-202 BC- the Eighteen Kingdoms period had finally ended and Liú Bāng had crowned himself emperor ("huángdì") of the Hàn (Hàn Gāozǔ) dynasty after reuniting all the Eighteen Kingdoms under his own (Kingdom of Hàn) banner.
-After his death, he would become known as Emperor Gāozǔ of Hàn ("Hàn Gāozǔ" or "High Ancestor of Hàn").
-Thus began one of China's greatest golden ages!
-Emperor Gāozǔ also named his son Liú Yíng as crown prince.
-This is significant not only because of inheritance stuff (obviously) but also because when Emperor Gāozǔ would be away from the capital he would leave both the crown prince and his queen, Empress Lǚ Zhì (Lǚ Hòu, Hàn Gāo Hòu, etc.), in charge of running the show (although of course they were assisted by courtiers and advisers and shit).
-Emperor Gāozǔ was smart in trusting Empress Lǚ in this way, as she proved to be a competent administrator; however, she could also be quite ruthless in terms of accomplishing her goals.
-One of the first things that Emperor Gāozǔ did was establish a new imperial capital. It was obvious that running the show from the original Hàn kingdom lands wasn't going to work since that region was such a backwater, so instead, by using fēng shuǐ (Chinese geomancy to determine the location which was the "center of the heavens") and historical inspiration (looking back to Yellow River Valley as the cradle of Chinese civilization), he declared that the new capital of the empire would be Chéngzhōu (former capital of the Zhōu dynasty, near modern-day Luòyáng, Hénán Province).
-However, it didn't take long for Emperor Gāozǔ to realize that Chéngzhōu, in reality, was not actually a very logical place to govern from, either. So, instead he finally decided to locate it across the river from Xiányáng (former capital of the Qín dynasty (and one of the former capitals of the Zhōu dynasty before that) and name it "Cháng'ān" ("Constant Peace", located in modern-day Xī'ān, Shǎnxī Province), the former capital of the Qín dynasty (and one of the former capitals of the Zhōu dynasty before that).
-With this change, he also forced thousands (!) of clans (which made up the military aristocracy) to relocate with him to the new capital.
-Emperor Gāozǔ did this in order to keep any potential military rivals close to him so that they wouldn't just go back to their own home regions and rebel against him and shit.
-In addition to this, it also forced the military to become united in their focus on keeping the Xiōngnú (and others) at bay (since Cháng'ān really wasn't that far away from the northern border with the various barbarian hordes of the north), and soon many additional fortifications began to be constructed in the north under new imperial orders.
-Something else Emperor Gāozǔ first did after being enthroned was immediately reduce taxes and corvée for those who had served in his army (as well as allow them to return home).
-Those who returned home and lived outside of Guānzhōng were exempt from taxes and corvée for six years, but those who remained in Guānzhōng (capital region) were exempt for 12!
-Seems like Emperor Gāozǔ really wanted to try and get everybody to stay in Guānzhōng (in order to still maintain control over them, most likely).
-He also freed any slaves who had voluntarily sold themselves into bondage in order to avoid starvation (I wonder how this actually played out).
-Interestingly, the influence that Legalism (Fǎjiā) had on the Qín dynasty in terms of an operating system was quickly diminished once Emperor Gāozǔ assumed power.
-Although he had ruled as a staunch Legalist, once he took the throne Emperor Gāozǔ quickly became influenced by the words of Lù Gǔ, a Confucian scholar and Hàn courtier.
-Fun anecdote: when they first met, Emperor Gāozǔ asked Lù Gǔ, "I do all my conquering from the back of my horse; what use have I for books and poetry?" Lù Gǔ replied, "Once my lord is done with the conquering, does he also intend to do all his ruling from the back of his horse?" Intrigued, Emperor Gāozǔ eventually allowed for Lù Gǔ to come to court and read some of his writings to the emperor (all of which would go on to be collected in the 12-volume work Xīnyǔ (New Words or something like that).
-Lù Gǔ's main argument was that it was better to govern through moral virtue rather than through enacting harsh laws (which is how the Qín dynasty had rocked it), and Emperor Gāozǔ soon became a huge believer in Confucianism (which would eventually become the official philosophy of the Hàn dynasty, replacing Legalism).
-Confucianism was back!
-That being said, a lot of the harsh laws still remained in place, so it wasn't like it was a complete overhaul of the Legalist system; torture, mass executions, etc. were all still on the table. Instead, it was more like a "Qín-light" version of things.
-Meanwhile in the north, shit was starting to get pretty serious with the Xiōngnú.
-Back in 209 BC- a Xiōngnú chanyu (official title meaning "warlord king", although it's actually short for "chēnglí gūtu chányú" ("child of the open sky" or something like that; this is comparable to the tiānzǐ ("son of Heaven") title used by the emperors of the Zhōu dynasty), although it may have actually translated to "child of the Heavenly Wolf" in Mongolian; it's unclear) known as Mòdù (AKA Mòdùn) had united a bunch of Xiōngnú tribes together (after murdering his father, the chanyu Tümen) into a massive barbarian horde.
-According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Tümen had had multiple wives (of course), so naturally he had multiple sons as well. However, Tümen had wanted one particular son to be his successor, so at some point he had Mòdù sent to the Yuèzhī (barbarians to the west of the Xiōngnú) as a hostage/peace offering or whatever, but then soon after this declared war on the Yuèzhī and attacked them so that they would kill Mòdù in retaliation. However, this plan didn't work out, as Mòdù was able to escape the Yuèzhī and return home. Impressed by his bravery, Tümen had him appointed as a commander over a large cavalry.
-Mòdù quickly amassed a group of hardcore loyal followers. In order to ensure their loyalty, he had them kill his favorite horse (!), and those that refused were executed. He then repeated this later on, except this time he had them kill his favorite wife (!!). Finally, as the ultimate test of their loyalty he had them kill Tümen (ah, it all makes sense now!!!); after they did this Mòdù declared himself the new chanyu of the brand-new Xiōngnú Empire (in 203 BC)!
-This would mark the beginning of the actual Xiōngnú Empire (as opposed to just being a loose confederation of tribes semi-united (but probably also prone to fighting among each other as well) by a similar culture).
-The Xiōngnú Empire would eventually stretch (in general) from modern-day Mongolia to Inner Mongolia, western Manchuria, Xīnjiāng Province, eastern Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
-In fact, it would actually expand to become bigger than even the Hàn Empire (!), eventually becoming one of the biggest empires in the world (in terms of landmass) up to that point in world history!
-That being said, it's also worth noting that amassing a bunch of territory in Eurasia wouldn't be THAT hard considering that this region was nowhere near as populated as like the Hàn or Roman empires, and it's always been this way in Central Asia.
-200 BC- it was around this time that Mòdù Chanyu began to expand his empire in all directions- north in to southern Siberia, east into eastern (modern-day) Mongolia and Manchuria, southwest into (modern-day) Kazakhstan, and lots of territory that had previously been lost to the Qín dynasty.
-Of course, it wasn't long before the Xiōngnú began to invade the Hàn Empire proper!
-Naturally, Emperor Gāozǔ raised a huge imperial army (led by the emperor himself) to drive off the invading Xiōngnú horde.
-The Hàn army was initially successful in driving back the Xiōngnú, but the emperor made the mistake of chasing the invaders into Xiōngnú territory.
-It didn't take long for the Xiōngnú to surround the Hàn army, in which a week-long standoff ensued (known as the Battle of Báidēng (in modern-day Dàtóng, Shānxī Province)) before Emperor Gāozǔ desperately sued for peace by sending precious gifts to Mòdù Chanyu's wife (or one of his wives/queens, whatever) and begging for her to convince Mòdù Chanyu to let the emperor and his army return home in exchange for these gifts.
-Surprisingly, this actually worked, but Mòdù Chanyu demanded that in order for their to be peace between the two empires the Hàn would have to do some things for the Xiōngnú, first.
-After returning home, Emperor Gāozǔ was to send emissaries to the Xiōngnu for additional peace talks (to which the emperor obliged). After the Hàn emissaries arrived, they had to have their faces tattooed (!) before speaking with Mòdù Chanyu in his personal yurt. The chanyu then demanded that the Hàn dynasty recognize the Xiōngnú Empire as its equal (with their dividing boundaries defined by the fortifications originally built by the Qín dynasty). Also, Mòdù Chanyu demanded that every year the Hàn dynasty had to send silk, booze, rice, and women from the royal family (for the purposes of marrying Xiōngnú nobles, a practice known as héqīn ("peace marriage") which would become a tradition (not just with the Xiōngnú, but any other political entity of note that the Chinese would be making deals with) that would last throughout the rest of imperial Chinese history!) to the Xiōngnú as tribute.
-202 BC- meanwhile, trouble was quickly brewing in the Hàn Empire.
-General Hán Xìn had garnered an excellent reputation as one of the best Hàn commanders during the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (and would eventually become known as one of the "Three Heroes of the Early Hàn Dynasty" ("Hàn Chū Sān Jié")), and after the war, as a reward for his service, Hán Xìn had been named vassal king of Chǔ (which was obviously a big deal since Chǔ had always been one of the most powerful kingdoms of Ancient China) by Emperor Gāozǔ.
-However, the drama started when Hán Xìn decided to help out his close friend Zhōnglí Mò, a former Chǔ general under Xiàng Yǔ who was still wanted by the Hàn government, by giving him a place to stay at his royal fief.
-Of course, it wasn't long before Emperor Gāozǔ found out about this, and soon Hán Xìn faced immediate pressure from the emperor to arrest Zhōnglí Mò. However, Hán Xìn couldn't bring himself to do this.
-Soon, Emperor Gāozǔ began to hear of rumors claiming that Hán Xìn was preparing to rebel against the Hàn dynasty, so the emperor decided to invite Hán Xìn to a meeting (which was to be held in a town near the modern-day Zhōukǒu, Hénán Province). Both Hán Xìn and Zhōnglí Mò knew that this was going to most likely result in the arrest (and subsequent execution) of the former, so Zhōnglí Mò killed himself in order to give Hán Xìn a chance to survive by presenting Zhōnglí Mò's head to the emperor as proof that he was still ultimately loyal to his imperial lord.
-Unfortunately for Hán Xìn, Emperor Gāozǔ wasn't convinced of his former general's loyalty, so he had Hán Xìn arrested anyway.
-Upon his arrest, Hán Xìn allegedly exclaimed, "It is true when people say that the hunting dog becomes food as well after it is used to hunt game; a good bow is discarded when there are no birds left for shooting; an adviser dies after he helps his lord conquer a rival kingdom. Now that the empire is in place, I no longer serve any purpose!"
-However, apparently Emperor Gāozǔ later on had a change of heart, and Hán Xìn was eventually released (although Hán Xìn soon found that he was no longer the vassal king of Chǔ, but instead had been demoted to "marquis of Huáiyīn" (modern-day Huái'ān, Jiāngsū Province)).
-This indicated to Hán Xìn that Emperor Gāozǔ no longer trusted him as much as he once did.
-197 BC- Chén Xī, the marquis of Yángxià (not sure where this is/was, exactly), approaches Hán Xìn with an offer to join him in rebellion against Emperor Gāozǔ. However, Hán Xìn refuses.
-Unfortunately for Hán Xìn, however, while the emperor was off putting down Chén Xī's rebellion, Empress Lǚ Zhì heard rumors (someone out there must have really hated Hán Xìn!) that Hán Xìn was secretly involved in the revolt, so she began to plot with Imperial Chancellor Xiāo Hé to take down Hán Xìn.
-By the time Emperor Gāozǔ finally found out about this plot (after putting down Chén Xī's rebellion), Hán Xìn had been arrested, tortured, and executed along with his entire family, and that his entire clan had actually been executed as well!
-Apparently, Emperor Gāozǔ had a mixed reaction to the news of his former comrade's death- both happiness but also regret.
-196 BC- the drama wasn't over yet, though, as Emperor Gāozǔ then started to learn of rumors claiming that Péng Yuè, the vassal king of Liáng, was plotting a rebellion against the Hàn dynasty.
-Believing these rumors, Emperor Gāozǔ stripped Péng Yuè of his vassal lordship, demoted him to mere commoner status, and then finally had him exiled to a remote county near modern-day Yǎ'ān, Sìchuān Province.
-However, apparently this punishment wasn't severe enough for Empress Lǚ Zhì, so she actually went so far as to intercept Péng Yuè as he was making the journey to his new home. Knowing that her being there could only mean imminent death for Péng Yuè, the former vassal lord begged for his life. Surprisingly, the empress seemed to agree with Péng Yuè that his life should be spared, but of course she was just pretending, and as Péng Yuè was returning back to his ancestral home (near modern-day Hézé, Shāndōng Province) he was subsequently arrested, tortured, and executed in Chéngzhōu (along with his entire family).
-According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Empress Lǚ Zhì must have really hated Péng Yuè because after he was killed she had him ground up into mincemeat, salted, and then sent to all the other noble families of the Hàn dynasty as a warning not to fuck with the Hàn dynasty!!
-While this may have scared many of the elite families into complete submission, it seemed to also have the opposite effect (scaring many of the elite families into rebellion out of fear) for many of these families as well.
-One of the lords scared into action against the imperial throne was the former king of Jiǔjiāng, Yīng Bù (whom Emperor Gāozǔ had granted the title "King of Huáinán" ("Huáinánwáng", or "King of the Lands South of the Huái River") after the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (also see last post for more info on this dude, but basically he was considered to be one of the greatest military commanders (initially fighting for Chǔ before switching sides and joining the Hàn army) of his day)).
-He secretly began raising an army with the tentative plan of rebelling against the Hàn dynasty just in case he was the next in line to be tortured and executed by the empress. He also felt that his odds were pretty good since the other two greatest generals, Hán Xìn and Péng Yuè, were out of the picture, so he only really had to worry about Emperor Gāozǔ (in terms of being matched in military tactical genius), who was also getting pretty old at this point, too.
-The catalyst for the showdown between Yīng Bù and the Hàn dynasty all started with one of Yīng Bù's concubines (I guess whose name has been lost to time...).
-This concubine had become ill, so she was sent to go see the local physician who happened to be neighbors with Bēn Hè, an official of the Hàn court.
-Apparently the concubine had a chronic illness or something because she had to go visit this physician on a regular basis, and she was also most likely really hot which resulted in Bēn Hè seeing her and secretly charming her with expensive gifts and drinks at his house and shit.
-When Yīng Bù found out about this, he was obviously pissed off (or at least very suspicious about Bēn Hè's relationship with the concubine) and because Yīng Bù was so scary, Bēn Hè was scared for his life. So, in order to save himself, he made up a rumor that Yīng Bù was going to be the next vassal king to rebel against the emperor after fleeing to his home to Cháng'ān.
-Emperor Gāozǔ was immediately skeptical of this accusation and discussed the matter with Xiāo Hé. Xiāo Hé made the argument that Yīng Bù probably wasn't going planning to rebel against the emperor and that it was more likely that Yīng Bù's enemies were trying to frame him. However, just to be safe, Xiāo Hé advised the emperor to send some imperial investigators to go check out Yīng Bù.
-Despite the imperial court doubting the likelihood of Yīng Bù secretly planning a rebellion, Yīng Bù decided to go forward with his plan of rebelling due to his fears that he had been ratted out by Bēn Hè (due to Bēn Hè's conversations with Yīng Bù's concubine (she may have spilled the beans about Yīng Bù raising an army with the tentative plan rebelling at some point in the near future)), but even IF the court found Yīng Bù to be innocent, Yīng Bù knew that the likely followup would be for the paranoid/insane empress to have him killed one way or another anyway.
-The first thing Yīng Bù did was have his soldiers round up Bēn Hè's family and execute them while expelling Emperor Gāozǔ's investigators from his property.
-Next, Yīng Bù started invading territory in the south (away from Cháng'ān) and was initially successful! However, he started meeting real resistance when he invaded the territory belonging to the (former) state/kingdom of Chǔ, but was still able to defeat them too (due to his military genius).
-Finally, everything came to a head when Yīng Bù's army clashed with Emperor Gāozǔ's army at some place (a town? field? idk) called Zhuì (in modern-day Sùzhōu, Ānhuī Province).
-The battle did not go well for Yīng Bù and his army, and soon he was on the run with like 100 dudes that were the remains of his shattered army. However, he WAS able to have one of his archers seriously injure Emperor Gāozǔ by
-Finally he was able to get in contact somehow with his father-in-law's grandson, Vassal King Āī of Chángshā, who promised him a safe getaway to the kingdom of Nányuè (in modern-day southern China and northern Vietnam; although it was officially a Han subject state, the kingdom seems to have retained a large measure of de facto autonomy, hence why it made sense that it would be a good place for Yīng Bù to escape to) to the south, but this plan actually turned out to be a ruse and Yīng Bù was captured and executed in Xīnpíng (modern-day Jǐngdézhèn, Jiāngxī Province).
