**Lifting Mountains and Raising Cauldrons**
**[Explanation]**
Describes someone with superhuman strength or an imposing, majestic presence.
**[Source]**
*Pinghua of the Qin's Unification of the Six States*, Volume Lower: "At that time, Ji was only twenty-four years old, possessing strength enough to match ten thousand men, with the might to lift mountains and raise cauldrons."
**[Explanation]**
It is said that when Xiang Yu was around twenty-two or twenty-three years old, he was already a towering and powerfully built man, capable of easily lifting a bronze cauldron weighing several hundred catties (a traditional unit of weight).
**[The Story]**
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Chu and Han states were locked in a struggle for supremacy. Xiang Yu held the upper hand. In the early stages of the Chu-Han contention, he enjoyed a significant advantage with a large army and many generals, causing Liu Bang great fear.
Xiang Yu, whose given name was Ji, was a native of Jiangdong's Xiaxiang at the end of the Qin Dynasty. As a young man, he loved martial arts, spending his days wielding swords and spears, but had no interest in reading or writing. His uncle, Xiang Liang, was very angry. Xiang Yu said, "What ambition can a real man achieve by spending his days reading and writing? Only by learning martial arts and mastering the skill to defeat ten thousand men can one rise above others."
Xiang Liang then taught him military strategy. Xiang Yu was happy to learn, but he only grasped the superficial aspects, unwilling to study deeply or research seriously, and thus had only a rudimentary understanding of military tactics. It is said that when Xiang Yu was in his twenties, he had already grown into a towering figure, over eight *chi* (a traditional unit of height) tall, powerfully built and immensely strong, capable of easily lifting a several-hundred-catty bronze cauldron.
Later, Xiang Yu raised an army to rebel against the Qin. He then fought Liu Bang for control of the empire. Starting at the age of twenty-four, he fought fiercely for eight years. Finally, he was surrounded by Liu Bang's forces at Gaixia and ultimately committed suicide on the banks of the Wu River. On the night before his death, as the songs of Chu echoed from all sides (signaling his army's desertion), Xiang Yu, facing his beloved concubine Yu Ji and his famous steed named Zhui, sang慷慨ly and heroically: "My strength could pull up mountains, my might overshadowed the world! But the times are against me, and Zhui cannot gallop! Zhui cannot gallop—what can I do? Yu, my Yu, what will become of you?" Thus, this legendary hero met his end at the Wu River, leaving generations of later people to sigh with regret.