Looking through Sima Qian's biographies during the Chu-Han period in "Historical Records", we can actually find no evidence that Xiang Yu looked down on Liu Bang, or even clear evidence that Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were brothers. .
The so-called Xiang Yu despises Liu Bang should be the world's speculation about Xiang Yu who has higher eyes than his head. If we insist on saying that Xiang Yu despises Liu Bang, then it should be said that Xiang Yu despised everyone in the world at that time. Before Xiang Yu died, he blamed Heaven for his failure, thinking that he was defeated by Heaven instead of Liu Bang. Only in this paragraph, it can be barely seen that Xiang Yu looks down on Liu Bang, and also looks down on any prince who is at odds with him.
According to Sima Qian's records in "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu", Xiang Yu's Chu army was getting smaller and smaller, their food and grass had been eaten up, and they were surrounded by Liu Bang's Han army on three levels inside and three outside. . When Xiang Yu was at his wits' end, he suddenly heard the lamentations of the Chu people outside. His mentality completely collapsed. He suspected that all Chu lands had been occupied by Liu Bang, so he drank.
While Xiang Yu was drinking, he suddenly became interested in reciting poems. Immediately he sang a Chu song with the theme of the love triangle between Xiang Yu, Yu Ji and Wu Zhenma. The song said:
"Strengthen the mountain and the world is overwhelming, but the times are unfavorable and the brilliance will not fade away."
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"There is nothing you can do if you are immortal, but you can do nothing if you are pregnant!"
The black horse cannot speak, but Yu Ji can. Therefore, when Xiang Yu recited poems, the beauty Yu Ji was standing beside him. When the sergeants on Xiang Yu's left and right saw this scene, they knew that Xiang Yu's mentality had collapsed. The once arrogant overlord of Western Chu also began to lament that there was nothing he could do, so they all cried too.
After crying, Xiang Yu took eight hundred warriors and fled overnight. Xiang Yu's beloved beauty Yu Ji either committed suicide, was killed by Xiang Yu, or was abandoned by Xiang Yu. Anyway, Xiang Yu only brought 800 warriors with him, not Yu Ji.
Xiang Yu ran and ran with his followers, and Liu Bang's Han army chased him at dawn. When Xiang Yu read the Huai River, there were only more than a hundred warriors left out of the eight hundred. Then he got lost again and asked a farmer for directions. The farmer tricked Xiang Yu and pointed him to the swamp. Seeing that the Han army was about to catch up, Xiang Yu ran again. When he reached the east city, there were only twenty-eight people left beside Xiang Yu.
Back then, Xiang Yu led his eight thousand soldiers to the west, but now there are only twenty-eight of them. Xiang Yu looked at the Han army’s pursuers. There were at least several thousand. After thinking about it, he felt that he He might not be able to run away, so he decided to fight the Han army to show off his power for the last time. Then, Xiang Yu began to mobilize the twenty-eight people around him before the war. Xiang Yu blamed his failure on the sky, saying that the sky was going to let him fail. Xiang Yu is incompetent.
Everyone should pay attention to this feeling. Xiang Yu said this to boost morale, so it cannot be completely regarded as the voice deep in Xiang Yu's heart.
Furthermore, if you look carefully at Xiang Yu's pre-war mobilization, one part is an obvious lie. This part is "Those who are in charge are defeated, those who are attacked are subdued, and they are not defeated." Xiang Yu boasted this When you were a bull, did you forget that you were determined not to defeat Tao? Have you forgotten about the time when you were a prostitute and failed to win? Why is this called "those who are defeated are defeated, those who are attacked are subdued, and they are not defeated"? Staring and telling lies.
Therefore, it is actually incorrect to use this story to say that Xiang Yu looked down on Liu Bang.
The so-called Xiang Yu and Liu Bang became brothers also comes from "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu".
But this statement was made by Liu Bang himself and was not recognized by Xiang Yu or Sima Qian. I even doubt that Xiang Yu never became brothers with Liu Bang at all.
As I said before, Xiang Yu told lies when he was mobilizing before the war. But telling lies is not Xiang Yu's patent. Liu Bang also told lies when he criticized Xiang Yu.
Sima Qian recorded in "The Chronicles of the Great Ancestor" that when Liu Bang listed Xiang Yu's ten crimes, he said, "When King Huai made an appointment to enter Qin, Xiang Yu burned Qin's palace, dug up the tomb of the First Emperor, and confiscated his property. , Crime 4. "Liu Bang said that Xiang Yu "died the tomb of the First Emperor", which should be false and has not been reflected in other biographies. It feels like Liu Bang exaggerated the facts when he accused Xiang Yu.
Liu Bang said that he and Xiang Yu were "brothers". It was the same. It felt like Liu Bang came up with the excuse to prevent Xiang Yu from killing Taigong Liu.
Anyway, I, Liu Bang, said that we were once ministers of King Huai and we were brothers. It’s not easy for you, Xiang Yu, to refute, right? Is it true that we are both servants of King Huai? If I follow the false with the true, others will believe that what I say is true, right? Besides, I said that we are brothers, how can you refute me? If you say there is no such thing, will others believe it? Do others think you are anxious to clear up the relationship?
Don’t believe everything you say when you show off your rhetoric.