Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Chen Ping grew up in poverty and lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law. The family owned thirty mu of farmland. His elder brother Chen Bo cultivated the land and supported the household so that Chen Ping could travel and study. Chen Ping was tall and handsome. When someone asked how a man from such a poor household had become so well nourished, his sister-in-law complained, "With a brother-in-law like this, it would be better to have none." After hearing this, Chen Bo expelled his wife. Chen Ping loved reading and especially admired Huang-Lao teachings. During a village communal sacrifice he served as the person who divided the sacrificial meat and apportioned it very evenly. The elders praised him, and he remarked that if he were allowed to administer the realm, he would do so as evenly as he divided the meat.
When Chen Ping reached adulthood, women from wealthy families were unwilling to marry him because of his poverty, while he did not wish to marry women from poor households. A wealthy local named Zhang Fu had a granddaughter whose five previous husbands had all died, leading people to regard her as unlucky and making others unwilling to marry her. Chen Ping, however, wanted the match. Zhang Fu saw Chen Ping's imposing appearance and also noticed that, despite the family's poverty, carriage tracks of respected visitors frequently appeared outside the gate. Concluding that Chen Ping was no ordinary man, he married his granddaughter to him and provided financial support. Chen Ping was thereby able to establish himself and expand his social connections.
From One Patron to Another before Joining Han
In 209 BCE, the first year of the Second Emperor of Qin, the uprisings of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang threw the realm into turmoil. Chen Ping joined King Jiu of Wei and was appointed Grand Coachman. He offered advice to the king, but it was not accepted, and after being slandered he left. He then joined Xiang Yu and entered the passes with him, receiving a noble rank. After the Chu–Han Contention began, King Sima Ang of Yin rebelled against Chu. Xiang Yu sent Chen Ping to suppress him, and Chen Ping was rewarded with the post of commandant. Not long afterward Liu Bang seized Yin territory. Xiang Yu became furious and planned to execute the officers who had earlier pacified the region. Fearing for his life, Chen Ping sealed his golden official seal, sent it back to Xiang Yu by messenger, and fled alone along minor roads.
While crossing a river, the boatman saw Chen Ping's imposing appearance and that he was traveling alone, suspected that he carried gold or jade, and considered killing him for his valuables. Chen Ping noticed this and stripped off his clothing, then helped the boatman pole the boat. Once the boatman saw that he had no treasure, he abandoned the idea. Chen Ping reached Xiuwu, where Wei Wuzhi recommended him to Liu Bang. Liu Bang was delighted by their conversation and asked, "What office did you hold in Chu?" Chen Ping replied, "I was a commandant." Liu Bang appointed him commandant that very day, made him ride in the imperial carriage, and placed him in charge of the guard. The other generals protested that Liu Bang was favoring a fugitive from the enemy camp, but on hearing their complaints Liu Bang treated Chen Ping even more generously.
The Six Extraordinary Stratagems
After joining Han, Chen Ping repeatedly proposed unusual schemes, later summarized as "six extraordinary stratagems." First, while Chu and Han were deadlocked around Xingyang, Chen Ping advised Liu Bang to sow distrust between Xiang Yu and his subordinates. Liu Bang gave him forty thousand jin of gold without requiring an accounting. Chen Ping spread disinformation that caused Xiang Yu to suspect Zhongli Mo and others and later Fan Zeng as well. Fan Zeng left in anger and died on the road from an infected sore on his back. Second, when Xingyang was under severe pressure, Chen Ping arranged for Ji Xin to pose as the King of Han and falsely surrender, allowing Liu Bang to escape. Third, after Han Xin pacified Qi, proclaimed himself acting king, and sent an envoy to inform Liu Bang, Liu Bang became enraged. Chen Ping and Zhang Liang discreetly urged him to recognize Han Xin as King of Qi in order to steady Han Xin and the army. Fourth, after the Han dynasty was established and Han Xin was accused of rebellion, Chen Ping proposed a feigned imperial tour to Yunmeng and a meeting of the regional lords at Chen. Han Xin came to pay court and was arrested. Fifth, in 200 BCE, when Liu Bang campaigned against the Xiongnu and was surrounded at Baideng, Chen Ping offered a secret stratagem that induced the Xiongnu side to lift the encirclement. Sixth, after Empress Lü died in 180 BCE, Chen Ping and Zhou Bo acted together to destroy the Lü clan and enthrone Liu Heng, Prince of Dai.
