For a while after the death of the First Emperor the memory of his might continued to awe the common people. Yet Chen She(7), born in a humble but with tiny windows and wattle door, a day laborer in the fields and a garrison conscript，whose abilities could not match even the average, who had neither the worth of Confucius and Mozi nor the wealth of Tao Zhu or Yi Dun，stepped from the ranks of the common soldiers, rose up from the paths of the fields and led a band of some hundred poor, weary troops in revolt against the Qin. They cut down trees to make their weapons，raised their flags on garden poles, and the whole world in answer gathered about them like a great cloud, brought them provisions and followed after them as shadows follow a form. In the end the leaders of the entire eastrose up together and destroyed the house of Qin.
Now the empire of Qin at this time was by no means small or feeble. Its base in Yongzhou, its stronghold within the Pass, was the same as before. The position of Chen She could not compare in dignity with the lords of Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Song, and Zhongshan. The weapons which he improvised of hoes and tree branches could not match the sharpness of spears and battle pikes; his little band of garrison conscripts was nothing beside the armies of the nine states; his plots and stratagems, his metheds of warfare were far inferior to those of the men of earlier times. And yet Chen She succeeded in his undertaking where they had failed. Why was this, when in ability, size, power and strength his forces came nowhere near those of the states of the east that had formerly opposed Qin? Qin, beginning with an insignificant amount of territory, reached The power of a great state and for a hundred years made all the other great lords pay homage to it. Yet after it had become master of the whole empire and established itself within the fastness of the pass, a single commoner opposed it and its ancestral temples toppled its ruler died by the hands of men, and it became the laughing stock of the world. Why? Because it failed to rule with humanity and righteousness and to realize that the power to attack and the power to retain what one has thereby won are not the same.
Tr. Cyril Birch
Notes：
(1) Duke Xiao of Qin: The sovereign of the state of Qin from 361 to 338 B. C
(2) the strength of the Hangu Pass：Orig. —the strength of Xiaoshan and the Hangu Pass (both in today's Henan Province).
(3) Yongzhou：The area covering parts of today's Shanxi Province, Gansu Province, Qinghai Province and Ningxk Hui Autonomous Region.
(4) Lord Shang： i.e, , Shang Yang.
(5) join with them in the Vertical Alliance... and Zhongshan: Orig. —join with them in the Vertical Alliance. At that time, Qi had Mr. Mengchang, Zhao had Mr. Pingyuan, Chu had Chunshen. and Wei, Xinling. These four gentlemen were all wise, generous, kindhearted and loyal to their states. To combat Qin's military alliance, they set up the Vertical Alliance which united all the peoples of the states of Han, Wei, Yan, Chu, Qi，Zhao, Song, Wei and Zhongshan. Among the able persons of the states, there were Ning Yue, Xu Shang, Su Qin, Du He as advisors; Qi Ming, Zhou Zui, Chen Zhen, Shao Hua, Lou Huan, Di Jing, Su Li, Yue Yi as diplomats；Wu Qi, Sun Bin, Dai Tuo, Ni Liang, Wang Liao, Tian Ji, Lian Po, Zhao She as military commanders.
(6) the Cassia Forest and Elephant commanderies：Both places became prefectures in today's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
(7) Chen She： i.e.，Chen Sheng (? B. C. —208 B.C.), leader of the peasant uprising troops against the Qin Empire.
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