Fu Jian

Also known as Zi Yonggu

Fu Jian, courtesy names Yonggu and Wenyu, was a Di from Linwei in Lueyang, son of Fu Xiong. In 357 he killed his cousin, the tyrant Fu Sheng, and ruled as Heavenly King of Great Qin under the era names Yongxing, Ganlu and Jianyuan. With the minister Wang Meng he tightened administration; he destroyed the Former Yan in 370 and the Former Liang and Dai in 376, unifying the north, and in 379 took Xiangyang and brought the monk Dao'an to Chang'an. In 383, ignoring Wang Meng's dying advice, he launched a vast invasion of the Jin but was defeated by Xie Xuan at the Fei River, and his empire fell apart. In 385 he was captured by the Qiang leader Yao Chang and strangled at Xinping, aged forty-eight; he was named Xuanzhao with the temple name Shizu. Two idioms of panic, hearing foes in the cry of cranes and seeing them in every bush, come from the Book of Jin (Jinshu) account of the battle.