Wu Qi

Wu Qi was born about 440 BC in the state of Wey and was a strategist of the early Warring States period as famous as Sunzi; the two are named together as 'Sun-Wu'. He served as general and minister in turn in Lu, Wei and Chu. In Wei he held the Xihe frontier and fought the other states seventy-six times, winning sixty-four outright and never once being defeated; he wore the same clothes and ate the same food as the lowest of his soldiers, and once sucked the pus from a soldier's sore with his own mouth. In Chu he led reforms that cut the privileges of the nobility and quickly made the state strong. When King Dao of Chu died, the old nobles rose in revolt, and Wu Qi, throwing himself on the king's body, was shot dead with arrows.