Xiang Yu divided the world to be fair and just, why did the princes of the world still rebel?

Mondo History Updated on 2024-03-05

In 206 BC, after the battle of Xiang Yu Julu became famous, he led his army to Hangu Pass, and drove Liu Bang, who wanted to be the king of Guanzhong, to Bashu and occupied Guanzhong. At this time, Xiang Yu and the princes finally overthrew the rule of the Qin Dynasty after three years of anti-Qin war.

After the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu held the real power of the world and ordered the princes of the world, at this time he faced a thorny problem, how to share the fruits of victory with the princes of the world. Of course, Xiang Yu can also follow the example of Qin Shi Huang, implement the ** centralized system, and become the emperor himself, but Xiang Yu did not, he took the old road of King Wu of Zhou, ** reward, and shared the world with the heroes. From this point of view, Xiang Yu's division should be fair and just, as long as he has merit in destroying Qin, he can be rewarded. Why did such a generous leader cause the princes to revolt after he had divided the princes?

Xiang Yu gestured for the stills illustration.

The principle of Xiang Yu's division is "to seal the king by merit", as the name suggests, it is to divide the seal according to the size of the meritorious service. Xiang Yu thinks that the heroes are the generals who participated in the Battle of Julu and entered the customs with him at the same time, and they also had to take Chu as the leader of the alliance, and those generals who participated in the Battle of Julu and did not follow him into the customs were not eligible to be torn and crowned kings. Therefore, the sub-sealing conference presided over by Xiang Yu is a bit like a sharing of spoils, and the robbers have always had a share in the rewards, and Xiang Yu's sub-sealing is mainly divided into four levels.

King Xiang established himself as the overlord of Western Chu, Wang Jiujun, and Dupeng City. - Historical Records: Xiang Yu Benji

The first echelon of the righteous emperor bear heart,Xiong Xin is a descendant of the monarch of Chu during the Warring States Period, and after the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of Qin, Xiang Yu's uncle and nephew set up a puppet monarch, he is the nominal monarch of Chu and has no real power. When Xiang Yu divided the 18 princes and kings, Yao respected Xiong Xin, the king of Chu, as the "righteous emperor", nominally let the king of Chu Xiong Xin rise one level, but in fact, it was a bright rise and a secret fall, Xiang Yu later found an excuse to move the righteous emperor to the remote Chenxian County, and the righteous emperor finally died in Chenxian County.

The second echelon of the Western Chu overlord Xiang Yu,After the battle of Xiang Yu and the giant deer, the world was shocked, and the princes hugged his thighs. At this time, Xiang Yu proclaimed himself the overlord of Western Chu and built the capital in his hometown of Pengcheng, ruling over nine counties, occupying almost a quarter of the country's territory.

The third echelon went north to rescue ZhaoAt the same time, the generals who followed Xiang Yu into the customs together, Xiang Yu gave the rich land to the generals who entered the customs with him, such as the King of Sanqin, the King of Yan, Zang Di, the King of Changshan, Zhang Er, the King of Qi, Tiandu, the King of Jibei, and the King Yingbu of Jiujiang.

The fourth shaving team is the worst in Xiang Yu's divisionFor example, Liu Bang, Zhao Xie, Tian Shi, Han Guang, etc., Liu Bang drove him to the remote Bashu because Xiang Yu was afraid of him. Some of the others are descendants of the original Six Kings clan, and some are anti-Qin and have made meritorious contributions, and they have been conferred the title of restoration before Xiang Yu was divided.

Lipei Gong is the king of Han, Wang Ba, Shu, Hanzhong, and Nanzheng. Wang Xie of Zhao was the acting king. Han Guang, the king of Yan, was the king of Liaodong. - Historical Records: Xiang Yu Benji

Xiang Yu's division is roughly divided into the above categories, in fact, in essence, Xiang Yu's division is not a big mistake, but Xiang Yu presided over the division conference in April, and the Qi country fell into civil strife in May, and then all parts of the country fought each other, and the reason for their rebellion was that Xiang Yu's division of the world was unfair, so what problems did Xiang Yu's division occur?

Xiang Yu gestured for the stills illustration.

Chen Ping once said that Xiang Yu did not trust outsiders, and only believed in the Xiang family and his wife's brothers. Xiang Yu not only reused talents for nepotism, but also when he divided the princes, the author can give you an example.

King Xiang can't trust people, and what he loves is not the Kundi of his wife, although there are wizards who can't use it, Ping Nai goes to Chu. - Historical Records: Xiang Yu Benji

One of the major characteristics of Xiang Yu's division is that the generals who followed him into the customs were assigned to a rich land, while those who were not familiar with him or had a holiday with him were assigned to remote areas, or even not sealed.

