项羽 / Xiang Yu

Xiang Yu is the dominant host and failed would-be ruler in the episode’s reading of [[HongmenYan|《鸿门宴》]] in 164.古文的力量：请收下这份千年未变的深情、洞见和勇气. The source presents him as powerful, proud, susceptible to recognition, and politically dangerous because he can humiliate [[LiuBang|刘邦]] without finally killing him.

The episode’s larger judgment is ambivalent. QinZong says a harder, more shameless Xiang Yu might have won, but she also connects his residual need to “要脸” with [[SimaQian|司马迁]]’s decision to place him in imperial annals. Xiang Yu therefore anchors Moral Face Under Power Competition / 权力竞争中的要脸 rather than a simple lesson that kindness loses.

Connections

• [[HongmenYan|《鸿门宴》]] - source scene.
• [[LiuBang|刘邦]], [[ZhangLiang|张良]], [[FanZeng|范增]], and [[FanKuai|樊哙]] - main counterparts.
• [[SimaQian|司马迁]] - historian whose treatment preserves Xiang Yu’s historical force.
• Power Etiquette Reading / 权力礼仪细读, Moral Face Under Power Competition / 权力竞争中的要脸, and Machiavellian Realism - interpretive frames.