Generals, Emperors, Princes.. they all shaped chinese history. My favorite historical figure is Yue Fei, the southern Song general.

What about you?

My favorite is 道.

What? The question is who?

oh..... then....

Sun Si Miao 孫思邈, especially for what he said:

凡大醫治病，必當安神定志，無欲無求，先發大慈惻隱之心，誓願普救含靈之苦。若有疾厄來求救者，不得問其貴賤貧富，長幼妍媸，怨親善友，華夷愚智，普同一等，皆如至親之想，亦不得瞻前顧後，自慮吉凶，護惜身命。見彼苦惱，若己有之，深心淒愴，勿避崄巇、晝夜、寒暑、飢渴、疲勞，一心赴救，無作功夫形跡之心。如此可為蒼生大醫

Why is that so? Please explain why you choose Yue Fei as your favorite

Please translate this into English to benefit non-chinese speakers... I run out of time to translate it.

Btw, who is Sun Si Miao? Heard of this historical figure? Can you explain which dynasty he's from and what he does?

孫思邈 was a doctor, practicing Han medicine of course. Born in 隋開皇元年（581），Died in 唐永淳元年（682），He lived to about 102.

He was extremely smart but was a sickly boy. After long exposure from the doctors, he decided that he wanted to be one as well. So even though the government of Shui and Tang often invited him to be an official, Sun refused and put all his effort in studying medicine.

He wrote a important Han medicine book《備急千金要方》 aka 千金要方.

In that book he took O.B. out as a chapter. Which previous Han doctors never did. He also stresses a doctor should cure a disease with all methods combined. That being accurpuncture, medicine, and 灸 heat treatment all used together.

There's a famous story that one day Sun was on the road and show this family carrying a coffin with blood dripping out of it. And there was a grandma crying very hard. So he asked what's happening, and found out the it's the gramdma's only daughter died in still birth.

Sun told her that her daughter's not dead and asked them to open the coffin. The daughter looks completely dead, but Sun determined that there is still weak beating of the heart. He took out a needle and perform accurpuncture at one pressure point, and the daughter came back to life and gave birth to the baby.

my favorite is Liu Che, emperor of western HAN dynasitic, he defeat Hun, make china became the strong country of the world, and let's china become more unify.

My favorite history figure??
Genghis Khan
he founded the largest Mongol Empire


Liu Ce or Liu Che is correct pinyin spelling?

My favourite? My lord Cao Cao.

One of the more capable historical figures in China history. Don't believe Sanguo Yanyi.

A talented man, well versed in both the arts and warfare. Knows how to take advantage of situations, really care for the people. Values talent.

I think it should be Liu Che

Yue Fei is also one of my favorites.
This general can write very good Ci. This is rare worldwide, as war art is totally different from literature.
His Man Jiang Hong(满江红, The Whole River Red) is often considerd as classic in literature:
满江红
怒发冲冠，凭阑处，潇潇雨歇。
抬望眼，仰天长啸，壮怀激烈。
三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。
莫等闲，白了少年头，空悲切。
靖康耻，犹未雪；巨子恨，何时灭！
长车，踏破贺兰山缺，壮志饥餐胡虏肉，笑谈渴饮匈奴血。
待从头，收拾旧山河，朝天阙。

The following is the English version translated by Tommy W.K. Tao, Vancouver, B.C

Rage bristling under the cap,
I lean against the railing;
The rushing rain has ceased.
Lifting my eyes,
Towards the sky I let out a battle cry;
My blood is boiling.
Thirty years: rank and honour, just so much dust;
Eight hundred leagues: travelling with the moon and clouds.
Do not let it slip away;
When a young man""""s head turns grey,
Regret will be too late.
The national insult
Is yet to be avenged;
Your servants"""" shame:
When will it be erased?
Let us ride the long chariots
To crush those mountain strongholds.
Glorious quest: to feast on the flesh of the invaders.
We laugh and chat and quench our thirst with Tartar blood.
Let us start
To take back our rivers and mountains,
And report to the Heavenly Palace

Liu Che 刘彻 is more commonly known by his temple name "Han Wudi 汉武帝", famous for his military campaign against Xiongnu during western han dynasty. The aggressive expansionist policy during Han Wudi's time greatly epanded the han empire, in which Han Wudi sent armies into Fujian, Guangdong, vietnam, western region, Mongolia, Korea....but more than 20 years of warfare nearly bankrupted the imperial coffer, in which state treasury became depleted after large military expenditure, such that by Han Wudi's late period, the country became more impoverished than before.

I think Han Wudi(汉武帝) is an unique one that has apparently different flavors with othor emperors in China's history. He has a strong desire to expand his territory, and he did succeed!
He believed in one principle in all his life---------犯强汉者，虽远必诛(fan qiang han zhe, sui yuan bi zhu). I think that's why he sent armies to vietnam and some remote areas of China to fight against invader and barbarians.