Under Emperor Gaozu and Empress Lü
In 195 BCE, Liu Bang became gravely ill. Someone accused Fan Kuai of siding with the Lü clan and of intending, after Liu Bang's death, to kill Consort Qi and Zhao Ruyi, Prince of Zhao. Liu Bang flew into a rage and ordered Chen Ping and Zhou Bo to go to the army and behead Fan Kuai. Fearing Empress Lü's retaliation, Chen Ping instead imprisoned Fan Kuai and sent him to Chang'an in a caged cart, intending to let Liu Bang decide the matter personally. On the road he learned that Liu Bang had died. Chen Ping hurried back to the capital, wept before the palace, and explained to Empress Lü why he had not killed Fan Kuai. Empress Lü accepted his explanation and appointed him Chamberlain, assigning him to tutor Emperor Hui.
In 189 BCE, the sixth year of Emperor Hui, Cao Shen died. Wang Ling became Grand Councilor of the Right and Chen Ping Grand Councilor of the Left. When Empress Lü wanted to make members of the Lü clan kings, she asked Wang Ling for his opinion. Wang Ling opposed the plan on the basis of Emperor Gaozu's covenant that any non-Liu who became king should be attacked by all under Heaven. When she asked Chen Ping, he replied that Emperor Gaozu had pacified the realm and made his sons and brothers kings, whereas now the empress dowager ruled and could make her own Lü brothers kings if she wished. Empress Lü was delighted. Wang Ling was removed from office, Chen Ping was promoted to Grand Councilor of the Right, and Shen Yiji became Grand Councilor of the Left. As grand councilor, Chen Ping reportedly drank strong wine daily and consorted with women in order to sully his own reputation; when Empress Lü heard of this, she was privately pleased.
Elimination of the Lü Clan and the Reign of Emperor Wen
In 180 BCE, after Empress Lü died, members of the Lü clan attempted to seize power. Chen Ping and Zhou Bo conspired against them. They arranged for Li Ji to persuade Lü Lu to surrender military command, while Cao Ku entered the palace and, together with Marquis Ji Tong of Xiangping, used an imperial tally to gain control of the Northern Army. Zhou Bo entered the Northern Army and announced, "Those for the Lü clan, bare the right shoulder; those for the Liu clan, bare the left." The soldiers all bared the left shoulder. Lü Chan, Lü Lu, and other members of the Lü clan were killed. Chen Ping, Zhou Bo, and their allies then enthroned Liu Heng, Prince of Dai, who became Emperor Wen of Han.
After Emperor Wen took the throne, Chen Ping became Grand Councilor of the Right and Zhou Bo Grand Councilor of the Left. One day Emperor Wen asked Chen Ping how many legal cases were decided throughout the empire each year. Chen Ping replied that such matters should be asked of the Minister of Justice, and that questions concerning grain and finances should be directed to the Minister of Agriculture. The emperor then asked what responsibility remained to the grand councilor if each matter had its own official. Chen Ping apologized for his inadequacy and answered that a grand councilor assisted the Son of Heaven above in harmonizing yin and yang and the four seasons, fostered the proper growth of all things below, pacified the surrounding peoples and regional lords abroad, and brought the people together at home so that the senior officials could each perform their proper functions. Emperor Wen praised the answer. Zhou Bo recognized that his abilities were inferior to Chen Ping's and requested retirement on grounds of illness, leaving Chen Ping as sole grand councilor.
Chen Ping died of illness in 178 BCE, the second year of Emperor Wen's reign, and received the posthumous title Marquis Xian.
