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26-534: The region near Mount Mangdang played an important role during the late Qin uprisings. Chen Sheng , leader of the first rebellion against the Qin, was buried under the hill. In 210 BC, the future Emperor Gaozu of Han declared his rebellion at Mount Mangdang, in a famous event known as the " Slaying of the White Serpent ". A shrine for Emperor Gaozu was constructed at the site during Emperor Wen of Han 's reign. The structure

52-488: A courtier of Duke Xian 's, accompanying his personal carriage. After a successful military expedition, Bi Wan was granted Wei, from which his own descendants then founded the house of Wei. Jin's political structure was drastically changed after the slaughter of its ruling dynasty during and after the Li Ji Unrest . Afterwards, "Jin ha[d] no princely house" ( 晉無公卿 ) and its political power diffused into extended relations of

78-448: A descendant of the royal house of Wei to be the King of Wei, also independent of Chu. A major reason why Wu Chen and the generals who assassinated Wu Guang broke away was that Chen Sheng was paranoid as a king: generals were executed at any sign of infidelity, even by rumours. Chen Sheng's ruthlessness and constant defeats in battle made it harder and harder for him to gather followers. Chen Sheng

104-408: A fish. Happy to have the catch at first, Longyang had wanted to throw it back when he caught a better fish. He wept, "I am also a previously-caught fish! I will also be thrown back!" To show his fidelity to Longyang, the king declared that, "Anyone who dares to speak of other beauties will be executed along with his entire family". In traditional Chinese astronomy , Wei is represented by one star in

130-546: A great leader of the peasants against intolerable oppression of the Qin nobility and bourgeois . However, that perception is not reality. Chen Sheng's decisions, while motivated by his desire to overthrow Qin, were often driven by self-interest and an illusory sense of superiority; as a result he often failed to act on good advice. As the Song dynasty historian Sima Guang wrote in the Zizhi Tongjian : When Chen Sheng first became

156-671: A national treasure. Chen Sheng Chen Sheng (died c. January 208 BC ), also known as Chen She ("She" being his courtesy name ), posthumously known as King Yin , was the leader of the Dazexiang Uprising , the first rebellion against the Qin dynasty . It occurred during the reign of the Second Qin Emperor . Chen Sheng was born in Yangcheng (陽城; in present-day Fangcheng County , Henan ). In August or September 209 BC, he

182-540: A rebellion. They announced that Fusu , the crown prince of Qin, who had wrongly been forced to commit suicide, and Xiang Yan , a general of Chu , had not died and were joining their cause. They also declared the reestablishment of Chu. Using 900 men to resist an empire seemed to be a suicidal move, but the people, who had felt deeply oppressed by the Qin regime, joined Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's cause quickly. More than 20,000 men joined. Soon, there were people asking Chen Sheng to declare himself "King of Chu ". Acting against

208-557: The Han dynasty Kings of Liang . During the Three Kingdoms era, Cao Cao led his army to loot the tombs, greatly enriching himself and his soldiers. Currently, several tombs belonging to Liang kings and their families have been discovered, most notably that of the King Xiao of Liang . A mural named Sishen Yunqi Tu ( 四神云气图 ), discovered in the mausoleum of King Gong of Liang , is considered

234-518: The Grand Historian written in the first centuryBCE, the list of rulers is slightly different: King Hui died in 335BCE and was succeeded by his son King Xiang in 334BCE. King Xiang died in 319BCE and was succeeded by his son King Ai ( 哀王 ), who died in 296BCE and was succeeded by his son King Zhao. However, the majority of scholars and commentators believe that King Ai, whose personal name is not recorded, never existed. It seems that Sima Qian assigned

260-609: The King of Chu, his relatives and friends all arrived to join him, as did his father-in-law. But when his father-in-law arrived, Chen treated him as an ordinary guest and only made a slight bow and did not kneel to him. His father-in-law became angry and stated, "You are leading a rebellion and falsely claiming the title of a king, but you are arrogant toward your elders: You surely cannot last." He turned to leave without further discussion, and even though Chen knelt to ask for his forgiveness, he ignored Chen. Later, when there were more and more relatives and friends arriving, they were discussing

286-480: The advice of Zhang Er and Chen Yu , Chen Sheng declared himself "King of Rising Chu" ( 張楚王 ). Chen Sheng, setting his capital at Chen County (陳縣; in present-day Huaiyang , Henan ), then commissioned various generals to advance in all directions to conquer Qin territory. Among these were: Wu Guang, whom he created acting "King of Chu"; Zhou Wen ( 周文 ), whom he ordered to head west toward Qin proper; his friend Wu Chen ( 武臣 ), whom he ordered to head north toward

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312-625: The ambitions of a grand swan!" ( 燕雀安知鴻鵠志 ), a saying that figures prominently in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms . He sometimes appears as a door god in Chinese and Taoist temples , usually paired with Wu Guang . The pattern of an impostor and his general, founded by Chen Sheng, was closely followed by Han Shantong and Liu Futong in the end of Yuan dynasty . Wei (state) Wei ( / w eɪ / ; Chinese : 魏 ; pinyin : Wèi )

338-610: The generals conquered cities and returned, the two of them often criticized and nit-picked on the commands issued by those generals or their acts; often, if they felt the commands or the acts were not lawful, they would arrest the generals. Chen considered those who are strict to be the most faithful ones. The ones that Chen did not like were either given over to courts martial or personally punished by him. The generals had no affection for Chen, and this led to his downfall. While Chinese historians may quibble with Sima Guang's characterization of Chen, it appears to be quite correct. He claimed