Li Shimin.

A great doctor, I like him either
He wrote Ben Cao Gang Mu(本草纲目）, and this book is always considered as Bible in doctor circle.

No, Li Shimin, or better known as Tang Taizong.

The doctor, who is also admirable, but for different reasons, is Li Shizhen

Nope, it was not in the Han wudi period, nor did him say that, but the year 36 BC . This version had many mutations on internet.

<<汉书. 卷七十.常郑甘陈段传>>

于是延寿、汤上疏曰：“臣闻天下之大义，当混为一，昔有康、虞，今有强汉。匈奴呼韩邪单于已称北籓，唯郅支单于叛逆，未伏其辜，大夏之西，以为强汉不能臣也。郅支单于惨毒行于民，大恶通于天。臣延寿、臣汤将义兵，行天诛，赖陛下神灵，阴阳并应，天气精明，陷陈克敌，斩郅支首及名王以下。宜县头槁街蛮夷邸间，以示万里，明犯强汉者，虽远必诛。”

Yes, i'm wrong~ I wanted to say Li Shizhen

For me its a toss up between Kongzi and Laozi for their philosophies which still influence Chinese culture today.

Can Laozi be considered a strictly historical figure?

I 'd like to give my respect to a great poet: Li Bai （李白）

He was the representative of my favorite ancient dynasty Tang. His poems reflected the open and glorious of that great era, in addition, he is a paladin travelled so many beautiful places, rather romantic.

Roger! So is it a pinciple of Han Wudi's national stratagy?

Hehe, I think at his early time, it was more like to launch revenge but far from consider building a new world order. Without his efforts,how could his descendants think like that?

I think their are too many to choose from! But it's a close call between Han Wudi, Tang Taizong and Yue Fei.

I have two, one is Sun-Tzu but unfortunantly there is not that much about him compared to others.
The other is judge Dee both the fictional and the historical figure, Di Renjie if i spell it right in Puyi, otherwise be free to correct me.
I have spendt many hours enjoying his company and his wife(s) bickering.

My favourite chinese historical figure would definitely be Tang Taizong, followed by Han Wudi. However, sofar, I've understood more about Han Wudi's strategy than Tang Taizong.

I didnt know there was a historical Judge Dee, i thought the character was based on Bao Zheng of Kaifeng.

Di Rengjie is supposingly not the "judge dee". He was supposingly the Prime Minister of Tang dynasty, during Wu Zetian's reign.

Ancient times will be Qin Shihuang
Imperial times will be Li Zhicheng
Modern times will be Chiang Kai Shek

Cao Cao,a saying goes like something similar to this,

"Skilled in peace times,crafty in Chaos".

He was skilled,had an eye for talent,gained many great generals and China would had been unify by the ealy years of the 200s A.D,if not for a battle.Truly the Hero of Chaos.

I have several favorite Chinese historical figures. They are Han Wu Di, Li Kwang and Ye Fei. These are men who had fought to preserve Chinese security. It is too bad that Han Wu Di was not more appreciated than he was by naive Confucians. In actual fact, Han Wu Di did not bankrupt Chinese economy by fighting the Xiongnus. The battles were actually profitable as millions of horses and cows and sheep were captured as well as many other kinds of spoils of war. What degraded Chinese economy was the excessive gifts given to the Xiongnu generals who surrendered. What Han Wu Di should have done was to take no prisoners and simply wipe out the Xiongnus once and for all. It would have saved a lot of money and enhenced China's security much more.

Li Kwang (李广) was a very capable general who had protected China from the Xiongnus for a long time during the reign of Han Wu Di. Despite his many victories in battles, he had a tragic life and committed suicide to preserve his dignity to avoid being insulted by being questioned by incompetent officials. The following poem was written of him to show how much he had contributed to the defense of the Chinese land.

"秦时明月汉时关，万里长征人未还，但使龙城飞将在，不教胡马度阴山。" - 王昌龄

(The bright moon of Qin, the fortification of Han; Warriors on ten-thousand mile campaign have not yet returned; If only the Flying General of Dragon Citadel were here; No barbarian war horses would dare to cross Mount Yin. - by Wang Chang Ling.)

This expresses the wishes of the Chinese people who have suffered tragically under the aggressions of barbarian invaders. Those naive Confucians were criticized Han Wu Di never suffered under the barbarian aggressions and foolishly spoke of economics when lives and honor were at stake. Following the collapse of Han Dynasty, China were repeatedly attacked by barbarians for hundreds of years. In retrospect, the cost of fighting the Xiongnus and preserving the hundreds of years of peace during the Han Dynasty was negligible compared to the devastation of China and the loss of tens of millions of lives during the subsequent 400 years.