Among them, the most typical ones are Zhao, Yan, and Qi, Xiang Yu moved the original King of Zhao, King Yan, and King Qi to remote places, and sealed the generals sent by these princes and kings to rich places.

In addition, Xiang Yu's biggest mistake was the loss of the three meritorious ministers.

First of all, Tian Rong, Tian Rong is the clan of the Qi royal family, after the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of Qin, Tian Dan (Tian Rong's cousin) of the Tian family was the first to raise troops to pacify Qidi, after Tian Dan died in battle, Tian Rong collected the remnants of the army and continued to fight against the Qin army. Therefore, Tian Rong made great contributions in the battle to destroy Qin, but because of his previous discord with Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Liang, which affected his relationship with Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu did not seal him.

In addition to Tian Rong, there were also Chen Yu of Zhao and Peng Yue who raised troops in Liangdi. After the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of Qin, Peng Yue and Chen Yu both made meritorious contributions to the Qin resistance, but they could not meet the standard of Xiang Yu to divide the princes and kings, so they were not awarded.

It can be seen that as long as they get close to Xiang Yu and make meritorious contributions at the same time, they all get a good place, while those who are not familiar with him or do not get along with him are all sealed to remote areas, and they are not even awarded.

Xiang Yu gestured for the stills illustration.

Xiang Yu's division lacked foresight, mainly reflected in the wrong seal of the three Qin kings and the surrender of the Han, Xiang Yu was a very good military strategist, but in the political strategy was not considered.

Clause.

1. The three Qin kings were wrongly sealed.

The three Qin kings are the three Qin generals who descended to Chu headed by Zhang Han, namely Zhang Han, the king of Yong, Sima Xin, the king of Sai, and Dong Peng, the king of Zhai, Zhang Han is the main general of the battle of Julu, and the other two are deputy generals. After the fiasco in the battle of Zhanghan Julu, he led 200,000 Qin troops to surrender to Chu, and Xiang Yu ordered all the surrendered troops to be killed because he was afraid that the Qin army would surrender by fraud.

Xiang Yu later divided Guanzhong into three, and divided the three generals of the Battle of Julu into Guanzhong, Xiang Yu did not expect that the 200,000 troops he killed were the sons and daughters of the fathers and elders in Guanzhong, and the people of Qin hated the three generals to the bone, and Xiang Yu's strategy of "governing Qin with Qin" did not work.

Clause.

Second, give up to Han.

After Liu Bang entered Guanzhong, he sent troops to guard the Hangu Pass, the purpose was not to let Xiang Yu enter the pass, he wanted to be the king of Guanzhong, Liu Bang's move exposed his political motives, if Xiang Yu had a strategy, Liu Bang would not be able to escape death, but Xiang Yu let Liu Bang go at the Hongmen banquet.

Xiang Yu originally sealed Liu Bang to the remote land of Bashu, and later Zhang Liang bought Xiang Bo and asked Xiang Bo to ask Xiang Yu to assign Hanzhong to Liu Bang, Xiang Yu did not blame Xiang Bo**, and also sealed the land of Hanzhong to Liu Bang. Giving Han over is a big failure of Xiang Yu's separation. When Liu Bang sent heavy troops to guard the Hangu Pass, Xiang Yu should have understood that after the fall of the Qin State, the Liu and Xiang families had evolved from former allies to two opposing military groups, and he should guard against Liu Bang everywhere, instead of adding the strategic Hanzhong to Liu Bang, Hanzhong was the springboard for Liu Bang to later set the Three Qins, and without Hanzhong, there would be no future Han Gaozu.

The king of Han gave good gold and overflowing, beads and two buckets, and good tools to dedicate Xiang Bo. The king of Han also ordered the good bereaved Xiang Bo, so that he invited Hanzhong. King Xiang was allowed to get the land of Hanzhong. - Historical Records: The Family of the Marquis".

Liu Bang gestured for the stills illustration.

Xiang Yu divided the 18 princes and kings, did not bring peace to the world, he presided over the division of the conference in April, Tian Rong rebelled in May, 18 vassal states, 11 chaos.

Clause.

1. The Yan Kingdom and the Liaodong Kingdom were in turmoil.

Xiang Yu divided the Yan Kingdom into two, drove the old Yan King Han Guang to Liaodong, became the king of Liaodong, and gave the rich land of the Yan Kingdom to Han Guang's subordinate general Zang Tu (Han Guang sent him to follow Xiang Yu into the customs).

