Chen Xi (died November or December 196BC) was a Chinese rebel leader against the first Han

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Liu Bang Emperor Gaozu of Han (2561 June 195 BC), also known by his given name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning from 202 to 195 BC. He is considered by traditional Chinese historiography to be one o ...

(

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

the "Emperor Gaozu" or "High Ancestor").

Life

Chen Xi came from Yuanqu, a former city in what is now Longwangmiao Village in the Mudan District of Heze,

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

. His early life and circumstances are not recorded,. but

came to place great trust in him and his abilities. The Chu king

Xiang Yu Xiang Yu (), born Xiang Ji, was a Chinese warlord who founded and led the short-lived ancient Chinese states, kingdom-state of Western Chu during the interregnum period between the Qin dynasty, Qin and Han dynasty, Han dynasties of China, d ...

defeated Zhang Han at Julu (within present-day Pingxiang County,

Xingtai Xingtai ( zh, s= , t=邢臺, p=Xíngtái , w=Hsing2-tʻai2), formerly known as Xingzhou and Shunde, is a prefecture-level city in southern Hebei province, People's Republic of China. It has a total area of and administers 4 districts, 2 coun ...

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

) in 207BC, effectively ending the

Qin Empire The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng engaged in a series ...

. Chen joined Liu with 500 conscripts the next year, pledging his loyalty at the beginning of the internecine wars that became known as the

Chu–Han Contention The Chu–Han Contention (), also known as the Chu–Han War (), was an interregnum in Imperial China between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the establishment of the Han dynasty. After the Qin dynasty was overthrown in 206 BCE, the empir ...

. Chen held Bashang ( ''Bàshàng'') near present-day

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

(

Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...

) and was named Liu's "

Guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

General" ( t s ''Yóují Jiāngjūn''). The 202BC Battle of Gaixia (near

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

) ended the conflict in Liu Bang's favor, and he declared the beginning of the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

. Some of the other kings of the Chinese states chafed at the restoration of imperial rule. Zang Tu had been named king of Yan by Xiang Yu, secured his title by removing its previous occupant Han Guang by force, and been confirmed in Yan and

Liaodong The Liaodong or Liaotung Peninsula ( zh, s=辽东半岛, t=遼東半島, p=Liáodōng Bàndǎo) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located ...

by Liu Bang. Before the end of 202BC, however, he rebelled against the new empire and invaded its central northern commanderies, collectively known as " Dai" from a former kingdom of that name, which lay to his west in what is now northern

and

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

.. Chen Xi resisted Zang in Dai and helped the emperor's push into Yan, where Zang Tu was captured, executed, and replaced with the emperor's long-time comrade Lu Wan. The next year in 201BC, the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

nomads Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, Nomadic pastoralism, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and Merchant, trader nomads. In the twentieth century, ...

—who may have been allied with Zang, although this is not recorded—invaded Dai and forced the surrender of Han Xin, a former king of Han who had been moved into the north by the emperor and opted to make his capital at the exposed frontier town of Mayi (present-day

Shuozhou Shuozhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the northwest. It is situated along the upper reaches of the Fen River. The prefecture as a whole has an area of about and, 2010 PRC Census, ...

in northern

) instead of at Jinying (present-day

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

). Despite his long support of Liu Bang, Han came under suspicion of revolt and concluded an alliance with the Xiongnu

chanyu Chanyu () or Shanyu (), short for Chengli Gutu Chanyu (), was the title used by the supreme rulers of Inner Asian nomads for eight centuries until superseded by the title "''Khagan''" in 402 AD. The title was most famously used by the ruling L ...

Modu to protect himself. Learning of this arrangement, the emperor marched north in 200BC and defeated Han Xin in battle; Han was able, however, to escape into exile among the nomads; and the Xiongnu were able to defeat Liu Bang's invasion of their lands at Baideng near present-day

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province, China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 census, it had a population o ...

