National Heroes of China |
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| 1. Bao Gong | ||||||||
Bao Zheng
(999-1062), a household name in China, was an outstanding government
official and statesman in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). He was
born of a scholar family in Luzhou, now renamed Hefei, in Anhui
Province. At the age of 29, he passed the highest-level imperial
examinations under the direct invigilation of the emperor and qualified
himself as a Jinshi.
As laws and regulations of that time said that a Jinshi could be
assigned a leading position, Bao Zheng was appointed magistrate, the
head of Jianchang County. But as filial piety was regarded as a highly
valued virtue, Bao resigned his position and went home to attend his old
and weak parents for ten years. After his parents' death, he was
reappointed magistrate of Tianchang County. That year, he was 40.
Bao Zheng proved to be a magistrate of justice, fearlessness and
righteousness. His superior wit and talent profoundly impressed people
across the nation, including Emperor Renzhong, who successively promoted
Bao and assigned him to important offices in various parts of the
country.
To most Chinese people, Bao Zheng is known for his strong sense of fair
play, his determination to mete out justice without fear and favor and
his ability to tell the truth from falsehood. He insisted that anyone,
including close relations of the Emperor, deserves punishment if found
guilty of wrong doings.
According to historical records, in the 30 odd years when he took
office, more than 30 high officials, including some government
ministers, were demoted or dismissed because Bao accused them of
corruption, bribery, dereliction of duty, misprision, etc. He was such a
firm and resolute man that he never gave up what he thought was right.
He reported six times to the Emperor to impeach the high-ranked
government official Zhang Yaozhuo, uncle of the high-ranked imperial
concubine, 7 times to impeach Wang Kui, another official favored by the
emperor, and several times to impeach Prime Minister Song Yang.
What is amazing is that as an imperial censor, Bao Zheng always
succeeded in convincing the Emperor without inviting misfortune. In
history, many imperial censors came to bad ends. Sima Qian (145 B.C. or
135 B.C. -), a great historian, thinker and litterateur, was castrated
for a few words for Emperor Hanwu. Wu Kui, Chen Xu, Du Shu, three
imperial censors living in Bao's time, all fell off the political stage
for their expostulations. Bao Zheng, however, headed off one danger
after another and stayed on the stage until his life end. We can't help
marveling at this great man's intellect and personality.
Bao Zheng's personality was closely related to his early life. Though
his parents could afford to send Bao Zheng to school, their life was not
so rich. His mother had to climb up the mountain to collect firewood
just before she gave birth to him. Before Bao became county magistrate,
he had lived among the low working class, which helped him understand
their trouble and hardships. He hated corruption and strongly desired
for justice and probity.
His personality was also attributed to a man named Liu Yun. Liu was a
magistrate of Luzhou District when Bao was looking after his parents at
home. He was not only an excellent poet and litterateur but also a
talented and fair-minded official abhorring all evils in the society. He
was also a man respecting intellectuals and particularly appreciated
Bao Zheng's abilities. As Liu and Bao got along well, Liu exerted great
influence on Bao, who cherished loyalty to the throne and love for his
country and the people.
Now there are many stories and operas about this extraordinary character
in Chinese history. Bao Zheng is respectfully called Bao Gong. His
stern black face, looked upon as a symbol of justice and integrity, is
easily recognized by all Chinese opera fans, although this is more
theatrical than real.
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1. Ban Chao
 
Ban Chao was a famous militarist and diplomatist living in the 32-102A.D. period of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In his youth, due to the poverty of the family, Ban Chao made a
living by transcribing books for feudal officials. In 73A.D, when the
great general Dou Gu led troops to fight with the Hun, he joined the
troop to go to the West Regions. On the military journey, Ban Chao’s
outstanding military competence was appreciated by Dou Gu. The general
then dispatched him to go with other officials on a diplomatic mission
to the Western Regions. He led a troop of 36 soldiers to the Western
Regions, killed the Hun’s residential ambassadors in Shanshan and Yutian
(two states in the Western Regions) and dethroned the King of Shule who
leeched on to the Hun, thus consolidating the Han Dynasty’s domination
of the Western Regions. Afterwards, he succeeded in leading the troops
of several states including Shule and Yudian to defeat infringing
enemies. During the period from 87 to 84A.D, Ban Chao successively
defeated Shache, Guizi and other states and made them submit to the Han
Dynasty again.
