Han Xin was a famous military figure in Chinese history and the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty, and Sima Qian's "Biography of the Marquis of Huaiyin" believes that Han Xin's contribution to the Han Dynasty was enough to compare with the Zhou, Zhao, and Taigong of the Zhou Dynasty. In the first month of the eleventh year of Emperor Han Gao (196 BC), this great hero, one of the three masters of the early Han Dynasty, was booby-trapped by Lü Hou in the Changle Palace, and even by the Three Tribes. What exactly caused Han Xin's head to fall to the ground? Was Han Xin murdered for plotting rebellion, and his crimes were to be blamed, or was Liu Bang and Lü Yan suspicious of famous generals and killing heroes? One view is that the real reason for Han Xin's killing was his deliberate rebellion.
The records of Han Xin's cause of death in the "Records of History" and the "Book of Han" are all treason. In the seventh year of Emperor Gao's reign (200 BC), Chen Feng (豨豨) the Marquis of Yangxia served as Zhao Xiang (赵相), guarding the Zhao and Dai regions, and when he left the capital to take up his post, he plotted with Han Xin to plot Chen to raise,,, an army against the Han in the border areas, and Han Xin responded and cooperated. After Chen Zhidai, he did recruit troops, accumulate strength, and prepare for rebellion. In July of Gaozu's tenth year, Liu Bang's father, Emperor Taishang, died and summoned Chen into the dynasty, but Chen Tuo fell ill. In September, Chen openly declared his opposition to the Han Dynasty, established himself as the Acting King, and attacked Zhao, Dai, and other places. After Liu Bang heard the news, he asked Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, and Peng Yue, the King of Liang, to join forces in attacking Chen, but both of them said that they were ill and refused to send troops. Han Gaozu had no choice but to personally unify the army himself. After Liu Bang left the capital, Han Xin immediately prepared to respond to Chen according to the original plan. In the spring of the following year, Han Xin made arrangements and plotted to falsely transmit the Holy Will. Han Xin's protégé reported the incident to Lü Hou. Lü Hou plotted with Xiao He, falsely claiming that the Chen rebellion had been quelled, and ordered his courtiers to enter the palace to celebrate. Worried that Han Xin would not go, he sent Xiao He to persuade him. As soon as Han Xin entered the Changle Palace, he was captured by the ambushed samurai and beheaded in the bell room.
Many scholars believe that Han Xin's murder was deserved, including Sima Qian, Ban Gu, Sima Guang, and even the thinker Wang Fuzhi of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Qing dynasty historian Wang Mingsheng. In "Reading through the Commentary on Emperor Han Gao", Wang Fuzhi argued from the three points of Han Xin's advocacy of meritorious sealing, greed, and the possession of strong soldiers after breaking Xiang Yu to argue that "the prisoner of Yunmeng, the beheading of Weiyang" is the evil consequence of Han Xin himself. Wang Mingsheng, in the Seventeen Histories of Shang Yu Xin Establishing Himself as a False King, also believes that after Han Xin was renamed marquis of Huaiyin, he "often said that he was sick and did not follow the court" and "complained every day, and lived in a common way". In 200 BC, he colluded with the heavily armed general Chen to plot a rebellion again. In 197 BC, Chen Zai rebelled in Daidi, and Liu Bang led his troops to march in person. Han trusted the illness and took the opportunity to send someone to make an agreement with Chen that he should cooperate with outside Chang'an. It was at this time that his plot was once again denounced. Therefore, Xiao He and Lü Hou designed to capture and kill Han Xin, eliminating the danger of splitting. Some people also proceed from the perspective that all classes in society are in urgent need of recuperation, believing that after the Qin Bing Revolution, Han Xin created new turmoil from the perspective of personal grievances, which went against the trend of historical development and the wishes and interests of the broad masses of the people. Therefore, Lü Hou's killing of Han Xin directly avoided the turmoil of the Second Chu-Han War, with the color of historical progress. This not only eliminated a major scourge for the newly built Western Han Dynasty, but also objectively met the requirements of social development and the aspirations of the people. However, the above views have been challenged a lot, and some scholars believe that Han Xin's crime of conspiracy to rebel is actually out of frame-up, and his murder is a major unjust prison. Representatives of this school of thought include the Ming Dynasty essayist Gui Youguang and the early Qing dynasty poet Feng Ban. The Qing Dynasty scholar Liang Yusheng said in the "Chronicle of the Chronicle of the Marquis of Huaiyin": "The death of Xin is unjust! The former sages all argued that there was no objection, and most of them gave false accusations to the rebels, and Lü Hou and Xiang Guo (Xiao He) Wen Zhi's ears. Shi Gong recounted the Han Ting prison case into the biography, and his injustice was self-evident. Guo Song, a Qing dynasty man, also believed that believing that "the life and death of a noble and a lowly person who takes capital from others is the definite point of the people's subjects." Non-regurgitant. This means that Han Xin is not the kind of person who will rebel at all. In this way, Han Xin's murder was entirely a conspiracy by Lü Yan to suspect famous generals and kill heroes, and Han Xin had no intention of betraying the Liu Han Dynasty. It was no accident that Han Xin died at the hands of Lü Hou, who was trying to take advantage of the gap to gain power. Xiao He, who was a minister at that time, was also deeply jealous of Liu Bang and could not protect himself. He was originally Han Xin's sponsor, and at this time had to bend to Lü Hou's will and booby-trap Han Xin; If he hesitates, he is in danger of suffering. As a result, Xiao He was promoted from Xiang to Xiangguo because of his criticism of Han Xingong, and what exactly did Han Xin die in addition to the five thousand households of Han Xin, which had to be examined in connection with the background of the times at that time. During the Chu-Han War from 206 BC to 202 BC, a total of 7 people around Liu Bang took the throne and established a semi-independent kingdom. The existence of these powerful kings with different surnames was a serious threat to the unified regime of the Han feudal state. When Liu Bang first made them kings, it was a last resort. In his sixth month as emperor, he began to clean them up one by one under the pretext of rebellion by the kings.
As for Han Xin, Liu Bang admired his military ability of "an army of millions of people, who will win in battle and conquer and win", and called himself "inferior"; at the same time, he was extremely uneasy about his talent, and he had always "feared evil and his ability" and naturally would not let it go. From the point of view of the unity of the country, if the kings of different surnames were not cut off in the early Han Dynasty, the scourge of war would not be eliminated, and the people would not be able to recuperate. This historical background seems to be a powerful basis for Han Xin's unjust death. However, in connection with the historical fact that Han Xin once asked himself to be crowned king: after pacifying the Three Qis, Han Xin actually wrote to Liu Bang at the critical moment when Liu Bang was being besieged by the Chu army in Xingyang, and asked himself to act as the King of Qi. Later, Han Xin expressed deep dissatisfaction with Liu Bang's failure to take the initiative to make him king, and refused to send troops for this reason, if Han Xin said that han Xin was killed for rebellion, the crime deserved, and it was not out of thin air. In short, whether Han Xin had the intention of plotting rebellion or not, and whether he participated in the Chen rebellion, historians have not yet decided. The truth about Han Xin's murder needs to be further investigated.