Who are the most controversial figures in ancient Chinese history? Where is the focus of the controversy?

Hope it will be helpful to you, I will list 8 here

1. The most prominent and controversial Zeng Guofan in modern China

Zeng Guofan (1811-- 1872) is one of the most influential figures in Chinese history. He came to Beijing as a scholar from a remote mountain village in Shuangfeng, Hunan to take the imperial examination. Minister of Rites, official to the second rank. Immediately after Chuangjian returned to his hometown due to the death of his mother, it happened that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept across the land of Xianghu. He took advantage of the situation and raised a special militia in his hometown, the Hunan Army. He went through hardships to pacify the world for the Qing Dynasty, and was awarded the title of First Class Courage Hou became the first scholar in the Qing Dynasty to be granted the title of Marquis of Wu. He later served successively as the governor of Liangjiang and the governor of Zhili. He held a first-class official position and was given the posthumous title of "Wenzheng" after his death.

The era that Zeng Guofan lived in was a turbulent era when the Qing Dynasty changed from the prosperous period of Qianjia to the decline and decline, and internal and external troubles came one after another. Due to the efforts of Zeng Guofan and others to turn the tide, there was a "Tongzhi Zhongsheng". Zeng Guofan was the central figure in this transitional period and had a remarkable impact on politics, military, culture, economy and other aspects. This influence was not only felt at that time, but also continues to this day. Thus making him the most prominent and controversial historical figure in modern China.

2. Military historical figures: Controversial historical figure——Leighton Stuart

Leighton Stuart was born in China and spent most of his life in China. His father is an American pastor who preaches in China. His son inherited his father's business and became a pastor. He was also the only Western journalist who listened in person to Mr. Sun Yat-sen's speech after the Revolution of 1911 in which he expressed his willingness to give up the provisional president to Yuan Shikai.

Leighton Stuart is the main founder of Yenching University and has long served as the top administrative leader of Yenching University. At Yanda, he advocated academic freedom and supported student movements. In order to improve the quality of teaching, he spent a lot of money to hire many famous domestic and foreign professors, making Yanda a famous Chinese university at that time as famous as Peking University and Tsinghua University.

During the Anti-Japanese War, Leighton Stuart stood on the side of the Chinese people and opposed Japanese fascist aggression. He provided various cover and convenience for Yan teachers and students to escape from the Japanese-occupied areas and go to the rear areas and anti-Japanese base areas, and was therefore arrested by the Japanese. Kou was imprisoned for three years.

In July 1946, the 70-year-old Leighton Stuart was selected by Marshall to serve as the last ambassador of the United States to the Kuomintang government. As a result, he was deeply involved in the Chinese politics at the time and became a very contradictory figure. : He not only had a close personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, but also served as a guest of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. He implemented the U.S. government's China policy at that time and supported the Kuomintang regime. For this reason, the students of Yan University carried the slogan "I love my teacher and I love the truth more." After the "mediation" failed, Leighton Stuart sided with Chiang Kai-shek and supported the Kuomintang in fighting the civil war. However, when Chiang Kai-shek stepped down and the Kuomintang government was forced to move to Guangzhou and required embassies from all countries to move south together, he insisted on staying in Nanjing with a pragmatic attitude. Actively contact representatives of the Communist Party of China and hope that the U.S. government will promptly recognize the reality of Communist China. At that time, he was ready to go to Beijing to hold talks with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, but his proposal was not approved by the US government and he had to leave China with regret. While passing through Okinawa, he issued a statement advocating that the United States should recognize the regime of the Communist Party of China, and therefore was issued a "gag order" by the U.S. State Department.

3. Empress Dowager Cixi

A woman almost became the second empress in history, but she did not do so and did not ascend to the throne.

Without Cixi's 30 years in power, there was neither the Westernization Movement nor the "Tongguang ZTE". Cixi stabilized the Qing court for 30 years, and in less than 5 years after her death, the world Chaos.

