What is the meaning of Gao Zu's refusing treatment for his arrow wound?

 On p.88b, SQ suggests that Gao Zu must have been a great sage, emphasizing that by the work of Heaven, he received the mandate to rule as emperor. This is a very interesting image. We will follow it, to see further if SQ also suggests that after receiving the mandate to rule, Gao Zu’s actions qualified him to maintain this mandate and if Heaven granted him a long and prosperous life, protecting him until the end. With this in mind, around p. 83m (11 paragraph starting with “When Gao Zu was fighting Qing Bu”), we learn from SQ that the emperor was wounded by a stray arrow. When empress Lu sent for a doctor, Gao Zu surprisingly refuses treatment saying, according to SQ, that thanks to the will of Heaven he ‘conquered the world” and emphasizing that his “fate lies with Heaven”. Now, if Heaven would still be on his side, one can imagine that he would live. However, because of this wound, which the emperor openly acknowledges as being the work of Heaven as well as his winning of power, he dies, which implies that the will of Heaven was not that he continued to live and maintains the mandate to rule, but consequently, that his mandate ends with his unnatural death. Why would SQ weave those two contradictory threads in the fabric of Gao Zu’s story? Since he writes his chronicle at a time when China is still ruled by the Han, this explains why in the Ch. 16 (p 87 through 88), there is so much praise of Gao Zu and his taking of power is described as the work of Heaven. Yet, under the surface of bravery-refusing treatment, could SQ’s words that the emperor’s fate lies with Heaven bring us back to the moral lessons of previous chapters? At the end of Qin dynasty and that of Xiang Yu’s chapter, SQ says that the qualities needed for conquest are not enough for ruling a state; particularly, that ruling with humanity, righteousness, and cultivating virtue are vital. Could Gao Zu’s death be a subtle way for SQ to suggest that because of not showing these traits (SQ points out several times that he acted arrogant and insulting) Heaven abandoned him in the end? 

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