Bios Flashcards
Yongzheng
(1677–1735): Third emperor of the Qing. His attempts to reform the finances of the state were thwarted by both local officials and elites.
Wang Anshi
(1021–1086): Statecraft thinker and political leader. Presided over the reform effort known as the New Policies in the 1070s. Advocated a stronger role for the central government and restriction of the powers of local elites.
Liang Qichao
(1873–1929): Reformer and writer. He was active with Kang Youwei in the 1898 Reforms and, later, became a publisher of radical newspapers inShanghai and Japan.
Liu Bei
(162–223 C.E.): Descendant in a minor line of the Han imperial family, he founded the state of Shu Han in 220 at the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period.
Xiang Yu
(233–202 B.C.E.): Military leader of the former state of Chu, he joined the rebellion against Qin in 207 B.C.E. and soon became one of the major contenders to found a new dynasty. He was defeated by Liu Bang in 202.
Wang Mang
(33 B.C.E.–23 C.E.): An official at the Han court, he seized power in 9 C.E. and proclaimed his own dynasty, the Xin. He instituted various reforms, but following his death in 23 C.E., the Liu family reclaimed
the throne.
Sunzi
(6th century B.C.E.): Military strategist of the Warring States period. His doctrines of deception and careful preparation became fundamental to Chinese military thinking.
Shun
(c. 2200 B.C.E.): Legendary sage king of antiquity. Named to succeed Emperor Yao, who set aside his own son in favor of Shun’s moral uprightness.
Chiang Kaishek
(1888–1975): Military leader and strongman of the
Guomindang Nationalist Party from 1926 until his death. Strongly anti-Communist, he directed Nationalist forces primarily against the CCP, rather than the Japanese who invaded China in the 1930s. After defeat in the civil war, he led the Nationalist regime on Taiwan.
Sun Yatsen
(1866–1925): Nationalist revolutionary leader and founder of the Guomindang, the Nationalist Party. Developed the three People’s Principles of nationalism, democracy, and socialism.
Zhang Xueliang
(1898–2001): Warlord in northwestern China who placed Chiang Kaishek under house arrest in December 1936 to coerce him into forming a new alliance with the Communists to resist Japanese aggression. After the negotiations concluded and Chiang was released, he placed Zhang under arrest; Zhang was held by the Nationalists until 1996.
Li Zicheng
(1606–1645): Leader of a peasant rebellion against the Ming in Shanxi in the early 1640s, he succeeded in capturing Beijing in April 1644. He established a short-lived dynasty of his own but was chased out of the capital by Wu Sangui and the Mongols in early June.
Fan Kuan
(active c. 1023–1031): Landscape painter during the Northern Song dynasty. His depictions of massive mountains with tiny human figures in marginal positions typified the changing view of man and nature in the 11th century.
Yao
(c. 2300 B.C.E.): Legendary sage ruler of antiquity. He set aside his own son to appoint Shun as his successor because of his sterling moral qualities.
Su Shi
(1037–1101): Scholar, official, and literary theorist. Follower of Ouyang Xiu, he promoted the assimilation of classical literary models as a basis for one’s own spontaneous expression.
Liu Bang
(247–195 B.C.E.): Petty official of the Qin state who rebelled and raised an army that allowed him to establish a new dynasty, the Han, in 202 B.C.E. Reigned as first emperor until his death.
Sima Guang
(1019–1086): Statecraft thinker of the Northern Song. Critic of the reforms of Wang Anshi, he promoted a view of government that emphasized the role of the literati as sage advisors to the emperor.
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Laozi
(6th century B.C.E.): Semi-legendary philosopher of the Warring States period whose ideas became the foundation for Daoism. He rejected the positivism of Confucian thought and encouraged a skeptical approach to knowledge and action; he also advocated seeking harmony with nature.
Duke of Zhou
(11th century B.C.E.): Uncle and chief advisor of King Wu at the time of the founding of the Zhou dynasty. He became the model of the sage advisor, the ideal for the later shi administrative elite.
Jiang Qing
(1914–1999): Wife of Mao Zedong. During the Cultural Revolution, she was responsible for the reform of performing arts. She became the leader of the so-called Gang of Four, who sought to promote a radical vision of egalitarian revolution.
Khubilai
(1214–1294): Grandson of Temujin and first emperor of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China. He completed the conquest of the Song and established the Mongol capital at Dadu, present-day Beijing.
Yuan Shikai
(1859–1916): Military leader of the late Qing. He commanded the modernized Beiyang Army in northern China. In 1898, he supported the suppression of the reformers. In 1911, he negotiated the abdication of the emperor and secured the presidency of the new Republic for himself. After an abortive attempt to assume the throne in 1916, he fled Beijing and died shortly thereafter.
Jiang Zemin
(1926– ): Communist Party official and former mayor of Shanghai who became general secretary after the suppression of the Tiananmen student movement in June 1989. He restored order and returned to the path of reform and openness to the outside world inaugurated by Deng Xiaoping.
Kangxi
(1654–1722): Second emperor of the Qing dynasty. He presided over the suppression of the rebellion of Wu Sangui and launched campaigns to bring the Mongol tribes of Xinjiang into the Qing Empire. His tax edict of 1712 fixed the fiscal system of the dynasty “in perpetuity.”
Yang Guifei
(d. 756): Daughter of an official, she became a consort of the emperor Xuanzong. They became so close that she influenced his decisions on government. Jealous officials alleged an illicit relationship with An Lushan, which led to his rebellion. Yang Guifei was strangled and left by the roadside as the emperor’s entourage fled the capital in 756.
Han Fei
(d. 233 B.C.E.): Philosopher of the state of Qin. He developed a sophisticated rationale for the Legalist doctrines of rewards and punishments. Han Fei argued that human nature was a blank slate and that, by use of rewards and punishments, people could be shaped to be obedient citizens.
Temujin
(c. 1162–1227): Leader of the Mongols in their great age of expansion. Became Chinggis Khan, or Oceanic Ruler, in 1206.
Guangxu
(1871–1908): Next-to-last emperor of the Qing.Dominated by his great aunt, the Empress Dowager Cixi, he began to rule in his own right in the mid-1890s. His support for reform in the summer of 1898 led to his house arrest in September. He died in 1908 on the eve of Cixi’s death, leading to speculation that he was poisoned.
Liu Shaoqi
(1898–1969): Communist Party leader and president of the People’s Republic in the 1950s and early 1960s. He became the chief focus of opposition to Mao and was denounced as a “capitalist roader” in the Cultural Revolution, when he was purged from office and imprisoned. Died of cancer while still under arrest.
