Emperor Gaozu of Han: Encyclopedia II - Emperor Gaozu of Han - Personality

Emperor Gaozu of Han - Personality

By historians' account, Liu Bang was the contrary to his rival, Xiang Yu. While Xiang Yu was normally depicted as a romantic and noble man, Liu Bang was often mentioned as a rogue. Xiang Yu was always kind and gentle to his peer and subordinates. However, he was inferior in political maneuver. Han Xin described Xiang Yu as "having the kindness of women," meaning that, in his opinion, Xiang's "kindness" was petty and did not benefit either his regime or his people.

Xiang Yu also did not know how to utilize his talented subordinates; Han Xin, for example, was a soldier under Xiang, and his later defection to Liu Bang, for whom he served as the commander in chief, would be extremely damaging to Xiang. Other main problems with Xiang's rule was his deliberate cruelty in military campaigns, his inability to accept criticism and wise counsel, and his inability to delegate.

Liu Bang, on the contrary, was bold and arrogant. These being said, he knew how to manipulate his peers and subordinates. He bid them glory and territories generously when he was fighting Xiang Yu, which won the hearty support of most of his peer princes and subordinates. However, once he became the emperor, Liu Bang ruthlessly oppressed them and executed several of them, most notably Han Xin and Peng Yue. Ying Bu was driven to rebellion by fear, and was also destroyed. Liu's strong suits were his ability to make decisions based on counsel of others, having an uncanny ability to figure out what counsel is wise and what counsel is not wise; his ability to delegate; and his ability to figure out what would bring a person to follow him.

While Liu might have been deliberately derogatory of Xiang, he was not particularly off the mark when he commented on the reason why he was successful and Xiang was not:

An incident involving Ying Bu demonstrates his personality well. Ying Bu was initially a subordinate of Xiang's, and in reward for Ying's military capabilities, Xiang created him the Prince of Jiujiang. However, Xiang also clearly began to distrust Ying, and once when Ying, then ill, was unable to lead a force on Xiang's behalf, Xiang sent a delegation to rebuke him and to monitor his illness, not believing the illness to be genuine. In fear and goaded by the diplomat Sui He (隨何), whom Liu sent to Jiujiang to try to make an alliance with Ying, Ying rebelled against Xiang, but his army was defeated by Xiang and he fled to Liu's headquarters. When Liu received Ying, he was half-naked and washing his feet, and he greeted Ying in crude language. Ying, a great general in his own right and a prince, was so humiliated that he considered suicide. However, once Liu had Ying escorted to the headquarters that he had built in ancitipation of Ying's arrival, Ying became impressed — Ying's headquarters had the same size, same furnishings, same level of personnel staffing, and same security as Liu's own headquarters. Ying got the impression that Liu's earlier slights were in fact endearments, treating him as an equal and a brother in arms, and he became a key figure in Liu's campaign against Xiang.

Xiang Yu was generally remembered as a fallen hero while many considered Liu Bang as a rogue. However, Liu Bang treated the commons much better than the former nobles. He was a true popular monarch, thus establishing one of the golden ages of China.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Personality", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki