In 1492, during the Ming Dynasty, Wang Ji (王繼) became the deputy minister of war in Nanjing. At the time, the Ministry of War did not have its own building but only occupied a borrowed private house as temporary headquarters. After Wang Ji assumed office, he used his own salary to purchase a private house […]
Sun Yat-sen, after resigning as provisional president of the Republic of China, went to various parts of China in April 1912 in his capacity as national railway supervisor to propagate the importance of building railroads. One day, passing by Jiu Jiang (九江) of Jiangxi province, Sun Yat-sen saw a lot of advertising boards of foreign […]
General Feng Yuxiang (馮玉祥) gained fame when he defected from the Qing imperial army and clique of warlords to join the revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen in 1911. Years later, he toppled the Zhi (直) warlord faction in Hebei province, which enabled Sun Yat-sen to reach the capital Beijing. Feng was also dubbed the “Christian […]
Lin Lan Ying (林蘭英) was born in 1918 in Pu Tian (莆田) City, Fujian province. She was in the United States pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics at Dickenson University in 1949 when news of the birth of New China reached her. Lin was eager to return to China to help build the nation but decided […]
Li Jing Rang (李景讓) was appointed by Tang Dynasty Emperor Wu Zhong (唐武宗) as supervisor of western Zhejiang (浙江) in September 846. But his fame was due in great part to his mother, Madame Zheng 鄭氏 (in ancient China, the wife is mentioned and recorded by her surname only), a person of good strong character. […]
Lin Ze Xu (林則徐 Aug. 30, 1785-Nov. 22, 1850) was a Chinese scholar-official of the Qing Dynasty best known for his role in the First Opium War of 1839-1842. On June 3, 1839, Lin Ze Xu ordered the destruction of opium. By June 25, all opium, totaling 2,376,200 jins (斤 or half a kilo) had […]
During the reign of Emperor Sui Wen Di (隋文帝, 581-601 AD), founder of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), Wang Jia (王枷) of Qi Zhou (齊州), a military aide, was tasked to escort more than 70 prisoners to the capital to stand trial. Chained and shackled, the prisoners walked with great difficulty and were utterly exhausted. When […]
Yang Zhu (揚翥), the minister of rites of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) during the 15th century, was the sincerest, noblest person held in the highest esteem in his time. Born to a poor family, he would join his elder brother in the Wu Chang (武昌) countryside when he was old enough and made a living […]
We have two anecdotes for this issue. Around 1453 (Ming Dynasty), when Xu Pu (徐溥) was still a student, he placed two bottles at the side of his study table. He also prepared black and yellow beans to drop into each bottle. Whenever he had a good idea, uttered a good word and exercised a […]
A fter conquering the Liang (梁) capital, Jian Kang (建康, now Nanjing), Liang’s renegade general Hou Jing (後景) sent an army led by military superintendent Hou Zi Jian (侯子鑒) from the middle army to besiege Wu Xing (吳興) prefecture in September 549. Wu Xing’s defending army was small, its fighting capacity weak. Its mayor, Zhang […]