. Chen again served with distinction during this campaign, though the details are not noted in his biographies. For his service in either the Yan or Dai campaigns (the attribution varies in different chapters of the ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

''), Chen Xi was enfeoffed as Marquis of Yangxia ( t s ''Yángxià Hóu'') and named a "ranking"

marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

( ''lièhóu'') rather than the usual grade. In 198BC, King Ao of Zhao was discovered to be plotting against the emperor. As he was married to the emperor's eldest daughter Princess Yuan, he was not executed but demoted to

status. The emperor's son Prince Ruyi was named to succeed him as king of Zhao, and in 197BC Chen Xi was sent from

to act as

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

for the young boy's realm. He was given control of most of the Han army defending what is now Shanxi and Hebei against the

to their north. Imperial envoys sent to monitor the new chancellor apparently implicated him and his officials in a range of illegal activities, which Chen discovered.. From his exile among the Xiongnu, Han Xin dispatched Wang Huang ( t s ''Wáng Huáng'') and Manqiu Chen ( ''Mànqiū Chén'') to convince Chen that he now had no choice but to rebel or be executed. In May 197BC, the death of the emperor's father brought Chen a summons to return to Chang'an to pay his respects, which he did not honor. At some time before the end of the year, Chen himself joined Wang Huang and other rebels against the Han, declaring himself the independent " king of Dai" at Julu (within present-day Pingxiang County,

). Chen Xi's descent into

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

prompted

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

to exclaim in an aside from his historical narrative, "Alas, how tragic!" The next month, the emperor personally led an army against Chen from the southwest, while Lu Wan, the king of Yan and the emperor's childhood friend, led his army against Chen from the northeast.. Liu Bang was satisfied when he reached Zhao's natural and traditional stronghold at

Handan Handan is a prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Hebei province, China. The southernmost prefecture-level city of the province, it borders Xingtai on the north, and the provinces of Shanxi on the west, Henan on the south and Shando ...

, which was well protected against armies from the south by the course of the

Zhang River The Zhang River is a tributary of the Wei River in China. The river commences at the confluence of the rivers Qingzhang (or Clear Zhang, 清漳河) and Zhuozhang (or Turbid Zhang, 浊漳河), where between She county of Hebei and Linzhou of ...

; as Chen's forces had not rushed to secure and fortify it ahead of the invasion, neither he nor his advisors could be expected to do well in the coming campaign. Chen's men had occupied four-fifths of the 25 cities of

Changshan (; ), also known as (), and (), is a form of , Chinese robe, which was derived from the Qing dynasty , the traditional dress of the Manchu people, which were worn by Manchu men. The was actually developed by the Han Chinese through the modi ...

, but the emperor declined Zhou Chang's suggestion that he punish the towns' governors for failure to withstand the northern army under Chen's command; instead, he accepted that their garrisons had been insufficient to offer meaningful resistance. When the emperor discovered that some of Chen's supporters were former merchants, he encamped at Handan and was able to persuade many to surrender or change sides by offering large bribes.. Chen sent Wang Huang to Modu, the ''

'' of the

to his north, to seek help from the

. For his part, the king of Yan sent Zhang Sheng ( t s ''Zhāng Shèng'') to convince the Xiongnu that Chen's rebellion stood no chance of success and that they should refrain from involving themselves. En route, however, Zhang met Zang Yan ( ''Zāng Yǎn'') whose father Zang Tu had been the previous king of Yan before his execution by the Han emperor. Zang was able to convince him that the emperor would only permit independent states like Yan for as long as they were useful for suppressing others' rebellions; once the country was at peace, the imperial clan would begin dismantling them and executing their royal houses for treason, whether deserved or not. Zhang took this to heart and negotiated with the Xiongnu to ''assist'' Chen. Upon hearing this, Lu Wan initially planned to execute Zhang and his entire family for treason; Zhang, however, was able to return and explain himself, convincing his king that supporting Chen was in his family's own interest. Lu then returned Zhang as his ambassador to the Xiongnu court and sent Fan Qi ( t s ''Fàn Qí'') as an ambassador to Chen's court, pledging Yan's support for his cause. When he discovered how few soldiers he was receiving from Yan and his other vassals, the emperor angrily took four men at random from those milling around Handan and barked, "You fools, do you think you can lead an army for me?" When they knelt awkwardly and silently, he named them generals and provided each one with the tax revenue from a thousand households. When his other commanders protested at the unfairness of this action to men who had served him loyally for years without any such reward, he complained again of the fickleness of his vassals—all of whom had been his comrades in the wars against Qin or Chu—and admonished them that he would need to depend on the local people of the north to defeat Chen's insurrection. In January 196BC, a commoner came before

