Chen Wu

Biography

Raising Troops in Anti-Qin Revolt and Relieving Dong'e Chen Wu's early years are documented succinctly in imperial records, where his family name alternates between Chen and Chai across chapters of the Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han. In the autumn of 209 BCE, when Chen Sheng and Wu Guang initiated the widespread peasant uprising against the Qin Dynasty, Chen Wu mobilized a potent force of 2,500 volunteers at Xue County (in modern Tengzhou, Shandong). When Qin general Zhang Han encircled the city of Dong'e, Chen Wu led his brigade on a forced march to relieve the siege, breaking the encirclement and gaining military renown across Qi and Chu. ### Allegiance to Han and Reconquest of Guanzhong Following the relief of Dong'e, Chen Wu recognized the strategic leadership of Pei Gong Liu Bang and integrated his force into the Han army. He marched through Wuguan into Guanzhong, advancing to Bashang. In 206 BCE, when Xiang Yu partitioned the empire and created Liu Bang King of Han, Chen Wu accompanied him into Hanzhong as an appointed general. Later that year, when Liu Bang launched his counteroffensive through Chencang, Chen Wu fought at the vanguard, subduing the realms of the Three Qin and anchoring Han control over the western agricultural heartland. ### The Chu-Han Contention and the Decisive Action at Lixia Throughout the prolonged struggle against Western Chu, Chen Wu spearheaded several offensive operations across the Central Plains. In 203 BCE, during the northern campaign against the Kingdom of Qi, Qi general Tian Ji concentrated massive defensive formations at Lixia. Chen Wu directed an aggressive breakthrough that shattered the enemy battle lines, slaying Tian Ji on the field and clearing the pathway for the complete annexation of Qi. In 201 BCE, following the proclamation of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu ennobled Chen Wu as the Marquis of Jipu with an estate of 2,500 households. ### Grand General and Northern Frontier Guardian Chen Wu continued to serve as a pivotal military stalwart into the reign of Emperor Wen. In 177 BCE, Liu Xingju, Prince of Jibei, exploited nomadic border tensions to stage a regional rebellion. Emperor Wen elevated Chen Wu to Grand General, entrusting him with 100,000 veteran soldiers. Chen Wu marched swiftly into Jibei, executing decisive enveloping tactics that wiped out the insurgent force and forced Liu Xingju into suicide. In 166 BCE, the Laoshang Chanyu of the Xiongnu led an invasion force of 140,000 mounted warriors through the northern passes, ravaging Chaona and Xiaoguan. Emperor Wen once again summoned the veteran Chen Wu as Grand General, dispatching him to garrison the northern perimeter. Chen Wu's formidable defensive preparations deterred deeper incursions, forcing the nomadic army to withdraw beyond the desert. ### Death and Posthumous Accolades In 163 BCE, Chen Wu passed away after reigning over his marquisate for thirty-nine years. In recognition of his lifetime of martial contributions spanning three imperial generations, the Han court bestowed upon him the honorific posthumous name Marquis Gang (Marquis Gang). His son Chen Qi inherited the marquisate as Marquis Jian of Jipu.

Chen Wu rose with Xiang Liang against the Qin in his early years. In 208 BC, when Liu Bang attacked Fengyi, Chen Wu was sent by Xiang Liang to serve under him and afterward campaigned everywhere with him. Liu Bang, needing troops to take Fengyi, had borrowed from Xiang Liang, who gave him five thousand soldiers and ten commanders of the fifth rank; Chen Wu brought two thousand five hundred of them under Liu Bang's command at Xue and fought with him, and when Liu Bang returned and attacked Fengyi again, he took it and its defender fled. The Chu army then went north to the relief of Dong'e, taking the Wei towns held by Qin troops along the way, and Chen Wu took part in it all.

In 207 BC Liu Bang marched west against Qin and met Peng Yue at Changyi, and the two attacked Changyi together; on the road they came upon a force of some four thousand under one styled the marquis of Gangwu, who was taken into Liu Bang's army — by one account this marquis was Ganghou Wu, that is, the later marquis of Jipu with the posthumous name of Gang, Chen Wu himself. Chen Wu went with the army into the passes and reached Boshang; in the tenth month of 206 BC he was with Liu Bang when he received the surrender of the Qin prince Ying, and the Qin dynasty ended.

In the Chu-Han war Chen Wu went on campaigning. In 203 BC Han Xin led his troops east against Qi and, before crossing at Pingyuan, learned that Li Yiji had already persuaded Qi to submit; Han Xin would have stopped, but was urged to go on. Qi had by then decided to submit and had relaxed its guard, and Han Xin surprised its troops holding Lixia. Chen Wu led the Han troops against the Qi forces about Linzi, broke them heavily and pursued and killed the king of Qi, Tian Guang, winning merit in the settling of Qi for the Han.

