Emperor Ming of the Later Han Dynasty had nine sons, and his fifth son, Liu Da, ascended the throne as Emperor Zhang. Emperor Zhang had a deep love for Confucian classics and calligraphy, especially cursive script. Emperor Ming's eldest son, Liu Xian, was born of a concubine and enfeoffed as the Prince of Guangping. He also favored Confucian scholarship and often joined the Imperial Academy scholars at the White Tiger Hall to discuss the classics. Emperor Zhang shared a particularly close bond with Liu Xian, granting him an exceptionally large fiefdom.
After Emperor Zhang's death, his successor Emperor He honored the late ruler's wishes by transferring Liu Xian's fief from the unstable northern frontier to the southern Huainan Commandery, granting him the title Prince of Chen.
Liu Jun, the heir to the Prince of Chen, was restless and resentful that the prince's wife had disciplined him too harshly in the past. Ignoring his own mother's advice, he sent assassins to slaughter her entire family. To avoid airing the family's dirty laundry, Emperor He showed leniency to his cousin, and the murder case was quietly swept under the rug.
Liu Jun had little interest in books but was obsessed with archery, though his skill was mediocre. Still, he kept a large workshop of master bowyers and arrow-smiths at his estate.
After several generations, Liu Chong became the master of the State of Chen. Aside from spending entire nights locked in his chambers with alchemists, refining pills and praying to the heavens for immortality, Liu Chong's only other passion was playing with the thousands of powerful bows left behind by Liu Jun.
Liu Chong was a master archer whose specialty was hitting the bullseye ten times out of ten, with all ten arrows clustering tightly at the center. He established a rule: any villager who could hit the target nine times out of ten would have their land tax waived and be recruited as a royal archer. As a result, the Prince of Chen's eight hundred crossbowmen became famous far and wide. Han Dynasty law forbade regional princes from maintaining their own armed forces, but with the empire in its final years and rebellion spreading across the land, the court's decrees were little more than dead letters, allowing Liu Chong to do as he pleased.
When the Yellow Turban rebellion raised its banners high, officials near Huainan abandoned their cities and fled. Liu Chong, with his eight hundred crossbowmen, patrolled the borders day and night. The rebel forces, wary of Liu Chong's legendary archery, dared not attack. Refugees fleeing the chaos poured into Huainan, and Liu Chong seized the opportunity to expand his army, eventually commanding a force of one hundred thousand men under the banner of "General Who Assists the State."
Yuan Shu requested grain and fodder from Liu Chong, but after being refused, he harbored a grudge. He sent a warlock named Zhang Kaiyang to Huainan, who claimed mastery of yin-yang arts, praying to the heavens for longevity and warding off disasters, thereby gaining Liu Chong's trust.
In a secret chamber thick with incense smoke and flickering candlelight, Liu Chong bowed low before the altar, while beside him, Zhang Kai, draped in a colorful robe and gripping a sword, muttered incantations under his breath.
Zhang Kaiyang swept his wide robe, extinguishing all the candles, and with a swift stroke of his sword, he cut down Liu Chong.
After Liu Chong's death, the group was left leaderless, and the crossbowmen scattered in all directions. The wealthy Huainan Commandery became a coveted prize, repeatedly ravaged until houses crumbled and fields lay barren. Even the prince's household suffered hunger and cold, surviving on meager meals every other day, barely scraping by.
In the end, the Wuhuan tribe overran Huainan, and all the able-bodied men, women, and children of the prince's estate were captured and taken as slaves.
"Bing ri" means treating two days as one, and "bing ri er shi" means having only one day's rations for two days, describing extreme poverty and inability to eat one's fill.
Source: *Book of the Later Han*, "Biography of Chen Jing, Prince Xian"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "并日而食" came to describe how having only one day's rations for two days describes extreme poverty and inability to eat one's fill.