Ye Fei was a tragic figure also. He fought the Jin barbarians for his short life. It was said that he had never lost a battle which would have made him the only one in the Chinese history. It was also said that when the Jin army of several hundred thousand strong was attacked by a few hundred cavalry troops of Ye Fei's army, they panicked and ran in a rout. Such was the terror Ye Fei had inspired in the Jin barbarians. But ultimately Ye Fei was killed by the Song Gao Zhong due to his cowardly fear of the Jin and of his even greater fear of Ye Fei because of his popularity among the Chinese people.

If I can say someone who's not really a politician, but more a litterate (but who also influenced Chinese politics) I'd say Lu Xun 鲁迅. He's been a great "doctor of souls"!

all i know is i've mesmerized with zhuge liang 諸葛亮..
he invented bakpao 麵包..
not as a food but as a military startegy..

he has knowledge in almost everything..

I like the Han general, Huo Qubing (霍去病) best. I compare him to Alexander the Great -- a flawed person, but a genius! I also like the Han general, Wei Qing (衛青), Huo's uncle. He was a very great general with a great personality. The third person I like was the Han Guangwu Di, Liu Xio (漢光武帝劉秀) because he was one of the most personable Emperor in Chinese history IMO.

the first emperor, of course. He united the world. To antient chinese, china was the whole world.

My favorite chinese historical figure would be my name- Liu Bang. If not, why would I sign up an account using his name?

I also like Qin Shi Huang, Xiang Yu and Duoergun.

He is apart of my top favorites. I like him because, apart from his great deeds and tragic tale, his legend has been so romanticized (thanks mostly to his fictional Qing dynasty biography). He went from being a lowly peasant to being worshiped as a minor deity for Pete sake! Not to mention all of the martial arts styles that are wrongly attributed to him just because of his patriotic background.

Yes, I like Yue Fei also as well as his son Yue Yun. I also like Zhao Yun, Li Bai, and all the people in the General Yang's family in Song dynasty. I just got myself the DVDs of that TV series from mainland China.

Mine is Qing ShiZhong, better known as the Yongzheng Emperor. Why? Because he is a controversial emperor, people have been bad-mouthing him for years and he makes an interesting person to research on.

Well, I do have a few in mind..

1. Song Ci (Chinese: 宋慈; Pinyin: Sòng Cí; 1186 – 1249), a forensic medical expert in the Song Dynasty;

2. The Eloquent Ji XiaoLan, the greatest Chinese scholar during the Ching Dynasty;

3. Bao Zheng (Bao Gong), a symbol of justice and integrity. A magistrate of justice, fearlessness and righteousness.

I cannot decide who is my favorite, so I list all three.

霍元甲 (Huo Yuan-Jia)

I like Weizheng and Di Renjie. Weizheng was not afraid to criticize Tang Taizong and speak his mind in front of the emperor. Weizheng advised Li Jiancheng to eliminate Li Shimin, but Li Shimin wisely retained Weizheng as his own prime minister. Weizheng even refused to bow down before Taizong after the success of the Xuan Wu Men coup.

Weizheng criticized Taizong's spending habits. The two often engaged in heated arguments with each other that Taizong would leave the room fuming. One time Taizong threatened to behead Weizheng after one heated discussion. But Weizheng stood his ground. Eventually Taizong came around to seeing the wisdom of Weizheng's words.

Di Renjie was also a man of upright character who stood for his principles while serving Wu Zetian. He criticized her personal indiscretions in front of her. She deferred to him, but was ruthless towards other officials. There was an incident where Di sharply disagreed with a policy she was proposing, and she became angry with him. In retaliation, Di walked over to a pillar and started banging his head against the pillar repeatedly, saying that he was perfectly willing to keep banging his head until he killed himself. Alarmed, she begged him to stop and finally agreed to adopt his proposal instead.

Di knew that Wu Zetian could not afford to lose a man of meritocracy like him, since he headed a faction that served a bulwark against the government aristocrats who hated her.

Zunjing de China History Forum members,

I can denote all my favorites throughout Chinese history; however, this would certainly take a very long time since I practically have preferred people in all dynastic periods. Therefore, I will chronologically list my favorites of all-time.

1.] 申生 Shen Sheng (younger but legitimate brother of Jin Wen Gong) - He was definitely the lesser known paragon of all Confucian values (loyalty, filial piety, humanity and benevolence).

2.] 趙武靈王 Zhao Wu Ling Wang - He initially ruled over a relatively small state of Zhao; nevertheless, with his intelligence and capabilities, Zhao Wu Ling Wang steadily turned his state into a powerhouse by instigating brilliant reforms regarding cavalries, while scholarly suppressing all the oppositions from various conservative ministers. Unfortunately, his advance thinking would eventually lead to his tragic death.