-At this point it was obvious that no one could really fuck with Emperor Gāozǔ, but it was obvious that not only was he getting older, but also his arrow wounds from the Battle of Zhuì were getting worse, too.
-It was obvious that Emperor Gāozǔ was on his way out, so he began to make plans for what was to happen after he died.
-While he had named his son Liú Yíng crown prince years ago, as time had gone on Emperor Gāozǔ had grown increasingly critical and disappointed in his son, believing him to be too weak and unfit for imperial rule.
-Emperor Gāozǔ even went so far as to say that he didn't really see any resemblance between himself and his son (implying that Liú Yíng wasn't actually his son, of course).
-Although Liú Yíng was indeed the son of Empress Lǚ and Emperor Gāozǔ (as far as we know), over the years the emperor had actually gone on to favor Liǘ Rúyì (his son from his favorite concubine, Consort Qī) as his preferred heir instead of Liú Yíng. Emperor Gāozǔ's advisers had strongly cautioned the emperor in following through with this plan, however, and facing intense pressure from all sides (including the empress who obviously you really didn't want to fuck with) he decided to back down and go along with the original plan of having Liú Yíng be the next in line instead.
-As he rapidly approached death, Emperor Gāozǔ got super-depressed and began barricading himself in his chambers and refusing to let anyone in (with the exception of his personal eunuch servant).
-Fearing another situation similar to what had happened with the eunuch Zhào Gāo and Qín Èr Shì, Emperor Gāozǔ's advisers pleaded with him to come out of his room and resume his imperial duties. Luckily, the emperor seemed to meet their concern with good humor, and he eventually acquiesced to their requests.
-However, the emperor's health continued to deteriorate. Empress Lǚ tried to get the emperor's health back on track by hiring a physician claiming that he could heal the emperor's ailments completely, but the emperor stated that he was determined to live according to the way that the heavens had planned for him, and he ended up eventually just sending the physician away.
-Emperor Gāozǔ finally died on June 1, 195 BC.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Monday, April 8, 2019
Western Han - Part I - The Chu-Han Contention
-206 BC- so, the Qín dynasty ended up collapsing after only being around for like 15 years haha.
-Because of the empire's collapse, the land was now split into 18 (!) different warring kingdoms (hence the name "Eighteen Kingdoms period" for this time in Chinese history).
-Although the rebels' main army was led by General Xiàng Yǔ, the Qín capital, Xiányáng (in modern-day Shǎnxī Province), and the royal family had been captured by another allied rebel general, Liú Bāng.
-Liú Bāng was born to a peasant family in 256 BC (approximately) in the state/kingdom of Chǔ (in a village near the city of Péngchéng (modern-day Xúzhōu, Jiāngsū Province)).
-According to legend, his upbringing was full of ominous portents (usually associated with dragons, a theme that was constant throughout his life).
-For example, when he would drink a silhouette of a dragon would appear around him; as he got older he "resembled" a dragon more and more; etc.
-When he got older he was eventually appointed as a minor patrol officer in the military and village executioner.
-However, after the land was unified by the Qín dynasty everything changed for him one day when some of his prisoners escaped as he was escorting them to Mount Lí (where they were to be forced to work on Qín Shǐ Huáng's necropolis).
-The punishment for military officers who had prisoners escape under their watch was death, so naturally Liú Bāng knew that he was screwed. However, instead of turning himself in to be executed, he decided to escape along with the prisoners and form a band of outlaws.
-During this time it's said that Liú Bāng encountered a dangerous white dragon (with a poison breath weapon!) and slew it (drunkenly haha). However, early the next morning he encountered an old woman on the side of the road who was crying; she told him that her "child had been slain by the son of the Red Emperor (AKA Emperor Yán, the Flame Emperor, the Yán Emperor, etc. (also possibly the same dude as Shénnóng, considered by some sources to be one of the mythical Three Sovereigns of prehistoric China))" before vanishing into the morning mists. Could this mean that Liú Bāng was a descendant of the Red Emperor and thus destined for greatness??
-Eventually, Liú Bāng and his band built a stronghold at Mount Mángdàng (near modern-day Shāngqiū, Hénán Province) and there they just kept on growing in number.
-Finally, in 208 BC King Huái II of Chǔ called upon Liú Bāng and his outlaw army to join in the rebellion against the Qín dynasty!
-During this time, King Huái II of Chǔ (AKA Emperor Yì of Chŭ), essentially a puppet ruler installed by Xiàng Yǔ as the new ruler of the resurrected kingdom of Chŭ, had issued a competition among all the rebel generals that whoever would "subdue the (Qín) heartland" (which essentially means take the capital, I guess?) would be rewarded with a rulership over Guānzhōng (the capital region of the Qín dynasty; basically the former territory of the state/kingdom of Qín?).
-So, although Xiàng Yǔ was really calling the shots behind the scenes, it was awkward because King Huái II of Chǔ HAD said that rulership of the Qín heartland would go to whoever took the capital first. It seems like maybe it was assumed that Xiàng Yǔ would do this, but of course it actually didn't work out this way.
-Xiàng Yǔ attempted to solve this problem by splitting up Guānzhōng into three different kingdoms (known collectively as "The Three Qíns"):
-Yōng (ruled by former Qín general Zhāng Hán)
-Sāi (ruled by former Qín general Sīmǎ Xīn)
-Zhái (ruled by former Qín general Dǒng Yì)
-For Liú Bāng, instead of being named king of Guānzhōng as was promised to him, he instead was given the new kingdom of Hàn, a territory to the southwest (land formerly belonging to the "barbarian" states of Bā and Shǔ (known collectively sometimes as the Bā-Shǔ culture) largely separated from the rest of the kingdoms by mountains.
-Obviously, this was kind of meant to snub Liú Bāng, as Xiàng Yǔ was probably pissed off at him for having the audacity to capture Xiányáng before he got there.
-Hàn was so difficult to get to that you would have to travel through all these dangerous tiny roads that curved along the mountains (which had initially been created by the Qín armies as a temporary solution to pass through). Occasionally there wouldn't even be a road at all and you'd have to walk over wooden planks built into the side of the mountain just to continue on! No thanks!!
-In order to properly settle (and truly pacify?) the region, Liú Bāng was given 30,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilians.
-For the time being, he would lay low...
-Of course, the peace of the Eighteen Kingdoms period almost immediately fell into chaos as the different kingdoms started fighting with one another.
-Qí (one of the three kingdoms (which included Jiāodōng and Jìběi) that the former state/kingdom of Qí had been divided into) immediately declared war on both Jiāodōng and Jìběi in order to reunify the former lands of the state/kingdom of Qí, quickly conquering them.
-Western Chǔ ("Xī Chǔ"), ruled by Xiàng Yǔ (who had crowned himself "Hegemon-King of Western Chǔ" ("Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng"), invaded and conquered Hán (not to be confused with Hàn (ruled by Liú Bāng), of course).
-Elsewhere there a bunch of rebellions and insurrections and shit, too.
-Because of the chaos, Liú Bāng decided to take advantage of the situation and expand his power by invading Yōng.
-Liú Bāng was able mask his intentions of invasion by claiming that he was just fortifying the defenses of the mountain passes.
-After two main battles, Yōng's armies were defeated and Zhāng Hán was forced to retreat to a fortress at Fèi Qiū (modern-day Xīngpíng, Shǎnxī Province).
-At this point, it was obvious that Liú Bāng was most likely planning on taking the region of Guānzhōng for himself (and thus conquering the rest of the Three Qíns), and apparently his army was so badass that Sīmǎ Xīn and Dǒng Yì decided to form an alliance (which also included King Shēn Yáng of Hénán for some reason) with Liú Bāng!
-205 BC- although Xiàng Yǔ must have known what was going on in the west, he was bogged down in a war with Qí so I guess there wasn't really much he could do to counter Liú Bāng's rapidly increasing power.
-Knowing he had to move fast before Xiàng Yǔ could properly organize, Liú Bāng and his allied forces decided to invade Western Chǔ, heading straight for Péngchéng!
-This kicked off what would become known as the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (which would determine who would replace the Qín dynasty as the next imperial line, essentially).
-They must have arrived moved really quickly because they were able to immediately capture and sack the capital city.
-Of course, when he received word of the news that his capital had been taken by Liú Bāng's massive allied forces, Xiàng Yǔ raced back to the city to try and drive off the invaders.
-Surprisingly, Xiàng Yǔ's army was able to catch the invaders off-guard because they had just been partying, raping, and pillaging the whole time and I guess hadn't prepared for Xiàng Yǔ's obvious return to try and save the city. So, Liú Bāng's army was driven out of the city and forced to retreat to the nearby Gǔ and Sì rivers, but they were being chased by Xiàng Yǔ's army.
-When the two armies finally clashed (the Battle of Péngchéng), Liú Bāng's army got its ass kicked and they suffered heavy casualties.
-In fact, the casualties were so bad at one point that the sheer amount of bodies dammed up the Sì River!
-Fearing for his life (obviously), Liú Bāng and his bodyguards fled to his home village (he was born and raised in this area after all, and his family even still lived here!) where he hoped to secure his family from a possible reprisal by Xiàng Yǔ.
-However, Liú Bāng was too late (although he did encounter some of his family members randomly along the road on the way there; more on that later), as Xiàng Yǔ had already captured some of Liú Bāng's family.
-It probably didn't happen, but according to the historical records Liú Bāng discarded these family members to the side of the road so that his chariot would go faster!
-Xiàng Yǔ now had a choice- he could help rebuild his capital city and refortify/regroup, OR he could go after Liú Bāng in order to vanquish the Hàn threat once and for all.
-Surprisingly, Xiàng Yǔ decided to rebuild/regroup; after all, he still had much of Liú Bāng's family as hostages.
-Liú Bāng had been soundly defeated, so he headed back to Hàn to try and figure out what to do.
-Realizing the shift in momentum, Sīmǎ Xīn and Dǒng Yì then decided to break their alliance with Liú Bāng and instead ally with Xiàng Yǔ!
-To further strengthen Xiàng Yǔ's prospects for domination, Qí sued for peace (which allowed for Xiàng Yǔ to not have to be distracted by fighting them instead of Hàn).
-Upon returning to the city of Yú (in modern-day Shāngqiū, Hénán Province (and capital of Hàn (I think))), Liú Bāng settled down in order to decide on what to do next.
-His initial plan was to get King Yīng Bù (who had actually been a former criminal (with a tattooed face as a punishment!), escaped slave, and outlaw warlord in the past!) of Jiǔjiāng to declare war on Xiàng Yǔ and invade Western Chǔ (which actually worked, somehow!), but Xiàng Yǔ's forces were too strong and Yīng Bù's army was defeated.
-Xiàng Yǔ then decided to launch a counterattack invasion (led by General Lóng Jū) against Jiǔjiāng.
-Lóng Jū's army was successful in quickly crushing any opposition, and Yīng Bù was actually forced to flee to the court of Liú Bāng! Doh!!
-At this point, however, Liú Bāng had had enough time to raise another army, and he immediately used it to start attacking Western Chǔ again!
-During this time Liú Bāng also named his son, Prince Liú Yíng, as heir to the Hàn throne.
-It's also worth noting that Zhāng Hán's remaining army was finally defeated by Hàn's forces, which resulted in Zhāng Hán committing suicide before he could be captured.
-Also during this time King Wèi Bào of Western Wèi ("Xī Wèi" in order to make it not confused with its original incarnation as the state/kingdom of Wèi) decided that it was time for Western Wèi to enter the war for domination, and he kicked things off by breaking his alliance with Hàn, allying himself with Xiàng Yǔ, and then declaring war on Liú Bāng! Rude!
-Because of this sudden reversal, Liú Bāng knew he had to act quickly in order crush Wèi Bào ASAP, so he sent Hán Xìn, his best general, to lead Hàn's forces.
-By being tricky, Hán Xìn was able to convince Wèi Bào that the Hàn army was going to attack the Wèi city of Línjìn, but actually Hán Xìn was planning on attacking Wèi's capital at Ānyì!
-Not really sure what exactly went down, but by the time the armies finally did clash, Wèi Bào's army was crushed and Wèi was completely surrendered to (and promptly annexed by) Hàn!
-Surprisingly, Wèi Bào actually survived all of this, and after his defeat was actually accepted into Liú Bāng's army and even promoted to general!
-Hán Xìn then continued the drive north and invaded the kingdom of Dài (not sure what their excuse was, exactly)!
-I could be mistaken, but it seems as if during this time the kingdoms of Dài, Hénán, Chángshān, and Yīn (all ruled by former Zhào royalty or government officials) had all banded together to form a sort-of resurrected Zhào state/kingdom, so that would explain why the sources are saying that Hán Xìn "attacked the kingdom of Zhào" even though really Zhào had fallen to Qín 17 years earlier.
-Hàn's army clashed with the forces of Dài near the Jǐngxíng Pass (the Battle of Jǐngxíng (AKA the Battle of the Táo River)) in the Tàiháng Mountains.
-Surprisingly, although Hán Xìn had a much smaller force than Dài's, the Hàn army was able to defeat Dài (which also cemented Hán Xìn's reputation as a badass general!) by feigning a retreat (but being unable to retreat due to the mountains which made them fight more ferociously), ambushes, counterattacks, etc.!
-Once Hán Xìn's army made it through the Jǐngxíng Pass and defeated the Zhào alliance, he set his sights on both Western Chǔ and Qí.
-Both were powerful states, but Hán Xìn knew that they had been distracted from containing Hàn's wars of expansion due to fighting with each other.
-204 BC- at this point, the three most powerful states in the Eighteen Kingdoms (or whatever China was being called at this time) were of course Western Chǔ, Hàn, and Qí.
-During a diplomatic meeting there was some sort of an agreement reached in order to calm hostilities where Western Chǔ and Qí agreed to a ceasefire and Qí recognized Hàn as the rightful "leader" of the region (whatever that meant).
-However, by the time Liú Bāng received word that Qí was on their side it was too late to get the message to Hán Xìn, who was quickly moving to invade Qí!
-Believing that they had been deceived by Hàn, Tián Guǎng (the new king of Qí (not Tián Du; it's complicated)) fled to Péngchéng and immediately swore fealty to Xiàng Yǔ.
-Agreeing to protect his new vassal state, Xiàng Yǔ quickly raised an army (led by General Lóng Jū (who had a reputation for being a brave but also arrogant and reckless commander) and sent it to drive out the Hàn forces from Qí.
-Hán Xìn was able to exploit Lóng Jū's recklessness by causing the Qí/Western Chǔ army to be caught in a genius trap involving the opening of a dam and getting flooded (which also resulted in Lóng Jū's death as well).
-Apparently Tián Guǎng was there as well because he was also killed during the battle's aftermath.
-Qí was then immediately annexed by Hàn!
-At this point, things were really looking grim for Xiàng Yǔ, as the region had obviously been dominated by Hàn and Western Chǔ's armies had suffered too many casualties to resist for much longer.
-Although Hán Xìn had been on a roll up till now, it seems as if he finally overplayed his hand when he requested that he be made the new king of Qí.
-This actually put Liú Bāng in a tough situation; Hán Xìn possessed a relatively large force compared to what was at Liú Bāng's immediate disposal (an army which was actually busy defending the captured city of Xíngyáng from Western Chǔ forces), and Liú Bāng had expected Hán Xìn to return to Hàn and help drive off the Western Chǔ army from Xíngyáng, not ask to be named king of Qí!
-However, Liú Bāng knew that he was in no place to challenge Hán Xìn's power grab, so he reluctantly acquiesced to Hán Xìn's request.
-This was also because Xiàng Yǔ had attempted to exploit this shift in relations between Liú Bāng and Hán Xìn by inviting the latter to join in a military alliance with Western Chǔ against Hàn. Also, if Hán Xìn agreed to this alliance, Western Chǔ would then recognize Hán Xìn's legitimacy as the new king of Qí.
-203 BC- At this point, Liú Bāng knew that his forces were too weak to continue fighting with Western Chǔ at Xíngyáng and that Hán Xìn was now not to be trusted, so he decided to try and sue for peace with Western Chǔ. In addition, Xiàng Yǔ had captured Liú Bāng's father, so that might have had something to do with it, too.
-The deal (known as the Treaty of the Hóng Canal) was that everything west of Xíngyáng (including the city itself) would belong to Hàn, and everything to its east would belong to Western Chǔ.
-In addition, all of the hostages taken by Western Chǔ would be returned to Hàn.
-Apparently, Xiàng Yǔ himself even traveled to the city for the peace talks.
-However, Liú Bāng must have realized that this was not a sustainable solution at all to the Chǔ-Hàn Contention, and that actually it would probably be much easier to just nip this whole thing in the bud by attacking Xiàng Yǔ as he was traveling back east!
-Liú Bāng then raised an army to go after Xiàng Yǔ and attempted to get both Hán Xìn and the Hàn general Péng Yuè (AKA Zhòng) to do a three-pronged attack, but this didn't really pan out and Liú Bāng's army fought alone and ended up getting defeated (although Liú Bāng was able to survive by retreating).
