Gao Zu(temple name)，personalname Liu Pang，or Liu Chi，post-humous name Kao Huang-ti(born 256 B. C.，China，died 195 B. C., China) was the founder and first emperor of the Han Dynasty(206 B. C. -A. D. 220)，under which the Chinese imperial system assumed most of the characteristics that it was to retain until it was overthrown in 1911 or 1912. He reigned from 206 to 195 B . C..
高祖(庙号)刘邦，又名刘季，溢号高皇帝，生于公元前256年，卒于公元前195年，汉朝(公元前206至公元220年)开国皇帝。汉朝统治期问，中国的帝制呈现出了它一直保持到公元1911年或1912年帝制被推翻时的大多数特征。
Born of a peasant family, Liu Pang began his career as a police officer under the Qin Dynasty.
刘邦出生于一个农民家庭，起初是秦朝的亭长。He turned rebel after the death of the Qin emperor Shih huang-ti，who had been the first to unify China.
秦始皇去世后刘邦参加了起义。
The rebels were under the nominal leadership of Hsiang Yü，a warlord who defeated the Qin armies and then tried to restore the pre-Qin feudal system，reinstating many of the former nobles and dividing the land among his generals.
起义领袖是项羽，是一位军阀。项羽打败了秦军后试图恢复先秦封建体制。项羽恢复了很多旧贵族的身份并且将土地分封给各位将军。Liu Pang，by then an important rebel leader, received control of the kingdom of Han in West China，now Szechwan and southern Shanxi Provinces.
刘邦那时已是一个重要的起义军领导人物，得到了中国西部的汉国(今四川和陕西南部)。The former allies soon turned against each other, and Liu's peasant shrewdness led him to victory over the militarily brillant but politically naive Hsiang Yü.
很快，这两个原来的盟友就反目成仇了。刘邦农民所特有机灵使他战胜了有勇无谋的项羽。The civil war ended when Hsiang Yü took his own life in 202 B. C.，upon which Kao-tsu became the ruler of China.
公元前202年项羽自尽，内战结束，随即高祖君临天下。Liu was a coarse man who once urinated into the formal hat of a court scholar to show his disdain for education.
刘邦是一个粗鄙的人，曾经往儒冠里撒尿以示对知识的轻蔑。Nevertheless，he was a pragmatic and flexible ruler who recognized the need for educated men at court. He showed particular concern for reviving the rural economy and for lightening the tax burden of the peasants.
但是作为一个统治者，刘邦很实际也非常灵活。刘邦认识到了对官员们进行教育的必要性，特别关注农村经济的复兴和农民赋税的减轻。Though generally humane in civil matters，he dealt harshly with those who threatened his reign from within China.
尽管处理国内事务刘邦是非常仁慈的，但是他对任何威胁到他统治的外部力量决不手软。His conduct of foreign affairs was a skillful combination of diplomacy and the use of force. His descendants continued the process of consolidating and expanding the empire.
刘邦处理外国事务时巧妙地把外交手段和武力手段结合到一起，他的子孙继续帝国的巩固与扩张。