In the twelfth month of 202 BC Liu Bang called the armies of the princes together against Chu and joined battle with Xiang Yu at Gaixia. Han Xin with three hundred thousand men faced the Chu in the centre, the generals Kong Cong and Chen He commanded the left and right, Liu Bang's troops stood behind them, and Chen Wu's behind Liu Bang's. Han Xin first led the van against Xiang Yu and, worsted, drew back; Kong Cong and Chen He then fell on the Chu from either flank, the Chu were thrown back, and Han Xin charging again heavily defeated them at Gaixia. The Chu withdrew into their ramparts, few in number and out of food, and were closely surrounded; hearing the songs of Chu on every side by night, Xiang Yu was greatly shaken, believing the whole of Chu to be in Han hands, and broke out with a few hundred riders, was pursued all the way and at last took his own life at the Wu river.

On the bingshen day of the third month of 201 BC Chen Wu was enfeoffed as marquis of Jipu, one of the founding servants of the Han. In the spring of 196 BC, when the king of Han Xin led Xiongnu cavalry in a raid and camped about Canhe, Chen Wu marched against him. He first wrote to the king urging him to submit, saying that the emperor was generous and just and that princes who had rebelled and fled recovered their titles and fiefs when they returned, without being put to death, as the king well knew, and that having fled to the Xiongnu only after defeat he had committed no great crime and should come back at once. The king would not listen, and Chen Wu attacked, took Canhe and killed the king of Han.

Chen Wu died in 163 BC with the posthumous name Gang. His name appears as Chen Wu in the table of meritorious marquises in the Records of the Grand Historian and as Chai Wu elsewhere, the two forms standing side by side. As one of the marquises of military merit of the early Han, his career runs from the rising against Qin and the entry into the passes to the Chu-Han war, the fighting in Qi and the battle of Gaixia, almost the whole span of the turn from Qin to Han; and his killing of the king of Han in his later years is taken as part of the early Han's handling of the double problem of the Xiongnu and the kings of the principalities.

Chen Wu's part in Han Xin's conquest of Qi may best be seen against the campaign as a whole. In 203 BC Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were locked in a long standoff about Xingyang and Chenggao, and the allegiance of Qi mattered greatly to both. After Li Yiji persuaded the king of Qi, Tian Guang, to submit, Qi relaxed its guard against the Han; Han Xin, urged on by Kuai Tong, pressed his advance, surprised the Qi troops at Lixia and took Linzi. Tian Guang, believing himself betrayed by Li Yiji, boiled him alive and fled to Gaomi, asking help of Xiang Yu; Chen Wu led the pursuit that killed him, one link in the chain of those actions. Han Xin afterward beat the Chu relief force at the Wei river and Qi passed into Han hands.

The array at Gaixia was the greatest pitched battle of the Chu-Han war. By the record the Han centre of three hundred thousand was commanded by Han Xin, Kong Cong and Chen He led the two wings, Liu Bang's troops stood behind them, and Chen Wu behind Liu Bang's. Such a threefold disposition both pressed the Chu in front and kept a reserve for a change of fortune. Xiang Yu broke out amid the songs of Chu on every side and at last took his own life at the Wu river; the contest between Chu and Han ended there, and Chen Wu is entered among the military merits of the early Han for his part in it.

The killing of the king of Han in 196 BC belongs to the questions of the frontier and the principalities in the early Han. The king had been enfeoffed north of Taiyuan and, faring ill against the Xiongnu, sent envoys to seek peace again and again, was suspected by the Han court, went over to the Xiongnu in 201 BC and afterward raided south with Xiongnu cavalry. The founder campaigned north in person and was once surrounded at Baideng; in the spring of 196 BC the king was again about Canhe with Xiongnu horse, and Chen Wu was sent against him. Writing first to urge his submission, and citing the practice of not putting to death those who returned, he could not persuade him, attacked Canhe and killed him, easing for a time the pressure on the northern frontier.

The marquises of the early Han were enfeoffed for military merit with hereditary rank, and Chen Wu's marquisate of Jipu passed to his descendants; by the table of meritorious marquises the line continued after Emperor Wen until the fief was abolished for some cause. The rise and fall of such fiefs is important material for the political and clan system of the early Han. His name is written both Chen Wu and Chai Wu — not a unique case among the founders, for in an age of both written transmission and word of mouth many men left more than one record of their names, and scholars must commonly read the table of marquises against the annals and the biographies to fix a man's actions and identity.

The actions Chen Wu took part in, from the assaults of the early years to the battles of Changyi, Lixia and Gaixia, cover the chief theatres from the end of Qin to the beginning of Han. His merit was not as conspicuous as that of Han Xin or Peng Yue, but he is a typical marquis of military merit of the early Han: a man of the villages, attached to a commander, given rank by accumulated service, his fief and his descendants bound up with the political changes of the Han court. The group of founders divided after Emperor Wen, some families losing their fiefs for one reason or another and others carrying on into the middle of the Western Han; by the table of marquises Chen Wu's line belongs to the former, though the histories do not say in detail why the fief was abolished.