-While normally Liú Bāng would have reprimanded his subordinates in some way for not following orders from their king, because of the situation he was in Liú Bāng was obviously in no position to actually follow through with any punishments or disciplinary actions, so he just ended up apologizing for asking so much from his men haha.
-In fact, in order to rely on them for the next campaign, Liú Bāng even went so far as to grant the two generals land and titles in order to "thank them" for their continued support.
-202 BC- the armies of Hàn invade Western Chǔ! This is it!
-The invasion was a three-pronged assault (with each prong led by Liú Bāng, Péng Yuè, and Hán Xìn, respectively).
-It's unclear how exactly this happened, but it wasn't long before Xiàng Yǔ and his army found themselves trapped in a canyon near the town of Gāixià (outside of modern-day Sùzhōu, Ānhuī Province).
-To make matters worse, one of Xiàng Yǔ's favorite wives, Consort Yú (AKA Yú Miàoyì or "Yú the Beauty" ("Yú Měirén")), had been captured by Hàn forces (at this point it looks like the armies led by both Liú Bāng and Hán Xìn had joined up).
-The Battle of Gāixià- the Hàn generals knew that Xiàng Yǔ would do anything to rescue Consort Yú, and they were right- it wasn't long before Xiàng Yǔ's army was ambushed and completely surrounded by the forces of Hàn.
-It was at this moment that Hán Xìn had told his men to start singing traditional folk songs from Chǔ (meant to make Xiàng Yǔ's men homesick so they'd stop fighting, I guess? Either way, it worked!) which resulted in the Western Chǔ army drop in numbers due to surrender and desertion. The final nail in the coffin, however, was the suicide of Consort Yú (who apparently either blamed herself for Xiàng Yǔ's defeat OR just didn't want to distract him from the battle).
-Although he succeeded in breaking through the Hàn's line in order to escape with a small number of loyalists, Xiàng Yǔ was soon tracked down by Hàn cavalry and was able to commit suicide before he could be captured.
-Although Western Chǔ would continue to try and hold out against the Hàn forces and its allies, it was obvious that the Chǔ-Hàn Contention was quickly coming to an end as much of Western Chǔ's territory was easily being conquered by the invading Hàn armies.
-Once Western Chǔ had finally fallen, Liú Bāng declared himself emperor (becoming Emperor Gāozǔ of Hàn ("Hàn Gāozǔ" ("High Ancestor of Hàn"))) of his brand-new Hàn dynasty, although he still ensured that he held up his end of the many deals that he had made with all of the generals, nobles, and members of the royal family who had supported him up to that point (which also included many enemy generals, too, as a sign of respect) and awarded many kingships (who were to rule semi-autonomously, answering only to the emperor, himself) and other titles to them within the empire of Hàn.
-This was definitely a departure of how the Qín dynasty had done things (an attempt to have complete control of its empire by dividing it up into commanderies governed by non-hereditary official positions (an extremely radical departure from how it had always been in China)) and a return to the traditional Chinese style up till that point (a bunch of different kingdoms all subordinate (in theory) to an imperial overlord of semi-divine ancestry, as seen with the previous dynasties).
-Would a return to this style of rule be as problematic as it had been for the previous dynasties (not including the Qín)?
-Because of the empire's collapse, the land was now split into 18 (!) different warring kingdoms (hence the name "Eighteen Kingdoms period" for this time in Chinese history).
-Although the rebels' main army was led by General Xiàng Yǔ, the Qín capital, Xiányáng (in modern-day Shǎnxī Province), and the royal family had been captured by another allied rebel general, Liú Bāng.
-Liú Bāng was born to a peasant family in 256 BC (approximately) in the state/kingdom of Chǔ (in a village near the city of Péngchéng (modern-day Xúzhōu, Jiāngsū Province)).
-According to legend, his upbringing was full of ominous portents (usually associated with dragons, a theme that was constant throughout his life).
-For example, when he would drink a silhouette of a dragon would appear around him; as he got older he "resembled" a dragon more and more; etc.
-When he got older he was eventually appointed as a minor patrol officer in the military and village executioner.
-However, after the land was unified by the Qín dynasty everything changed for him one day when some of his prisoners escaped as he was escorting them to Mount Lí (where they were to be forced to work on Qín Shǐ Huáng's necropolis).
-The punishment for military officers who had prisoners escape under their watch was death, so naturally Liú Bāng knew that he was screwed. However, instead of turning himself in to be executed, he decided to escape along with the prisoners and form a band of outlaws.
-During this time it's said that Liú Bāng encountered a dangerous white dragon (with a poison breath weapon!) and slew it (drunkenly haha). However, early the next morning he encountered an old woman on the side of the road who was crying; she told him that her "child had been slain by the son of the Red Emperor (AKA Emperor Yán, the Flame Emperor, the Yán Emperor, etc. (also possibly the same dude as Shénnóng, considered by some sources to be one of the mythical Three Sovereigns of prehistoric China))" before vanishing into the morning mists. Could this mean that Liú Bāng was a descendant of the Red Emperor and thus destined for greatness??
-Eventually, Liú Bāng and his band built a stronghold at Mount Mángdàng (near modern-day Shāngqiū, Hénán Province) and there they just kept on growing in number.
-Finally, in 208 BC King Huái II of Chǔ called upon Liú Bāng and his outlaw army to join in the rebellion against the Qín dynasty!
-During this time, King Huái II of Chǔ (AKA Emperor Yì of Chŭ), essentially a puppet ruler installed by Xiàng Yǔ as the new ruler of the resurrected kingdom of Chŭ, had issued a competition among all the rebel generals that whoever would "subdue the (Qín) heartland" (which essentially means take the capital, I guess?) would be rewarded with a rulership over Guānzhōng (the capital region of the Qín dynasty; basically the former territory of the state/kingdom of Qín?).
-So, although Xiàng Yǔ was really calling the shots behind the scenes, it was awkward because King Huái II of Chǔ HAD said that rulership of the Qín heartland would go to whoever took the capital first. It seems like maybe it was assumed that Xiàng Yǔ would do this, but of course it actually didn't work out this way.
-Xiàng Yǔ attempted to solve this problem by splitting up Guānzhōng into three different kingdoms (known collectively as "The Three Qíns"):
-Yōng (ruled by former Qín general Zhāng Hán)
-Sāi (ruled by former Qín general Sīmǎ Xīn)
-Zhái (ruled by former Qín general Dǒng Yì)
-For Liú Bāng, instead of being named king of Guānzhōng as was promised to him, he instead was given the new kingdom of Hàn, a territory to the southwest (land formerly belonging to the "barbarian" states of Bā and Shǔ (known collectively sometimes as the Bā-Shǔ culture) largely separated from the rest of the kingdoms by mountains.
-Obviously, this was kind of meant to snub Liú Bāng, as Xiàng Yǔ was probably pissed off at him for having the audacity to capture Xiányáng before he got there.
-Hàn was so difficult to get to that you would have to travel through all these dangerous tiny roads that curved along the mountains (which had initially been created by the Qín armies as a temporary solution to pass through). Occasionally there wouldn't even be a road at all and you'd have to walk over wooden planks built into the side of the mountain just to continue on! No thanks!!
-In order to properly settle (and truly pacify?) the region, Liú Bāng was given 30,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilians.
-For the time being, he would lay low...
-Of course, the peace of the Eighteen Kingdoms period almost immediately fell into chaos as the different kingdoms started fighting with one another.
-Qí (one of the three kingdoms (which included Jiāodōng and Jìběi) that the former state/kingdom of Qí had been divided into) immediately declared war on both Jiāodōng and Jìběi in order to reunify the former lands of the state/kingdom of Qí, quickly conquering them.
-Western Chǔ ("Xī Chǔ"), ruled by Xiàng Yǔ (who had crowned himself "Hegemon-King of Western Chǔ" ("Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng"), invaded and conquered Hán (not to be confused with Hàn (ruled by Liú Bāng), of course).
-Elsewhere there a bunch of rebellions and insurrections and shit, too.
-Because of the chaos, Liú Bāng decided to take advantage of the situation and expand his power by invading Yōng.
-Liú Bāng was able mask his intentions of invasion by claiming that he was just fortifying the defenses of the mountain passes.
-After two main battles, Yōng's armies were defeated and Zhāng Hán was forced to retreat to a fortress at Fèi Qiū (modern-day Xīngpíng, Shǎnxī Province).
-At this point, it was obvious that Liú Bāng was most likely planning on taking the region of Guānzhōng for himself (and thus conquering the rest of the Three Qíns), and apparently his army was so badass that Sīmǎ Xīn and Dǒng Yì decided to form an alliance (which also included King Shēn Yáng of Hénán for some reason) with Liú Bāng!
-205 BC- although Xiàng Yǔ must have known what was going on in the west, he was bogged down in a war with Qí so I guess there wasn't really much he could do to counter Liú Bāng's rapidly increasing power.
-Knowing he had to move fast before Xiàng Yǔ could properly organize, Liú Bāng and his allied forces decided to invade Western Chǔ, heading straight for Péngchéng!
-This kicked off what would become known as the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (which would determine who would replace the Qín dynasty as the next imperial line, essentially).
-They must have arrived moved really quickly because they were able to immediately capture and sack the capital city.
-Of course, when he received word of the news that his capital had been taken by Liú Bāng's massive allied forces, Xiàng Yǔ raced back to the city to try and drive off the invaders.
-Surprisingly, Xiàng Yǔ's army was able to catch the invaders off-guard because they had just been partying, raping, and pillaging the whole time and I guess hadn't prepared for Xiàng Yǔ's obvious return to try and save the city. So, Liú Bāng's army was driven out of the city and forced to retreat to the nearby Gǔ and Sì rivers, but they were being chased by Xiàng Yǔ's army.
-When the two armies finally clashed (the Battle of Péngchéng), Liú Bāng's army got its ass kicked and they suffered heavy casualties.
-In fact, the casualties were so bad at one point that the sheer amount of bodies dammed up the Sì River!
-Fearing for his life (obviously), Liú Bāng and his bodyguards fled to his home village (he was born and raised in this area after all, and his family even still lived here!) where he hoped to secure his family from a possible reprisal by Xiàng Yǔ.
-However, Liú Bāng was too late (although he did encounter some of his family members randomly along the road on the way there; more on that later), as Xiàng Yǔ had already captured some of Liú Bāng's family.
-It probably didn't happen, but according to the historical records Liú Bāng discarded these family members to the side of the road so that his chariot would go faster!
-Xiàng Yǔ now had a choice- he could help rebuild his capital city and refortify/regroup, OR he could go after Liú Bāng in order to vanquish the Hàn threat once and for all.
-Surprisingly, Xiàng Yǔ decided to rebuild/regroup; after all, he still had much of Liú Bāng's family as hostages.
-Liú Bāng had been soundly defeated, so he headed back to Hàn to try and figure out what to do.
-Realizing the shift in momentum, Sīmǎ Xīn and Dǒng Yì then decided to break their alliance with Liú Bāng and instead ally with Xiàng Yǔ!
-To further strengthen Xiàng Yǔ's prospects for domination, Qí sued for peace (which allowed for Xiàng Yǔ to not have to be distracted by fighting them instead of Hàn).
-Upon returning to the city of Yú (in modern-day Shāngqiū, Hénán Province (and capital of Hàn (I think))), Liú Bāng settled down in order to decide on what to do next.
-His initial plan was to get King Yīng Bù (who had actually been a former criminal (with a tattooed face as a punishment!), escaped slave, and outlaw warlord in the past!) of Jiǔjiāng to declare war on Xiàng Yǔ and invade Western Chǔ (which actually worked, somehow!), but Xiàng Yǔ's forces were too strong and Yīng Bù's army was defeated.
-Xiàng Yǔ then decided to launch a counterattack invasion (led by General Lóng Jū) against Jiǔjiāng.
-Lóng Jū's army was successful in quickly crushing any opposition, and Yīng Bù was actually forced to flee to the court of Liú Bāng! Doh!!
-At this point, however, Liú Bāng had had enough time to raise another army, and he immediately used it to start attacking Western Chǔ again!
-During this time Liú Bāng also named his son, Prince Liú Yíng, as heir to the Hàn throne.
-It's also worth noting that Zhāng Hán's remaining army was finally defeated by Hàn's forces, which resulted in Zhāng Hán committing suicide before he could be captured.
-Also during this time King Wèi Bào of Western Wèi ("Xī Wèi" in order to make it not confused with its original incarnation as the state/kingdom of Wèi) decided that it was time for Western Wèi to enter the war for domination, and he kicked things off by breaking his alliance with Hàn, allying himself with Xiàng Yǔ, and then declaring war on Liú Bāng! Rude!
-Because of this sudden reversal, Liú Bāng knew he had to act quickly in order crush Wèi Bào ASAP, so he sent Hán Xìn, his best general, to lead Hàn's forces.
-By being tricky, Hán Xìn was able to convince Wèi Bào that the Hàn army was going to attack the Wèi city of Línjìn, but actually Hán Xìn was planning on attacking Wèi's capital at Ānyì!
-Not really sure what exactly went down, but by the time the armies finally did clash, Wèi Bào's army was crushed and Wèi was completely surrendered to (and promptly annexed by) Hàn!
-Surprisingly, Wèi Bào actually survived all of this, and after his defeat was actually accepted into Liú Bāng's army and even promoted to general!
-Hán Xìn then continued the drive north and invaded the kingdom of Dài (not sure what their excuse was, exactly)!
-I could be mistaken, but it seems as if during this time the kingdoms of Dài, Hénán, Chángshān, and Yīn (all ruled by former Zhào royalty or government officials) had all banded together to form a sort-of resurrected Zhào state/kingdom, so that would explain why the sources are saying that Hán Xìn "attacked the kingdom of Zhào" even though really Zhào had fallen to Qín 17 years earlier.
-Hàn's army clashed with the forces of Dài near the Jǐngxíng Pass (the Battle of Jǐngxíng (AKA the Battle of the Táo River)) in the Tàiháng Mountains.
-Surprisingly, although Hán Xìn had a much smaller force than Dài's, the Hàn army was able to defeat Dài (which also cemented Hán Xìn's reputation as a badass general!) by feigning a retreat (but being unable to retreat due to the mountains which made them fight more ferociously), ambushes, counterattacks, etc.!
-Once Hán Xìn's army made it through the Jǐngxíng Pass and defeated the Zhào alliance, he set his sights on both Western Chǔ and Qí.
-Both were powerful states, but Hán Xìn knew that they had been distracted from containing Hàn's wars of expansion due to fighting with each other.
-204 BC- at this point, the three most powerful states in the Eighteen Kingdoms (or whatever China was being called at this time) were of course Western Chǔ, Hàn, and Qí.
-During a diplomatic meeting there was some sort of an agreement reached in order to calm hostilities where Western Chǔ and Qí agreed to a ceasefire and Qí recognized Hàn as the rightful "leader" of the region (whatever that meant).
-However, by the time Liú Bāng received word that Qí was on their side it was too late to get the message to Hán Xìn, who was quickly moving to invade Qí!
-Believing that they had been deceived by Hàn, Tián Guǎng (the new king of Qí (not Tián Du; it's complicated)) fled to Péngchéng and immediately swore fealty to Xiàng Yǔ.
-Agreeing to protect his new vassal state, Xiàng Yǔ quickly raised an army (led by General Lóng Jū (who had a reputation for being a brave but also arrogant and reckless commander) and sent it to drive out the Hàn forces from Qí.
-Hán Xìn was able to exploit Lóng Jū's recklessness by causing the Qí/Western Chǔ army to be caught in a genius trap involving the opening of a dam and getting flooded (which also resulted in Lóng Jū's death as well).
-Apparently Tián Guǎng was there as well because he was also killed during the battle's aftermath.
-Qí was then immediately annexed by Hàn!
-At this point, things were really looking grim for Xiàng Yǔ, as the region had obviously been dominated by Hàn and Western Chǔ's armies had suffered too many casualties to resist for much longer.
-Although Hán Xìn had been on a roll up till now, it seems as if he finally overplayed his hand when he requested that he be made the new king of Qí.
-This actually put Liú Bāng in a tough situation; Hán Xìn possessed a relatively large force compared to what was at Liú Bāng's immediate disposal (an army which was actually busy defending the captured city of Xíngyáng from Western Chǔ forces), and Liú Bāng had expected Hán Xìn to return to Hàn and help drive off the Western Chǔ army from Xíngyáng, not ask to be named king of Qí!
-However, Liú Bāng knew that he was in no place to challenge Hán Xìn's power grab, so he reluctantly acquiesced to Hán Xìn's request.
-This was also because Xiàng Yǔ had attempted to exploit this shift in relations between Liú Bāng and Hán Xìn by inviting the latter to join in a military alliance with Western Chǔ against Hàn. Also, if Hán Xìn agreed to this alliance, Western Chǔ would then recognize Hán Xìn's legitimacy as the new king of Qí.
