The Fall of Chu and the Ascendancy of Liu Bang

The collapse of Xiang Yu’s Western Chu in 202 BCE marked the definitive end of the power struggles that followed the Qin Dynasty’s disintegration. As Liu Bang’s forces marched westward, his generals and allied kings repeatedly petitioned him to assume the title of emperor. After a series of ceremonial refusals—a Confucian gesture of humility—Liu Bang staged his enthronement ceremony by the Si River, proclaiming himself emperor and establishing Luoyang as the capital. Thus, he became China’s third imperial ruler after Qin Shi Huang and his ill-fated successor, Qin Er Shi.

Unlike Qin Shi Huang, who had unified China through sheer military force, Liu Bang’s authority rested on a fragile coalition. The feudal lords who endorsed him retained significant autonomy, reducing his initial reign to a symbolic overlordship akin to Xiang Yu’s earlier hegemony. To consolidate power, Liu Bang redistributed territories: Peng Yue became King of Liang, Han Xin was reassigned as King of Chu, and loyalists like Wu Rui and Ying Bu received key fiefdoms. However, distrust lingered—especially toward Zang Tu, the Yan king, whose domain Liu Bang soon annexed, replacing him with his confidant Lu Wan.

Post-War Reconstruction and the Challenge of Governance

With the empire nominally pacified, Liu Bang prioritized recovery. He issued sweeping decrees: demobilizing armies, emancipating enslaved individuals, pardoning convicts, and incentivizing Han soldiers with tax exemptions and land grants. Yet beneath these reforms lay unresolved tensions. The emperor’s court in Luoyang was chaotic, with drunken brawls and a lack of decorum among his rough-hewn generals. The scholar Shu Suntong intervened, designing a Confucian-inspired ceremonial protocol to instill hierarchy. When implemented in 200 BCE at the newly completed Changle Palace, the transformation was striking—officials now moved with disciplined reverence, prompting Liu Bang to remark, “Now I understand the dignity of emperorship.”

The Purge of the Feudal Lords

Liu Bang’s greatest vulnerability was the semi-independent kings whose armies had helped him defeat Xiang Yu. Paranoid about their potential to rebel, he systematically dismantled their power. The first target was Han Xin, the brilliant strategist whose military prowess made him a latent threat. In 201 BCE, under fabricated charges of treason, Han Xin was lured to a meeting, arrested, and demoted to marquis—a prelude to his eventual execution. Similar fates befell Peng Yue (tricked into exile, then executed) and Ying Bu (driven to revolt and killed). By 195 BCE, only two non-imperial kings remained: Lu Wan (who fled to the Xiongnu) and Wu Chen of Changsha.

To fill the vacuum, Liu Bang installed his relatives—sons like Liu Fei (King of Qi) and brothers like Liu Jiao (King of Chu)—establishing a precedent for dynastic nepotism. In 195 BCE, he formalized this policy with the “White Horse Oath,” swearing that only Liu clan members could hold royal titles.

Institutional Innovations and Control Mechanisms

Liu Bang’s regime introduced measures to curb feudal autonomy:
– Demographic Engineering: Forcibly relocating eastern elites to the Guanzhong heartland to prevent rebellion.
– Economic Barriers: Restricting cross-border trade, especially in strategic goods like horses.
– Enclave Strategy: Splitting kingdoms by inserting loyalist marquisates, as seen when Qi lost a third of its territory to new fiefs.

Despite these controls, kingdoms retained legislative and military independence, as evidenced by legal texts from Zhangjiashan Tomb (1980s), which reveal a quasi-international system between Han and its vassals.

Diplomacy and the Periphery: Han and Its Neighbors

The Xiongnu Threat
The nomadic Xiongnu, unified under Modu Chanyu, exploited China’s post-war weakness. Liu Bang’s disastrous 200 BCE campaign ended with his army trapped at Baideng Mountain, forcing a humiliating peace via marriage alliances and tributes—a template for Han-Xiongnu relations until汉武帝’s reign.

Southern Frontiers: The Baiyue and Nanyue
In the south, former Qin territories like Minyue and Nanyue (under Zhao Tuo) negotiated autonomy. Zhao Tuo’s nominal submission in 196 BCE—secured through diplomat Lu Jia’s threats—masked de facto independence, flaring into open conflict under Empress Lü.

The Korean Frontier
Exiled Yan general Wei Man seized control of Gojoseon (northern Korea), creating a hybrid Sino-Korean state that later acknowledged Han suzerainty.

Legacy: The Han Blueprint

Liu Bang’s reign crystallized a hybrid imperial-feudal model, balancing centralized authority with regional flexibility. His dynasty’s longevity—unlike the Qin’s collapse—validated this approach, blending Legalist control with Confucian ritual. The Han’s ability to co-opt, contain, and occasionally crush rival power centers became a template for later Chinese empires, while its struggles with the Xiongnu foreshadowed the eternal tug-of-war between agrarian China and its nomadic neighbors.

The artifacts of his era—the “Eternal Sun and Moon” inscribed bricks, the ceremonial bronzes of Yunnan—speak to a culture both martial and aspirational, laying foundations for four centuries of Han dominance and a cultural identity that endures today.