Gaozu Slaughters the Serpent

The Red Emperor’s Omen

Liu Bang kills a great white serpent and is hailed as the Red Emperor destined to found Han.

As a humble ward chief escorting convicts to Lishan, Liu Bang travels by night through the marshes and finds a giant serpent blocking the road; drunk, he cuts it in two. An old woman weeping by the corpse tells his men that the snake was the son of the White Emperor, slain by the son of the Red Emperor. The tale became the founding omen of the Han: Liu Bang, the Red Emperor’s child, rises to take the Mandate of Heaven, and the sword he drew is remembered as the Scarlet Dawn Blade.