Chen Sheng

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen.

Chen Sheng (Chinese: 陳勝; died 208 BC), also known in some sources as Chen She (陳涉), was the leader of the first rebellion, known as Daze Village Uprising, against the Qin Dynasty during the reign of Qin Er Shi.

Start of the rebellion

Chen was born in Yangcheng (in present-day Dengfeng, Henan). In 209 BC, he was a military captain along with Wu Guang when the two of them were ordered to lead 900 soldiers to Yuyang (in present-day 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 and Wu, believing that they were doomed, led their soldiers to start 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 and Wu's cause quickly. More than 20,000 men joined. Soon, there were people asking Chen to declare himself the King of Chu. Against the advice of Zhang Er and Chen Yu, Chen Sheng declared himself as such, rather than, as according to their advice, seek out a descendant of Chu's royal house to be the king.

Downfall and death

Chen, setting his capital at Chenqiu (in present-day Zhoukou, 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 and Zhou Wen, whom he ordered to head west toward Qin proper; his friend Wu Chen, whom he ordered to head north toward the old territory of Zhao; and Zhou Fu, 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 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 was paranoid as a king: generals were executed at any sign of infidelity, even by rumors. Chen's ruthlessness and constant defeats in battle made it harder and harder for him to gather followers. Chen was greatly weakened, and as he suffered losses at the hands of Qin's army, he led an expeditory force himself to try to gather reinforcements, but he was assassinated by his guard Zhuang Jia in winter 209 BC-208 BC. His rebellion ended just 6 months after it started.

Chen was often idealized by versions of history promulgated by Chinese historians as a great leader of the peasants against intolerable oppression of the Qin nobility and bourgeois. However, that perception is not reality. Chen's decisions, while motivated by his desire to overthrow Qin, was also often motivated by self-interest and self-aggrandization. He also failed to take in good advice and overly estimated himself. As the Song Dynasty historian Sima Guang wrote in the Zizhi Tongjian:

When Chen Sheng first became 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 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 Zhu 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 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 Chen. The generals had no affection for Chen, and this led to his downfall. (初，陳涉既為王，其故人皆往依之。妻之父亦往焉，陳王以眾賓待之，長揖不拜。妻之父怒曰：「怙亂僭號，而傲長者，不能久矣！」不辭而去。陳王跪謝，遂不為顧。客出入愈益發舒，言陳王故情。或說陳王曰：「客愚無知，顓妄言，輕威。」陳王斬之。諸故人皆自引去，由是無親陳王者。陳王以硃防為中正，胡武為司過，主司群臣。諸將徇地至，令之不是，輒系而罪之。以苛察為忠，其所不善者，弗下吏，輒自治之。諸將以其故不親附，此其所以敗也。)

While Chinese historians may quibble with Sima Guang's characterization of Chen^{[citation needed]}, it appears to be quite correct. He claimed the title of king only months after the start of his rebellion, without a sufficient foundation, and once he did he effectively became stuck in Chenqiu and could not firmly hold territories that were conquered, because the people in the territories did not view him with great affection. While he had his role in the downfall of Qin, he should not be viewed as a hero.

Miscellaneous

Chen Sheng appears^[1] to be the person who coined the Chinese proverb, "How can a little songbird understand the ambitions of a grand swan!" (燕雀安知鴻鵠志), a saying that figures prominently in Chapter 4 of the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

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.

See also

• Daze Village Uprising

References

1. ^ Sima Qian, Shi ji, 48

Titles in pretence
Recreated Daze Village Uprising Title last held by Lord Changping	— TITULAR — King of Chu 210 BC – 209 BC	Succeeded by Jing Ju

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