Gao Zu

Gao Zu, posthumous title of Liu Bang, also called Liu Ji (256-195 bc), emperor of China (202-195 bc), who founded the Han dynasty. Beginning his career as an army officer of low birth, he turned rebel after the death in 210 bc of Shi Huangdi, first emperor of the Qin dynasty and unifier of China. Liu rose to high rank in the army of Xiang Yu, a general in the Yangzi River region held in pre-imperial times by the kingdom of Chu. Xiang conquered large areas of the empire and awarded Liu the old kingdom of Han (now Sichuan and southern Shensi provinces). Liu turned against Xiang and triumphed in the triangular struggle between his former commander and the last Qin forces. By 202 bc he had secured the old Qin capital, the seat of imperial bureaucratic power; Xiang committed suicide and Liu declared himself emperor, with the dynastic title of Han.

Liu rapidly consolidated his rule using advisers who professed Confucianism, though he himself remained a forthright character prone to mocking his scholarly counsellors. He retained Qin institutions, while reducing their tyrannical severity, thus laying the foundations of a lasting imperial rule. Eliminating potential rivals, Liu granted extensive eastern areas to members of his family as subsidiary kingdoms. To fend off outside threats, he made a pact with the belligerent Xiongnu, a nomadic people to the north who had been raiding his territory, promising to give them food and clothing in return for cessation of hostilities. It was the first treaty between two independent powers in East Asia and set the standard of international diplomacy in the region for 1,000 years. The imperial system which he rebuilt was the basis of the Chinese state for the next 2,000 years.