-203 BC- At this point, Liú Bāng knew that his forces were too weak to continue fighting with Western Chǔ at Xíngyáng and that Hán Xìn was now not to be trusted, so he decided to try and sue for peace with Western Chǔ. In addition, Xiàng Yǔ had captured Liú Bāng's father, so that might have had something to do with it, too.
-The deal (known as the Treaty of the Hóng Canal) was that everything west of Xíngyáng (including the city itself) would belong to Hàn, and everything to its east would belong to Western Chǔ.
-In addition, all of the hostages taken by Western Chǔ would be returned to Hàn.
-Apparently, Xiàng Yǔ himself even traveled to the city for the peace talks.
-However, Liú Bāng must have realized that this was not a sustainable solution at all to the Chǔ-Hàn Contention, and that actually it would probably be much easier to just nip this whole thing in the bud by attacking Xiàng Yǔ as he was traveling back east!
-Liú Bāng then raised an army to go after Xiàng Yǔ and attempted to get both Hán Xìn and the Hàn general Péng Yuè (AKA Zhòng) to do a three-pronged attack, but this didn't really pan out and Liú Bāng's army fought alone and ended up getting defeated (although Liú Bāng was able to survive by retreating).
-While normally Liú Bāng would have reprimanded his subordinates in some way for not following orders from their king, because of the situation he was in Liú Bāng was obviously in no position to actually follow through with any punishments or disciplinary actions, so he just ended up apologizing for asking so much from his men haha.
-In fact, in order to rely on them for the next campaign, Liú Bāng even went so far as to grant the two generals land and titles in order to "thank them" for their continued support.
-202 BC- the armies of Hàn invade Western Chǔ! This is it!
-The invasion was a three-pronged assault (with each prong led by Liú Bāng, Péng Yuè, and Hán Xìn, respectively).
-It's unclear how exactly this happened, but it wasn't long before Xiàng Yǔ and his army found themselves trapped in a canyon near the town of Gāixià (outside of modern-day Sùzhōu, Ānhuī Province).
-To make matters worse, one of Xiàng Yǔ's favorite wives, Consort Yú (AKA Yú Miàoyì or "Yú the Beauty" ("Yú Měirén")), had been captured by Hàn forces (at this point it looks like the armies led by both Liú Bāng and Hán Xìn had joined up).
-The Battle of Gāixià- the Hàn generals knew that Xiàng Yǔ would do anything to rescue Consort Yú, and they were right- it wasn't long before Xiàng Yǔ's army was ambushed and completely surrounded by the forces of Hàn.
-It was at this moment that Hán Xìn had told his men to start singing traditional folk songs from Chǔ (meant to make Xiàng Yǔ's men homesick so they'd stop fighting, I guess? Either way, it worked!) which resulted in the Western Chǔ army drop in numbers due to surrender and desertion. The final nail in the coffin, however, was the suicide of Consort Yú (who apparently either blamed herself for Xiàng Yǔ's defeat OR just didn't want to distract him from the battle).
-Although he succeeded in breaking through the Hàn's line in order to escape with a small number of loyalists, Xiàng Yǔ was soon tracked down by Hàn cavalry and was able to commit suicide before he could be captured.
-Although Western Chǔ would continue to try and hold out against the Hàn forces and its allies, it was obvious that the Chǔ-Hàn Contention was quickly coming to an end as much of Western Chǔ's territory was easily being conquered by the invading Hàn armies.
-Once Western Chǔ had finally fallen, Liú Bāng declared himself emperor (becoming Emperor Gāozǔ of Hàn ("Hàn Gāozǔ" ("High Ancestor of Hàn"))) of his brand-new Hàn dynasty, although he still ensured that he held up his end of the many deals that he had made with all of the generals, nobles, and members of the royal family who had supported him up to that point (which also included many enemy generals, too, as a sign of respect) and awarded many kingships (who were to rule semi-autonomously, answering only to the emperor, himself) and other titles to them within the empire of Hàn.
-This was definitely a departure of how the Qín dynasty had done things (an attempt to have complete control of its empire by dividing it up into commanderies governed by non-hereditary official positions (an extremely radical departure from how it had always been in China)) and a return to the traditional Chinese style up till that point (a bunch of different kingdoms all subordinate (in theory) to an imperial overlord of semi-divine ancestry, as seen with the previous dynasties).
-Would a return to this style of rule be as problematic as it had been for the previous dynasties (not including the Qín)?
Friday, March 15, 2019
Qin - Part III - Web of Deception
-210 BC- so, Qín Shǐ Huáng was dead. Next in line to replace him as emperor was his eldest son, Crown Prince Fúsū (who had up till then been forced into "military duty" (i.e. exile) in the north for criticizing his father).
-However, because Fúsū was far away, those in power who were present at Qín Shǐ Huáng's death (Imperial Chancellor Lǐ Sī, Prefect (of the Office for Imperial Carriages) Zhào Gāo, Prince Húhài (Prince Fúsū's younger brother), and maybe some eunuchs and shit) quickly realized that they had an excellent opportunity to just seize power for themselves!
-Zhào Gāo was basically Ancient China's version of Varys from Game of Thrones haha, although it's unclear as to if Zhào Gāo was actually a eunuch or not (there seems to be evidence supporting both sides).
-There's actually one theory that argues that Zhào Gāo was actually a member of the Zhào royal family (from the state/kingdom of Zhào (which had been conquered by Qín in 228 BC)) and thus was seeking revenge on the Qín dynasty for conquering his family's kingdom!
-Qín Shǐ Huáng seemed to have taken a liking to Zhào Gāo (who was also well-educated) because eventually he began serving as a tutor for Prince Húhài.
-Anyway, the plan was to forge Qín Shǐ Huáng's will so that Húhài was named heir to the throne, not Fúsū!
-Besides just wanting to hold onto power, it made sense for Zhào Gāo to want to do this. If Prince Fúsū was enthroned, then it was most likely that the commander of his armies would be General Méng Tián (fun fact: he's credited with inventing the ink brush!), someone whom Zhào Gāo had a serious political rivalry with. So, it's reasonable to assume that Prince Fúsū being enthroned as emperor could mean imprisonment or even death for Zhào Gāo.
-Apparently, it was also mentioned in the forged will that both Fúsū and Méng Tián were to be either executed or forced to commit suicide (that's not suspicious at all, right?).
-This resulted in Prince Fúsū following these orders and committing suicide, but Méng Tián immediately smelled a rat and immediately started to do some digging. However, unfortunately for him this resulted in his arrest and execution (in addition to the arrest and execution of his family as well, which made things work out even better for Zhào Gāo!).
-Thus, because of these treachery Prince Húhài was enthroned and took the imperial name Qín Èr Shì ("Second Generation of Qín")!
-Unfortunately, Qín Èr Shì would end up being a pretty shitty emperor, and even today his name is part of a negative phrase "describing spoiled children raised by wealthy parents, growing up with little or no moral values, or any forms of necessary daily life skills" (according to Wikipedia haha).
-Of course, a weak/incompetent emperor was exactly what Zhào Gāo and Lǐ Sī wanted because it would allow them to actually call the shots behind the scenes. Plus, Zhào Gāo especially was able to manipulate Qín Èr Shì because before he was emperor Zhào Gāo had served for years as his trusted teacher and mentor.
-As imperial chancellor, Zhào Gāo was able to convince Qín Èr Shì that it was best for the emperor to remain isolated deep within the imperial palace at the capital and only communicate with Zhào Gāo (ha!).
-It was only a matter of months before Chancellor Zhào had completely isolated the emperor, and soon Chancellor Zhào was essentially ruling as emperor himself (in all but name only).
-Because of Zhào Gāo's paranoia/pursuit of absolute power, soon members of the imperial family began to be spied upon, imprisoned, and sometimes even executed/forced to commit suicide!
-209 BC- because of the chaos in the imperial court (and presumably across the empire as a result), there were a series of uprisings against the throne, the first of which became known as the Dàzéxiāng Uprising (AKA the Chén Shèng and Wú Guǎng Uprising).
-The Dàzéxiāng Uprising began when the generals Chén Shèng and Wú Guǎng were heading north on a mission to defend a town against Xiōngnú invaders but were forced to delay due to a storm and subsequent flooding. This was extremely problematic because the Qín government had just passed a new law declaring that showing up late to a government job or assignment would result in immediate execution (stupid law), so the generals felt that they had no choice but to fight for their lives and rebel (even if they only had like 900 men with them!).
-In order to give their insurrection a little more legitimacy, the generals decided to rebel in the name of their former state/kingdom, Chǔ (which had been conquered by Qín, of course), with General Chén being enthroned as the new king of Rising Chǔ ("Zhāng Chǔ Wáng")!
-The generals then immediately began a propaganda campaign in attempt to spread the news about Qín Èr Shì not being the rightful heir to the throne and shit like that.
-It wasn't hard to get people to join their side, as the Qín dynasty had already pissed off everyone by raising taxes in order to pay for the wall in the north as well as their vanity projects, lavish lifestyle, etc.
-Because of this, the Dàzéxiāng Uprising soon went from 900 men to over 20,000!
-Unfortunately, this revolt wouldn't last long, as the rebel armies were really little more than armed peasants without real equipment or training, and they were soon crushed by the Qín dynasty's armies.
-Within six months, Chén Shèng's armies were broken, and Chén Shèng himself was ultimately assassinated by his own guard, Zhuāng Jiǎ, in 208 BC.
-However, it's important to note that although the Dàzéxiāng Uprising had been quelled, the seeds of discord has been sewn; soon, lawlessness and civil unrest were popping up all over the empire.
-208 BC- Zhào Gāo further consolidates his grip on imperial power by convincing Qín Èr Shì that Lǐ Sī and other high-ranking officials were conspiring against the emperor, so Qín Èr Shì gave the orders to have Lǐ Sī (and his family!) imprisoned, brutally tortured (via the Wǔ Xíng ("Five Punishments") method, which included having his nose cut off, followed by a hand and a foot, then castration, before finally being executed (by way of yāo zhǎn ("waist chop")), which was actually part of an ancient series of torture and execution methods that had been revived by Lǐ Sī himself!)!
-One example of Zhào Gāo's cunning involved an incident in 207 BC in which he brought a deer into the court of the emperor and claimed it was a horse. The courtiers who happened to be with Zhào Gāo were divided; some agreed with him and said it was a horse, while others didn't go along with it. Of course, Zhào Gāo took note of who agreed it was a horse and who didn't so he could recall who to have executed later that day.
-That pretty much removed all doubt among the officials as to who was really ruling the empire.
-Meanwhile in the south, the idea of a revival of the kingdom of Chǔ still hadn't died out among the local population.
-In fact, after the news of Chén Shèng's defeat, one dude had named himself Jǐng Jū decided that he would crown himself "Chǔ Wáng" ("the King of Chǔ") and that the Kingdom of Chǔ was back!
-However, he was soon defeated by another rebel army, led by a dude named Xiàng Liáng (his father was the famous Chǔ general Xiàng Yàn, who had fought against the armies of Qín and was killed in battle in 223 BC). Xiàng Liáng then had the shepherd Xíong Xīn (actually the grandson of King Huái of Chǔ, the last king of the state/kingdom of Chǔ before its fall to Qín but was now a commoner) enthroned as King Huái of Chǔ ("Chǔ Huái Wáng"), although for simplicity we refer to him as King Huái II of Chǔ so as to not confuse him with Chén Shèng.
-However, although King Huái II was technically the ruler, the real source of his power was obviously Xiàng Liáng (and his family).
-It didn't take long before Xiàng Liáng's army to clash with the Qín army (led by General Zhāng Hán) at the Battle of Dìngtáo (modern-day Hézé, Shāndōng Province); Xiàng Liáng was killed in battle.
-Meanwhile, an army representing another former kingdom, Zhào, also declared independence from the Qín dynasty, and soon Hándān (former capital of the state of Zhào, located now in modern-day Héběi Province), where the rebel army was gathering, was besieged Zhāng Hán's army.
-Eager to avenge his uncle's death, Xiàng Liáng's nephew Xiàng Yǔ quickly tried to raise an army to help drive off the Qín forces at Hándān.
-However, Xiàng Yǔ quickly experienced problems because King Huái II for some reason chose General Sòng Yì to lead the army and for Xiàng Yǔ to be second-in-command. Both generals had completely different ideas on how to lead the army, and their rivalry got so bad that eventually Xiàng Yǔ just straight-up murdered Sòng Yì in his own tent (with the excuse that Sòng Yì was planning on betraying Chǔ and that the assassination had been authorized by King Huái II himself).
-Of course, King Huái II found out about this pretty quickly, but surprisingly Xiàng Yǔ was able to convince the king that he would just have to accept what Xiàng Yǔ did if they had any hope of surviving against Qín's forces. When it was all said and done, Xiàng Yǔ was named the new commander of Chǔ's army.
-Xiàng Yǔ then traveled with his army to Jùlù (modern-day Xíngtái, Héběi Province), where the Qín forces were camped beyond the Yellow River.
-Once they crossed the river, Xiàng Yǔ ordered his army to destroy the boats that they came over on, their cooking pots and utensils, and all of their rations except for three-days worth. His message, of course, was that his army was to only survive by defeating the enemy forces and stealing their food.
-It's worth nothing that while Xiàng Yǔ had about 50,000-60,000 soldiers, Zhāng Hán's army had like 200,000-500,000 (I'm sure these numbers are insane exaggerations).
-However, Xiàng Yǔ was apparently a genius commander and was able to defeat the Qín army in multiple skirmishes. Panicked, Zhāng Hán immediately sent his sub-commander Sīmǎ Xīn to request reinforcements from Xiányáng (capital of the Qín dynasty).
-Surprisingly, Zhào Gāo convinced the emperor that Zhāng Hán was secretly working in cahoots with the rebels and to not to send reinforcements (!), so Zhāng Hán's request was rejected! In fact, Zhào Gāo even tried to have Sīmǎ Xīn killed on his return to Zhāng Hán! However, Sīmǎ Xīn was able to survive the assassination attempt and escape, and upon returning to Zhāng Hán told the rebel general everything that had happened.
-While all this was happening, Xiàng Yǔ's rebel army had continued to grow in size, and soon it had completely surrounded Zhāng Hán's remaining forces. Seeing the writing on the wall, Zhāng Hán decided to surrender to Xiàng Yǔ.
-Xiàng Yǔ decided to spare Zhāng Hán, Sīmǎ Xīn, and Dǒng Yì (another Qín general), but had the remaining 200,000 (approximately and probably an exaggeration, of course) executed (by being buried alive) outside the city of Xīnān (modern-day Yìmǎ, Hénán Province).
-After this, Xiàng Yǔ began making plans to head straight for Xiányáng!
-207 BC- Back at the capital, word quickly spread that the massive rebel army was heading straight for them, but no one could do anything really because Qín Èr Shì was being kept in the dark by Zhào Gāo!
-When the emperor was finally told the truth about what was really going on, Qín Èr Shì tried to have Zhào Gāo arrested, but Zhào Gāo had already planned for this.
-Because of his control of the entire court at this point, Zhào Gāo forced Qín Èr Shì to commit suicide (or face imprisonment, torture, and execution, I'm assuming).
-Zhào Gāo then had a dude named Zǐyīng enthroned as emperor of the Qín dynasty.
-It's unclear as to who exactly Zǐyīng is; in some records he's listed as the eldest son of Prince Fúsū, but it's also been argued that it's more likely that he was actually one of Qín Shǐ Huáng's brothers or some other relative.
-Anyway, it seems as if Zhào Gāo picked Zǐyīng to be emperor because the chancellor thought Zǐyīng easy to manipulate like Qín Èr Shì, but this was incorrect and Zǐyīng made it clear that he wasn't going to put up with Zhào Gāo's bullshit.
-Suspecting that Zhào Gāo was already plotting to his demise, Zǐyīng decided to beat Zhào Gāo to the punch.
-On the day of his official coronation, Zǐyīng decided to pretend to be sick so that when Zhào Gāo came over to check on him, Zǐyīng had an ambush ready! Zhào Gāo was then killed by one of Zǐyīng's eunuchs.
-After his coronation, Emperor Zǐyīng quicly realized that the Qín dynasty was just about to croak; everything had been fucked up so badly by Zhào Gāo.
-When a rebel army led by a former Qín military officer named Liú Bāng finally arrived at Xiányáng, the emperor immediately surrendered.
-Eventually Xiàng Yǔ and his army arrived at the city, but didn't Xiàng Yǔ didn't give a fuck about the surrender and ordered the immediate execution of the emperor and his family (as well as the destruction of one of their partially-completed palaces)!
-Surprisingly, once Xiàng Yǔ had control of the capital, he didn't try and take power for himself by starting his own dynasty or anything like that. Instead, he just wanted to go back home to Chǔ!
