The Rise of China's Han Dynasty

A History of Mankind (179)

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The settlement between Han and Chu – or, to be precise, between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, now essentially opposing rulers – meant the end of Chu’s preferred Eighteen Kingdoms arrangement, and its replacement by a division of China into two spheres of influence: on the western side, Liu Bang and his allies and vassals; on the eastern side, Chu, unable to break away from a position of dominance it had never really sought, and in control of its own territory and vassals needed to fill armies with troops to oppose Liu Bang.