XIANG YU THE CONQUEROR PARTS WITH HIS CONSORT

(Ba Wang Bie Ji)

The events took place in the year 202 B. C. after the fall of the Qin dynasty, when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, at the head of two opposing forces, were contending for control of the empire.

Liu appointed Han Xin commander of strategic offensive against Xiang Yu. Han spotted a mountain in favourable terrain for a large - scale ambush and ordered one of his chief captains to feign surrender to Xiang in order to induce his troops into the trap.

The scheme worked. Xiang Yu, who gave himself the title of "Ba Wang" (Prince Conqueror) and who was more renowned for his courage and physical prowess than for his shrewdness, took the bait and ordered an onslaught. This he did against the advice of his followers and of his favourite consort Yu Ji (Lady Yu), who usually accompanied him on his campaigns.

The result was a debacle for Xiang Yu, who found himself with his remnant army tightly encircled at a place called Gaixia (in present - day Anhui province.)

Furthermore, Han got people to sing the popular songs of Chu all around Xiang Yu's troops. Now Chu was the base from which Xiang had risen to fame, and most of his soldiers came from there; hearing these songs gave them the strong suspicion that their homeland had fallen to the enemy. By this ruse, Han succeeded in demoralizing the Chu soldiers.

Xiang Yu himself, too, felt that the game was as good ass lost. Lady Yu tried to console him but failed to dispel his qualms. She asked him to sit down for dinner in the army tent while she performed a graceful and dexterous double - sword dance to distract him from his worries.

But the news became worse every minute, with Liu Bang's troops intensifying their attacks and Xiang's own men deserting to the enemy. The only way out was to break through the encirclement.

Xiang Yu had his black steed brought to him. Confiding his apprehensions to it, he bemoaned the miserable end in store for them. In an extemporaneous song he also expressed his worries to the steed for the safety of Lady Yu, who by now had dissolved in tears.

Lady Yu, for fear that she might prove a burden to her husband in an attempt to break through, ended her life with a sword.

Xiang Yu fought gallantly through the encirclement with some hundred of his faithful followers until he arrived at the Wujiang River with twenty - six men left, still pursued by the enemy. A boatman offered to ferry him across to the east side of the river. The mention of "east side" reminded him of his start with 8,000 men of that region; now with nearly all of them lost, he asked himself how could he face the elders of his homeland?

Seeing no way out, he committed suicide by the side of the river. He was only thirty - one. Thus a great hero met with his tragic end and the country was soon once again unified under a single dynasty, that of the Han (206 B. C. - 220 A. D.)