Sukarno (June 6, 1901 – June 21, 1970) was the first President of Indonesia. He helped the country win its independence from the Netherlands and was President from 1945 to 1967, presiding with mixed success over the country’s turbulent transition to independence. Sukarno was forced down from power by one of his generals, Suharto, who formally became President in March 1967.
The spelling “Sukarno” has been official in Indonesia since 1947 but the older spelling Soekarno is still frequently used, mainly because he signed his name in the old spelling. Official Indonesian presidential decrees from the period 1947-1968, however, printed his name using the 1947 spelling.
Indonesians also remember him as Bung Karno or Pak Karno. Like many Javanese people, he had only one name; in religious contexts, he was occasionally referred to as ‘Achmad Sukarno’.
The son of a Javanese school teacher and his Balinese wife from Buleleng regency, Sukarno was born in Blitar, East Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He was admitted into a Dutch-run school as a child. When his father sent him to Surabaya in 1916 to attend a secondary school, he met Tjokroaminoto, a future nationalist. In 1921 he began to study at the Technische Hogeschool (Technical Institute) in Bandung. He studied civil engineering and focused on architecture.
Atypically, even among the colony’s small educated elite, Sukarno was fluent in several languages. In addition to the Javanese language of his childhood, he was a master of Sundanese and of Indonesian, and especially strong in Dutch. He was also quite comfortable in German, English, and French. Sukarno once remarked that when he was studying in Surabaya, he often sat behind the screen in movie theaters reading the Dutch subtitles in reverse because the front seats were only for elite Dutch people.
In his studies, Sukarno was “intensely modern,” both in architecture and in politics. Sukarno interpreted these ideas in his dress, in his urban planning for the capital (eventually Jakarta), and in his socialist politics. For Sukarno, modernity was blind to race, neat and Western in style, and anti-imperialist
Confucius (Chinese: ???; pinyin: K?ng F?z?; Wade-Giles: K’ung-fu-tzu), lit. “Master Kung,” September 28, 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese thought and life.
His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (??) or Taoism (??) during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). Confucius’ thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (??). It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as “Confucius.”
His teachings may be found in the Analects of Confucius (??), a collection of “brief aphoristic fragments”, which was compiled many years after his death. Modern historians do not believe that any specific documents can be said to have been written by Confucius, but for nearly 2,000 years he was thought to be the editor or author of all the Five Classics such as the Classic of Rites (editor), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (??)
Bao Zheng (Chinese: ??; pinyin: B?o Zh?ng), courtesy name Xiren ????posthumous title Xiaosu ???? (999–1062) was a much-praised official who served during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song China. After passing the Jinshi examination in 1027, Bao deferred embarking on his official career for a decade in order to care for his elderly parents and faithfully observe proper mourning rites after their deaths. From 1037 until his death in 1062, Bao successively held several offices at court and in provincial locations. In his lifetime, Bao was renowned for his filial piety, his stern demeanor, and his intolerance of injustice and corruption. Due to his fame and the strength of his reputation, Bao’s name became synonymous with the idealized “pure official” (qingguan ??), and quickly became a popular subject of early vernacular drama and literature. Bao was also associated with the Buddhist god Yama and the “Infernal Bureaucracy” of the Eastern Marchmount, on account of his supposed ability to judge affairs in the afterlife as well as he judged them in the realm of the living. The fictionalized Bao Zheng was known variously as “Lord Bao” or “Judge Bao” (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Bao Gong), Rescriptor-in-waiting Bao (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Bao Daizhi), Bao of the Dragon Image (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Bao Longtu), and “Blue-Sky Bao”/”Unclouded-Sky Bao” (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Bao Qingtian). From the middle of the Song Dynasty to the present day, the character of Judge Bao has appeared in a variety of different literary and dramatic genres, and has enjoyed a sustained popularity by audiences of all ages.
Bao Qingtian was born into a scholar family in Hefei, Anhui province, where the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao (???) is still located near the city center. It was built in 1066 close to his tomb. At the age of 29, he passed the highest-level imperial exams and became qualified as a Jinshi. He was a magistrate in Bian (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song dynasty.
He is famous for his uncompromising stance against corruption among the government officials at the time. He upheld justice and refused to yield to higher powers including the “royal father-in-law” (??), who was also appointed as the Grand Tutor (??) and was known as Grand Tutor Pang (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Pang taishi). He treated Bao as an enemy. Although Grand Tutor Pang is often depicted in myth as an archetypical villain (arrogant, selfish, and cruel), the historical reasons for his bitter rivalry with Bao remains unclear.
Bao had conflicts with other powerful members of the imperial court as well, including the Prime Minister, Song Yang. He had 30 high officials demoted or dismissed for corruption, bribery, or dereliction of duty. He also had Zhang Yaozhuo, uncle of the high-ranked imperial concubine impeached 6 times. In addition, as the imperial censor, he avoided punishment despite having many other contemporary imperial censors punished for minor statements.
Bao Zheng also managed to remain in favor by cultivating a long standing friendship with one of Emperor Renzong’s uncles, the Eighth Imperial Prince (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Ba Wang Ye).
Tomb of Bao Zheng, mount and altar on top
Tomb of Bao Zheng, entrance to burial chamber