This Saturday I watched a movie called White Vengeance. It tells a story which happened at the end of Qin Dynasty. It’s very famous in history, it’s called the dinner at Hongmen where treachery was planned(鸿门宴). At the beginning of the film, the Grand Tutor led several princes to the site of Hongmen Feast.

They imagined the scenery of the feast, including where Xiangyu sit, where Liu Bang sit and what did they talk about. At this time, a person like ghost appeared in front of them and frightened them. The person was Zhang Liang, Liu Bang’s military counsellor.

He told them the story of Hongmen Feast. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, since the ruling of Qin was very tyrannical, the people were gathering together and wanted to assassinate the emporer of Qin. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were among them.

But Zhang Liang took action first, he tried to assassinate the emporer on the way out, however he failed and fled away. Later, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang joined the insurrectionary army and became important leaders among them. They agreed that who entered Xianyang, the capital of Qin Dynasty, will become King of Qin.

Xiang Yu asked Liu Bang to take Yu Ji, his girlfriend, to her hometown to take refugee. But Liu Bang took this chance to choose a short cut to take control of Xiang Yang because he also wanted to become King of Qin.

Since the army of Qin’s capital were out to defend assault from Xiang Yu, Liu Bang achieved his goal easily, he became the first one who entered the capital of Qin. Liu Bang’s action enraged Xiang Yu, so he invited Liu Bang to a dinner at Hongmen, where he planned treachery. This is how the story of Hognmen Feast began.

When Liu Bang arrived at Hongmen, Xiang Yu’s military counsellor, Fan Zen, asked Zhang Liang to play five sets of weiqi first. If Fan Zen won, Liu Bang should return Yu Ji to Xiang Yu. Zhang Liang agreed and they began to play weiqi. Since Fan Zen was nearly blind, he can not put weiqi piece on the plate and he told Long Yi to do the job.

Liu Bang told Fan Kuai to do the job for Zhang Liang. Since Zhang Liang was a fresh man and Fan Zen was an old master, Zhang Liang lost four of the five sets. At the end of the five set, Han Xin hurried to the site of feast and read King of Chu’s orders to them. The king ordered Xiang Yu and Liu Bang to be frendly and Xiang Yu would became the King of Qin. So their dispute was resolved and left a set of weiqi game not finished…

Later on, Liu Bang defeat Xiang Yu in the battle of City Wu. Xiang Yu died with his favorite girlfriend, Yu Ji. At this time, Fan Zen’s strategy began to take effect. He left a secret master plan for Xiang Yu, but the plan was found by Liu Bang. In the plan, Fan Zen told Xiang Yu that Han Xin, Liu Bang’s most powerful general, had agreed to rebel and work for Xiang Yu.

Liu Bang was astonished about the plan. So he killed all his meritorious statesman who followed him during the war against Qin. The ending was sad because Liu Bang who won the war could not trust anyone around him anymore and all the masters died except Zhang Liang, who told the story to the sons of Liu Bang.

This was Weiqi’s method, a move you made early in the set might had magnificent result in the later stage, or even change the whole way of history. Fan Zen did it and how about our lifes? The things happened in our childhood might have magnificent effect on our behaviour in the adult stage.