The real reason for Xiang Yu's failure is that he has both aristocratic arrogance and rich and secure consciousness of small farmers. He was led by Liu Bang for four specific reasons:
First, willfulness. At first, he was not afraid of strong enemies, but later his power increased and he was suspicious, which was in sharp contrast with Liu Bang's rebellion and Huairou alienation.
Second, advocating martial arts and lacking strategy. Xiang Yu was too superstitious about force, cruel and easy to kill, ignored other means besides confrontation, attacked the city slightly, and was cruel and heartless, which caused widespread indignation and resentment.
Third, political naivety. Believing in impulsiveness, not distinguishing between authenticity and falsehood, banquet at the Hongmen Gate, and being besieged on all sides, all show their performance; Honesty and generosity, lack of talent, and lack of flexibility of politicians.
Fourth, he is narrow-minded and grumpy. Xiang Yu's extraordinary military talents can establish absolute authority in the war and cannot oppose criticism. He can't calmly analyze the situation in anger and is prone to make wrong judgments.
1. willfulness is a double-edged sword.
Xiang Yu's headstrong personality weakness is a double-edged sword. In the anti-Qin war, he was brave and good at fighting, winning more with less, and was invincible, and he played the role of commander-in-chief of the God of War, known as "the overlord of the West Chu". The word "bully" is enough to cover up his headstrong self-use, which means the head of a vassal. In the Chu-Han War, Xiang Yu made repeated mistakes, and Liu Bang would surrender and alienate others, which was determined by his unique employment strategy and his preference for using relatives and friends, but he was suspicious and distrustful of others.
Xiang Yu has a strong sense of kinship, so people around him have many relatives and friends, most of whom are in important positions. Xiang Yu trusted them very much, and to outsiders he was cronyism rather than loyalty. In fact, many Chu people and clansmen trusted by Xiang Yu became spies, and Xiang Bo at the Hongmen banquet was one of them. At the beginning, there were many capable ministers around Xiang Yu. But Han Xin, Peng Yue, Qian Bu, Chen Ping, Long Qie, Zhong Limei, Zhou Yin, Fan Zeng and others left him, and were even used by Liu Bang as depth charges in the Chu-Han War.
Therefore, Xiang Yu was crony, headstrong and suspicious, which led to his incompetence and lack of good generals. Relying on his passion and personal courage, he finally lost his advantage.
2. Infatuation with martial arts leads to widespread indignation and resentment.
In the anti-Qin war, Xiang Yu was invincible because of his bravery. He attacked the city all the way and was invincible, which formed his character of excessively advocating martial arts and infatuating with force. The final result is that superstition of force, neglect of study, learning sword, calligraphy and art books all give up halfway, and they are brave but not wise in the Chu-Han war. The war is just a blind charge, lacking strategic layout. Once the situation is unfavorable and weird, we lose.
Xiang Yu's fascination with martial arts led him to be extremely confident and seriously underestimated his opponent's ability. In the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu eliminated Qin Jun's main force, but gave Liu a chance to generalize, trying to enter the customs, break Xianyang and prepare to be king. Xiang Yu heard that the fruit of his victory was "picked peaches" by Liu Bang, who he had always despised. Did he want to destroy Liu Bang in a rage? Obviously, Liu Bang was not taken seriously at this time. So that Liu Bang forged the seal of Xianyang Palace and went to the Hongmen banquet to apologize. Xiang Yu missed the opportunity to kill the enemy several times, and finally Liu Bang became bigger.
Obsessed with martial arts leads to a cruel and ferocious character, and at the same time, because the young country is ruined and displaced, it has formed an extremely cruel character. It killed 200,000 Qin soldiers and burned down Xianyang Palace. Wherever it went, people rolled, bled and drifted, and it was destroyed. It caused widespread indignation and resentment, and everyone feared for themselves, which led to Xiang Yu losing the hearts of the people.
3. The consciousness of small farmers does not have the qualities of politicians.
Xiang Yu's political naivety is manifested in two aspects. One is that he is credulous, impulsive and does not distinguish between true and false. Xiang Yu's military ability and political ability are seriously unbalanced and impulsive. After entering Guanzhong, he gave up the natural barrier and good development conditions, insisted on packing Xianyang's goods, burned down the palace, and built his capital in his hometown of Pengcheng, leaving behind a small peasant poem "The rich don't go home, but they still walk at night".
At the same time, Xiang Yu's impulsive personality was vividly displayed before and after the Hongmen banquet. Before the Hongmen banquet, Xiang Yu gnashed his teeth at Liu Bangxian's efforts to break Xianyang and wanted to kill him quickly. However, Liu Bangxian's yielding posture at the Hongmen banquet satisfied Xiang Yu's vanity and even missed the opportunity to let the tiger return to the mountain, with no overall situation and strategic awareness at all.
At the same time, in the final stage of the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang played another trick or two, covering the summer war, which puzzled Xiang Yu. As a tyrant of Chu who has experienced more than 70 wars, he can't calmly analyze the situation. But naive tears farewell my concubine, drinking, without any arrangements.
Second, frank and generous, no talent. If "he can take his place" is his great ambition when he was young, then as an adult commander-in-chief, frankness and generosity are basically not the qualities that a monarch should have. Xiang Yu's frankness is in sharp contrast with Liu Bang's cunning. Xiang Yu is always upright and upright, but Liu Bang is flexible.
4. Impatience, irritability and impatience have always been led by Liu Bang.
When Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were evenly matched, Liu Bang was not an opponent of Xiang Yu, but he mastered Xiang Yu's impatience, irritability and narrow-mindedness, and always used this weakness to contain Xiang Yu in the Chu-Han War.
Throughout the Chu-Han War, Xiang Yu went on the rampage. In fact, Liu Bang did it on purpose, so that this anger tore Xiang Yu apart and made him unable to think. On the other hand, Liu Bang's tricks are not brilliant, and sometimes even play the same game as every family, but Xiang Yu takes this one. Once Xiang Yu is furious, he will make a wrong decision and fall into the trap of Liu Bang.
Xiang Yu flew into a rage when he met anything, but he couldn't hear the voice of opposition and criticism. He goes his own way and kills, cheats, cooks and burns people if he is not happy at all. This is not only autocratic, but also useless. If you can calmly analyze things, you won't be led by Liu Bang, and you won't commit suicide by besieging the city.
In a word, Sima Qian specifically listed Xiang Yu's biography in Historical Records, which actually recognized Xiang Yu's status as king. It can be said that Xiang Yu is recognized in history as another son of heaven who rose after the Qin Dynasty. Although it was only five years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Liu Bang, the successor of the Great Unity of the World, inherited it from Xiang Yu.