Abstract:

The spread of public opinions has an important effect on winning a war. At the late years of the Qin dynasty，Liu Bang，an outstanding politician，laid great emphasis on leading and controlling the trend of public opinions. Liu Bang’s final victory in the Chu-Han war owed much to his skillful use of public opinions. At the beginning of the war，Liu Bang made full use of the public opinions by deifying himself to justify his leadership so that the public would follow and support him. Afterwards，Liu Bang built a positive image of himself as a generous elderly and as a benevolent leader who loves his people through public opinions，in order to win over the people’s support. During the decisive battle against Xiang Yu，Liu Bang disintegrated the morale of Xiang Yu’s army by means of public opinion and eventually won the victory. The result of the war shows that in order to win a war，psychological control through public opinions is also needed besides strong military strength.

Key words: Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Chu-Han War, spread of public opinion, political image