Dazexiang Uprising (209 BC): Chen Sheng and Wu Guang Revolt

The Dazexiang Uprising of 209 BC was the first great rebellion against the Qin dynasty. About 900 conscripts, stranded by rain on their way to a frontier garrison, killed their officers at Dazexiang in present-day Anhui and rose in revolt under Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. Their movement was crushed within months, but it set off a chain of uprisings that brought down China’s first imperial dynasty and opened the way to the Han.

Background: an empire under strain

The Qin had unified China in 221 BC with a powerful army and a strict legal system. To build roads, walls, palaces and the First Emperor’s tomb, and to garrison distant frontiers, the government conscripted huge numbers of men for labour and military service.

When the First Emperor died in 210 BC, the Shaqiu succession plot placed his younger son Huhai on the throne as the Second Emperor. The new ruler and his adviser, the eunuch Zhao Gao, continued the heavy demands of the previous reign while purging rivals at court.

Resentment was particularly strong in the lands of the former state of Chu, in the middle and lower Yangtze and Huai river valleys. Chu had been the last major kingdom to resist Qin, and its people kept a strong sense of separate identity.

The rain at Dazexiang

In the seventh month of the Second Emperor’s first year, in the summer of 209 BC, a group of about 900 conscripts was ordered to garrison Yuyang, near modern Beijing. Many of them were poor men from Chu. Chen Sheng, from Yangcheng, and Wu Guang, from Yangxia, were squad leaders among them.

At Dazexiang, a village in Qi County, heavy rain flooded the roads. The men realised they could not reach Yuyang by the deadline. According to Sima Qian, the law demanded death for late arrival, so the two leaders reasoned that they would die whether they fled or went on, and might as well die fighting for a cause.

Sima Qian also records the tricks they used to win the men’s trust. They wrote “Chen Sheng will be king” on a piece of silk and hid it in a fish that the soldiers bought and cooked. At night, Wu Guang hid near a shrine, lit a fire and called out like a fox: “Great Chu will rise, Chen Sheng will be king.” The soldiers began to look on Chen Sheng with awe.

The revolt begins

Wu Guang deliberately provoked the two Qin officers escorting the troops. When one drew his sword, Wu Guang seized it and killed him, and Chen Sheng killed the other. Chen Sheng then addressed the men. He told them that even if they escaped execution, most garrison soldiers died on the frontier, and asked the question that made the revolt famous: “Are kings, nobles, generals and ministers born to their station?”

The rebels claimed to act in the names of Fusu, the popular eldest son of the First Emperor, and Xiang Yan, a respected general of Chu. Neither man was alive, but many people did not yet know it. The rebels took Dazexiang and Qi County, and their army grew quickly as they marched.

By the time they reached Chen, the former Chu capital in modern Henan, Sima Qian says they had 600 to 700 chariots, over 1,000 cavalry and tens of thousands of foot soldiers. At Chen, Chen Sheng declared himself king of a revived state called Zhang Chu, meaning “Expanding Chu”.

Spread and defeat

Chen Sheng sent armies in several directions. Wu Guang besieged the important city of Xingyang. Another general, Zhou Wen, marched west and broke through into the Qin heartland, reaching Xi, close to the capital Xianyang, reportedly with a large army.

The Qin court responded by freeing the convicts and labourers working on the First Emperor’s tomb at Mount Li and arming them under the official Zhang Han. Zhang Han defeated Zhou Wen and drove him back east, where Zhou Wen killed himself.

The rebellion was also weakened by internal divisions. Generals sent to conquer other regions declared themselves kings in their own right. Outside Xingyang, Wu Guang was murdered by his subordinate Tian Zang, who claimed he was incompetent. Zhang Han then destroyed the rebel armies one by one.

Chen Sheng retreated and, in the twelfth month of the same year (the winter of 209–208 BC), he was killed by his own charioteer, Zhuang Jia, who surrendered to Qin. The uprising had lasted about six months.

Key people

• Chen Sheng (died 208 BC): a former farm labourer who became the rebel king of Zhang Chu. Sima Qian records that as a young man he told his fellow workers he had great ambitions.
• Wu Guang (died 208 BC): Chen Sheng’s partner, who led the killing of the Qin officers and the siege of Xingyang.
• Zhou Wen: the rebel general who pushed deepest into Qin territory before being defeated.
• Zhang Han (died 205 BC): the Qin official whose army of convicts crushed the first rebels. He later surrendered to Xiang Yu.

Consequences

The collapse of Chen Sheng’s kingdom did not end the rebellion. Within about two months of the Dazexiang revolt, other leaders had risen across the east. Xiang Liang and his nephew Xiang Yu rebelled in the Kuaiji region, and Liu Bang, a minor official, took control of Pei County. Old royal houses of the conquered states reappeared.

Xiang Yu’s victory over Qin forces at Julu in 207 BC and Liu Bang’s capture of the Qin capital later that year ended the dynasty. The struggle between these two men decided who would rule China next, a contest that included the famous Hongmen Banquet and ended with the founding of the Han dynasty.

Myths and facts

The death penalty for lateness. The idea that Qin executed men for arriving late is central to the story. Yet Qin statutes on bamboo slips excavated at Shuihudi in Hubei in 1975 set penalties of reprimands and fines for late arrival in labour service. Some historians suggest the rule for military garrisons was different, or that Chen Sheng exaggerated the danger to persuade the men. The question remains open.

A peasant revolution. Chinese historians in the 20th century often described the revolt as the first great peasant uprising. Its leaders were indeed poor men, but their goals, such as reviving the kingdom of Chu, were largely traditional rather than social reform.

Timeline

• 210 BC: The First Emperor dies; Huhai becomes the Second Emperor.
• 209 BC, seventh month: Conscripts revolt at Dazexiang under Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.
• 209 BC: Chen Sheng takes Chen and proclaims the kingdom of Zhang Chu.
• 209 BC: Xiang Liang, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang launch their own revolts.
• Winter 209–208 BC: Zhang Han defeats Zhou Wen; Wu Guang is murdered.
• Winter 209–208 BC: Chen Sheng is killed by his charioteer.
• 207 BC: Xiang Yu defeats the Qin army at Julu.

Why it matters

The Dazexiang Uprising showed that the seemingly all-powerful Qin state could be challenged by ordinary men. Sima Qian honoured Chen Sheng by placing his biography among the “hereditary houses” usually reserved for nobles, and the Han founder Liu Bang assigned households to tend his tomb. Chen Sheng’s question about kings and nobles still echoes as one of China’s best-known challenges to inherited privilege.