3.] 刘伯温 Liu Bo Wen - He was perhaps the greatest and most astrological strategist of all-time, who would almost always construct the most beneficial moves for the greater majority.

4.] 孝莊文皇后 Empress Xiao Zhuang - This mother/grandmother successfully assisted her son/grandson during their minorities to reunify China and consolidate their reigns by implementing policies regarding Han/Manchu equalities without exceeding her boundaries. This also represented the fact that she effectively challenged the popular Confucian belief that a woman, more specifically an Empress Dowager, could not have been both politically talented and virtuous at the same time.

5.] 纪晓岚 Ji Xiao Lan - He was possibly the greatest and most eloquent scholar of all-time, who was not only unswayable in principles, but could also subtly reject differences in viewpoints in the most educated ways.

The historical figures listed above are not only my mere favorites, but they are also the people I respect and admire the most! In fact, it has always been my dream to visit each of their graves to personally pay the greatest reverences to these outstanding, larger than life human beings!

Zunjing de China History Forum members

After reviewing various old documents regarding the early Manchurian Dynasty, I must include one more historical character in the list, of whom I have just realized deserve the same recognition(s).

清太宗 Qing Taizong - He is the often underrated, but actually very wise Emperor, who clearly understood how to effectively utilize the strengths of talents to compensate for his own weaknesses. He further demonstrated his farsightedness/far vision by realizing the necessity of promoting relative Han/Manchu equality (similar ideas to the Xiao Kang society).

Xie Xie

Okay, so i just finished Reading the three kingdoms...so this may be a biased post. In order of most favorite to least (but still all favorites):

1. Guan Yu - I pray and burn incense to Guan Yu for Strength and Courage.
2. Zhuge Liang (Kongming) - I pray and burn incense to Kongming for wisdom and knowledge.
3. Zhao Zilong - At least in 3 kingdoms he totally kicked a**....along with the above 2, i cried when he died.
4. Diaochan - The story of the plum blossoms never blooming in her native town touched me and the story itself encompassed the significance of her beauty!

xiang yu

生当为人杰, 死亦为鬼雄。
至今思项羽，不肯过江东。

He was certainly a very hard working Emperor. To this day, I am really not sure why people don't like him. Did he offended some scholars or something?

I also like him a lot. He was a very humorous person. It was said that he got too bored editing the Si Ku Quan Shu (the major Qing dynasty Library book), so he decided to write his famous, Notebook from the Yue-Wei Strawhut, in order to entertain himself!!! Did you read that collection? It is great!!! I remember it also had some records of UFO in it, not to mention a lot of ghost and monster stories!!! I am re-reading it. This time in Taipei, I will try to find a better edition of the book, so I will have two copies just in case I lost or damaged my older copy (that was from 40 years ago)!!!

I also like him better than Liu Bang -- I guess that is a very much of a bias opinion totally influenced by Sima Qian, and as a historian, I should NOT be that biased, but ... he was such a hero!!!

Also, you quoted one of my favorite poem!

Translated as:

To be a hero among humans when alive, to be a strongman among ghosts when in death.
Thinking of Xiang Yu even in today's time, (we remembered) that he would not go across the river and go back to Jiang-Dong (East of the River)!

What a hero who was willing to face his own failure and pick up his own responsibilities of letting his soldiers die because of his own mistakes!!! To think of most of our political leaders (in the world) usually have/had to have others to force them to face their own responsibilities, I feel Xiang Yu was a wonderful man and also my hero!!!

Well, he have some experience with Wenzi Yu, he tried to destroy Han attempt to restore a Han empire by killing off scholars and such; certainly his father and his son did similar things but, I would assume its politically easier to talk smack about an Emperor whose reign is relatively short compare to Kangxi and Qianlong.

Sima Qian liked him a bit too much for a historian

I kinda hate when people look down on Xiang Yu, its kind of like, 'so you must think you are as brilliant as Zhang Liang, as cunning as Chen Ping, as steadfast as Xiao He, as great as Han Xin, in order to look down on Xiang Yu then man who by his own right fought them to a stand still.'

Sima Qian hated the Han Emperors for being punished innocently and for Han Wu Di killed all the family members of Li Ling (Sima Qian's good friend)!!! Personally, I don't like Han Wu Di for the same reasons as Sima Qian. Also, even historians are human beings and have personal feelings and have likes and dislikes.



I agree. However, his fate proved again that one person's genius cannot fight against the cooperations of a group of people who might not be as genius as individuals. Team work is really important!!! It was too bad that Xiang Yu could not utilize his people as good as Liu Bang. You know, Xiang Yu had a lot of good people helping him from the start because he was from a noble family and from the family of a famous Chu general, not like Liu Bang who was from a poor commoner's family and had to gather his own help with a lot of difficulties.