364-445: The old territory of Zhao ; Zhou Fu ( 周敷 ), whom he ordered to head northeast toward the old territory of Wei . However, none of these generals returned. After initial defeats Qin forces regrouped under general Zhang Han . Wu Guang was assassinated by generals under him; Zhou Wen was defeated by Qin forces; Wu Chen was initially successful but then declared himself the King of Zhao and became independent of Chu; and Zhou Fu supported

390-454: The reigns of its first two rulers, Marquess Wen of Wei and Marquess Wu of Wei . The third ruler, King Hui of Wei (reign 369–319 BC), declared himself an independent sovereign and concentrated on economic developments, including irrigation projects at the Yellow River and adoption of Legalist reforms proposed by Li Kui ( Chinese : 李悝 , c. 459 – c. 395 BCE). Hui felt that Qin in

416-549: The ruling family, including the Wei. In the last years of the Spring and Autumn period , the founders of Wei, Zhao , and Han joined to attack and kill the dominant house of Zhi ( 知 ) in 453 BCE, resulting in the partition of Jin . King Weilie of Zhou finally legitimized the situation in 403 BCE, when he elevated the three houses' heads to the rank of marquess ( Chinese : 侯 ; pinyin : hóu ). The state reached its apogee during

442-632: The second part of the reign of King Hui (starting in 334BCE, on which date Marquess Hui probably proclaimed himself King) to his son King Xiang and added King Ai to fill in the gap between 319 and 296BCE. On the other hand, a minority of scholars believe King Ai did indeed exist. According to the Records of the Warring States , a king of Wei had a lover named Lord Longyang, with whom he enjoyed fishing. One day, Longyang began to weep. When questioned, Longyang said he saw his own future in how he had treated

468-456: The stories when Chen was young. Someone suggested, "The old friends and guests of Your Royal Highness are foolish and often liked to talk in vain; they will damage your image and hurt your reputation." Chen executed a good number of his old friends, and therefore his friends began to leave him and not follow him. Chen made Zhou Fang to be his examination minister and Hu Wu to be the head of his guard, to be in charge of intelligence and security. When

494-514: The title of king only months after the start of his rebellion, without a sufficient foundation. Once he did, he effectively became stuck in Chen County and could not firmly hold territories that were conquered, because the people in the territories did not view him with great affection . According to Shiji , Chen Sheng was the person who coined the Chinese proverb, "How can a little songbird understand

520-457: The west bank of the Yellow River between the border of modern-day Shanxi and Shaanxi , to Qin. Thereafter, it remained continuously at war with Qin, requiring the capital to be moved from Anyi to Daliang . Wei surrendered to Qin in 225 BCE, after the Qin general Wang Ben diverted the Yellow River into Daliang, destroying the capital in a flood. According to Sima Qian 's Records of

546-413: The west was weak and their land a barren waste. He focused on conquering the well-settled eastern lands which were richer in known resources, but a series of battles including the battle of Maling in 341 BCE checked Wei's ambitions while Qin's expansion went largely unimpeded, boosting its economy and military strength. Wei eventually lost the western Hexi (河西) region, a strategic area of pastoral land on

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572-486: Was a military captain along with Wu Guang when the two of them were ordered to lead 900 soldiers to Yuyang (漁陽; southwest of present-day Miyun County , Beijing ) to help defend the northern border against Xiongnu . Due to storms, it became clear that they could not get to Yuyang by the deadline, and according to law, if soldiers could not get to their posts on time, they would be executed. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, believing that they were doomed, led their soldiers to start

598-564: Was also called Liang ( Chinese : 梁 ; pinyin : Liáng ). Not to be confused with the Wey state 衞, which is still sometimes only differentiated by its Chinese character in scholarship. Surviving sources trace the ruling house of Wei to the Zhou royalty: Gao, Duke of Bi ( 畢公高 ), was a son of King Wen of Zhou . His descendants took their surname , Bi , from his fief . After the destruction of Bi, Bi Wan ( 畢萬 ) escaped to Jin , where he became

624-472: Was greatly weakened, and as he suffered losses at the hands of the Qin army, he personally led a force to try to gather reinforcements, but he was assassinated by his guard Zhuang Jia in c. January 208 BC. He died just five months after his rebellion began. However, his act of defiance provided the spark of inspiration which eventually led to the fall of the Qin dynasty. Chen Sheng was often idealized by versions of history promulgated by Chinese historians as

650-476: Was one of the seven major states during the Warring States period of ancient China. It was created from the three-way Partition of Jin , together with Han and Zhao . Its territory lay between the states of Qin and Qi and included parts of modern-day Henan , Hebei , Shanxi , and Shandong . After its capital was moved from Anyi to Daliang (present-day Kaifeng ) during the reign of King Hui , Wei

676-589: Was subsequently destroyed and reconstructed for several times; the current buildings date to the Qing dynasty . In later times, Mount Mangdang saw several battles in various peasant rebellions, including Li Zicheng 's revolt and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. In the Sino-Japanese War , Lu Yuting ( 魯雨亭 ), a Kuomintang general, was killed in combat in this area. Mount Mangdang hosts mausoleums of

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