Royals › Monarch / Emperor
Liu Bang
Founding emperor of the Han, a village head from Pei who rose against Qin, destroyed Xiang Yu in 202 BC and made Chang'an his capital
Mural of the event “Siege of Baideng”, which this person took part in.
In the early Western Han, the state had emerged from late Qin warfare with the economy in tatters and the populace fragile. Meanwhile, the Xiongnu cavalry empire on the northern steppe surged in strength under Modu Chanyu and raided the frontier repeatedly.
Also known as Zi Ji · Hangao Zu · Han Gao Di
- Roles
- Monarch / Emperor
Liu Bang, courtesy name Ji, of Feng in Pei county, served under Qin as a village head. In 209 BC he rose in revolt at Pei, and in 206 BC he was the first rebel into Guanzhong, where the Qin ruler Ziying surrendered and he promised the elders just three laws. Enfeoffed as King of Han by Xiang Yu, he fought him for four years and destroyed him at Gaixia in 202 BC, then took the imperial title and, on Lou Jing's advice, settled the capital at Chang'an. He then eliminated the non-Liu kings Han Xin, Peng Yue and Ying Bu, and after being surrounded by the Xiongnu at Baideng in 200 BC he turned to marriage alliances with them. Wounded by an arrow on campaign against Ying Bu, he died in the Changle Palace in 195 BC, with the posthumous name Gao and the temple name Taizu. The *Records of the Grand Historian* (*Shiji*) preserves the 'Song of the Great Wind' he sang on a visit home.
Life and times
Dates c. 256 BCE–195 BCE (birth by another account 247 BCE)
- 206 BCEHongmen BanquetTook part
- 206 BCEChu-Han ContentionTook part
- 206 BCEFeast at Hongmen Confrontation
- 205 BCEXiang Yu Routing Han at Pengcheng
- 200 BCESiege of BaidengTook part
- 200 BCEGaozu Besieged at Baideng
- c. 200 BCELiu Jing Proposes Heqin with Xiongnu