To Rise like a Phoenix....东山再起

东山再起

(dōngsānzàiqǐ)

项羽 （Xiangyu)，楚国’s (ChuGuo’s) fearsome leader, had been attacked by his rival, 刘邦, and was trapped at 垓下 (gaixia) 。ZhangLiang, LiuBang’s strategist, even had his troops sing native Chu songs, hoping to induce nostalgia amongst Xiangyu’s troops. 楚’s troops wills’ were weakened, but Xiangyu was such a fierce warrior that he managed to fight his way out of the Han troops on horseback, albeit only with 28 other men (cavalry) with him.

He reached the 乌江 (wujiang) in 东城（dongcheng） but he paused in crossing. His men urged him to cross quickly; yes, he had lost the battle, but he was still alive, and once he crossed the river, he could go back to his old power base and start again. He had survived to see another day, he could rise again from the east.

But Xiangyu, unfortunately, decided that he did not have any “face” to see the elders of the east, and decided to kill himself.

This article is related to 四面楚歌, 破釜沉舟, The Concept of Face [link]