Family and Early Years
Chen Ping was poor in youth but fond of learning, and especially of the arts of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi. He lived with his elder brother Chen Bo, and the family had thirty mu of field; and his brother, seeing that Chen Ping loved to go about and make friends, took on all the farm work himself so that Chen Ping might have time to study abroad. On the day of the village sacrifice Chen Ping was master of the meat and divided it most evenly, and the elders of the place praised him, saying that young Chen was a fine master of the meat; and Chen Ping said that if he were made master of the realm he would do it as he had done this meat. When he grew to marriageable age, none of the rich families would give him a daughter, and he was ashamed to marry a poor man's daughter. After a long while, Zhang Fu, a rich man of Hu’you, whose granddaughter had been married five times and whose husbands had all died so that no one dared marry her, saw Chen Ping at a house of mourning and was taken with the tall and sturdy youth, and told his son Zhang Zhong that he meant to give the granddaughter to Chen Ping; and when Zhang Zhong asked how he could, since Chen Ping was poor and did no productive work, Zhang Fu answered that one could not imagine such a man remaining poor and lowly for long. Zhang Fu also followed Chen Ping to his house and saw that the Chen family lived in a narrow lane by the outer wall, with a torn mat for a door, yet that outside there were many tracks of the wheels of noblemen's carriages. Zhang Fu charged his granddaughter not to be careless in serving her husband's family because they were poor, but to serve her husband's elder brother Chen Bo as a father and his wife as a mother. Because Chen Ping was poor, the Zhang family lent him money for the betrothal gifts and provided the cost of the wedding feast; and after Chen Ping married the Zhang girl his means grew ample and his circle of friends ever wider. Chen Ping's sister-in-law, disliking his taking no part in the family's productive work, had said that they ate chaff and husks and that with such a brother-in-law it were better to have none, and Chen Bo, hearing it, was angry and put her away. In the Records of the Grand Historian's Hereditary House of Chancellor Chen it is also recorded that some accused Chen Ping of having had an affair with his sister-in-law in early years.
From Wei to Chu, and From Chu to Han
At the end of Qin, when Chen Sheng rose and took the title of king at Chen and sent Zhou Shi to settle the land of Wei, setting up Wei Jiu as king of Wei, and the Wei fought the Qin army at Linji, Chen Ping took leave of his brother and went to Linji to join the king of Wei, serving as a counsellor under him but finding no place. After a long while, when Xiang Yu had taken land as far as the bank of the Yellow River, Chen Ping went over to Xiang Yu and followed him into the passes in the destruction of Qin, and Xiang Yu gave him a rank of the nobility. Not long after, when the king of Han, Liu Bang, marched east and took the land of Yin, Xiang Yu in anger turned on Chen Ping and the officers who had pacified Yin and meant to put them all to death, and Chen Ping, fearing death, hung up his seal, sealed up his gold and secretly fled. Recommended by Wei Wuzhi, he had audience with Liu Bang, and the two talked over the affairs of the realm and found each other greatly to their mind, and Liu Bang broke precedent in employing him. Afterwards Zhou Bo and Guan Ying and others slandered him, saying that Chen Ping was a handsome man but only as a jade on a cap, with nothing of substance within; that he had had an affair with his sister-in-law at home, had found no place under the king of Wei, had fled to the king of Chu, and, not agreeing with Chu, had come to submit to the king of Han, being a fickle and disorderly traitor. Liu Bang called Chen Ping and asked him how it was that he had first helped the king of Wei, then left him for the hegemon of Chu, and now came to help him, so that others must doubt his loyalty. And Chen Ping answered without haste that one and the same useful thing serves different purposes in different hands; that he had served the king of Wei, who could not use him, and left him to help the hegemon of Chu, who did not trust him either, and had therefore come to submit to the great king; that he was still the same man, but those who used him were different; that he had long admired the great king's skill in using men, and had therefore come a thousand li to him; that he had brought nothing with him, so that he had nothing, and had therefore accepted the gifts of others; that without money he could not live and could not do anything; and that if the great king listened to slander and would not employ him, then the gifts he had received were still untouched and he could give them all back. Liu Bang's doubts were at once dispelled, his liking for Chen Ping redoubled, and he rewarded him richly and promoted him to be colonel of the guard, to supervise the generals.
