Sima Qian: Gov of Pei

 

[Q48]  Sima Qian began the era of the Han Dynasty with biographies of two rebels, two commoners named Chen She and Xiang Yu.  They started and continued a revolution, but in his judgment, neither could succeed because despite courage, they had no wisdom.  In the midst of the chaos, the historian quietly introduced the third commoner, the governor of Pei.  He never gave the governor a name.  But Sima Qian did point out two things about this minor Qin official turned rebel:  the skies over his camp “was full of shapes like dragons and tigers” [Q28m], and by the way, he had already conquered the Pass and the Qin capital city of Xianyang [Q28t].  Xiang Yu ultimately failed in part because he should have remembered history and not turned his back on the physical Pass that had protected and enabled Qin to gather its forces and unify the world.  He should also not have turned his back on the metaphorical Pass, the unnamed governor of Pei. 

The governor was smart enough to turn his victory into a peace offering to Xiang Yu, and to accept his “reward” of kingship over poor territory.  Then this new king broke with the dictator who had broken faith with him, and it would seem Heaven was on his side: in one of his many escapes from Xiang Yu, a great wind arose and caused enough havoc to allow the king to escape [Q37b-38t].  The king had qualities of a good ruler: he listened to advisors on strategy[Q39m], he inspired loyalty and confidence in his generals [Q40], and he understood the codes of honor when Lu refused to submit [Q47mb].  Finally, he demonstrated his virtue when he buried Xiang Yu with full ceremony and mourning, and made sure the Xiang family survived to honour the dead.  In this story within a story, the Grand Historian juxtaposed Xiang Yu, a man similar to the First Emperor in many ways in that he ruled by force without understanding how to nurture a country, with a man who was going to succeed because he recognized a path of honour and responsibility. 

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