Feast at Swan Goose Gate

Western Han dynasty mural depicting the feast, discovered in the Northwest 61th Tomb in the Luoyang Ancient Tombs Museum. One of the earliest excavated depictions of the event.
Feast at Swan Goose Gate
Traditional Chinese鴻門宴
Simplified Chinese鸿门宴
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHóng Mén Yàn
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingHung4 Mun4 Jin3

The Feast at Swan Goose Gate, also known as the Banquet at Hongmen, Hongmen Banquet, Hongmen Feast and other similar renditions, was a historical event that took place in 206 BC at Swan Goose Gate (Chinese: ; pinyin: Hóng Mén) outside Xianyang, the capital of the Qin dynasty. Its location in present-day China is roughly at Hongmenbao Village, Xinfeng Town, Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi. The main parties involved in the banquet were Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, two prominent leaders of insurgent forces who rebelled against the Qin dynasty from 209 BC to 206 BC.

The Feast is often memorialised in Chinese history, fiction and popular culture. It was one of the highlights of the power struggle between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu leading to the outbreak of the Chu–Han Contention, a violent civil war for supremacy over China which concluded with Xiang Yu's defeat and death at the Battle of Gaixia, followed by Liu Bang's establishment of the Han dynasty with himself as its founding emperor.


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