Asian Art

Hu Zongxian

Hu Zongxian (Chinese: 胡宗憲; November 4, 1512 – November 25, 1565), courtesy name Ruzhen (汝貞) and art name Meilin (梅林), was a Chinese general and politician of the Ming dynasty who presided over the government's response to the wokou pirate raids during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor. As supreme commander, he was able to defeat Xu Hai's substantial raid in 1556 and capture the pirate lord Wang Zhi the next year through ruses. Despite his accomplishments, Hu Zongxian's reputation had been tarnished by his association with the clique of Yan Song and Zhao Wenhua, traditionally reviled figures in Ming historiography. He was rehabilitated decades after his death and was given the posthumous name Xiangmao (襄懋) by the emperor in 1595. He is a direct ancestor of Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 2002 to 2012.

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See also

• ▸Baba Deep Singh
• ▸Alain Resnais
• ▸Buddhism and Eastern religions

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.