Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/533

daughter in marriage (see La Hau). Meanwhile, the eoontry groaning nnder oppressiye taxation and forced labonr; and on one occasion, when Lin Pang was in chaige of a partj of labonren proceeding to carry ont some palace-bnilding operations to gratify a whim of the First Emperor, so many of the men died of exhaustion that the remainder decided to proceed no fiurther. Under the leadership of Lin Pang they retired to the mountain fiutneans between Eiangsn and Honan, until the death of the First Bmpennr and the news of Gh'^n Sh6ng*s revolt in B.C. 209 caused the people of P'ei to put to death their Magistrate and appoint Lin Pang to rule over them, under the title of Duke of Pei. In B.G. 208 he joined with Hsiang Liang in ridsing to the throne of the resuscitated Gh^u State, under the title of '^ ^E* ^^ grandson of the former king who had been lured to GhHn and had never returned. On the death of Hsiang Liang, he was appointed by the young monarch to the command of the southern army; and proceeding to Hsien-yang, the capital of Gh4n, he anticipated his rival, Hsiang Chi, nephew of Hsiang Liang, by receiving the submission of TeH- ying, the son of Fn Su, who had been set up as king by the eunuch Chao Eao, after the murder by the latter of Hu Hai, the Second Emperor. Now it had been agreed that whichever of the generals should first enter Hsien-yang should be rewarded with the Principality of Ch4n. Accordingly, no sooner had Liu Pang arrived than he issued a proclamation abrogating the severe laws then existing, and enacted three simple laws in their stead, referring only to murder, bodily injury, and theft. The arrival however of Hsiang Chi changed the face of affairs, and in the end Liu Pang obtained only Ssttch'uan and a part of Shensi, with the title of Prince of Han. From this moment these two men were at open enmity, which culminated in the terrible battle at P^6ng-ch'6ng in

Eiangsn, B.C. 205, where Liu Pang lost over a hundred thousand