POSSIBLE TOPICS for A BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT

Mao Zedong viewing the lower Huang He.
Image from http://www.newpaltz.edu/~knappr/EACP/HuangHeLowerMao.gif

Note: This list is meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive.

An Lushan: 8th cen. Sogdian/Turk general of the Tang who led a rebellion that effectively ended the Tang Dynasty.

Ba Jin (Pa Chin): pseudonym of Li Feiqang (Li Fei-kang), 20th cen. novelist, anarchist.

Cai Yuanpei: 19th-20th cen., modernizing president of Beijing University.

Cao Xueqin (Tsao Hsueh-chin): 18th cen. Buddhist novelist, author of the Dream of the Red Chamber.

Chen Duxiu: early 20th cen. intellectual reformer at Beijing University, and editor of New Youth Magazine.

Cheng Nien: 20th cen. Christian, widow of a Nationalist official, employee of Shell Oil, who survived imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution and wrote about her experiences in Life and Death in Shanghai.

Cixi (Tz'u Hsi): 19th cen. Empress Dowager who reigned as the Qing Empire underwent the onslaught of Western economic and political demands.

Deng Xiaoping (Teng Hsiao-peng): 20th cen. Communist Party leader who survived the Cultural Revolution and emerged as the most important post-Mao leader.

Du Fu (Tu Fu): 8th cen. Tang Confucian official and poet.

Feng Yuxiang: early 20th cen. warlard, the so-called "Christian general."

Hongli (Qianling Emperor): 18th cen., the 4th Qing Emperor, ruler of China when it was perhaps at its wealthiest and most stable up to the changes of the 19th cen.

Hong Xiuquan: 19th cen., a frustrated Confucian student, of the Hakka people, who combined Christianity and Hakka religious traditions to lead the bloodiest rebellion in Imperial China's history, the Taiping Rebellion.

Hu Shi: early 20th cen. intellectual reformer on the faculty at Beijing University.

Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek): 20 cen. leader of the Guomindang/Nationalist Party and Republic of China (more than one person could do Jiang, so long as different periods or aspects of his life are made the focus rather than his entire life).

Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing): 20th cen. actress, Communist, who became Mao's wife and the intellectual guide of the Cultural Revolution.

Kangxi (K'ang-hsi): 17th-18th cen. Qing emperor (2nd), a scholar as well as an able administrator.

Khubilai Khan: 13th cen. Mongol emperor, the Shizu Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, who ruled from China rather than Mongolia.

Li Bo (Li Po or Li Bai): 8th cen. Daoist wanderer and poet.

Li Hongzhang: 19th cen. Qing court official and modernizer.

Li Qingzhao: 11th-12th cen. woman poet of the Song Dynasty.

Liang Qichao: 19th-20th cen. intellectual reformer.

Lin Biao: 20th cen., brilliant Communist general who was head of the People's Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution and Mao's heir apparent, but who "died" following an alleged coup attempt.

Lin Zexu: 19th cen. Qing official set in charge of dealing with Western opium smuggling through Canton/Guangzhou.

Liu Shoushan: 19th-20th cen. Christian, real estate tycoon in Qingdao (Tsingtao), and philanthropist.

Lu Xun (Lu Hsun): early 20th cen. writer of short stories in the "modern" (Western) style.

Mengzi (Mencius): 4th-3rd cen. B.C.E. Confucian philosopher who decisively shaped the Confucian tradition.

Ni Tuosheng (Watchman Nee): 20th cen. founder of the "Little Flock" church who opposed missionary-controlled churches and stressed church unity and personal holiness.

Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai: 19th-20th cen. working woman whose autobiography, A Daughter of Han, was told to Ida Pruitt.

Puyi: 20th cen., the last Qing Emperor, who abdicated during the 1911 revolution, but who later became the puppet emperor for the Japanese in Manchuria.

Qin Shi Huang Di (Ch'ih-shih Huang Ti): 3rd cen. B.C.E., the First Emperor to unify China politically.

Sima Qian (Ssuma Ch'ien): 2nd-1st cen. B.C.E. historian, China's most famous.

Soong Mei-ling: 20th cen. Christian, sister-in-law to Sun Yat-sen, who became Madame Jiang (Chiang Kai-shek).

Su Dongpo (Su Shi'): 11th cen. official and poet.

Sun Yat-sen: early 20th cen. Christian, leader of the Guomindang/Nationalist Party and first President of the Republic of China (more than one person could do Sun, so long as different periods or aspects of his life are made the focus rather than his entire life).

Tao Qian: 4th-5th cen. official who resigned and wrote poetry about nature and happiness.

Wang Anshi: 11th cen. Confucian court reformer of the Song Dynasty.

Wang Can: 2nd-3rd cen. Han bureaucrat and poet.

Wang Wei: 8th cen. Tang civil servant and poet.

Wang Yangming: 15th-16th cen. Confucian philosopher.

Wu Zhao (Empress Wu): 7th-8th cen. courtesan, nun, empress, empress dowager, and founder of the short-lived Zhou Dynasty--the only woman emperor in China's history.

Xuanzang: 7th cen. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and translator.

Xuanzong: 7th-8th cen., last Tang Emperor, the Minghuang Emperor, famous for his court's decadence and cultural splendor.

Yinzhen (Yongzheng Emperor): 18th cen., 3rd Qing Emperor, known for his administrative reorganizations and integrity.

Yuan Cai (Yuan Ts'ai): 12th cen. family moralist and author.

Yuan Shikai (Yuan Shih-k'ai): 19th-20th cen. imperial general, Republican president, and would-be emperor.

Yue Fei: 12th cen. Song general accused of treason and executed for his opposition to the imperial retreat from the Jurchen invaders of the north.

Zhao Ji: 11th-12th cen., the Huizong Emperor, the last of the Northern Song period of the Song Dynasty, who was famous as a patron of the arts.

Zhao Kuangyi: 10th cen., the Taizong Emperor, the 2nd in the Song Dynasty, who effectively solidified the reunification and stabilization of the empire.

Zhao Kuangyin: 10th cen., founder of the Song Dynasty, the Taizu Emperor.

Zheng He: 14th-15th cen., a Muslim eunuch who, as a military commander, led seven fleets on expeditions to Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, and the east coast of Africa.

Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai): 20th cen. Communist Party leader, second only to Mao.

Zhu Di: 14th-15th cen., 3rd Ming Emperor, the Yongle Emperor, who effectively stabilized the relatively new Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Xi: 12th cen. Neo-Confucian philosopher.

Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yuan-chang): 14th cen., Hongwu Emperor, an orphan and a Buddhist novice who went on to found the Ming Dynasty.

Westerners who could be done if and only if their Chinese connections are the focus:

Buck, Pearl: 20th cen., daughter of missionaries, faculty wife in Nanking, and novelist of China to the Western world.

Polo, Marco: 13th cen. Venetian who claimed to have spent years in Yuan Dynasty China, but whose account of his travels continues to be questioned by some to this day.

Ricci, Matteo: 17th cen. leader of the Jesuit mission in China.

Rittenberg, Sidney: 20th cen. American military advisor in China who stayed as a Communist sympathizer and survived imprisonment.

Stillwell, Joseph: 20th cen., U.S. military officer with China experience who became commander of the U.S. forces in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II.

Taylor, Hudson: 19th cen. English missionary to China who stressed reaching inland, away from the ports of China, and who demanded that missionaries dress as Chinese teachers, not Western missionaries.

Waln, Nora: 20th cen. American who lived with a Chinese family in the 1920s and 1930s and wrote about her experiences in The House of Exile.