Hongmen Banquet (206 BC): Liu Bang's Escape from Xiang Yu

The Hongmen Banquet was a tense meeting in 206 BC between the two leading rebels who had overthrown the Qin dynasty, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. At Xiang Yu’s camp at Hongmen, east of the Qin capital, Xiang Yu’s adviser Fan Zeng plotted to have Liu Bang killed during the feast, but Xiang Yu hesitated and Liu Bang escaped. Four years later Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu and founded the Han dynasty, making the banquet one of the most famous missed chances in Chinese history.

Background: two rebels and one prize

After the First Emperor died in 210 BC, revolts spread across China, beginning with the Dazexiang Uprising. The rebels of the former state of Chu set up King Huai as their nominal ruler. He promised that whoever first entered Guanzhong, the Qin heartland in the Wei River valley, would be made its king.

Xiang Yu, a young general from a noble Chu family, took the hardest task: fighting the main Qin army. He destroyed it at Julu in 207 BC. Liu Bang, a former village official from Pei, took a southern route and reached the capital first. Late in 207 BC the last Qin ruler, Ziying, surrendered to him.

Liu Bang sealed the Qin treasuries and withdrew his army to Bashang. Xiang Yu then forced his way through the Hangu Pass with a far larger army and camped at Hongmen, near Xinfeng. According to Sima Qian, Xiang Yu had about 400,000 men and Liu Bang about 100,000. These are the historian’s figures and are probably rounded.

The warning in the night

An officer of Liu Bang named Cao Wushang secretly sent word to Xiang Yu that Liu Bang planned to rule Guanzhong as king, with Ziying as his chancellor. Xiang Yu was furious and ordered an attack for the next morning. His chief adviser, the elderly Fan Zeng, urged him to strike, warning that Liu Bang had shown unusual restraint in the capital, a sign of great ambition.

Xiang Yu’s uncle, Xiang Bo, was a friend of Liu Bang’s adviser Zhang Liang, who had once saved his life. Xiang Bo rode through the night to warn Zhang Liang to flee. Instead, Zhang Liang took him to Liu Bang. Liu Bang flattered Xiang Bo, proposed a marriage alliance between their families and insisted he had only been guarding the capital for Xiang Yu. Xiang Bo returned and persuaded his nephew not to attack.

The banquet

The next morning Liu Bang rode to Hongmen with about a hundred horsemen to apologise. Xiang Yu accepted his explanation and invited him to a feast.

Sima Qian records the seating in detail. Xiang Yu and Xiang Bo sat facing east, the place of honour. Fan Zeng sat facing south. Liu Bang sat facing north, and Zhang Liang, in attendance, faced west. The arrangement made clear who was superior.

During the meal Fan Zeng repeatedly glanced at Xiang Yu and three times raised the jade jue, a ring-shaped pendant, as a signal to act. Xiang Yu ignored him.

Fan Zeng then went out and told Xiang Zhuang, a cousin of Xiang Yu, to offer a sword dance as entertainment and use it as an opportunity to strike Liu Bang. Xiang Zhuang began his dance, but Xiang Bo rose and danced too, using his own body to shield Liu Bang.

Fan Kuai bursts in

Alarmed, Zhang Liang slipped out to the gate and told Liu Bang’s bodyguard Fan Kuai that the situation was critical. Fan Kuai, armed with sword and shield, forced his way past the guards into the tent and glared at Xiang Yu.

Impressed, Xiang Yu offered him a cup of wine and a raw pork shoulder. Fan Kuai drank the wine and cut and ate the meat on his shield. He then gave a speech reproaching Xiang Yu: Liu Bang had taken the capital first and waited loyally for Xiang Yu, yet now Xiang Yu listened to slander and wanted to kill a man of merit, which would be no better than the Qin. Xiang Yu had no answer and invited him to sit.

The escape

Soon afterwards Liu Bang rose, saying he needed to relieve himself, and called Fan Kuai outside. Fan Kuai urged him to leave without taking formal leave, saying in a line that became proverbial that the other side were the knife and chopping board, and they were the fish and meat.

Liu Bang left his carriage and escaped on horseback, with Fan Kuai and three others following on foot, by a shorter path back to his camp at Bashang. Zhang Liang stayed behind to cover his departure. When he judged that Liu Bang had reached safety, he presented a pair of white jade discs to Xiang Yu and a pair of jade cups to Fan Zeng.

Xiang Yu accepted the gift. Fan Zeng threw his cups on the ground and smashed them with his sword. According to Sima Qian, he predicted that Liu Bang would one day take the empire from Xiang Yu. On returning to camp, Liu Bang had Cao Wushang executed.

Key people

• Xiang Yu (232–202 BC): the most powerful rebel general, later Hegemon-King of Western Chu.
• Liu Bang (died 195 BC): then known as the Lord of Pei; later Emperor Gaozu of Han.
• Fan Zeng (died 204 BC): Xiang Yu’s chief adviser, who urged him to kill Liu Bang.
• Xiang Bo (died 192 BC): Xiang Yu’s uncle, who protected Liu Bang and was later rewarded by the Han.
• Zhang Liang (died c. 186 BC): Liu Bang’s strategist.
• Fan Kuai (died 189 BC): Liu Bang’s bodyguard and brother-in-law, later a Han general.

Consequences

A few days after the banquet Xiang Yu entered Xianyang, killed Ziying and burned the Qin palaces. He divided China into eighteen kingdoms and sent Liu Bang far away to Hanzhong as King of Han. Within months Liu Bang broke out, and the Chu-Han civil war began.

Fan Zeng’s prediction came true. In 204 BC a ruse by Liu Bang’s adviser Chen Ping turned Xiang Yu against Fan Zeng, who left in anger and died on the journey home. In 202 BC Xiang Yu was defeated at the Battle of Gaixia and took his own life, and Liu Bang became emperor, completing the founding of the Han dynasty.

Myths and facts

How reliable is the story? The banquet is accepted as a real event, but the only detailed account is Sima Qian’s, written about a century later in his Records of the Grand Historian. The dialogue, glances and gestures are dramatic reconstructions, possibly shaped by oral tradition and by the Han view of Xiang Yu as a brave but indecisive leader.

Why did Xiang Yu spare Liu Bang? Sima Qian suggests pride and sentiment: Xiang Yu could not bring himself to kill a man who had apologised under his roof. Historians also point out that killing a fellow rebel commander who had surrendered so publicly might have damaged Xiang Yu’s reputation among the other allied leaders.

Timeline

• 209 BC: Revolts against Qin begin; Liu Bang rises in Pei.
• 207 BC: Xiang Yu destroys the main Qin army at Julu.
• Late 207 BC: Ziying surrenders to Liu Bang near Xianyang.
• 206 BC: Xiang Yu forces the Hangu Pass and camps at Hongmen.
• 206 BC: The Hongmen Banquet; Liu Bang escapes to Bashang.
• 206 BC: Xiang Yu burns Xianyang; Liu Bang is made King of Han.
• 202 BC: Xiang Yu dies after Gaixia; Liu Bang becomes emperor.

Why it matters

The Hongmen Banquet decided nothing on the day, yet it shaped the future of China. It has become a byword for a trap disguised as hospitality, and it has given Chinese several lasting idioms. The scene of the sword dance remains one of the best-known stories in Chinese literature, opera and film.