The Case of Fan Kuai and the Age of the Empress Dowager
In 195 BCE Liu Bang returned from defeating rebels with his old wound broken out, and hearing also of the King of Yan and other matters, was long since displeased at the empress dowager's meddling in government; and someone told him that Fan Kuai was in league with the empress dowager and meant to plot when the emperor should be gone, and the emperor, resolving to change his general on the field, took counsel with Chen Ping, and in the end followed his plan, going in Chen Ping's name to bring an edict to Fan Kuai's camp and carrying the general Zhou Bo hidden in the carriage. Chen Ping and Zhou Bo set out at once, and on the way carefully reckoned together: Chen Ping said that Fan Kuai was the emperor's old follower of great service, and moreover the brother-in-law of the empress dowager, that just then the emperor was in a rage, and if he repented, and the emperor being so ill, the two sisters would certainly make mischief about him and the blame would fall on the two of them; and when Zhou Bo asked whether they should let Fan Kuai go, Chen Ping said that let go he could not be, but that they should better bind him in a prison cart and send him to Chang'an, for the emperor to kill or spare. Before Fan Kuai's camp Chen Ping had a platform built for the reading of the edict and sent a man with the tally to call Fan Kuai; and Fan Kuai, learning that only the civil official Chen Ping had come, thought it a matter of ordinary orders and rode up alone without thinking, whereupon Zhou Bo seized him and nailed him into the prison cart. Halfway there Chen Ping suddenly heard that Liu Bang had died, and thinking that the court would surely be in the hands of the empress dowager, was glad he had not killed Fan Kuai and could answer to her, and galloped on to Chang'an; on the way he met an envoy with an edict posting him to garrison Xingyang. He also stumbled into the palace, threw himself down before the late emperor's coffin and wept aloud, saying that the emperor had ordered Fan Kuai killed on the spot but that he had not dared lightly to dispose of a great minister, and had now brought Fan Kuai back under arrest. The empress dowager and her sister, hearing that Fan Kuai lived, breathed again. Afterwards Lü Xu, bearing a grudge against Chen Ping for Fan Kuai's arrest, repeatedly slandered him to her sister the empress dowager, saying that as chancellor he did not attend to business but drank strong wine and dallied with women; and Chen Ping, hearing of it, gave himself up to wine and women the more, at which the empress dowager secretly rejoiced and once brought Lü Xu and Chen Ping face to face, saying that the proverb had it that a woman's and a child's words were not to be used, and asking how it stood between him and her, and that he need not fear Lü Xu's slander.
The Settling of the Lü Clan and a Good End
After the death of Emperor Hui the empress dowager held the court and wished to make the Lü kinsmen kings, and Wang Ling, appealing to Liu Bang's oath on the white horse, opposed it firmly, while Chen Ping and Zhou Bo went along with the empress dowager's will. After court Wang Ling reproached Chen Ping and Zhou Bo, asking whether they had not been present when the oath was sworn with the high emperor, and saying that now that the high emperor was dead and the empress dowager held the court and wished to make the Lü kings they had flattered her and broken the oath, and with what face would they meet the high emperor below the earth; and Chen Ping and Zhou Bo answered that in contending in open court they were not his equals, but that in preserving the altars of the state and settling the descendants of the house of Liu he was not theirs. Wang Ling had no answer; and afterwards the empress dowager moved him to the empty post of grand tutor and promoted Chen Ping to be right chancellor. Chen Ping outwardly made merry and lived retired, but secretly plotted with Lu Jia to remove the Lü clan, and on Lu Jia's advice sent the grand commandant Zhou Bo five hundred pieces of gold in congratulation for his birthday and made friends with him. After the empress dowager's death he and Zhou Bo put down the Lü clan and welcomed Liu Heng to the throne, that is Emperor Wen of Han; and Zhou Bo, Chen Ping and the other ministers of the restoration went to the Wei bridge to meet the new sovereign. After Emperor Wen came to the throne he once asked the right chancellor Zhou Bo how many cases were decided in the realm in a year and how much money and grain came in and went out in a year, and Zhou Bo could not answer; whereas the left chancellor Chen Ping answered readily that there were those whose business it was — that for cases the emperor should ask the commandant of justice and for money and grain the grand minister of agriculture. Zhou Bo was much ashamed, thinking his ability far below Chen Ping's, and on advice withdrew in good time and pleaded illness to resign, so that Chen Ping alone was chancellor. In the second year of Emperor Wen, 178 BCE, the chancellor Chen Ping died with the posthumous name of the Marquis of Xian and was buried at Anling. In his lifetime he had said that he had used many secret stratagems, which the Daoists forbid, and that though his line should be cut off he could not rise again, because of the many hidden calamities he had wrought. His son the Marquis of Gong, Chen Mai, succeeded to the marquisate, followed by the Marquis of Jian, Chen Hui, and Chen He; and Chen He, in his twenty-third year as marquis, was put to death for seizing another man's wife and his fief was abolished. Afterwards his great-grandson Chen Zhang, though a kinsman of the Wei family, wished to continue the enfeoffment of the Chen but in the end could not.