Liu Bei

Liu Bei (Chinese: 劉備, ; Mandarin pronunciation: [ljǒʊ pêɪ]; 161 – 10 June 223 AD), courtesy name Xuande (玄德), was a Chinese warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. While unable to establish a permanent foothold in northern China, he gathered support among opponents of Cao Cao, the warlord who controlled the Han central government and the figurehead Emperor Xian, and was eventually able to carve out his own realm, which at its peak spanned present-day Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, and parts of Hubei, Yunnan, and Gansu. Bolstered by the widespread influence of the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and its portrayal of Liu Bei as an exemplar of virtuous Confucian rule, Liu Bei is widely revered in China and other East Asian societies as an ideal benevolent and humane ruler. Historically speaking, his style of governance has been said to have been "Confucian in appearance but Legalist in substance".