The Han Dynasty (2)

Written by Judy F. Liu

In the first version (the Han Dynasty has two periods), there is a legend about why the Han Dynasty has two periods, why it was broken in the middle.

According to the legend, when Liu Bang, the founder of the Western Han was just an ordinary beadle ( a lower police officer), he took some people, including some criminals and common people, under escort to Mount Lishan(骊山41) to fulfil their obligations. They called this kind of obligation “yaoyi（24）” , and the people who were on duty had to do a lot of heavy work. The Dynasty didn’t pay them for it, they were for free.

However, on the way to Mount Lishan, some people ran away. According to the law of the day, Liu Bang and the rest of the people who didn’t run away, would have to have their heads chopped off as a punishment.

So, he and the other people discussed this, and in the end they decided to rebel. And that night they met a huge snake. In China, we call big snakes “mang(3莽)”, python.

The big snake told them he wanted to join them, and he hoped that when they were successful, they could let him manager all the small animals –which he could eat, such as chickens, rabbits and so on.

And because the snake was so huge, Liu Bang and his people were scared of him, and because they were so scared they didn’t hear him clearly. Of course they didn’t ask him to repeat himself. Liu Bang pulled out his sword as if to attack him.

Then the snake said to Liu Bang: “If you chop off my head, I will be the next emperor after the first emperor of your dynasty. If you chop off my tail, I will be the next emperor after the last emperor of your dynasty.”

However, Liu Bang chopped off the middle of the snake unexpectedly. After the attack, the snake asked Liu when he could replace the Han Dynasty to be an emperor.

Liu Bang didn’t think after the snake was cut into two that it would be able to speak, so he was scared, and ran away as fast as he could. In the mean time, he said: “ wait for the Pingdi(平地24, here he meant when he was running down the mountain and arrived at the plat ground, he would tell him.)we’ll see.”

He didn’t think that at the time of Emperor Ping’s rule（平帝pingdi24 of the Western Han）, a man who named Wang Mang(王莽23) would seize the power from him.

Of course this is just a myth—Wang Mang couldn’t be a big snake (mang莽OR蟒蛇mangshe32)who died and turned into a man.

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