Han Xin
Also known as Han Xin 韩信 · Marquis of Huaiyin 淮阴侯
- Dates
- d. 196 BC
- Era
- Qin–Han transition; the Chu–Han contention
- Role
- General who won Liu Bang's war against Xiang Yu
Han Xin won a throne for someone else, explained a victory by putting a river at his own back, and was executed by the court he had made.
Who was Han Xin?
Han Xin was a man of Huaiyin who became the outstanding field general of the war between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, the Chu–Han contention that followed the fall of Qin. As a youth he endured the famous humiliation: a local bully made him crawl between his legs, He served Xiang Yu, was ignored, and left. He joined Liu Bang, deserted when he was still unranked, and was brought back by Xiao He, who told Liu Bang that men like Han Xin were worth chasing. Liu Bang made him commander-in-chief. From 206 BC he took the Qin heartland and then the north, while Liu Bang survived Xiang Yu in the centre.
Two marches still name him. In 206 BC he took the Three Qins by showing repairs on the plank roads while the army crossed at Chencang. In 204 BC, at Jingxing, he lined up with a river behind his men, broke a Zhao army, and cited Sun Tzu on death ground. He was king of Qi, then of Chu, then Marquis of Huaiyin, and in 196 BC he was executed for revolt. The Shiji says Xiao He lured him in and Empress Lü had him killed while Liu Bang was away. On the Qi campaign he attacked while the envoy Li Yiji was still negotiating, and Li was killed for it.
Key works
A Han Xin military text, now lost
The Han bibliography lists military writings under Han Xin's name, in a few chapters, and they do not survive. There is no Art of War by Han Xin to quote, so his battles are known from the Shiji.
Key ideas
背水一战
Backs to the river
At Jingxing he put his own men where flight was impossible. Afterwards he cited Sun Tzu: troops placed on death ground survive because they must, and it is a tactical wager, not a slogan about never retreating in general.
暗渡陈仓
The open repair and the secret road
明修栈道，暗渡陈仓 means showing work on the obvious route and marching on the other, and stratagem 8 takes its name from this crossing. The proverb is later than the campaign, and the surprise march on the Three Qins is in the Shiji.
多多益善
The more, the better
Asked how many troops he could command, Han Xin said the more the better, and that Liu Bang could command no more than a hundred thousand, but could command generals. The Shiji dialogue is the classic statement of operational command versus political command.
Famous episodes
The humiliation at Huaiyin
HistoryBefore the wars
A butcher's bully in Huaiyin told the young Han Xin to crawl between his legs or be cut down. Han Xin crawled. The Shiji makes the episode the start of his life, and adds that after he was great he spared the man and gave him a small post. The insult has a name, 胯下之辱, and the biography tells it both as history and as a moral.
The secret crossing at Chencang
History206 BC
Liu Bang's force had entered the Han river valleys, and the plank roads behind them had been burned, as a show that they would not return east. Han Xin's campaign against the Three Qins used that expectation. Later tradition sums it up as repairing the roads in public and passing by Chencang in secret, catching Zhang Han. Stratagem 8, 暗渡陈仓, is this story, and the Shiji records the surprise that took the region.
Jingxing, with the river behind them
History204 BC
At the Jingxing passes in 204 BC he set his main line with its back to the river and sent a detached party to raise flags in the Zhao camp once it emptied. Zhao attacked what looked like a doomed force and broke, and he told his officers he had used Sun Tzu's death ground. Stratagem 28 uses that phrase for trapping an enemy, whereas Han Xin put his own men on it. In the same years his attack on Qi, while Li Yiji was negotiating a surrender, got Li boiled, which the stratagem book files under number 34 even though Li was not a willing decoy.
Myths vs facts
Backs to the river means a leader should always cut off retreat to inspire people.
At Jingxing it was a placed battle. The enemy had to be tempted out, the side force had to take the camp, and the men had to be the kind who would fight when flight was gone. Sun Tzu's death-ground rule also says that, used at the wrong time, it only destroys the army, so the conditions matter more than the proverb.
He was simply a traitor, fairly executed for rebellion in 196 BC.
The Han court condemned him for plotting with the rebel Chen Xi. The Shiji records the charge and writes the life as a tragedy of a general stripped of his kingdom and killed with the help of the man who had promoted him. The plot's real scale is hard to separate from the court's fear of him, and report both the charge and the shaping of the story.
A Han Xin art of war survives, full of quotable rules.
Bibliographies list a short military work under his name. It is lost. Quotes that need a Han Xin manual are not coming from a text you can open, and the Shiji battles are the source.
Takeaways
- Put men where they cannot retreat only when they will fight.
- Fix the enemy on the obvious road, then use the other.
- Do not spend an envoy you still need alive.
Related stratagems
Rivals and connections
Sources
- Sima Qian, Shiji 史记, ch. 92 (Biography of the Marquis of Huaiyin)