-Fun fact: apparently, when one his men made a joke about the people of Chǔ, Xiàng Yǔ had him boiled alive!!
-206 BC- the Qín dynasty was no more!
-Instead of starting a new dynasty, Xiàng Yǔ declared that the empire was to be divided up into 18 kingdoms (!):
-Xī Chǔ ("Western Chǔ")- ruled by Xiàng Yǔ (who still allowed for King Huái II to rule (and even had his title changed to "Chŭ Yì Dì" ("Emperor Yì of Chŭ"), but it was obvious that Xiàng Yǔ was really calling the shots; he even changed his title to "Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng" ("Hegemon-King of Western Chǔ") to reflect this.
-Hàn- ruled by Liú Bāng (enthroned as "Hàn Wáng" ("King of Hàn")).
-Yōng- ruled by Zhāng Hán.
-Sāi- ruled by Sīmǎ Xīn.
-Zhái
-Héngshān
-Hán- ruled by Hán Chéng (enthroned as "Hán Wáng Chéng" ("King Chéng of Hán")), a descendant of the Hán royal family but had been living as a commoner in the Qín dynasty before joining Xiàng Liáng's rebel army.
-Dài
-Hénán
-Chángshān
-Yīn
-Xī Wèi ("Western Wèi")
-Jiǔjiāng
-Línjiāng
-Yàn
-Liáodōng
-Qí
-Jiāodōng
-Jìběi
-Of course, this "18 Kingdoms" period ("Shí Bā Guó") wouldn't last long; they almost immediately started fighting with each other.
-Qí immediately took over Jiāodōng and Jìběi, which restored Qí's territory to the Warring States period-borders.
-Xiàng Yǔ realized that this peace wasn't going to last at all, so even he began to engage in wars of expansion against neighboring kingdoms.
-He even went so far as to order the assassination of both King Huái II/Emperor Yì (in order to replace him as the undisputed ruler of Western Chǔ) and Hán Chéng/King Chéng (in order to annex Hán)!
-However, because Fúsū was far away, those in power who were present at Qín Shǐ Huáng's death (Imperial Chancellor Lǐ Sī, Prefect (of the Office for Imperial Carriages) Zhào Gāo, Prince Húhài (Prince Fúsū's younger brother), and maybe some eunuchs and shit) quickly realized that they had an excellent opportunity to just seize power for themselves!
-Zhào Gāo was basically Ancient China's version of Varys from Game of Thrones haha, although it's unclear as to if Zhào Gāo was actually a eunuch or not (there seems to be evidence supporting both sides).
-There's actually one theory that argues that Zhào Gāo was actually a member of the Zhào royal family (from the state/kingdom of Zhào (which had been conquered by Qín in 228 BC)) and thus was seeking revenge on the Qín dynasty for conquering his family's kingdom!
-Qín Shǐ Huáng seemed to have taken a liking to Zhào Gāo (who was also well-educated) because eventually he began serving as a tutor for Prince Húhài.
-Anyway, the plan was to forge Qín Shǐ Huáng's will so that Húhài was named heir to the throne, not Fúsū!
-Besides just wanting to hold onto power, it made sense for Zhào Gāo to want to do this. If Prince Fúsū was enthroned, then it was most likely that the commander of his armies would be General Méng Tián (fun fact: he's credited with inventing the ink brush!), someone whom Zhào Gāo had a serious political rivalry with. So, it's reasonable to assume that Prince Fúsū being enthroned as emperor could mean imprisonment or even death for Zhào Gāo.
-Apparently, it was also mentioned in the forged will that both Fúsū and Méng Tián were to be either executed or forced to commit suicide (that's not suspicious at all, right?).
-This resulted in Prince Fúsū following these orders and committing suicide, but Méng Tián immediately smelled a rat and immediately started to do some digging. However, unfortunately for him this resulted in his arrest and execution (in addition to the arrest and execution of his family as well, which made things work out even better for Zhào Gāo!).
-Thus, because of these treachery Prince Húhài was enthroned and took the imperial name Qín Èr Shì ("Second Generation of Qín")!
-Unfortunately, Qín Èr Shì would end up being a pretty shitty emperor, and even today his name is part of a negative phrase "describing spoiled children raised by wealthy parents, growing up with little or no moral values, or any forms of necessary daily life skills" (according to Wikipedia haha).
-Of course, a weak/incompetent emperor was exactly what Zhào Gāo and Lǐ Sī wanted because it would allow them to actually call the shots behind the scenes. Plus, Zhào Gāo especially was able to manipulate Qín Èr Shì because before he was emperor Zhào Gāo had served for years as his trusted teacher and mentor.
-As imperial chancellor, Zhào Gāo was able to convince Qín Èr Shì that it was best for the emperor to remain isolated deep within the imperial palace at the capital and only communicate with Zhào Gāo (ha!).
-It was only a matter of months before Chancellor Zhào had completely isolated the emperor, and soon Chancellor Zhào was essentially ruling as emperor himself (in all but name only).
-Because of Zhào Gāo's paranoia/pursuit of absolute power, soon members of the imperial family began to be spied upon, imprisoned, and sometimes even executed/forced to commit suicide!
-209 BC- because of the chaos in the imperial court (and presumably across the empire as a result), there were a series of uprisings against the throne, the first of which became known as the Dàzéxiāng Uprising (AKA the Chén Shèng and Wú Guǎng Uprising).
-The Dàzéxiāng Uprising began when the generals Chén Shèng and Wú Guǎng were heading north on a mission to defend a town against Xiōngnú invaders but were forced to delay due to a storm and subsequent flooding. This was extremely problematic because the Qín government had just passed a new law declaring that showing up late to a government job or assignment would result in immediate execution (stupid law), so the generals felt that they had no choice but to fight for their lives and rebel (even if they only had like 900 men with them!).
-In order to give their insurrection a little more legitimacy, the generals decided to rebel in the name of their former state/kingdom, Chǔ (which had been conquered by Qín, of course), with General Chén being enthroned as the new king of Rising Chǔ ("Zhāng Chǔ Wáng")!
-The generals then immediately began a propaganda campaign in attempt to spread the news about Qín Èr Shì not being the rightful heir to the throne and shit like that.
-It wasn't hard to get people to join their side, as the Qín dynasty had already pissed off everyone by raising taxes in order to pay for the wall in the north as well as their vanity projects, lavish lifestyle, etc.
-Because of this, the Dàzéxiāng Uprising soon went from 900 men to over 20,000!
-Unfortunately, this revolt wouldn't last long, as the rebel armies were really little more than armed peasants without real equipment or training, and they were soon crushed by the Qín dynasty's armies.
-Within six months, Chén Shèng's armies were broken, and Chén Shèng himself was ultimately assassinated by his own guard, Zhuāng Jiǎ, in 208 BC.
-However, it's important to note that although the Dàzéxiāng Uprising had been quelled, the seeds of discord has been sewn; soon, lawlessness and civil unrest were popping up all over the empire.
-208 BC- Zhào Gāo further consolidates his grip on imperial power by convincing Qín Èr Shì that Lǐ Sī and other high-ranking officials were conspiring against the emperor, so Qín Èr Shì gave the orders to have Lǐ Sī (and his family!) imprisoned, brutally tortured (via the Wǔ Xíng ("Five Punishments") method, which included having his nose cut off, followed by a hand and a foot, then castration, before finally being executed (by way of yāo zhǎn ("waist chop")), which was actually part of an ancient series of torture and execution methods that had been revived by Lǐ Sī himself!)!
-One example of Zhào Gāo's cunning involved an incident in 207 BC in which he brought a deer into the court of the emperor and claimed it was a horse. The courtiers who happened to be with Zhào Gāo were divided; some agreed with him and said it was a horse, while others didn't go along with it. Of course, Zhào Gāo took note of who agreed it was a horse and who didn't so he could recall who to have executed later that day.
-That pretty much removed all doubt among the officials as to who was really ruling the empire.
-Meanwhile in the south, the idea of a revival of the kingdom of Chǔ still hadn't died out among the local population.
-In fact, after the news of Chén Shèng's defeat, one dude had named himself Jǐng Jū decided that he would crown himself "Chǔ Wáng" ("the King of Chǔ") and that the Kingdom of Chǔ was back!
-However, he was soon defeated by another rebel army, led by a dude named Xiàng Liáng (his father was the famous Chǔ general Xiàng Yàn, who had fought against the armies of Qín and was killed in battle in 223 BC). Xiàng Liáng then had the shepherd Xíong Xīn (actually the grandson of King Huái of Chǔ, the last king of the state/kingdom of Chǔ before its fall to Qín but was now a commoner) enthroned as King Huái of Chǔ ("Chǔ Huái Wáng"), although for simplicity we refer to him as King Huái II of Chǔ so as to not confuse him with Chén Shèng.
-However, although King Huái II was technically the ruler, the real source of his power was obviously Xiàng Liáng (and his family).
-It didn't take long before Xiàng Liáng's army to clash with the Qín army (led by General Zhāng Hán) at the Battle of Dìngtáo (modern-day Hézé, Shāndōng Province); Xiàng Liáng was killed in battle.
-Meanwhile, an army representing another former kingdom, Zhào, also declared independence from the Qín dynasty, and soon Hándān (former capital of the state of Zhào, located now in modern-day Héběi Province), where the rebel army was gathering, was besieged Zhāng Hán's army.
-Eager to avenge his uncle's death, Xiàng Liáng's nephew Xiàng Yǔ quickly tried to raise an army to help drive off the Qín forces at Hándān.
-However, Xiàng Yǔ quickly experienced problems because King Huái II for some reason chose General Sòng Yì to lead the army and for Xiàng Yǔ to be second-in-command. Both generals had completely different ideas on how to lead the army, and their rivalry got so bad that eventually Xiàng Yǔ just straight-up murdered Sòng Yì in his own tent (with the excuse that Sòng Yì was planning on betraying Chǔ and that the assassination had been authorized by King Huái II himself).
-Of course, King Huái II found out about this pretty quickly, but surprisingly Xiàng Yǔ was able to convince the king that he would just have to accept what Xiàng Yǔ did if they had any hope of surviving against Qín's forces. When it was all said and done, Xiàng Yǔ was named the new commander of Chǔ's army.
-Xiàng Yǔ then traveled with his army to Jùlù (modern-day Xíngtái, Héběi Province), where the Qín forces were camped beyond the Yellow River.
-Once they crossed the river, Xiàng Yǔ ordered his army to destroy the boats that they came over on, their cooking pots and utensils, and all of their rations except for three-days worth. His message, of course, was that his army was to only survive by defeating the enemy forces and stealing their food.
-It's worth nothing that while Xiàng Yǔ had about 50,000-60,000 soldiers, Zhāng Hán's army had like 200,000-500,000 (I'm sure these numbers are insane exaggerations).
-However, Xiàng Yǔ was apparently a genius commander and was able to defeat the Qín army in multiple skirmishes. Panicked, Zhāng Hán immediately sent his sub-commander Sīmǎ Xīn to request reinforcements from Xiányáng (capital of the Qín dynasty).
-Surprisingly, Zhào Gāo convinced the emperor that Zhāng Hán was secretly working in cahoots with the rebels and to not to send reinforcements (!), so Zhāng Hán's request was rejected! In fact, Zhào Gāo even tried to have Sīmǎ Xīn killed on his return to Zhāng Hán! However, Sīmǎ Xīn was able to survive the assassination attempt and escape, and upon returning to Zhāng Hán told the rebel general everything that had happened.
-While all this was happening, Xiàng Yǔ's rebel army had continued to grow in size, and soon it had completely surrounded Zhāng Hán's remaining forces. Seeing the writing on the wall, Zhāng Hán decided to surrender to Xiàng Yǔ.
-Xiàng Yǔ decided to spare Zhāng Hán, Sīmǎ Xīn, and Dǒng Yì (another Qín general), but had the remaining 200,000 (approximately and probably an exaggeration, of course) executed (by being buried alive) outside the city of Xīnān (modern-day Yìmǎ, Hénán Province).
-After this, Xiàng Yǔ began making plans to head straight for Xiányáng!
-207 BC- Back at the capital, word quickly spread that the massive rebel army was heading straight for them, but no one could do anything really because Qín Èr Shì was being kept in the dark by Zhào Gāo!
-When the emperor was finally told the truth about what was really going on, Qín Èr Shì tried to have Zhào Gāo arrested, but Zhào Gāo had already planned for this.
-Because of his control of the entire court at this point, Zhào Gāo forced Qín Èr Shì to commit suicide (or face imprisonment, torture, and execution, I'm assuming).
-Zhào Gāo then had a dude named Zǐyīng enthroned as emperor of the Qín dynasty.
-It's unclear as to who exactly Zǐyīng is; in some records he's listed as the eldest son of Prince Fúsū, but it's also been argued that it's more likely that he was actually one of Qín Shǐ Huáng's brothers or some other relative.
-Anyway, it seems as if Zhào Gāo picked Zǐyīng to be emperor because the chancellor thought Zǐyīng easy to manipulate like Qín Èr Shì, but this was incorrect and Zǐyīng made it clear that he wasn't going to put up with Zhào Gāo's bullshit.
-Suspecting that Zhào Gāo was already plotting to his demise, Zǐyīng decided to beat Zhào Gāo to the punch.
-On the day of his official coronation, Zǐyīng decided to pretend to be sick so that when Zhào Gāo came over to check on him, Zǐyīng had an ambush ready! Zhào Gāo was then killed by one of Zǐyīng's eunuchs.
-After his coronation, Emperor Zǐyīng quicly realized that the Qín dynasty was just about to croak; everything had been fucked up so badly by Zhào Gāo.
-When a rebel army led by a former Qín military officer named Liú Bāng finally arrived at Xiányáng, the emperor immediately surrendered.
-Eventually Xiàng Yǔ and his army arrived at the city, but didn't Xiàng Yǔ didn't give a fuck about the surrender and ordered the immediate execution of the emperor and his family (as well as the destruction of one of their partially-completed palaces)!
-Surprisingly, once Xiàng Yǔ had control of the capital, he didn't try and take power for himself by starting his own dynasty or anything like that. Instead, he just wanted to go back home to Chǔ!
-Fun fact: apparently, when one his men made a joke about the people of Chǔ, Xiàng Yǔ had him boiled alive!!
-206 BC- the Qín dynasty was no more!
-Instead of starting a new dynasty, Xiàng Yǔ declared that the empire was to be divided up into 18 kingdoms (!):
-Xī Chǔ ("Western Chǔ")- ruled by Xiàng Yǔ (who still allowed for King Huái II to rule (and even had his title changed to "Chŭ Yì Dì" ("Emperor Yì of Chŭ"), but it was obvious that Xiàng Yǔ was really calling the shots; he even changed his title to "Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng" ("Hegemon-King of Western Chǔ") to reflect this.
-Hàn- ruled by Liú Bāng (enthroned as "Hàn Wáng" ("King of Hàn")).
-Yōng- ruled by Zhāng Hán.
-Sāi- ruled by Sīmǎ Xīn.
-Zhái
-Héngshān
-Hán- ruled by Hán Chéng (enthroned as "Hán Wáng Chéng" ("King Chéng of Hán")), a descendant of the Hán royal family but had been living as a commoner in the Qín dynasty before joining Xiàng Liáng's rebel army.
-Dài
-Hénán
-Chángshān
-Yīn
-Xī Wèi ("Western Wèi")
-Jiǔjiāng
-Línjiāng
-Yàn
-Liáodōng
-Qí
-Jiāodōng
-Jìběi
-Of course, this "18 Kingdoms" period ("Shí Bā Guó") wouldn't last long; they almost immediately started fighting with each other.
-Qí immediately took over Jiāodōng and Jìběi, which restored Qí's territory to the Warring States period-borders.
-Xiàng Yǔ realized that this peace wasn't going to last at all, so even he began to engage in wars of expansion against neighboring kingdoms.
-He even went so far as to order the assassination of both King Huái II/Emperor Yì (in order to replace him as the undisputed ruler of Western Chǔ) and Hán Chéng/King Chéng (in order to annex Hán)!
Saturday, March 9, 2019
Qin - Part II - One Nation Under Qin
-221 BC- so, the Warring States Period had ended, and China (as we know it today) was now unified under Qin (which was now the Qin dynasty, as opposed to the state of Qín).
-However, while many still argue this viewpoint, it could also be argued that the idea of an actual "Chinese" civilization did not begin when China was finally unified, but instead was ALREADY a civilization under the Xia and Shang dynasties and that the Warring States period was like a long period of civil war within this civilization; it was a renewal, not a beginning.
-Anyway, to reflect this "renewal", King Zhèng went back into ancient Chinese history and selected the title "Huángdì" ("Emperor"), which was derived from the titles used by the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors when they had ruled China, as well as "Shǐ" ("First"), which implied that this was the start of a brand-new imperial dynasty; hence, he was transformed from "Qín Wáng Zhèng" ("King Zhèng of Qín") to "Qín Shǐ Huáng" ("First Emperor of Qín"). Pretty cool!
