Chen Sheng Chen Sheng ( died 208 BC ) , also known in some sources as Chen She , was the leader of the first rebellion , known as Daze Village Uprising , against the Qin Dynasty during the reign of the second Qin emperor Qin Er Shi . Start of the rebellion . Chen Sheng was born in Yangcheng ( 陽城 ; in present - day Fangcheng County , Nanyang , Henan ) . In 209 BC , he was a military captain along with Wu Guang when the two of them were ordered to lead 900 soldiers to Yuyang ( 漁陽 ; southwest of present - day Miyun County , Beijing ) to help defend the northern border against Xiongnu . Due to storms , it became clear that they could not get to Yuyang by the deadline , and according to law , if soldiers could not get to their posts on time , they would be executed . Chen Sheng and Wu Guang , believing that they were doomed , led their soldiers to start a rebellion . They announced that Fusu , the crown prince of Qin , who had wrongly been forced to commit suicide , and Xiang Yan , a general of Chu , had not died and were joining their cause . They also declared the reestablishment of Chu . Using 900 men to resist an empire seemed to be a suicidal move , but the people , who had felt deeply oppressed by the Qin regime , joined Chen Sheng and Wu Guang ' s cause quickly . More than 20 , 000 men joined . Soon , there were people asking Chen Sheng to declare himself " King of Chu " . Acting against the advice of Zhang Er and Chen Yu , Chen Sheng declared himself " King of Rising Chu " ( 張楚王 ) . Downfall and death . Chen Sheng , setting his capital at Chen County ( 陳縣 ; in present - day Huaiyang , Henan ) , then commissioned various generals to advance in all directions to conquer Qin territory . Among these were : Wu Guang , whom he created acting - ' King of Chu ' ; Zhou Wen ( 周文 ) , whom he ordered to head west toward Qin proper ; his friend Wu Chen ( 武臣 ) , whom he ordered to head north toward the old territory of Zhao ; Zhou Fu ( 周敷 ) , whom he ordered to head northeast toward the old territory of Wei . However , none of these generals returned . After initial defeats Qin forces regrouped under general Zhang Han . Wu Guang was assassinated by generals under him ; Zhou Wen was defeated by Qin forces ; Wu Chen was initially successful but then declared himself the King of Zhao and became independent of Chu ; and Zhou Fu supported a descendant of the royal house of Wei to be the King of Wei , also independent of Chu . A major reason why Wu Chen and the generals who assassinated Wu Guang broke away was that Chen Sheng was paranoid as a king : generals were executed at any sign of infidelity , even by rumours . Chen Sheng ' s ruthlessness and constant defeats in battle made it harder and harder for him to gather followers . Chen Sheng was greatly weakened , and as he suffered losses at the hands of the Qin army , he personally led a force to try to gather reinforcements , but he was assassinated by his guard Zhuang Jia in winter 209 BC - 208 BC . His rebellion ended just six months after it started . Legacy . Chen Sheng was often idealised by versions of history promulgated by Chinese historians as a great leader of the peasants against intolerable oppression of the Qin nobility and bourgeois . However , that perception is not reality . Chen Sheng ' s decisions , while motivated by his desire to overthrow Qin , was also often motivated by self - interest and self - aggrandisation . He also failed to take in good advice and overly estimated himself . As the Song Dynasty historian Sima Guang wrote in the " Zizhi Tongjian " : While Chinese historians may quibble with Sima Guang ' s characterisation of Chen , it appears to be quite correct . He claimed the title of king only months after the start of his rebellion , without a sufficient foundation , and once he did he effectively became stuck in Chen County and could not firmly hold territories that were conquered , because the people in the territories did not view him with great affection . While he had his role in the downfall of Qin , he should not be viewed as a hero . Miscellaneous . Chen Sheng appears to be the person who coined the Chinese proverb , " How can a little songbird understand the ambitions of a grand swan ! " ( 燕雀安知鴻鵠志 ) , a saying that figures prominently in of the historical novel " Romance of the Three Kingdoms " . The pattern of an impostor and his general , founded by Chen Sheng , was closely followed by Han Shantong and Liu Futong in the end of Yuan Dynasty .