Xiang Yu

Also known as Ming Ji · Zi Yu · Xichu Bawang

Xiang Yu, personal name Ji, courtesy name Yu, came from Xiaxiang, of a line of Chu generals that included his grandfather Xiang Yan. In 209 BC, aged twenty-four, he rose at Wu with his uncle Xiang Liang. After Liang fell he beheaded the hesitant commander Song Yi, and in 207 BC at Julu he sank his boats, smashed his cooking pots and broke the Qin army in nine engagements, after which the rebel generals accepted his command. Entering the Qin heartland next year, he let Liu Bang leave the Hongmen feast, killed the last Qin ruler Ziying, burned the palaces, set up eighteen kings and made himself Hegemon-King of Western Chu, ruling from Pengcheng. He routed the Han at Pengcheng with thirty thousand men, but in 202 BC was trapped at Gaixia, heard Chu songs from the enemy lines, broke out to the Wu River and cut his own throat. Sima Qian gave him a place in the basic annals but faulted him for blaming Heaven, not his generalship.