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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Who was the greatest leader in Chinese history?
...and why?
Not looking for flames or 'lulz Mao!'. Honest question for those who know some Chinese history (I don't). Who did the most (good), and is generally regarded as the greatest leader in China?
I've heard some people mentioning Wu Zetian...
since Kublai Khan and his descendents ruled china almost one hundred years, i think he totally qualify for a china leader. beacuse them also a part of china history.
GoldenBoy:
Do they teach that part of history in Chinese schools or is it conveniently left out?
crimochina:
inner mongolia they idolize genghis and look at him in a positive light. from what i heard in other provinces they treat mongolians as invaders like the japanese , interestingly enough japanese consider themselves descendants of mongolians and allow mongolians to enter japan w/o visas
george:
Chinese are taught these Khans are great leaders but in the west they were often regarded as butchers because they went all the way to conquer much part of the europe and killed many people in the fighting.
icerock:
of course, we have been teached Mognolian history in school, and we know these Khans kill millions people, not just westerners, easterners either. and we consider Kublai is famous emperor in china history not the best. there is different opinions between china and west, in our opinion the greatest leader must have kindness spirit. we call name "仁". those leader could provide people have a good life who is the greatest .
I think it was the founder of modern China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He united China after the dynasty-era and is highly regarded by both the PROC and the ROC.
i dont know the spelling the first emperor he is featured in "hero" by Jet li. he conquer the other kingdoms and united china "our land" I dont know if we are referring to the same person but i always thought he was Huang D something like that. I learned it from a documentary and i never saw the spelling
can a chinese person check my spelling please
george:
No, that is emperor Qin (秦始皇) who conquered and united many small countries to establish the Middle Kingdom
Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan hands down... They weren't "Chinese" but they were their greatest leaders...
Kublai Khan, Ghengis Khan's son, completed the Mongolian conquest of China. He is the greatest Chinese leader ever.
Njord:
You mean the greatest "Mongolian" leader China ever had, but indeed the greatest leader China ever had, but rest assured... He wasn't Chinese. ;)
since Kublai Khan and his descendents ruled china almost one hundred years, i think he totally qualify for a china leader. beacuse them also a part of china history.
GoldenBoy:
Do they teach that part of history in Chinese schools or is it conveniently left out?
crimochina:
inner mongolia they idolize genghis and look at him in a positive light. from what i heard in other provinces they treat mongolians as invaders like the japanese , interestingly enough japanese consider themselves descendants of mongolians and allow mongolians to enter japan w/o visas
george:
Chinese are taught these Khans are great leaders but in the west they were often regarded as butchers because they went all the way to conquer much part of the europe and killed many people in the fighting.
icerock:
of course, we have been teached Mognolian history in school, and we know these Khans kill millions people, not just westerners, easterners either. and we consider Kublai is famous emperor in china history not the best. there is different opinions between china and west, in our opinion the greatest leader must have kindness spirit. we call name "仁". those leader could provide people have a good life who is the greatest .
I also think that Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan were absolutely the greatest leaders of China, not only have they expanded the Chinese kingdom to one of the largest in the whole history, but they also promoted the exchange of foreign culture, literature, arts, medicine, astronomy, etc with Chinese ones.
Many Chinese would regard Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty (January 23, 599 – July 10, 649) as the greatest leader in China.
Excerpts from Wikipedia:
He is typically considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, emperors in Chinese history. Throughout the rest of Chinese history, Emperor Taizong's reign was regarded as the exemplary model against which all other emperors were measured, and his "Reign of Zhenguan" (simplified Chinese: 贞观之治; traditional Chinese: 貞觀之治; pinyin: Zhēnguān Zhī Zhì) was considered a golden age of Chinese history and required study for future crown princes. During his reign, Tang China flourished economically and militarily. For more than a century after his death, Tang China enjoyed peace and prosperity. During Taizong's reign, Tang was the largest and the strongest nation in the world. It covered most of the territory of present-day China, Vietnam and much of Central Asia until eastern Kazakhstan. It laid the foundation for Xuanzong's reign, which is considered Tang China's greatest era.
diverdude1:
makes me wanna bury a kid,,,,, obviously while keeping a sharp lookout for a sneaky dragon attack!
ambivalentmace:
I read a book recently on Chinese History in the middle ages by some professor in Chinese history from University of British Columbia and he basically says the dragon stories were the natural disasters occurring from the mini ice age that they could not explain, so they blamed it on bad rulers or dragons and he describes what the natural disasters are and how they correspond to dragon stories. Volcanoes, floods, tsunamis, etc. have to find the name of the book again.
Stiggs:
Interesting, I always wondered where dragon stories came from. Funny thing is though, a lot of cultures have dragons in their old stories - even the pictures of them look similar.
ambivalentmace:
actually, a mini ice age would have caused natural disasters world wide and caused folks who don't understand science to blame it on something and make up stories on dragons, monsters, witches and the like, makes you wonder what will happen in the next mini ice age, might blame it on fossil fuels or something
Stiggs:
It's just weird that they all made up the same dragon stories. I suppose travelers might have spread the myth or something.
ambivalentmace:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7690166-the-troubled-empire This is the book, a good read,