If the Reform Movement of 1898 is successful, China will definitely be in chaos. Reform can only be done step by step. Overly radical reforms are not suitable for a country as big as China.

4. Zhou Shuren

A person who peeks at his sister-in-law's shower, a cultural scoundrel who can even deny his brother, who only curses and curses all day long, and runs away at every turn. The traitor who took refuge in a Japanese shop was actually called a literary hero.

What qualifications does he have? (So, I am called Wenba, haha) I read the articles of the people he criticized - Zhou Zuoren, Lin Yutang, Hu Shi, etc., and I even felt that Comrade Shuren was an XP+ angry youth in the 1930s! Moreover, he is also a perverted young man who deliberately shows off his literary talents, plays with little girls, and engages in teacher-student romance.

5. Wu Sangui

The commander of the Ningyuan cavalry lost his mind in the face of the hatred of the country and the family, and it was difficult for him. The king was forced to death, his father was beaten violently, and his lover was tortured. Adultery, as a general, how can you not hate it? After all, he had to gradually accumulate strength. If he wanted to fight against the Manchus with his 6,000 Ningyuan cavalry, everyone's expectations were too high. Besides, the emperor had already committed suicide at that time, and the country had no king. What can you expect others to do? You have the ability to retreat 300 years of history, and you lead us to fight against the Qing Dynasty. Besides, they later rebelled against the Qing Dynasty.

6. Cao Cao

Cao Cao has always been a very controversial historical figure. In the eyes of ordinary people, he is a bad guy and a traitor. In fact, according to real historical evaluation, Cao Cao is an outstanding politician, military strategist, and writer.

1. Politician: Cao Cao was already accomplished in both civil and military affairs when he was young. "A capable minister in governing the world, a traitor in troubled times." The Three Kingdoms' evaluation of him can be regarded as the highest among the monarchs of Wei, Shu, and Wu. It made a significant contribution to the unification of northern China, the restoration of economic production and the stability of social order in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. In terms of domestic affairs, Cao Cao established the farming system and ordered soldiers who did not need to fight to work in the fields, which alleviated the food problem during the war in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

2. Military strategist: Cao Cao is a man of merit. When Guan Yu was captured by him, he very much hoped that Guan Yu would surrender to him, because he knew that Guan Yu was a loyal, brave and good at fighting, but Guan Yu never agreed and even used bad words. In the end, he would rather let Guan Yu go back than kill him. It can be seen that he is a person who cherishes his talents. But he was also a suspicious person. Once, he wanted to get rid of Dong Zhuo, but he was discovered by him. Dong Zhuo sent people to hunt down Cao Cao. At the critical moment, his father's good friend Lu Boshe rescued him. In order to calm him down, Lu Boshe sharpened his knife and killed a pig to entertain him. Unexpectedly, Cao Cao thought he was going to assassinate him, so he attacked first and killed all Lu Boshe's family. Cao Cao asked why he wanted to kill him, and his friend said that it was Killing a pig, although Cao Cao understood the truth of the matter, he still killed him and said: "I would rather teach me to betray the world than teach the world to betray me." This shows Cao Cao's viciousness and cruelty. Another time, a soldier covered him with a quilt at night, but he pretended to be dreaming and killed the soldier. Afterwards, the soldier held a grand funeral. His actions touched the hearts of the soldiers, and this was also the purpose of his burying the soldiers generously. He is also a very resourceful person. I believe everyone knows the idiom "looking at plum blossoms to quench thirst".

3. Literary Writer: There are roughly three types of content in Cao Cao's poems:

1. Reflecting the Chinese End of turmoil,

2. The ideal of unifying the world in reality and the tenacious enterprising spirit,

3. As well as the unforgettable negative emotions expressing worries.

In his "Turtle Though Longevity", "The old man is still in trouble, but his ambition is thousands of miles. In the old age of a martyr, his ambition is endless." He said that even in his old age, he still did not give up his ambition. Mao Zedong wrote a poem praising: Thousands of years have passed since Wei Wu whipped his whip, and Jieshi in the east has a posthumous chapter.

