Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, began his career as a lowly village chief in Pei County. From a young age, he despised farming and manual labor, preferring wine and women, often running up tabs at local taverns without paying. Yet, despite these flaws, he was known for his magnanimous and generous spirit.
In 209 BCE, during the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising, Liu Bang rallied with Xiao He, Cao Shen, and Fan Kuai, earning the title "Duke of Pei." Meanwhile, Xiang Liang and his nephew Xiang Yu raised troops in Kuaiji, with Xiang Liang appointed as Chief Advisor to the King of Chu by Chen Sheng. Within months, their forces swelled to sixty or seventy thousand men. They also installed Xiong Xin, grandson of King Huai of Chu, as the new King Huai. Liu Bang briefly joined Xiang Liang, fighting alongside Xiang Yu.
In the third year of Qin Er Shi's reign, King Huai of Chu had agreed with the generals that whoever first pacified the Guanzhong region would be made its king. That year, Song Yi, Xiang Yu, and Fan Zeng were ordered north to rescue Zhao, while Liu Bang was sent west to enter the pass. The following year, in the tenth month, Liu Bang captured Xianyang, and the Qin emperor Ziying surrendered. Someone advised Liu Bang to kill Ziying, but Liu Bang refused, saying, "King Huai believed I was magnanimous enough to be sent into the pass. Now that he has surrendered, how could I kill him?" Liu Bang also abolished many of the Qin court's harsh laws, so the people all hoped he would stay as their king in Guanzhong.
Xiang Yu, upon learning that Liu Bang had taken Xianyang, led his troops straight in. Liu Bang, unable to match Xiang Yu's strength at the time, outwardly accepted Xiang Yu's commands after maneuvers including the "Banquet at Hongmen," was appointed by Xiang Yu as the King of Han, with territories in Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong, and his capital at Nanzheng (present-day Hanzhong City, Shaanxi). Xiang Yu, meanwhile, styled himself the Hegemon-King of Western Chu.
Liu Bang, in Nanzheng, famously "repaired the plank road openly while secretly advancing through Chencang" (modern Baoji, Shaanxi), returning to Guanzhong to defeat Xiang Yu's appointed Yong King Zhang Han and others, then marched straight to Luoyang. In Luoyang, Liu Bang learned that Xiang Yu had killed the Righteous Emperor, so he notified all the feudal lords, gathered 560,000 troops, and marched east through Tong Pass to attack Xiang Yu, capturing Pengcheng. But Xiang Yu, with just 30,000 elite soldiers, launched a surprise attack on Pengcheng, crushing Liu Bang's Han army and capturing Liu Bang's parents and wife. Some feudal lords who had followed Liu Bang then switched allegiance to Xiang Yu.
But Liu Bang refused to be defeated by failure. From the second year of the Han dynasty, he and Xiang Yu vied for supremacy across the Central Plains, trading victories and defeats. By December of the fifth year, Xiang Yu's army was crushed, with only 28 cavalrymen left at his side. Ultimately, he took his own life on the banks of the Wu River.
After becoming emperor, Liu Bang once hosted a banquet at Luoyang's Southern Palace and asked his generals, "Why did I win the world while Xiang Yu lost it?" Gao Qi and Wang Ling replied, "Your Majesty is arrogant and insulting, while Xiang Yu was kind and caring. But after every conquest, you rewarded the meritorious with spoils, sharing victory. Xiang Yu, however, envied the capable, persecuted the accomplished, doubted the wise, and never rewarded victories or shared gains—that's why he lost." Liu Bang smiled and said, "You have a point, but only half the story. In devising strategies within the tent and winning battles a thousand li away, I am no match for Zhang Liang. In governing the state, pacifying the people, and supplying provisions, I am no match for Xiao He. In commanding a million troops to inevitable victory, I am no match for Han Xin. These three are heroes among men, and I could use them well—that's the main reason I defeated Xiang Yu and won the world. Xiang Yu had only Fan Zeng, and he failed to use him properly, so he ultimately failed."
Later, the idiom "Jealous of the Wise and Envious of the Able" came to describe those who harbor resentment toward people of greater virtue or talent.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, Chapter "Annals of Gaozu"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "妒贤嫉能" came to describe those who harbor resentment toward people of greater virtue or talent.