For his eminent battle achievements in pacifying the Western Regions,
Ban Chao was granted a title of “Duhu of Western Regions“, namely, the
person dispatched by the Han Dynasty to act as the highest
administrative commanding officer in Western Regions. When holding the
post, Ban Chao ever sent his underling Gan Ying on a diplomatic mission
to Daqin (Roman Empire), with the latter ever arriving at the west coast
of the Red Sea. Ban Chao returned to Luoyang (capital of the Eastern
Han Dynasty) in 102A.D. and died of disease shortly afterwards.
Ban Chao spent over 30 years in the West Region to pacifying civil
strife and beating off powerful enemies. He thus helped to ensure the
security in the Western Regions and the smooth communication along the
Silk Road. Moreover, he helped to maintain the Han Dynasty’s domination
of the Western Regions.
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3. Da-Yu
Da-Yu the Great, ancient hero in
prehistoric times is known for controlling floods. Because of his
contribution, people call him Dayu in Chinese with Da means great.
In
prehistoric times people suffered from torrential flood. The situation
became worse while Shun was the leader. Under Shun, Gun (the father of
Yu) got the problem under control. He adopted a method of building banks
with soil and blocking the holes. However, after nine years of hard
work, this traditional way no longer worked well. Yu was then ordered to
succeed his father trying to control the flooding. Drawing from his
father's experiences, he found a way of digging channels to conduct
water to the sea. After thirteen years of fighting against the billowy
flood, he finally handled the problem.
After controlling the
floodwater, Dayu organized people to develop agriculture by fully
utilizing water and soil. He let his son teach people how to plant rice
and other crops. In addition, fish, ducks, and geese were bred under the
guidance of Dayu. With his help, people lived happy lives.
What
makes Yu the Great more remarkable is that just four days after his
marriage he left home to control the water. And for thirteen years, he
never went into his home although passing it three times. Even though
his son was born during this period, he didn't return. Since at that
time, the ruler was usually chosen according to ability, Yu the Great
was supported by the people and recommended by Shun to succeed him. In
2070 BC, Yu established the Xia Dynasty (21st - 16th century BC) with
his capital in Yangcheng (Dengfeng, Henan Province). That opened a new
era in Chinese history.
Yu the Great is admired not only for his
unremitting endeavors to fight against nature but also for forgetting
about his own interests in order to help other people.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4. Lin Zexu
Lin Zexu (simplified Chinese: 林则徐; August 30, 1785 –
November 22, 1850) was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing
dynasty.
He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on
the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people,
against the opium trade in Guangzhou. Although the non-medicinal
consumption of opium was banned by Emperor Yongzheng in 1729, by the
1830s China's economy and society were being seriously affected by huge
imports of opium from British and other traders based in the city. Lin's
forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is
considered to be the primary catalyst for the First Opium War of
1839–42. Because of this firm stance, he has subsequently been
considered as a role model for moral governance, particularly by Chinese
people.
Early life and career
Lin was born in Fuzhou, in Fujian province. In 1811, he received the
Jinshi degree, the highest in the imperial examinations, and the same
year, he was appointed to the prestigious Hanlin Academy. He rose
rapidly through various grades of provincial service and became
Governor-General of Hunan and Hubei in 1837, where he launched an opium
suppression campaign.
Campaign to suppress opium
A formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral
standards, Lin was sent to Guangdong as imperial commissioner by the
Daoguang Emperor in late 1838 to halt the illegal importation of opium
from the British. He arrived in March 1839 and made a huge impact on the
opium trade within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700
Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipes. He
initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium
stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed and Lin resorted
to using force in the western merchants' enclave. It took Lin a month
and a half before the merchants gave up nearly 1.2 million kilograms
(2.6 million pounds) of opium. 500 workers laboured for 22 days in order
to destroy all of it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing
it into the ocean outside of Humen Town. Finally, Lin pressured the
Portuguese government of Macau to deport the British, resulting in their
settlement of then still barren Hong Kong.