Empress Lü Lü Zhi (241 BC – 18 August 180 BC), courtesy name E'xu (娥姁) and commonly known as Empress Lü () and formally Empress Gao of Han (), was the empress consort of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Gaozu, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. They h ...

at the Han capital

to plead for the life of his brother, a servant of Han Xin, a general and former king of Qi and Chu who had remained behind during the call to arms because of a grave illness. The servant had offended his master in some way that caused Han to imprison him and threaten him with execution. The brother then told the empress that Han Xin's illness was entirely feigned and that he was secretly in league with Chen Xi's rebellion, having plotted with him the year before while they were both in the capital together. Han was waiting for some message from Chen, whereupon he would forge an imperial pardon for everyone held in the prisons of Chang'an; in the ensuing chaos, he supposedly planned to attack the empress and the crown prince, seizing control of the city. The empress consulted the imperial chancellor

Xiao He Xiao He (257 BC – 16 August 193 BC''xinwei'' day of the 7th month of the 2nd year of Emperor Hui's reign, per vol. 12 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'') was a Chinese calligrapher and politician of the early Western Han dynasty. He served Emperor Gaozu of ...

, who feigned a message of his own that the emperor had defeated and killed Chen Xi, ending the rebellion. Such good news required that nobles in the capital, no matter how ill, should visit the palace to offer congratulations; when Xiao He persuaded Han Xin to do so, he was arrested and executed, along with his family. In the field, the year began with Chen Xi's general Wang Huang and his thousand

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

at Quni (present-day Shunping County,

);. Hou Chang ( ''Hóu Chǎng'') raiding the countryside with a force of around ten thousand men; and Zhang Chun ( t s ''Zhāng Chūn'') crossing the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

with a similar force in order to attack

Liaocheng Liaocheng ( zh, s=, p=Liáochéng), is a prefecture-level city in western Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southeast, Dezhou to the northeast, Tai'an to the south, and the provinces of Hebei and Henan t ...

.. From

, the emperor dispatched forces under his general Guo Meng ( ''Guō Méng'') and the army of the princely state of Qi under its

Cao Shen Cao Shen or Cao Can (died 24 September 190 BCE), courtesy name Jingbo (), was a Chinese military general and politician. He served as a chancellor of the Western Han dynasty. He participated in the Chu–Han Contention on Liu Bang (Emperor Gaoz ...

. Together, they defeated and executed Zhang at Liaocheng and Wang below Quni; Guan Ying was responsible for capturing and executing Hou in the same engagement. The emperor's cousin Liu Ze ( t s ''Liú Zé'') also participated in these battles, for which he was created Marquis of Yingling. The emperor led a siege of Dingyuan (now Zhengding, Hebei). Its governor Zhao Li held out more than a month, with some of his defenders lampooning the emperor from the battlements; upon the town's surrender, Liu Bang—still incensed—offered amnesty for all the rebels provided that they bring him the comics in their midst for execution. Following this victory, he named his son Liu Heng (later posthumously known as the "Wen" or "Literary Emperor") as the legitimate King or Prince of Dai. His eastern forces fully defeated, Chen Xi seems to have fled west into what is now northern Shanxi, where he was joined by Zhao Li and by Han Xin, the former king of Han. The emperor was said to have defeated their combined forces at Loufan near present-day Ningwu. Zhou Bo then led a separate force past

to Mayi (present-day

) at the edge of the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

. When it did not submit to his authority as an agent of the Han Empire, he assaulted and sacked the town. At one of these battles or sometime before the end of the year, Han Xin was finally killed. In late 196BC, the emperor led his army against

Ying Bu Ying Bu (died November or December 196 BC) was a Chinese military general, monarch, politician, and warlord who lived during the early Han dynasty. He was a native of Lu County (六縣; present-day Lu'an, Anhui). In his early life under the Qin ...

while sending Fan Kuai to attack Chen Xi. One captive taken by Fan Kuai told him of Fan Qi's presence at Chen's court; other Xiongnu captives reported Zhang's continued residence with Modu. The emperor then directed Fan Kuai to lead his army against Yan, and Lu fled in exile to the Xiongnu, dying in 194BC.

Life

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links