Stories from History: Chen Ping Showed Ambition from the Time He Was Young

Yi Dou

PureInsight | August 19, 2007

[PureInsight.org] Chen Ping had
great ambition since he was a child. One day the people in the township
were preparing to offer sacrifices to the God Earth. Chen Ping was
assigned to cut meat and he did it very well. People said: "The kid
from the Chen family did a fair job of dividing the meat." Chen Ping
answered: "If one day I were in charge of national matters, I would do
the same fair job as this."



When Wei Jiu was declared as king in the Wei region, Chen Ping went to
seek a position. Wei Jiu gave him a post as Tai Pu. But Wei Jiu never
took his suggestions, so Chen Ping left.



When the army of Xiang Yu approached the Yellow River. Chen Ping went
to see him and helped with the suppression of the rebellion in Chao Ge.
Xian Yu gave him awards including the title of Du Wei and four hundred
liangs of gold. Soon after that, Liu Bang attacked and took Chao Ge.
Xiang Yu was so angry that he wanted to have Chen Ping killed. Chen
Ping had no option but to have the official seal and gold returned to
Xiang Yu and escaped his wrath.



When he was going to cross the Yellow river, the boatman saw Chen Ping
travelling with a sword by himself. With the thought that the man must
be an escaping general with lots of money, the boatman planned to kill
him. However, when Chen Ping removed his clothing and helped the
boatman row the boat, it could be seen he had nothing much with him, so
the boatman did not take any action.

 

After crossing the Yellow River, Chen Ping went to serve Liu Bang and eventually had great achievements.



(From The Records of the Grand Historian)





Translated from:

http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2007/8/11/47695.html

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