-As emperor, Qín Shǐ Huáng immediately began implementing a number of serious reforms and changes across his new empire.
-The old feudalism model of the Zhou dynasty and the Warring States period was replaced by an imperial model that enforced unity, in part by reorganized the land into 36 jùn, or commanderies/prefectures (which would actually grow in number as the empire expanded), all of which were ruled directly by the emperor.
-These prefectures were then further divided into xiàn (counties).
-These counties were then divided even further into xiàng (townships).
-These townships were then divided even further into li (communities/subdistricts (100 families per li)).
-Property rights were also abolished under this new system. Instead, positions of power were awarded based on merit, not family background.
-All weapons not belonging to the imperial army were confiscated (and melted down, if possible).
-So many metal-based weapons were melted down that among them Qín Shǐ Huáng was able to build these massive statues in the capital (Xiányáng) that would become known as the Twelve Metal Collosi.
-Standardized a system of weight (around the unit jin, or catty (outside of mainland China), equal to like 0.5kg (at least in modern times)).
-Road systems and transportation requirements (axle lengths/widths) were standardized as road and canal construction became a huge priority for the empire.
-A new currency was also introduced to replace the "blade coins / knife money" (unclear as to what exactly the deal was with these) that had been used in the past- the bàn liǎng (which had been the form of currency in the state of Qín).
-Bàn liǎng were round bronze coins with a square hole in the middle. They doubled as both currency and a system of weight measurement, as one bàn liǎng weighed 1/16 of a jin/catty.
-Qín Shǐ Huáng also continued construction (which had started around 246 BC (before he was emperor)) on a massive mausoleum (The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Qínshǐhuáng Líng), located in modern-day Xī'ān, Shǎnxī Province) which was to serve as his tomb.
-It's been recorded that between 300,000-720,000 workers (!) toiled away on this project (for 38 years!), but the number of workers is most likely an insane exaggeration.
-It was a huge undertaking (the circumference of the inner city is 2.5 km; the outer is 6.3 km!), and was actually finally finished two years after Qín Shǐ Huáng had already died!
-Although an archaeological excavation was initiated in 1974, it's still being worked on today (as of 2019), although the process is slowed dramatically due to a bunch of complications and technical shit (high levels of mercury (dangerous), air exposure could damage the site, etc.).
-For example, in 2012 archaeologists discovered what appears to be Qín Shǐ Huáng's imperial palace, which was also fucking massive!
-This is also the site of the infamous Teracotta Army (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of course).
-214 BC- Qín Shǐ Huáng sends a huge army to the north in order to secure the border and an even bigger army to the south to conquer the Bǎiyuè (or "Hundred Yuè"), a loose collection of tribes/states/kingdoms occupying (at this time) a stretch of territory from (roughly) modern-day Southern China to Northern Vietnam.
-The Qín forces had a really rough time trying to subjugate the Bǎiyuè, as the Qín troops weren't used to fighting in jungles. The Bǎiyuè knew this, and were especially adept at guerrilla warfare. However, this still wasn't enough to ultimately repel the Qín invaders.
-In order to make travel to the south easier (presumably for military vessels, supply boats, etc.), Qín Shǐ Huáng ordered the construction of the Líng Qú ("Magic Canal"), a long (36km!) canal, in order to connect the Xiāng River with the Lí River.
-This was extremely significant because it essentially connected the Yangtze (or Yángzǐ) River with the Pearl River Delta (Zhūjiāng Sānjiǎozhōu)! Thus, the Qín now had a superhighway in which they could use to pour their armies into Bǎiyuè land (as opposed to having the armies travel overland, which would be extremely expensive and an overall giant pain in the ass.
-The lands in the south that the Qín dynasty did end up conquering they immediately started to colonize.
-They did this by sending tens of thousands of criminals (with promises of freedom should they agree to live in these new regions), exiles, and other undesirables into these newly-acquired lands (in addition to military troops).
-One of the most important things Qín Shǐ Huáng did during this time was standardizing a system of writing that was to be used by his entire empire, as up till this point every region used a different script to write their dialect.
-This script became known as zhuànshū ("seal script"), which was based off of the script used by the Zhou dynasty but was what had been used by the kingdom of Qín before all of this.
-The "director" who oversaw all of this implemented was the Qín dynasty's chancellor/prime minister Lǐ Sī, who was also a calligrapher and Legalist philosopher/writer.
-For what it's worth, he's also considered to be one of the most important figures in all of Chinese history because of his reforms (which included promoting a unified, standardized script to be used throughout the empire, as well as destroying/removing/erasing any other script that was being used at the same time that wasn't zhuànshū. In many cases, he also suppressed intellectual dissent by cracking down on "free-thinking" scholars by destroying their works and historical records and then having the scholars themselves either imprisoned (and sent north to go work on border fortifications (NOT the Great Wall of China, although it was a precursor) that Qín Shǐ Huáng was having built in order to defend against the Xiōngnú) or executed; only books written by pro-Qín writers and intellectuals were spared.
-Additionally, anyone caught discussing the classics of poetry or history would be executed. Criticism of the government would also result in the execution of one's entire family!
-Because of this, China's "Hundred Schools of Thought" intellectual golden age (which included Confucianism, Taoism, the works of Sūnzǐ (Sun Tzu), etc.) was finally coming to an end.
-213 BC- around the time that all these reforms were being passed, Qín Shǐ Huáng realized that he was starting to get a little old. Because of this (and also having survived multiple assassination attempts), he became obsessed with achieving immortality, and used all of the resources at his disposal in order to do so.
-He famously had over 460 scholars buried alive after he found out that he was being deceived by two alchemists who had promised that they could create a potion of immortality for him.
-When Qín Shǐ Huáng's own son, Crown Prince Fúsū argued that this brutal oppression of Confucian scholars would result in widespread civil unrest across the land, Qín Shǐ Huáng had him sent to the northern frontier on "military duty" (but it was obvious that he had actually just been exiled)!
-It's been argued that perhaps Qín Shǐ Huáng ordered the book burnings and executions in order for his scholars and alchemists to focus solely on finding out how to become immortal.
-At one point he actually sent thousands on an expedition to try and find Mount Pénglái (located in the legendary, mystical land of Pénglái ("Pénglái Xiāndǎo")) where it was believed that a 1000 year-old immortal wizard named Ānqī Shēng lived. Perhaps he could help Qín Shǐ Huáng?
-Leading this expedition was Xú Fú, a (the?) sorcerer for the court of the Qín dynasty.
-However, after years of exploration and adventures, Xú Fú and his expedition eventually just ended up disappearing. Where did they go?
-Assuming this is a true story, according to legend Xú Fú and his people landed in Japan and they just ended up staying there and colonizing it!
-Additional theories have proposed that it wasn't Japan but was actually Jeju Island, Taiwan, etc., but of course who the fuck really knows.
-Perhaps they didn't want to return empty-handed to Qín Shǐ Huáng because they knew that he would have them executed for their failure
-211 BC- according to legend, a meteor fell to earth near the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
-On the meteor, someone wrote the words "Qín Shǐ Huáng will die and his land will be divided", which of course freaked out Qín Shǐ Huáng.
-Qín Shǐ Huáng tried to figure out who wrote these words, but no one in the nearby town fessed up so he had all of the villagers executed and the meteor pulverized!
-210 BC- Qín Shǐ Huáng dies, quite possibly from mercury poisoning due to all the wacky potions and shit he was having his alchemists create in order to try and achieve immortality!
-Upon hearing the news of the emperor's death, Lǐ Sī, fearing that the empire would break up to its old state of chaos, ordered for the death to be covered up; this was possible because Qín Shǐ Huáng had died in Shāqiū prefecture (Shāqiū Píngtái) at one of his palaces.
-Because this particular palace was like a two month-journey outside of the capital at Xiányáng, Lǐ Sī ordered for the few witnesses of the emperor's death (which included the emperor's second-eldest son, Prince Húhài (who would soon take the imperial name Qín Èr Shì when he was finally enthroned as the second (and final) emperor of the Qín dynasty), Chief Eunuch Zhào Gāo, and a few other eunuchs) to keep quiet about it as they journeyed back to the capital with the emperor's entourage. This seemed to work, as everyone just assumed that the emperor was chilling in his wagon, and routines went on as normal as they made the trip.
-However, of course over time the body began to decompose, so Lǐ Sī ordered for wagons carrying rotting fish to travel next to the emperor's wagon in order to cover up the corpse's stench.
-How no one caught on at this point what was going on is beyond me.
-Anyway, when they finally reached Xiányáng, Lǐ Sī allowed the news of the emperor's death to be revealed.
-However, while many still argue this viewpoint, it could also be argued that the idea of an actual "Chinese" civilization did not begin when China was finally unified, but instead was ALREADY a civilization under the Xia and Shang dynasties and that the Warring States period was like a long period of civil war within this civilization; it was a renewal, not a beginning.
-Anyway, to reflect this "renewal", King Zhèng went back into ancient Chinese history and selected the title "Huángdì" ("Emperor"), which was derived from the titles used by the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors when they had ruled China, as well as "Shǐ" ("First"), which implied that this was the start of a brand-new imperial dynasty; hence, he was transformed from "Qín Wáng Zhèng" ("King Zhèng of Qín") to "Qín Shǐ Huáng" ("First Emperor of Qín"). Pretty cool!
-As emperor, Qín Shǐ Huáng immediately began implementing a number of serious reforms and changes across his new empire.
-The old feudalism model of the Zhou dynasty and the Warring States period was replaced by an imperial model that enforced unity, in part by reorganized the land into 36 jùn, or commanderies/prefectures (which would actually grow in number as the empire expanded), all of which were ruled directly by the emperor.
-These prefectures were then further divided into xiàn (counties).
-These counties were then divided even further into xiàng (townships).
-These townships were then divided even further into li (communities/subdistricts (100 families per li)).
-Property rights were also abolished under this new system. Instead, positions of power were awarded based on merit, not family background.
-All weapons not belonging to the imperial army were confiscated (and melted down, if possible).
-So many metal-based weapons were melted down that among them Qín Shǐ Huáng was able to build these massive statues in the capital (Xiányáng) that would become known as the Twelve Metal Collosi.
-Standardized a system of weight (around the unit jin, or catty (outside of mainland China), equal to like 0.5kg (at least in modern times)).
-Road systems and transportation requirements (axle lengths/widths) were standardized as road and canal construction became a huge priority for the empire.
-A new currency was also introduced to replace the "blade coins / knife money" (unclear as to what exactly the deal was with these) that had been used in the past- the bàn liǎng (which had been the form of currency in the state of Qín).
-Bàn liǎng were round bronze coins with a square hole in the middle. They doubled as both currency and a system of weight measurement, as one bàn liǎng weighed 1/16 of a jin/catty.
-Qín Shǐ Huáng also continued construction (which had started around 246 BC (before he was emperor)) on a massive mausoleum (The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Qínshǐhuáng Líng), located in modern-day Xī'ān, Shǎnxī Province) which was to serve as his tomb.
-It's been recorded that between 300,000-720,000 workers (!) toiled away on this project (for 38 years!), but the number of workers is most likely an insane exaggeration.
-It was a huge undertaking (the circumference of the inner city is 2.5 km; the outer is 6.3 km!), and was actually finally finished two years after Qín Shǐ Huáng had already died!
-Although an archaeological excavation was initiated in 1974, it's still being worked on today (as of 2019), although the process is slowed dramatically due to a bunch of complications and technical shit (high levels of mercury (dangerous), air exposure could damage the site, etc.).
-For example, in 2012 archaeologists discovered what appears to be Qín Shǐ Huáng's imperial palace, which was also fucking massive!
-This is also the site of the infamous Teracotta Army (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of course).
-214 BC- Qín Shǐ Huáng sends a huge army to the north in order to secure the border and an even bigger army to the south to conquer the Bǎiyuè (or "Hundred Yuè"), a loose collection of tribes/states/kingdoms occupying (at this time) a stretch of territory from (roughly) modern-day Southern China to Northern Vietnam.
-The Qín forces had a really rough time trying to subjugate the Bǎiyuè, as the Qín troops weren't used to fighting in jungles. The Bǎiyuè knew this, and were especially adept at guerrilla warfare. However, this still wasn't enough to ultimately repel the Qín invaders.
-In order to make travel to the south easier (presumably for military vessels, supply boats, etc.), Qín Shǐ Huáng ordered the construction of the Líng Qú ("Magic Canal"), a long (36km!) canal, in order to connect the Xiāng River with the Lí River.
-This was extremely significant because it essentially connected the Yangtze (or Yángzǐ) River with the Pearl River Delta (Zhūjiāng Sānjiǎozhōu)! Thus, the Qín now had a superhighway in which they could use to pour their armies into Bǎiyuè land (as opposed to having the armies travel overland, which would be extremely expensive and an overall giant pain in the ass.
-The lands in the south that the Qín dynasty did end up conquering they immediately started to colonize.
-They did this by sending tens of thousands of criminals (with promises of freedom should they agree to live in these new regions), exiles, and other undesirables into these newly-acquired lands (in addition to military troops).
-One of the most important things Qín Shǐ Huáng did during this time was standardizing a system of writing that was to be used by his entire empire, as up till this point every region used a different script to write their dialect.
-This script became known as zhuànshū ("seal script"), which was based off of the script used by the Zhou dynasty but was what had been used by the kingdom of Qín before all of this.
-The "director" who oversaw all of this implemented was the Qín dynasty's chancellor/prime minister Lǐ Sī, who was also a calligrapher and Legalist philosopher/writer.
-For what it's worth, he's also considered to be one of the most important figures in all of Chinese history because of his reforms (which included promoting a unified, standardized script to be used throughout the empire, as well as destroying/removing/erasing any other script that was being used at the same time that wasn't zhuànshū. In many cases, he also suppressed intellectual dissent by cracking down on "free-thinking" scholars by destroying their works and historical records and then having the scholars themselves either imprisoned (and sent north to go work on border fortifications (NOT the Great Wall of China, although it was a precursor) that Qín Shǐ Huáng was having built in order to defend against the Xiōngnú) or executed; only books written by pro-Qín writers and intellectuals were spared.
-Additionally, anyone caught discussing the classics of poetry or history would be executed. Criticism of the government would also result in the execution of one's entire family!
-Because of this, China's "Hundred Schools of Thought" intellectual golden age (which included Confucianism, Taoism, the works of Sūnzǐ (Sun Tzu), etc.) was finally coming to an end.
-213 BC- around the time that all these reforms were being passed, Qín Shǐ Huáng realized that he was starting to get a little old. Because of this (and also having survived multiple assassination attempts), he became obsessed with achieving immortality, and used all of the resources at his disposal in order to do so.
-He famously had over 460 scholars buried alive after he found out that he was being deceived by two alchemists who had promised that they could create a potion of immortality for him.
-When Qín Shǐ Huáng's own son, Crown Prince Fúsū argued that this brutal oppression of Confucian scholars would result in widespread civil unrest across the land, Qín Shǐ Huáng had him sent to the northern frontier on "military duty" (but it was obvious that he had actually just been exiled)!
-It's been argued that perhaps Qín Shǐ Huáng ordered the book burnings and executions in order for his scholars and alchemists to focus solely on finding out how to become immortal.
-At one point he actually sent thousands on an expedition to try and find Mount Pénglái (located in the legendary, mystical land of Pénglái ("Pénglái Xiāndǎo")) where it was believed that a 1000 year-old immortal wizard named Ānqī Shēng lived. Perhaps he could help Qín Shǐ Huáng?
-Leading this expedition was Xú Fú, a (the?) sorcerer for the court of the Qín dynasty.
-However, after years of exploration and adventures, Xú Fú and his expedition eventually just ended up disappearing. Where did they go?
-Assuming this is a true story, according to legend Xú Fú and his people landed in Japan and they just ended up staying there and colonizing it!
-Additional theories have proposed that it wasn't Japan but was actually Jeju Island, Taiwan, etc., but of course who the fuck really knows.
-Perhaps they didn't want to return empty-handed to Qín Shǐ Huáng because they knew that he would have them executed for their failure
-211 BC- according to legend, a meteor fell to earth near the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
-On the meteor, someone wrote the words "Qín Shǐ Huáng will die and his land will be divided", which of course freaked out Qín Shǐ Huáng.
-Qín Shǐ Huáng tried to figure out who wrote these words, but no one in the nearby town fessed up so he had all of the villagers executed and the meteor pulverized!
-210 BC- Qín Shǐ Huáng dies, quite possibly from mercury poisoning due to all the wacky potions and shit he was having his alchemists create in order to try and achieve immortality!
-Upon hearing the news of the emperor's death, Lǐ Sī, fearing that the empire would break up to its old state of chaos, ordered for the death to be covered up; this was possible because Qín Shǐ Huáng had died in Shāqiū prefecture (Shāqiū Píngtái) at one of his palaces.
