佛祖歷代通載 4.48

4.48

(Yiwei) Gaozu, Bang (courtesy name Ji, of the Liu clan. He ruled through the virtue of fire and reigned for twelve years. Initially he used the Qin calendar; in the first year of Taichu, he changed to the Xia calendar. His capital was at Chang'an, the present Jingzhao. He was a native of Zhongyang Village in Fengpei, with a high nose and dragon countenance, and seventy-two dark moles on his left thigh. At first he was the precinct chief of Sishang. Master Lü of Shanfu gave him his daughter in marriage. Because of transporting convicts to Mount Li, when he reached the marshlands west of Feng, he released them. Ten brave men among the convicts were willing to follow him. When he first marched through the mountains and marshes, he cut down a white serpent blocking the road. Later people saw an old woman weeping, who said, "My son was the son of the White Emperor, and has been cut down by the son of the Red Emperor." In the first year of the Second Emperor of Qin, he rose in commoner's clothing from Pei and destroyed Qin to establish the Han. With Xiao He as chancellor, Han Xin as general, and Zhang Liang as strategist, they were the three heroes of Han. Together they destroyed Xiang Yu at the Wu River. He was born in the forty-sixth year of Qin Zhao, lived to the age of sixty-two, and broadly pacified all under heaven. In the fourth month of summer in the dingwei year, he passed away in Changle Palace and was buried in Changling).