Hanjian - Notable Persons Deemed To Be Hanjians

Notable Persons Deemed To Be Hanjians

• Qin Hui (1090-1155), a premier of the Southern Song Dynasty who preached appeasement towards aggression from the Jurchen-ruled Jin Dynasty. He also played an important role in the death of the general Yue Fei, who is highly regarded as a patriot in Chinese culture.

• Wu Sangui (1612-1678), a Ming Dynasty general who guarded Shanhai Pass. The Ming Dynasty was overthrown by a peasant revolt led by Li Zicheng, and the rebels seized Wu's family and his concubine Chen Yuanyuan (who were in the capital Beijing) and mistreated them. Wu was angered and he decided to ally with the Manchus against Li Zicheng - he opened Shanhai Pass and guided the Manchus into former Ming territory, allowing the Manchus to swiftly overrun China and establish the Qing Dynasty. Wu later led Qing forces to attack the Southern Ming Dynasty (a short-lived state founded by Ming remnants) and personally executed the Yongli Emperor of Southern Ming.

• Wang Kemin (1879-1945), who collaborated with the Japanese during World War II and helped to establish the pro-Japan Provisional Government of the Republic of China (or North China Autonomous Government). After the war, he was arrested by the ROC government and tried for treason but committed suicide before his trial ended.

• Demchugdongrub (1902-1966), commonly known as Prince De, a Mongol leader who collaborated with the Japanese. He was installed by the Japanese as the head of state of Mengjiang, a Japanese puppet state in Inner Mongolia. He was arrested by the PRC government in 1949 and charged with treason but was pardoned later. As he was an ethnic Mongol and not a Han Chinese, some feel that he should not be deemed as a hanjian.

• Wang Jingwei (1883-1944), a Kuomintang politician and former close aide of Sun Yat-sen, who advocated peace negotiations during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He set up the pro-Japan Reorganized National Government of China in Nanjing with the help of the Japanese.

• Zhou Fohai (1897-1948), the second-in-command of the Wang Jingwei government Executive Yuan. He was convicted of treason after the war and sentenced to death, but Chiang Kai-shek commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. He died of heart and stomach problems in jail.

• Chen Gongbo (1892-1946), who served as the head of the Legislative Yuan of the Wang Jingwei government. He fled to Japan after the war but was extradited back to China, where he was convicted of treason and executed.

• Kawashima Yoshiko (1907-1948), also known as the "Eastern Jewel", was a Manchu princess raised in Japan, who spied for the Japanese in Manchuria. After the war, she was arrested and convicted of treason and executed. She has been featured in numerous Chinese and Japanese novels, films, television programs, and video games, with the Chinese frequently depicting her as a wanton villain and seductress while the Japanese portrayed her as a tragic heroine. Due to her Manchu ethnicity and Japanese background, some feel that she should not be considered a hanjian.

• Koo Hsien-jung (Gu Xianrong; 1866-1937), a Taiwanese businessman who betrayed the pro-Qing Republic of Formosa and led the Japanese to capture Taipei in 1895. His family became wealthy and influential during the Japanese occupation, and continues to be prominent in the business and political circles in Taiwan, with members living and operating in both Taiwan and Japan.