7. Wang Mang

Wang Mang, (45 BC – 23 AD) was the founder of the new dynasty (8 – 23). Zi Jujun, nephew of Emperor Yuan of Han Dynasty. In terms of his family in the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang should be said to have come from a wealthy family: although his father died early, several of his uncles and uncles became generals, prime ministers, and became marquises and received rewards during the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty. The Wang family can be said to be prominent. Extremely.

But Wang Mang’s own family was extremely humble: his father died young, and he only lived with his mother, relying on charity from relatives. But precisely because of this, Wang Mang has developed and practiced a set of skills in dealing with people since he was a child, and he is extremely mature at a young age. No matter how sad or angry he felt, he always showed a very happy and peaceful look in front of relatives, elders or outsiders, so he was quite appreciated by everyone in the clan.

Once, his eldest uncle was seriously ill. When he learned about it, he came over and waited by the patient's bed, bringing medicine and water, and keeping vigil at night. He remained undressed, disheveled, and haggard for several months. He is more "patient" than a patient, and more "son" than his own son. For this, everyone in the Taiwanese people praised him and wrote letters asking for a reward for him.

So Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty gave him the title of New Capital Marquis and appointed him as a palace guard, becoming a close minister of the emperor.

With his high status and great power, Wang Mang never showed any arrogance or slackness. Instead, he became more humble and courteous. On the one hand, he made friends with ministers, generals, ministers, famous scholars and scholars. But he lived a very frugal life, often eating meat dishes, not to mention wearing long robes and long-sleeved dresses, only wearing short clothes. So everyone in the government and the public unanimously praised him with the word "virtuous". Later, his uncle, Grand Sima Wanggen, died of illness and he was chosen as his replacement. The emperor and all the ministers thought it was most appropriate, so Wang Mang, who was only thirty-eight years old, became the Grand Sima with the highest military power in the country.

Just when his career was going smoothly, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty passed away and Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty came to power. Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty rejected the Wang family. In order to avoid disaster all over his body, Wang Mang reluctantly resigned from office and stayed at home. During that period, he often had hysterical attacks, often swearing, jumping violently, crying and laughing, and he was in pain because of the waste of many years of hard work.

Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened. Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty passed away not long after his reign. The royal family had no heirs, and there was not even a man to preside over the funeral. Therefore, Wang Mang's aunt Wang Zhengjun, who was already the Empress Dowager at that time, based on her impression of the past, introduced Wang Mang to the court, asked him to preside over the funeral, and re-appointed him as the Grand Sima and concurrently as the Minister. Sima holds the highest military power, while Shangshu is equivalent to the prime minister and holds the highest administrative power. With the two positions combined, Wang Mang suddenly became a very important figure.

Wang Mang, who regained power, was determined to use this opportunity to show off his talents. After hastily handling the funeral of Emperor Ai, he proposed that Liu (彳+干+亍), who was only nine years old, be the emperor. The Empress Dowager listened to everything he said, so Emperor Hanping, the last emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, succeeded to the throne. The actual power is naturally reserved to Wang Mang. At this moment, Wang Mang felt very uneasy: Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, there have been eleven emperors and more than two hundred years. In recent decades, several emperors have become mediocre, many ministers are corrupt, the country is impoverished and the people are poor, and there are widespread complaints. It can be seen that the fortune of the Han Dynasty is about to end. Now that the power is in our hands, we should be merciful!

There are many more. Qin Shihuang, Wu Zetian, Li Hongzhang, Genghis Khan, Wang Yangming, Dorgon, Hong Chengchou, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shizhi, Franco, Erbachev, etc. all have many burdens behind them. Some of the controversies are due to national sentiments and most are due to political reasons. I will not discuss them one by one here.