The history of the turn from Qin to Han is often studied from the table of meritorious marquises, examining the composition and regional origin of Liu Bang's following. Men of Chen Wu's kind had their early activity about Feng, Pei and Xue, near the place where Liu Bang rose, which is itself a feature of the founding group. Of Chen Wu himself the later record is found chiefly in the tables and biographies of the Records of the Grand Historian and the Han History and in the later gazetteers' notices of his home place and shrine, and these accounts differ among themselves and must be read against the standard histories.

The later history of his fief is recorded in the table of meritorious marquises.

Major Activities

Military Cooperation at Xue County and Relieving Dong'e

In the second year of the Second Emperor of Qin (208 BCE), Xiang Liang was encamped at Xue County when Liu Bang arrived seeking military reinforcements after failing to take Fengyi. Xiang Liang allocated five thousand infantrymen and ten commanders of the Wu Dafu rank to Liu Bang. Chen Wu, serving as general, led two thousand five hundred of these troops to join Liu Bang's command at Xue County, assisting in the recapture of Fengyi. In July of the same year, when Qin general Zhang Han besieged Tian Rong at Dong'e, Chen Wu joined forces with Liu Bang and Xiang Yu to march north, heavily defeating Zhang Han's Qin forces and relieving the siege.

Slaying Tian Ji at the Decisive Battle of Lixia

In 203 BCE, Han Xin marched east to invade the Kingdom of Qi, catching the Qi forces off guard at Lixia. Chen Wu spearheaded the offensive, shattering the main army under the command of Qi General of Jiaodong Tian Ji and advancing to Linzi. Chen Wu's decisive breakthrough completely crushed Qi resistance and secured the conquest of Shandong, earning him supreme military merit worthy of marquisal enfeoffment.

Holding the Reserve Lines at the Battle of Gaixia

In December of 202 BCE, Liu Bang assembled the allied commanders for the final battle against Xiang Yu at Gaixia. The Han army deployed in a five-division formation: Han Xin commanded three hundred thousand men in the vanguard, Generals Kong Cong and Chen He covered the left and right wings, Liu Bang commanded the center, while Chen Wu and Zhou Bo held the veteran reserve directly behind Liu Bang's lines, ensuring an impenetrable formation that precipitated Xiang Yu's ultimate defeat.

Overrunning Canhe and Decapitating King Xin of Han

In the spring of 196 BCE, the rebellious King Xin of Han colluded with Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu to invade the northern borders, stationing troops at Canhe. Emperor Gaozu dispatched Chen Wu to command the counteroffensive. After attempting peaceful reconciliation through letters, Chen Wu launched a fierce assault that stormed Canhe and personally slew King Xin of Han in battle, eradicating a primary source of northern frontier turmoil.

Welcoming Emperor Wen alongside Founding Veterans

In September of 180 BCE, following the eradication of the Empress Dowager Lu faction, Chen Wu served as Grand General alongside Chancellor Chen Ping, Grand Commandant Zhou Bo, and Imperial Counselor Zhang Cang. The elder statesmen knelt at Weiqiao to receive Prince Liu Heng of Dai, and subsequently urged his accession in the royal residence, formally inaugurating the reign of Emperor Wen and the Rule of Wen and Jing.

Commanding Hundred Thousand Troops to Quell Jibei

In 177 BCE, Liu Xingju, Prince of Jibei, launched an insurrection while Emperor Wen was visiting Taiyuan and Chancellor Guan Ying was repelling Xiongnu incursions. Emperor Wen elevated Marquis of Jipu Chen Wu to Grand General, entrusting him with one hundred thousand veteran troops to subdue the rebels. Chen Wu decisively routed the rebel forces, captured Liu Xingju, and incorporated Jibei into directly administered imperial commanderies, consolidating central authority.

Personal Relations

• Sovereign Emperors: Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu), Liu Heng (Emperor Wen)
• Comrades-in-Arms: Han Xin, Cao Shen, Zhou Bo, Guan Ying
• Opponents: Tian Ji (Qi general, slain at Lixia), Liu Xingju (Prince of Jibei, defeated in revolt)
• Son: Chen Qi (inherited the marquisate as Marquis Jian of Jipu)

Historical Assessment

• Sima Qian (Shiji, Table of Meritorious Officials of Emperor Gaozu): "As general in the 1st year led 2,500 troops to rise in Xue, relieved Dong'e, advanced to Bashang, entered Han in the 10th month of the 2nd year, and defeated Tian Ji's army at Lixia in Qi, receiving enfeoffment for merit."
• Ban Gu (Hanshu, Table of Meritorious Officials): "Joined from Xue as general, relieved Dong'e, entered Han, broke Tian Ji at Lixia in Qi, and was enfeoffed for military merit."
• Sima Guang (Zizhi Tongjian): "Marquis of Jipu Chai Wu served as Grand General leading 100,000 to strike Jibei, smashing the rebels and capturing Xingju. Emperor Wen relied upon him as a great bastion of the dynasty."
• Liang Yusheng (Shiji Zhiyi): "Chen Wu is identical with Chai Wu, a celebrated general of early Han who served across the reigns of Gaozu, Hui, and Wen with distinguished military merits."