-Because this particular palace was like a two month-journey outside of the capital at Xiányáng, Lǐ Sī ordered for the few witnesses of the emperor's death (which included the emperor's second-eldest son, Prince Húhài (who would soon take the imperial name Qín Èr Shì when he was finally enthroned as the second (and final) emperor of the Qín dynasty), Chief Eunuch Zhào Gāo, and a few other eunuchs) to keep quiet about it as they journeyed back to the capital with the emperor's entourage. This seemed to work, as everyone just assumed that the emperor was chilling in his wagon, and routines went on as normal as they made the trip.
-However, of course over time the body began to decompose, so Lǐ Sī ordered for wagons carrying rotting fish to travel next to the emperor's wagon in order to cover up the corpse's stench.
-How no one caught on at this point what was going on is beyond me.
-Anyway, when they finally reached Xiányáng, Lǐ Sī allowed the news of the emperor's death to be revealed.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Qin - Part I - There Can Be Only One
-256 BC- Qín had taken the Eastern Zhōu capital of Wangcheng (or Chéngzhōu, see previous post!) and dethroned its king. The Zhōu dynasty had finally come to its official end!
-By doing this, King Zhāoxiāng of Qín was essentially declaring that he now possessed the Mandate of Heaven, which meant that he was the new king of the lands "belonging" to the Zhōu dynasty.
-Of course, Qín's ultimate goal was to conquer all of the Warring States, but how to do this?
-Qín's plan was to maintain strong relations with Qí and Yān, continue actively suppressing Wèi and Chǔ, and conquer Zhào and Hán.
-247 BC- King Zhèng is enthroned as the new ruler of Qín following the death of his father, King Zhuāngxiāng. He was only 13 at this time!
-Interestingly, Sīmǎ Qiān's Records of the Grand Historian claim that King Zhèng was an illegitimate ruler because he was actually the son of the merchant/politican Lǚ Bùwéi and his concubine Lady Zhào (who allegedly went on to marry King Zhuāngxiāng and become queen while she was already pregnant from Lǚ Bùwéi), but modern-day scholars have attempted to refute this possibility, arguing that it was a slander created for political reasons by Sīmǎ Qiān and the Hàn dynasty (who would end up toppling the Qín dynasty and replacing it in 206 BC) and maintain that he was indeed the legitimate son of King Zhuāngxiāng and Lady Zhào.
-It's also worth noting that during this time in Chinese history, merchants were considered the lowest of the low in terms of the social hierarchy, so being the son of a merchant was considered a really shitty background.
-238 BC- King Zhèng's queen mother and her new lover, the Marquis of Chángxìn (AKA Lào Ǎi, who I guess was disguised as a eunuch in order to live with her? Also, he apparently had a huge dick (according to the Records of the Grand Historian haha)!), came up with a conspiracy to have the king replaced by one of their children instead (!), and so they tried to start a rebellion and raise an army to do so!
-However, this conspiracy was soon uncovered by the authorities, and the conspirators were executed (although Lào Ǎi briefly escaped).
-Because Lào Ǎi was the ringleader, his sentence was especially harsh, as it not only guaranteed his execution but also followed the Chinese traditional punishment of zhū lián jiǔ zú ("nine familial exterminations") for treason, which meant that nine of Lào Ǎi's family members were also executed!
-As for Lady Zhào (who was now known as Queen Dowager Zhào after the death of King Zhuāngxiāng), she was simply placed under house arrest until she died in 228 BC.
-After this, King Zhèng's rule of Qín went unchallenged (haha).
-236 BC- King Zhèng invades Zhào!
-King Zhèng was only 13 when he was enthroned, so the court had set up a regency that ruled in his place until he turned 22 (238 BC); that's why it took so long for Qín to continue their plans for the domination of the other Warring States.
-Even though it had been 14 years since their defeat at the Battle of Chángpíng, Zhào still hadn't had enough time to get its shit back together. That being said, they weren't totally helpless, as they still had an army with a badass general- Lǐ Mù (one of the "Four Great Generals" of the Warring States period)!
-Lǐ Mù had spent much of his career in northern Zhào, defending the border from the dreaded Xiōngnú hordes (centered around modern-day Mongolia).
-Because of his experiences with the Xiōngnú, Lǐ Mù was a fan of defeating his opponents through defense, as offensive tactics against the Xiōngnú usually ended up being a catastrophic failure.
-Of course, this also resulted in mockery from his peers and rivals (same shit that happened to Lían Pō. Still, Lǐ Mù was successful in defending the northern border for more than 30 years, so his critics sound like they're just being assholes.
-Unfortunately, even the famous Lǐ Mù was unable to thwart the Qín army, as Zhào just simply did not have the numbers to match the huge Qín force.
-Still, Lǐ Mù refused to give up, and continued to agitate the Qín army as they advanced towards the capital (Hándān, which is still a city and is in modern-day Héběi Province). So, Qín did the same thing that they did to Lían Pō and manipulated the Zhào court into thinking that Lǐ Mù was actually planning to take the Zhào throne for himself, so they had him executed. So dumb.
-Zhào finally fell to Qín in 228 BC.
-230 BC- Qín invades Hán, who was too weak to defend itself and promptly surrendered.
-228 BC- With Zhào and Hán out of the way, Qín then eyes its "friend" Yān as its next target.
-Seeing the writing on the wall, Yān scrambled to get together a coalition of allied forces from different states (and even the Xiōngnú!) to help them repel Qín, but of course it was too late.
-However, Yān quickly realized that even IF they could somehow secure a bunch of alliances and other bullshit, they STILL wouldn't have enough men to properly defend themselves from Qín.
-Desperate, Yān decided to go for a different tactic- the assassination of King Zhèng! The mission was to be carried out by an assassin named Jīng Kē.
-Jīng Kē was chosen for this job for a few reasons.
-He was actually from the state of Wèi (which was eventually annexed by the larger state of the same name (Wèi)), which was currently occupied by Qín, so he wouldn't stand out as an outsider during his mission since this was his home region.
-He was also a scholar and used to rubbing shoulders with elites.
-He was a badass swordsman.
-OK, so how was Jīng Kē going to get close enough to King Zhèng to kill him?
-In order to do so, Jīng Kē knew that he would have to bring the king some expensive/valuable gifts.
-These gifts were to consist of a detailed map (of a region that Qín was interested in invading) rolled up in a scroll case (with a razor-sharp poisoned dagger hidden inside!) and the decapitated head of the ex-Qín general, Huán Yǐ (or Fan Wuji), who had defected to Yān.
-Surprisingly, Huán Yǐ agrees to help Yān by committing suicide so they can use his head for the assassination! Huán Yǐ must have REALLY hated King Zhèng!!
-So, Jīng Kē traveled to Xiányáng (capital city of Qín) with his companion, Qín Wǔyáng, another assassin.
-Because of their gifts, they were able to quickly secure an audience with the king, but upon entering the royal palace Qín Wǔyáng began to freak out. Attempting to cover for both of them, Jīng Kē tried to explain that his companion was a backwards country rube and not used to the grandeur of the palace and capital city.
-Apparently this worked, because King Zhèng then allowed for Jīng Kē to approach the throne in order to show him the map. When Jīng Kē got close enough, he decided the moment had come, and decided to strike with the hidden dagger!
-However, King Zhèng was too quick, and Jīng Kē was only able to tear off a piece of the king's robe. King Zhèng immediately began to flee!
-This was now an interesting situation because although Jīng Kē had missed, he was still the only one in the room with a weapon, as no weapons were allowed in the court of the king. I guess the argument could be made that the King Zhèng was armed, but this was a ceremonial blade and not actually meant for combat.
-This resulted in a struggle between Jīng Kē and King Zhèng and his courtiers, but ultimately Jīng Kē was overpowered. In a last-ditch effort to kill the king, Jīng Kē ended up throwing his dagger at him, but he missed.
-Immediately after this, Jīng Kē was subdued by the king's guards and Qín Wǔyáng was captured and executed.
-Once they found out who was behind the assassination, Qín immediately declared war on Yān!
-226 BC- Qín and Yān clash at the Yi River (in modern-day Hénán Province, (I think)), and Qín was victorious.
-Qín's army then marched on Yān's capital city, Jì (modern-day Běijīng).
-At this point, Qín's army was seemingly unstoppable, and Jì soon fell.
-Yān's royal family, including King Xǐ and his son (Crown Prince Dān) fled to the Liaodong Peninsula (which was still controlled by Yān). However, King Xǐ knew that all was lost for him, so in a desperate attempt to save himself he had Prince Dān decapitated and the head sent to King Zhèng as an apology for the assassination attempt and as a peace offering.
-King Zhèng accepted King Xǐ's offering, and decided to leave Yān as it was for the time being.
-After putting an end to the threat that Yān posed, King Zhèng decided the next step would be to conquer Wèi before finally conquering Chǔ.
-However, King Zhèng assumed that if his armies invaded Wèi then it would be possible that Chǔ would assume that they would be invaded after Wèi.
-Thus, King Zhèng decided to preemptively invade some cities in the north of Chǔ first in order to quickly set up a buffer territory between Chǔ and Qín.
-According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Qín amassed a huge force of over 600,000 soldiers!! To put this in perspective, it's estimated that Rome had an army of like 80,000 at the massive Battle of Cannae (against the Carthaginians) which took place around this time over in Europe. So, if these numbers are correct, Qín must have had an absolutely fucking massive army at this time.
-So, Qín sent out this massive army, quickly conquered their intended target settlements, and then immediately turned north to attack Wèi's capital at Dàliáng (modern-day Kāifēng, Henan Province), a city famous for its impenetrability.
-However, it didn't prove to be THAT tough to crack, as Qín's general Wáng Bēn (son of Wáng Jiǎn, one of the Four Great Generals of the Warring States Period) decided to do the ol' "divert a river into the city you're besieging" trick and ended up redirecting the YELLOW RIVER into the city!! This must have been a massive project to pull off.
-Of course, this worked really well, and not only was the city flooded but it's also recorded that over 100,000 citizens died!
-Soon after this, King Jiǎ of Wèi admitted defeat and surrendered his kingdom completely to Qín.
-Next, King Zhèng set his sites on finally conquering Chǔ once and for all.
-However, while General Wáng Bēn stated that he would once again need the same numbers as before in order to pull off this mission, another general, Lǐ Xìn, claimed that he could do the same mission with only a fraction of that number! This was an attractive proposition for King Zhèng, so he decided to accept General Lǐ Xìn's offer to see if he could really pull it off.
-While initially successful, Lǐ Xìn had trouble keeping the conquered territory in Chǔ pacified as they penetrated further and further into the kingdom. To complicate matters, the main Chǔ army continued to withdraw and retreat without fully engaging Qín directly. Obviously, something was up.
-Finally, when Qín least expected it, Chǔ's army surrounded the Qín army's encampment late at night and attacked! Lǐ Xìn's army was completely slaughtered, apparently losing over 200,000 soldiers (again, probably an exaggeration, but who knows!). This would prove to be Qín's worst defeat in history.
-Undeterred, King Zhèng decided that General Wáng Bēn had been right all along, and so he was brought back to lead the Qín army in a proper invasion of Chǔ.
-With a much smarter and more conservative, methodical strategy, Wáng Bēn slowly ventured into Chǔ and refused to be drawn into a battle on the enemy's turns. Soon, Chǔ's main army was shattered, and Chǔ became a broken, shell of a kingdom like Yān, and lost much of its territory (including its capital, Shòuchūn) to Qín.
-222 BC- after conquering most of Chǔ, Qín then marched its army north into the Liaodong Peninsula and conquered what remained of Yān.
-221 BC- although it was obvious that Qín was unstoppable, they still had a bit of mopping up to do, as only Qí still remained (but probably didn't pose much of a threat at this point).
-Using some lame excuse (apparently, Qí didn't meet with one of Qín's envoys around this time or something), Qín invaded Qí.
-Qín was able to easily invade Qí because Qí had set up all their fortifications to defend from the west, but because Yān was now conquered by Qín, Qín just came down from the north, bypassing most of Qí's defenses.
-Horrified at the speed in which Qín was able to arrive at the capital, King Jiàn of Qí immediately surrendered his kingdom in exchange for the lives of his family and people.
-With King Jiàn's surrender, the Warring States Period had finally come to an end! The kingdoms were now all unified under the brand-new Qín dynasty, with King Zhèng crowning himself Qín Shǐ Huáng (literally meaning "First Emperor of Qín" (or, China (in English)).
-Qín Shǐ Huáng then chose the city of Xiányáng (in modern-day Shǎnxī Province) as his new capital.
-This would also kick off China's "imperial" era, which would last all the way until the early 20th century!!
-By doing this, King Zhāoxiāng of Qín was essentially declaring that he now possessed the Mandate of Heaven, which meant that he was the new king of the lands "belonging" to the Zhōu dynasty.
-Of course, Qín's ultimate goal was to conquer all of the Warring States, but how to do this?
-Qín's plan was to maintain strong relations with Qí and Yān, continue actively suppressing Wèi and Chǔ, and conquer Zhào and Hán.
-247 BC- King Zhèng is enthroned as the new ruler of Qín following the death of his father, King Zhuāngxiāng. He was only 13 at this time!
-Interestingly, Sīmǎ Qiān's Records of the Grand Historian claim that King Zhèng was an illegitimate ruler because he was actually the son of the merchant/politican Lǚ Bùwéi and his concubine Lady Zhào (who allegedly went on to marry King Zhuāngxiāng and become queen while she was already pregnant from Lǚ Bùwéi), but modern-day scholars have attempted to refute this possibility, arguing that it was a slander created for political reasons by Sīmǎ Qiān and the Hàn dynasty (who would end up toppling the Qín dynasty and replacing it in 206 BC) and maintain that he was indeed the legitimate son of King Zhuāngxiāng and Lady Zhào.
-It's also worth noting that during this time in Chinese history, merchants were considered the lowest of the low in terms of the social hierarchy, so being the son of a merchant was considered a really shitty background.
-238 BC- King Zhèng's queen mother and her new lover, the Marquis of Chángxìn (AKA Lào Ǎi, who I guess was disguised as a eunuch in order to live with her? Also, he apparently had a huge dick (according to the Records of the Grand Historian haha)!), came up with a conspiracy to have the king replaced by one of their children instead (!), and so they tried to start a rebellion and raise an army to do so!
-However, this conspiracy was soon uncovered by the authorities, and the conspirators were executed (although Lào Ǎi briefly escaped).
-Because Lào Ǎi was the ringleader, his sentence was especially harsh, as it not only guaranteed his execution but also followed the Chinese traditional punishment of zhū lián jiǔ zú ("nine familial exterminations") for treason, which meant that nine of Lào Ǎi's family members were also executed!
-As for Lady Zhào (who was now known as Queen Dowager Zhào after the death of King Zhuāngxiāng), she was simply placed under house arrest until she died in 228 BC.
-After this, King Zhèng's rule of Qín went unchallenged (haha).
-236 BC- King Zhèng invades Zhào!
-King Zhèng was only 13 when he was enthroned, so the court had set up a regency that ruled in his place until he turned 22 (238 BC); that's why it took so long for Qín to continue their plans for the domination of the other Warring States.
-Even though it had been 14 years since their defeat at the Battle of Chángpíng, Zhào still hadn't had enough time to get its shit back together. That being said, they weren't totally helpless, as they still had an army with a badass general- Lǐ Mù (one of the "Four Great Generals" of the Warring States period)!
-Lǐ Mù had spent much of his career in northern Zhào, defending the border from the dreaded Xiōngnú hordes (centered around modern-day Mongolia).
-Because of his experiences with the Xiōngnú, Lǐ Mù was a fan of defeating his opponents through defense, as offensive tactics against the Xiōngnú usually ended up being a catastrophic failure.
-Of course, this also resulted in mockery from his peers and rivals (same shit that happened to Lían Pō. Still, Lǐ Mù was successful in defending the northern border for more than 30 years, so his critics sound like they're just being assholes.
-Unfortunately, even the famous Lǐ Mù was unable to thwart the Qín army, as Zhào just simply did not have the numbers to match the huge Qín force.
-Still, Lǐ Mù refused to give up, and continued to agitate the Qín army as they advanced towards the capital (Hándān, which is still a city and is in modern-day Héběi Province). So, Qín did the same thing that they did to Lían Pō and manipulated the Zhào court into thinking that Lǐ Mù was actually planning to take the Zhào throne for himself, so they had him executed. So dumb.
-Zhào finally fell to Qín in 228 BC.
-230 BC- Qín invades Hán, who was too weak to defend itself and promptly surrendered.
-228 BC- With Zhào and Hán out of the way, Qín then eyes its "friend" Yān as its next target.
-Seeing the writing on the wall, Yān scrambled to get together a coalition of allied forces from different states (and even the Xiōngnú!) to help them repel Qín, but of course it was too late.
-However, Yān quickly realized that even IF they could somehow secure a bunch of alliances and other bullshit, they STILL wouldn't have enough men to properly defend themselves from Qín.