Lin also wrote an extraordinary "memorial", by way of open letter
published in Canton, to Queen Victoria of Britain in 1839 urging her to
end the opium trade. The letter is filled with Confucian concepts of
morality and spirituality. As a representative of the Imperial court,
Lin adopts a position of superiority and his tone is condescending,
despite the British clearly having the upper hand when the event is
examined with hindsight. His primary line of argument is that China is
providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain,
spices and silk, while Britain sends only "poison" in return. He accuses
the "barbarians" (i.e. private merchants) of coveting profit and
lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that Victoria would
act "in accordance with decent feeling" and support his efforts. He
writes:
We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li from China.
Yet there are barbarian ships that strive to come here for trade for
the purpose of making a great profit. The wealth of China is used to
profit the barbarians. That is to say, the great profit made by
barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of China. By what right
do they then in return use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese
people? Even though the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us
harm, yet in coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for
injuring others. Let us ask, where is your conscience?
—Lin Zexu, Open letter addressed as if to the "King" of England but only published in Canton (1839) The memorial was never delivered to the queen, though it was later published in The Times. Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839. Exile in Xinjiang Lin made significant preparation for war against the possible British invasion. As a result the British force was defeated numerous times in the battles in the Canton region. The British force was compelled to sail north to attack JiangSu and Zhejiang. The governors of these two provinces failed to heed a warning from Lin, however. As a result, they were unprepared, and the British easily landed and occupied Dinghai. Because of this defeat, and also because of the corrupt political structure of the Qing Dynasty, Lin was used as a scapegoat for these losses. He was replaced by Qishan in September 1840. As punishment for his failures, Lin was demoted and sent to exile in Ili in Xinjiang. However, the Chinese government still considered Lin to be an official of rare virtue and eventually reinstated him to take care of several difficult situations. While in Xinjiang, Lin was the first Chinese scholar to take note of several aspects of Muslim culture there. In 1845 he noted in a poem that the Muslims in Ili did not worship idols, but bowed and prayed to tombs decorated with poles that had the tails of cows and horses attached to them. This was the widespread shamanic practice of erecting a tugh, but this was its first recorded appearance in Chinese writings. He also recorded several Kazakh oral tales, such as one concerning a green goat spirit of the lake whose appearance is a harbinger of hail or rain. Death and legacy He died in 1850 while on the way to Guangxi, where the government was sending him to help put down the Taiping Rebellion. He was a patriot of ability who attained an international reputation as "Commissioner Lin." He was opposed to the opening of the country but felt the need of a better knowledge of foreigners, which drove him to collect much material for a geography of the world. He later gave this material to Wei Yuan, who published an Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms in 1844. June 3, the day when Lin confiscated the crates of opium, is celebrated as Anti-Smoking Day in the Republic of China in Taiwan. Manhattan's Chatham Square, in Chinatown, contains a statue of Lin, commemorating his early struggle against drug use. Although he has in essence led the war against the debilitating drug with some initial success, with the arrest of 1,700 opium dealers and destruction of 2.6 million pounds of opium, he had been made the scapegoat for the actions leading to British retaliation, and ultimately failing to stem the tide of opium import and use in China. Nevertheless, Lin Zexu is popularly viewed as a hero of superlative conduct and national service, and whose likeness have been immortalized at various locations around the world. Despite the antagonism between the Chinese and the British at the time, the renowned English sinologist Herbert Giles, who was active in the later period of the century and was the co-creator of Wade-Giles transliteration, praised and admired Lin. He wrote: "He was a fine scholar, a just and merciful official and a true patriot." A wax statue of Lin also appeared in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. Influence Although he was not seen as such until well into the twentieth century, Lin Zexu is now seen as a National hero for Chinese people; no less than three films have been made on his role in the Opium Wars; and he is now one of the symbols of modern China's resistance to European imperialism. 5. Mao Zedong  
6. Yang Liwei
Yang Liwei, China's first space
traveler, was born in Suizhong, Liaoning Province in June 1965. He
joined the People's Liberation Army in 1983 and is now Deputy Director
of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center and also Deputy
Director General of China's manned space program.
Yang was launched into orbit aboard the
spaceship Shenzhou V on October 15, 2003. This saw China taking its
place alongside Russia and the United States in that very elite circle
of countries able to send their people into space.
