The traditional governance habits of the six countries for hundreds of years are difficult to adjust quickly through the system. Moreover, the newly overthrown Qin is a lesson from the past, the land of Qi, Chu, Yan, and Zhao is very different from the Customs of Qin, but the Qin law is common, so the resistance in these places is the most fierce. Therefore, Liu Bang once again made a compromise in line with the trend of the times, and Zhonghe changed the surname of Wang to the king of the same surname.
The Chronicle of History states:
Gao Zu has established the world, and the princes are not liu but seven kings. Desire the king Lu Xie, for the sake of the courtiers. ”
Lu Xie was Liu Bang's young man, on the same day as Liu Bang's birthday, and in the eyes of the Qunchen, he was not a hero like other kings, but Liu Bang's closeness, and he was dissatisfied with Liu Bang's desire to make him king. However, after the rebellion of Zang Di, the King of Yan, Liu Bang personally marched and deliberately gave Lu Xie amassed battle merits in order to crown him king. After quelling the war, Liu Bang made Lu the King of Yan as he wished, and for the first time he proclaimed himself the prince of the princes without being threatened by others. This was an experiment conducted by Liu Bang to make his own cronies, rather than the hero Su Wei wang.
(Chu Han legend Liu Bang image)
After the success of sealing Lu Xie as king, Liu Bang began to vigorously eliminate the kings with different surnames, and at the same time, he wantonly divided the Liu clan as kings. From the fifth year of Gao zu,Liu Bang successively eliminated yan, Chu, Liang, Huainan and other kings with different surnames, leaving only Wu Bing, the lonely king of Changsha. “
Gao Zu's disciples had the same surname as the Nine Kingdoms of the King
They are: Qi, Chu, Jing, Huainan, Yan, Zhao, Liang, Dai, and Huaiyang. In order to consolidate this situation, Liu Bang made an alliance with the group of subjects on the white horse:
Whoever is not the king of the Liu clan, the world strikes together
”。 Since then, the Han Dynasty has established a parallel system of counties in the west and counties in the east.
Wen Shijun said:
Liu Bang was originally a small citizen of Chu, but in his prime, he encountered the fall of Chu and approached his twilight years and threw himself into the cause of anti-Qin. The complicated experience and rich life experience in his early years made him the ultimate winner in the competition with Xiang Yu, Wei Jia Hai Nei. However, in the war, Liu Bang had to win over other princes and generals, especially the disposal of the general Han Xin. Faced with the ideals of the county and the request for the title of meritorious man, he finally compromised and widely enfeoffed the princes with different surnames. When his power was secured, he tried to abolish the princes. However, the centuries-old traditions of feudal princes and the different customs formed in various places, coupled with the lessons of the fall of the Qin Dynasty, are still in sight. Reality made him compromise again, and Guangjian was a prince with the same surname. When Liu Bang was dying, Lü Hou asked a famous doctor to treat him. He yelled, "...
I take the world with the three-foot sword of Buyiti, is this not the destiny of heaven? Fate is in heaven, though it is good for the bian que!
And it was his
Know the Destiny of Heaven and understand personnel affairs
Relying on these six words, he was able to carry a three-foot sword in a cloth suit and become the first civilian emperor in history.
bibliography:
[Han] Sima Qian: "History", Zhonghua Bookstore points out the twenty-four histories of the school.
[Han] Bangu: The Book of Han, zhonghua bookstore points out the twenty-four histories of the schoolbook.
Chen Suzhen, "Spring and Autumn" and "Han Dao": A Study of the Politics and Political Culture of the Two Han Dynasties," Zhonghua Bookstore, September 2011.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Rotten Keren)
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