Li Bai: loose translations
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Like many others at the time, 206 BCE, Xiang Yu and Xiang Liang rebelled against the Qin. They rallied eight thousand men and said they wanted to restore the Chu states. Lui Bang worked for the Qin and was responsible for escorting prisoners to work on the First Emperor’s mausoleum when some of them escaped. Allowing this was punishable by death, so Lui Bang freed the remaining prisoners he joined them as a rebel leader. Xiang Yu and Xiang Liang’s forces grew to over sixty thousand before Xiang Liang was killed in battle. Now with Xiang Yu in charge, the Emperor of Chu enlisted him and Song Yi to attack Guanzhong, the capital territory of Qin. The emperor also enlisted Lui Bang, and the emperor said whoever entered that territory first would rule Guanzhong. Lui Bang was first, taking the capital Xianyang, where he protected the common people forbidding his men from lotting and pillaging. Meanwhile, Song Yi refused to attack, so Xiang Yu killed him and then defeated Guanzhong with an army of a hundred thousand against an army of three-hundred thousand. Two-hundred thousand surrendered but Xiang Yu didn’t trust them so he had them buried alive. Xiang Yu invited Lui Bang to the feast at Hong Gate where he planned to kill him. Lui Bang escaped on the pretext of having to go to the latrine. The armies of Lui Bang and Xiang Yu were at war, with Xiang Yu’s army camped on the Western Guangwu Hill and Lui Bang’s on the Eastern Guangwu Hill. Here Xiang Yu captured Lui Bang’s father and wife and threatened to cook them over a fire if Lui Bang didn’t surrender. Xiang Yu also tried to assassinate Lui Bang by luring him to a meeting where he had hidden archers shoot at Lui Bang. Xiang Yu’s army began to run short of food so they withdrew and Lui Bang’s army pursued them. After Xiang Yu lost a big battle at Gaixia, he was surrounded in his camp while many of his surviving soldiers defected. He fled in the night with eight hundred calvarymen. As he stood with his back to the Wu River, he was ashamed of how many soldiers from Wu had died. He fought, and then, losing hope, he cut his own throat. Since the Han cavalrymen had been promised an immense reward for killing the emperor, they tore his body apart and five of them had to fit Xiang’s head and limbs together so that he could be identified. Lui Bang divided the reward between them. After this, in 202 BCE, Lui Bang became the first emperor of the Han dynasty.
秦鹿奔野草,逐之若飞蓬。 项王气盖世,紫电明双瞳。 呼吸八千人,横行起江东。 赤精斩白帝,叱咤入关中。 两龙不并跃,五纬与天同。 楚灭无英图,汉兴有成功。 按剑清八极,归酣歌大风。 伊昔临广武,连兵决雌雄。 分我一杯羹,太皇乃汝翁。 战争有古迹,壁垒颓层穹。 猛虎啸洞壑,饥鹰鸣秋空。 翔云列晓阵,杀气赫长虹。 拨乱属豪圣,俗儒安可通。 沉湎呼竖子,狂言非至公。 抚掌黄河曲,嗤嗤阮嗣宗。