Yang was recruited by the Air Force's
No.2 Aviation College in September 1983 and became a fighter pilot after
graduating with a first degree. In 1998, he joined the country's first
team of astronauts.
In the Astronaut Training Base in
Beijing, the team undertook the theoretical studies necessary to prepare
them for space flight. These included aviation dynamics, aerodynamics,
geophysics, meteorology, astronomy, space navigation, and the design
principles and structure of rockets and spacecraft. In their practical
sessions they learned to check equipment and received systematic
spaceflight training in simulators.
Yang's colleagues have described him as,
"a man with a good team spirit and dedicated to his career." He was
chosen, along with 13 others, from among 1,500 pilots for training for
China's first manned spaceflight.
At 9.00 on the morning of October 15,
2003, his training was put to the test as Shenzhou V lifted off from the
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert in northwest China's
Gansu Province.
He landed safely on the central
grasslands of China's Inner Mongolia at about 7.00 on the following
morning, October 16. He had orbited the earth 14 times and traveled
500,000 kilometers.
"To establish myself as a fully trained
astronaut, I have studied harder in my college years and have received
training much tougher than for a fighter pilot," he recalls. "In order
to achieve our goals, we must have the determination to face
difficulties and to overcome them. I was pushed to my limits over five
years of severe practical training that included tests involving high
g-forces and even wilderness survival training."
"When I boarded the spacecraft for the
first time, I couldn't help feeling excited knowing I would fly in it,"
says Yang. "I am proud of becoming a member of the manned space flight
project team and being able to witness the development of my country's
space technology and industry. I hope my experience will encourage more
people to become interested in space technology and support space
development."
While continuing spaceflight training
Yang has now also taken on new administrative duties including the
selection and training of future astronauts and a team management role.
Yang's know-how has proved to be a great
asset to the program. For example he played an important role in the
planning, organization, astronaut selection, technological preparations
for and evaluation of the second manned space flight.
Yang still ranks among the top
astronauts trained and evaluated in the training center. "So far, I have
only completed one assignment in space, and this doesn't represent my
life's work," says Yang. "Shenzhou V has now taken its place in history.
As an astronaut, I must always be ready to await my flight orders and
accept any new challenge."
Yang hopes that more young people will
become interested in participating in space travel. "Our nation's manned
space program continues to gain momentum and we will continue to
recruit young candidates. I hope more and more young people could be a
part of this in the near future."
Yang's wife Zhang Yumei also serves in the space program. They have a 12-year-old son.
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7. Fei Junlong
Fei Junlong, 40, did not expect he could have the honor to
become an astronaut piloting Shenzhou VI when he dreamed about being a
professional painter in his childhood.
The most remarkable difference between Fei and Yang Liwei, China's
first man in space who orbited the earth 14 times during a 21-hour
mission in October 2003, is that Fei is one of a few top pilots in the
country.
"In preparation for the flight of Shenzhou V, China's first manned
spacecraft carrying Yang in space, Fei was one of the five candidates
under the final intensive training," Yang told Xinhua.
In 1982, China's Air Force recruited trainees at Fei's high school when he was about to graduate. Fei was enrolled.
Two years later, Fei graduated from the Flight Training School of the
Air Force with excellent marks. Then he served as flight trainer
initially and was appraised as outstanding in the whole Air Force. Later
on, he became a flight technology inspector and compiled an
investigation report on flight accidents, named Warning Signal Tolling.
In July 1992 when he was in a trial flight, the aircraft being tested
went short of fuel. With his outstanding flight skill, he managed to
pilot the plane back to the airport. Upon the forced landing, fuel
exhausted. His courage, skill and cool and calm mindset won him a
special grade in piloting at the age of 32.
In January 1998, he was selected out of more than 1,500 elite pilots
as a member of the astronaut brigade of the People's Liberation Army,
together with Yang Liwei, Nie Haisheng and Zhai Zhigang.
Fei recorded excellent marks in almost all training subjects, ranging
from basic theories to physical exercises, from professional skills to
training of endurance and adaptability to the space environment, and
from flight procedures and mission simulation to psychological and
rescue training.
Fei did not tell his parents the real job he was undertaking. "What
are you doing on earth?" his mother once asked. "Still flying, but much
higher," Fei replied.
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