Han Guang, the king of Yan, was the king of Liaodong. Yan rescued Zang Di from Chu and entered the customs. Litu is the king of Yan. ——Hanshu·· Biography of Chen Shengxiang

The old Yan King Han Guang was not convinced, he thought that the new Yan King Zang Di used to be his subordinate, but the reward was higher than himself, the key was to send him into the customs, Xiang Yu actually named him the King of Yan, and he was the king of Liaodong, so the grade was lower.

Han Guang, the king of the old Yan, was reluctant to move to the remote kingdom of Liaodong, so the new and old Yan kings fought each other, but the old Yan king could not defeat the new Yan king, and was finally defeated and killed.

Clause.

Second, the chaos of Zhao State.

Xiang Yu divided the Zhao State into two, drove the old Zhao King Zhao Xie to the Daidi, became the acting king, and named Zhang Er, the general sent by the Zhao State to follow him into the customs, as the king of Changshan, and the fief was a relatively wealthy place with Handan as the center.

Zhao Wang Xie had no opinion, but his subordinate Chen Yu was not happy, he borrowed troops from Tian Rong, who was also dissatisfied with the division, to beat Zhang Er, drove Zhang Er out of Zhao State, and then welcomed the old Zhao King back, and the old Zhao Wang thanked Chen Yu as the acting king.

Zhao Wangxie gestured for the stills illustration.

Clause.

3. The chaos of the Qi country.

Qi is the same as Zhao and Yan, Xiang Yu drove the old King of Qi to Jiaodong to be the king of Jiaodong, and named the generals who were originally sent by the king of Qi to enter the customs with him as the king of Qi, and then he set up another king of Jibei, and the country of Qi was divided into three parts by Xiang Yu. Tian Rong, the clan of the Qi royal family, was not happy, and he also made great contributions to oppose Qin, but he did not confer the title, so he raised an army against Chu, killed all the three Qi kings divided by Xiang Yu, and established himself as the king of Qi.

Tian Rong was angry, pursued and killed Yu Jimo, the king of Qi, and also attacked and killed Wang An of Jibei. So Tian Rongnai set himself up as the king of Qi and merged the land of the three Qi. - Historical Records: The Biography of Tian Danlie

Clause.

Fourth, Liu Bang fisherman profits.

Just when the princes were fighting each other in a mess, Xiang Yu was very entangled, who should he kill first? Liu Bang's advisor Zhang Liang knew that Xiang Yu's first fire was fierce, so he designed to direct the first fire to Tian Rong, and Xiang Yu sent troops to attack Tian Rong in August of the first year of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang took advantage of Xiang Yu's rebellion in Qi State, Ren Han Xin was the general to kill back to Guanzhong, the three Qin kings were defeated and committed suicide, after Liu Bang occupied Guanzhong, he led 560,000 princes to occupy Xiang Yu's Western Chu capital Pengcheng, which opened the prelude to the Chu and Han hegemony.

In August, the king of Han used Han Xin's strategy to return from the old way and attack King Yongwang Zhanghan. - Historical Records: Gaozu Benji

Liu Bang was able to return to Sanqin, the main reason was that Xiang Yu was trapped in Qi and couldn't get out, creating a good opportunity for Liu Bang to do his own business.

After the collapse of Xiang Yu's feudal feud, nearly half of the princes and kings who were awarded the title died in the rebellion, some of the princes and kings surrendered to Han during the Chu-Han War, and some princes and kings were annihilated during Han Xin's Northern Expedition, and in the later stage of the Chu-Han War, there were few princes and kings left in Xiang Yu's initial feudal feud.

Qin Shi Huang shows the illustration of the stills.

In fact, on the surface, it seems that Xiang Yu's division is unfair, but it is actually related to the internal relationship of the division system. Xiang Yu followed the example of the Western Zhou Dynasty and implemented the feudal system, and he could not see the historical significance brought by Qin Shi Huang's unification of the Six Kingdoms.

During the Warring States Period, the princes were separated and fought with each other, which was the disadvantage of the feudal system, and the princes became strong, and it was difficult to control. Xiang Yu was not a mature politician, and he could not rationally judge the advantages and disadvantages of the feudal system and the county system.

During the Warring States Period, the common people always hoped that there would be a hero who could save the people from the sea of suffering and end the perennial war, and the appearance of Qin Shi Huang gave them hope. It is a pity that after Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, he did not implement benevolent government, and the common people still had a very difficult life, but we cannot deny Qin Shi Huang's merits, we can only say that he has meritorious reunification and has been in power.

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