-Desperate, Yān decided to go for a different tactic- the assassination of King Zhèng! The mission was to be carried out by an assassin named Jīng Kē.
-Jīng Kē was chosen for this job for a few reasons.
-He was actually from the state of Wèi (which was eventually annexed by the larger state of the same name (Wèi)), which was currently occupied by Qín, so he wouldn't stand out as an outsider during his mission since this was his home region.
-He was also a scholar and used to rubbing shoulders with elites.
-He was a badass swordsman.
-OK, so how was Jīng Kē going to get close enough to King Zhèng to kill him?
-In order to do so, Jīng Kē knew that he would have to bring the king some expensive/valuable gifts.
-These gifts were to consist of a detailed map (of a region that Qín was interested in invading) rolled up in a scroll case (with a razor-sharp poisoned dagger hidden inside!) and the decapitated head of the ex-Qín general, Huán Yǐ (or Fan Wuji), who had defected to Yān.
-Surprisingly, Huán Yǐ agrees to help Yān by committing suicide so they can use his head for the assassination! Huán Yǐ must have REALLY hated King Zhèng!!
-So, Jīng Kē traveled to Xiányáng (capital city of Qín) with his companion, Qín Wǔyáng, another assassin.
-Because of their gifts, they were able to quickly secure an audience with the king, but upon entering the royal palace Qín Wǔyáng began to freak out. Attempting to cover for both of them, Jīng Kē tried to explain that his companion was a backwards country rube and not used to the grandeur of the palace and capital city.
-Apparently this worked, because King Zhèng then allowed for Jīng Kē to approach the throne in order to show him the map. When Jīng Kē got close enough, he decided the moment had come, and decided to strike with the hidden dagger!
-However, King Zhèng was too quick, and Jīng Kē was only able to tear off a piece of the king's robe. King Zhèng immediately began to flee!
-This was now an interesting situation because although Jīng Kē had missed, he was still the only one in the room with a weapon, as no weapons were allowed in the court of the king. I guess the argument could be made that the King Zhèng was armed, but this was a ceremonial blade and not actually meant for combat.
-This resulted in a struggle between Jīng Kē and King Zhèng and his courtiers, but ultimately Jīng Kē was overpowered. In a last-ditch effort to kill the king, Jīng Kē ended up throwing his dagger at him, but he missed.
-Immediately after this, Jīng Kē was subdued by the king's guards and Qín Wǔyáng was captured and executed.
-Once they found out who was behind the assassination, Qín immediately declared war on Yān!
-226 BC- Qín and Yān clash at the Yi River (in modern-day Hénán Province, (I think)), and Qín was victorious.
-Qín's army then marched on Yān's capital city, Jì (modern-day Běijīng).
-At this point, Qín's army was seemingly unstoppable, and Jì soon fell.
-Yān's royal family, including King Xǐ and his son (Crown Prince Dān) fled to the Liaodong Peninsula (which was still controlled by Yān). However, King Xǐ knew that all was lost for him, so in a desperate attempt to save himself he had Prince Dān decapitated and the head sent to King Zhèng as an apology for the assassination attempt and as a peace offering.
-King Zhèng accepted King Xǐ's offering, and decided to leave Yān as it was for the time being.
-After putting an end to the threat that Yān posed, King Zhèng decided the next step would be to conquer Wèi before finally conquering Chǔ.
-However, King Zhèng assumed that if his armies invaded Wèi then it would be possible that Chǔ would assume that they would be invaded after Wèi.
-Thus, King Zhèng decided to preemptively invade some cities in the north of Chǔ first in order to quickly set up a buffer territory between Chǔ and Qín.
-According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Qín amassed a huge force of over 600,000 soldiers!! To put this in perspective, it's estimated that Rome had an army of like 80,000 at the massive Battle of Cannae (against the Carthaginians) which took place around this time over in Europe. So, if these numbers are correct, Qín must have had an absolutely fucking massive army at this time.
-So, Qín sent out this massive army, quickly conquered their intended target settlements, and then immediately turned north to attack Wèi's capital at Dàliáng (modern-day Kāifēng, Henan Province), a city famous for its impenetrability.
-However, it didn't prove to be THAT tough to crack, as Qín's general Wáng Bēn (son of Wáng Jiǎn, one of the Four Great Generals of the Warring States Period) decided to do the ol' "divert a river into the city you're besieging" trick and ended up redirecting the YELLOW RIVER into the city!! This must have been a massive project to pull off.
-Of course, this worked really well, and not only was the city flooded but it's also recorded that over 100,000 citizens died!
-Soon after this, King Jiǎ of Wèi admitted defeat and surrendered his kingdom completely to Qín.
-Next, King Zhèng set his sites on finally conquering Chǔ once and for all.
-However, while General Wáng Bēn stated that he would once again need the same numbers as before in order to pull off this mission, another general, Lǐ Xìn, claimed that he could do the same mission with only a fraction of that number! This was an attractive proposition for King Zhèng, so he decided to accept General Lǐ Xìn's offer to see if he could really pull it off.
-While initially successful, Lǐ Xìn had trouble keeping the conquered territory in Chǔ pacified as they penetrated further and further into the kingdom. To complicate matters, the main Chǔ army continued to withdraw and retreat without fully engaging Qín directly. Obviously, something was up.
-Finally, when Qín least expected it, Chǔ's army surrounded the Qín army's encampment late at night and attacked! Lǐ Xìn's army was completely slaughtered, apparently losing over 200,000 soldiers (again, probably an exaggeration, but who knows!). This would prove to be Qín's worst defeat in history.
-Undeterred, King Zhèng decided that General Wáng Bēn had been right all along, and so he was brought back to lead the Qín army in a proper invasion of Chǔ.
-With a much smarter and more conservative, methodical strategy, Wáng Bēn slowly ventured into Chǔ and refused to be drawn into a battle on the enemy's turns. Soon, Chǔ's main army was shattered, and Chǔ became a broken, shell of a kingdom like Yān, and lost much of its territory (including its capital, Shòuchūn) to Qín.
-222 BC- after conquering most of Chǔ, Qín then marched its army north into the Liaodong Peninsula and conquered what remained of Yān.
-221 BC- although it was obvious that Qín was unstoppable, they still had a bit of mopping up to do, as only Qí still remained (but probably didn't pose much of a threat at this point).
-Using some lame excuse (apparently, Qí didn't meet with one of Qín's envoys around this time or something), Qín invaded Qí.
-Qín was able to easily invade Qí because Qí had set up all their fortifications to defend from the west, but because Yān was now conquered by Qín, Qín just came down from the north, bypassing most of Qí's defenses.
-Horrified at the speed in which Qín was able to arrive at the capital, King Jiàn of Qí immediately surrendered his kingdom in exchange for the lives of his family and people.
-With King Jiàn's surrender, the Warring States Period had finally come to an end! The kingdoms were now all unified under the brand-new Qín dynasty, with King Zhèng crowning himself Qín Shǐ Huáng (literally meaning "First Emperor of Qín" (or, China (in English)).
-Qín Shǐ Huáng then chose the city of Xiányáng (in modern-day Shǎnxī Province) as his new capital.
-This would also kick off China's "imperial" era, which would last all the way until the early 20th century!!
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Eastern Zhou - Part VIII - The End of Zhou
-So, at
this point (c. 330 BC) it's obvious that Qín is the most powerful of (what
would eventually be) the remaining seven states (Qín,
Chǔ, Hán, Wèi, Zhào, Yān, and Qí) as it began to
expand in all directions.
-328 BC-
because the smaller states were rapidly getting swallowed up by larger states,
the ruler of Sòng, a minor (but venerable! It had been there for like 800 years
at this point!! However, while it was a powerful state, it was of course in
rapid decline as its neighbors grew increasingly powerful) , Duke (Lord?)
Yǎn decided that it was now or never for his state to try and "get with
the times" in terms of officially declaring itself its own autonomous
kingdom independent of the Zhou dynasty (which was clearly a joke at this
point) since that's what all the other powerful states were doing, so he did
just that and dubbed himself King Kāng (haha) of Sòng, a brand new kingdom.
-While Sòng wasn't the strongest state in the region by any means, it
still could defend itself well enough... although it was increasingly relying
more and more on Qín to defend it from the others.
-During this time, Qín persuades Qí to agree to an understanding- Qín
will leave Qí alone and let them expand, if Qí will do the same for Qín.
-Because of this, Qí then began to focus on taking out the minor
(but venerable! It had been there for like 800 years at this point!! However,
while it was a powerful state, it was of course in rapid decline as its
neighbors grew increasingly powerful) state of Sòng to their south, which had
just broken off its military alliance with Qín... bad move!
-Qín also signed a peace treaty with Hán and Wèi before focusing
on taking out Zhào to the northeast.
-Anyway, so King Kāng had actually pretty successful too in terms of
defending Sòng from its neighboring states, but that was because Qín had a huge
military ally. Once that alliance was broken (for whatever reason), Sòng
must have quickly realized that they were suddenly all alone.
-286 BC- Sòng is conquered (doh!!) by Qí (with additional military
support from Qín, Chǔ, and Wèi).
-Meanwhile,
in the north, the state of Yān had been quietly expanding its borders northeast
into Old Joseon ("Gojoseon" in Korean).
-Fun fact: In Yān's records the warriors (and/or people) of Gojoseon are
described as being both "arrogant" and "cruel" (ha).
-Because of Yān's invasions, Gojoseon was forced to relocate its capital
from the Liaodong Peninsula to the Korean Peninsula (possibly near Pyongyang,
or perhaps this was how Pyongyang was founded; it's unclear).
-Although Gojoseon would survive Yān's assaults from the south,
Yān itself would not survive Qí's assaults from the south!
-314 BC- Yān had spread itself too thin by
squandering all of its resources fighting and expanding into Gojoseon, so Qí
realized that it was their moment to strike! They invaded (and almost
conquered it entirely over the course of a few months!), but after taking over
they raped and pillaged a bit too much... the people of Yān eventually were
able to rebel and drive off the Qí armies.
-After doing so, Yān enthroned its new king,
Zhāo (he was the rightful heir, as his father (King Kuài) had been killed during
the war with Qí.
-He immediately forged an
alliance with Qín, Hán, and Wèi and all four of them began attacking Qí!!
-Of course, Qí was
completely overwhelmed and was almost conquered by the invaders (only two
cities remaining), but all of a sudden King Zhāo died (perhaps he was
murdered?) mysteriously and because no heir had been named Yān quickly fell
into a succession crisis (maybe civil war?). Soon after this, the
Qín-Hán-Wèi-Yān alliance fell apart and Qí was able to drive off the invading
armies and take back the kingdom.
-Meanwhile,
Qín had pretty much dominated the west of Eastern Zhou; both Hán and Wèi were
essentially impotent states at this point. Additionally, Chǔ was also
struggling as well, as their capital, Yǐng (near modern-day Jīngzhōu,
Húběi Province) had been taken by Qín (by their infamous general Bái Qǐ) in 278
BC; because of this invasion, Chǔ was forced to relocate its capital to the
city of Chen (not sure where this was, exactly).
-So, Qín knew that the only neighboring state that still posed any real
threat was Zhào.
-However, there was a slight problem- the border between Zhào and
Qín was apparently really rough and unsuitable for a big army to traverse
easily. So, Qín decided that the best plan of action was to send its army
to Zhào through the Chángpíng mountain pass located in the state of Hán.
-Hán probably wasn't going to be cool with this, so
Qín made the decision to just straight-up invade Hán in 265 BC! It took them
four years to do so, however, as the core of Hán's forces were extremely
well-fortified, so Qín spent these years slowly conquering and pacifying the
less-fortified regions until Hán's defenses were completely isolated and
surrounded by Qín's armies.
-Of course, Hán knew that it was slowly
dying. However, instead of kneeling to their invaders and accepting
defeat, Hán offered its territory to Zhào in exchange for Zhào to rescue them
from Qín!
-This must have been
embarrassing for Hán to do, but what other choice did they have? By doing
this, the king knew that he would be saving potentially hundreds of thousands
of lives, including his own!
-Anyway, so Hán then retreated
while handing over everything (supply lines, fortifications, etc.) to Zhào, and
soon Zhào was set up and ready for whatever Qín was going to throw at
them.
-Leading the Zhào
forces was a dude named Lian Po, considered to be one of the "Four Great
Generals" of the Warring States period (which also includes Bái Qǐ (of
Qín), Wang Jian (of Qín) and Li Mu (of Zhào).
-General
Lian Po's strategy was to simply keep the ChángpíngPass well-fortified and
supplied and wait!
-Lian Po knew that the ChángpíngPass defenses would be an incredibly tough nut
to crack, so it would be foolish to try and take the battle to . By 260
BC, an elaborate network of forts and supply routes feeding into the Changping
Pass was completed! Bring it on, Qín!
-Turns out, Lian Po was right! Qín's forces tried to break through the
defenses for over three years with no success except for ONCE (haha), and
presumably they were later just pushed back out. What was Qín to do?
-Unfortunately for Lian Po, he wouldn't be general for long,
as Qín was able to infiltrate the Zhào court (at Hándan) with
corrupt officials and spies who trolled their way into convincing Zhào's ruler,
King Xiaocheng, to get rid of old Lian Po and his cowardly strategy and instead
replace him a younger general with BALLS!
-His choice? The reckless and arrogant General Zhào
Kuo (son of the respected General Zhào She)! Big mistake!
-When Zhào Kuo arrived at the ChángpíngPass,
he decided to ditch Lian Po's strategy and instead take the fight to Qín, which
is, of course, exactly what Qín wanted them to do!
-July, 260 BC- Zhào Kuo takes a huge force out from the ChángpíngPass
to attack Bái Qǐ 's forces directly. Of course, Bái Qǐ was waiting for this kind of thing to happen,
so upon being attacked he ordered his forces to pull back further and further,
drawing the Zhào army deeper and deeper in.
-When the timing was right, Bái Qǐ ordered his cavalry to fan out and make it so
that the Zhào army was completely encircled. Then, Qín attacked,
completely slaughtering any Zhào forces who refused to surrender!
-Knowing that they were in trouble, Zhào
tried to send out messages begging for help from other states, but one big
problem was that Zhào had a reputation for being fickle and/or untrustworthy
allies, so nobody came to their rescue.
-Many of Zhào's soldiers surrendered,
but Bái Qǐ actually ended up deciding
that it was too risky to allow his prisoners to live, so he had all of them
(possibly up to 450,000 Zhào soldiers!) buried alive in a mass grave (hence Bái
Qǐ 's nickname, "The Human Butcher") except for 240, who were spared
and sent back to Zhào to spread fear among the population!
-We are STILL finding
artifacts at the archaeological site (outside of Gāopíng, Shānxī Province) of
the battle!
-Taking note of this reaction, Qín
then decided to raise another massive army and combine it with Bái Qǐ 's (which
resulted in a force of up to 650,000 soldiers!) to invade Zhào. They
immediately headed straight for Zhào's capital, Hándan!
-However, it's worth
noting that this wasn't going to be a complete walk in the park for Bái Qǐ .
His army had still suffered many casualties during the Battle of Chángpíng(as
many as 250,000!). Additionally, Hándan was proving to be a massive
headache to besiege, even for Bái Qǐ ! It probably felt like the
situation at Chángpíngall over again!
-So, the siege
went on for two more years; Bái Qǐ couldn't get Hándan to crack, and Hándan
couldn't find anyone to rescue them by breaking the siege! At this point,
Bái Qǐ had had enough, so he peaced out
back to Qín!
-257 BC- Wèi and Chǔ finally
decide to help Zhào, so they show up to drive off Qín's forces. Sick of
fighting, Qín relented and headed back home.
-It's also worth-noting
that by doing this, Wèi and Chǔ got some of their old territory back as well,
so perhaps it wasn't a completely altruistic action to help out
Zhào.
-Additionally, although
it looks like Qín had ultimately lost the war by retreating back home, the
campaign against Hán and Zhào had actually been a huge success for them, as they
had still conquered massive amounts of territory and were now the dominant
force in the middle of the Zhou dynasty's kingdom. Of course, no one considered
the Zhou dynasty a legitimate political entity anymore since it didn't have any
real power to go along with its joke of a territory, so Qín decided to finally
call them out once and for all of not having the Mandate of Heaven by invading
the Zhou dynasty capital at Wangcheng (Wangcheng may have just been another name for Chéngzhōu, the old capital city of Eastern Zhou, or if it was actually a different city entirely; it's unclear) and imprisoning King Nǎn, proving
that King Zhāoxiāng of Qín was clearly the true possessor of the
MoH.
-Of
course, King Nǎn's son would organize a resistance and try and drive off the
Qín armies from their occupation of the capital, but it was obviously way too
late. After a few years, he was finally captured and executed. The
Zhou dynasty had finally, officially, come to an end.
-That being said, the other states of course were not immediately willing
to accept Qín's actions! These usurpers must be brought to justice!
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