Xiang Yu vs Liu Bang: How a Peasant Beat China's Mightiest Warrior and Founded the Han Dynasty

Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu because he was better at winning people than battles: he trusted and rewarded able advisers and generals such as Zhang Liang, Chen Ping and Han Xin, while the brilliant but proud Xiang Yu won almost every fight yet lost allies one by one. Their struggle, known as the Chu–Han Contention, was a civil war that ran from the fall of the Qin dynasty in 206 BC to the founding of the Han dynasty in 202 BC. It ended at the Battle of Gaixia, after which Xiang Yu took his own life and Liu Bang became emperor.

Two very different men

Xiang Yu (c. 232–202 BC) came from a noble military family of the old state of Chu. He was famous for his enormous strength and fearless courage and is often described as one of the greatest warriors in Chinese history. After the Qin dynasty fell, he called himself the Hegemon-King of Western Chu and divided the empire among eighteen kingdoms.

Liu Bang (256 or 247–195 BC) was born in Pei County into a family of commoners and worked as a minor local official before joining the rebellion against Qin. He was no great fighter, but he was good at listening to advice, forgiving mistakes and sharing rewards, which made talented people want to serve him.

From allies to enemies

At first both men fought on the same side, as rebels against the harsh Qin dynasty under the banner of Chu. Liu Bang reached the Qin heartland of Guanzhong first, and the last Qin ruler surrendered to him. When Xiang Yu arrived with a much larger army, he was furious that Liu Bang had taken the glory, and Liu Bang was forced to give way. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, at a tense banquet at Hongmen, Xiang Yu's adviser Fan Zeng wanted Liu Bang killed, but Xiang Yu hesitated and Liu Bang slipped away; later generations saw this as the moment Xiang Yu lost his chance.

Xiang Yu then sent Liu Bang to the remote land of Han in the southwest. Unhappy with this, Liu Bang soon broke out and attacked the Guanzhong region while Xiang Yu was busy fighting rebellions elsewhere. The war between Chu and Han had begun.

Winning battles, losing the war

Xiang Yu won many famous victories. At the Battle of Pengcheng in 205 BC he crushed a much larger Han coalition army, and Liu Bang barely escaped. But Liu Bang kept coming back. His general Han Xin conquered the northern states one after another, while Xiang Yu's allies drifted away and his adviser Fan Zeng left him.

In 203 BC the two sides agreed to a peace. On the advice of Zhang Liang and Chen Ping, Liu Bang broke the truce and chased Xiang Yu's retreating army.

Surrounded on four sides by the songs of Chu

At Gaixia, Xiang Yu's army was surrounded. That night, Han soldiers, many of them from Chu themselves, sang the traditional songs of Chu. Xiang Yu's men, hearing the songs of home, became homesick and deserted. Xiang Yu broke out with a small band of horsemen but was chased to the Wu River, where he chose to take his own life rather than be captured. The story of his last night, and of his farewell to his beloved Consort Yu, later inspired the famous Peking opera Farewell My Concubine.

The founding of the Han

In 202 BC Liu Bang was proclaimed emperor and is remembered as Emperor Gaozu of Han. The Han dynasty he founded lasted about four centuries and gave its name to the Han Chinese people. The rivalry between the heroic loser and the practical winner became one of the great stories of Chinese history and the background for Chinese chess, where the river in the middle of the board is often labelled with the names of Chu and Han.

Learn with Xiang Yu and Liu Bang: Chinese idioms

Idiom	Meaning	Example
四面楚歌 (sì miàn chǔ gē)	surrounded by enemies, isolated	After the scandal he was 四面楚歌.
霸王别姬 (bà wáng bié jī)	the hegemon's farewell; a tragic parting	The film's title is 霸王别姬.
破釜沉舟 (pò fǔ chén zhōu)	to burn your bridges	She quit her job, 破釜沉舟, to start a company.
鸿门宴 (hóng mén yàn)	a meeting that hides a trap	That dinner felt like a 鸿门宴.
卷土重来 (juǎn tǔ chóng lái)	to make a comeback	He lost, but he will 卷土重来.

Try this: Write three sentences about a time you felt "surrounded on four sides" (四面楚歌) and how you made a comeback (卷土重来).