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Concept
Zhang Liang (Western Han)
Summary
Note: In this article, to distinguish between the Han state of the Warring States period and the Han dynasty, the former is referred to as "Hán" while "Han" is reserved for the latter.
Zhang Liang ( 251 BC – 189 BC), courtesy name Zifang, was a Chinese military strategist and politician who lived in the early Western Han dynasty. He is also known as one of the "Three Heroes of the early Han dynasty" (漢初三傑), along with Han Xin (韓信) and Xiao He. Zhang Liang contributed greatly to the establishment of the Han dynasty. After his death, he was honoured with the posthumous title "Marquis Wencheng" by Emperor Qianshao. Zhang Liang is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu (無雙譜, Table of Peerless Heroes) by Jin Guliang.
Zhang Liang was born in Xinzheng (新鄭; present-day Zhengzhou, Henan), the capital of the Hán state(韓國), while his ancestral home was in Chengfu (城父; present-day Chengfu Town, Bozhou, Anhui). He descended from an aristocrat family in Hán. His grandfather served three generations of the Hán rulers as chancellors while his father served two generations. Zhang Liang missed the opportunity to inherit his family's legacy as the Hán state was annexed by the Qin state in 230 BC as part of Qin's wars of unification.
To avenge the fall of his native state, Zhang Liang dedicated his efforts to hiring assassins to kill the First Emperor of Qin. He spent his entire family fortune and failed to give his deceased younger brother a proper funeral. He managed to find a man with great physical strength to help him, and had an iron hammer weighing 120 catties (roughly 160 lbs. or 72 kg) forged for the strongman. In 218 BC, Zhang Liang heard that the emperor was going to Yangwu County (east of present-day Yuanyang County, Henan) as part of his inspection tour, and was due to pass by Bolangsha during the journey.
Zhang Liang and the strongman lay in ambush at Bolangsha and waited for the emperor's convoy to approach. They saw that all the carriages that passed by were pulled by four horses and believed that the most decorated one in the middle was the emperor's personal carriage.
Official source
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