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Qi Jiguang  |
| CCTV.COM 2002-03-26 11:03:07 |
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 Qi Jiguang was a famous general who spent forty years in army through wars in the south and north of China. He was a national hero and a strategist who scored great military achievements.
Qi Jiguang was born into a general's family in Penglai, Shandong Province in 1528. His ancestors had been upright and honest officials. Since his childhood Qi received strict education from his father.
In Qi's time Japanese pirates ran amuck. They plundered the coastal regions in collaboration with Chinese bandits. People suffered greatly.
The water city of Dengzhou was called the fortress against Japanese pirates. At the age of 16 Qi Jiguang took over his father's post and became the captain of the Dengzhou Garrison and Shandong. When Qi conducted the defence against Japanese pirates, he reconstructed an abandoned defence work and turned the army into a well－trained force with commanders and fighters in solidarity. In awe of Qi's defence work, Japanese pirates kept clear of the coast of Shandong.
When later Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces suffered from daily worse harassment of pirates, the imperial court appointed Qi as the associate commander of Zhejiang. Despite victories over Japanese pirates, Qi discovered the vulnerability of the government troops, that the soldiers were afraid of the enemy and the commanders did not know how to direct battles. He recruited soldiers from peasants and miners into a new army. Harbouring bitter hatred to the pirates and trained strictly by Qi Jiguang, the new army soon became a crack force known as "the Qi's army".
 The Qi's army fought bravely in the battles at Huajie and Baishuiyang in heavy rain. Deployed in the battle array designed by Qi, the soldiers beat the enemy with a force inferior in number.
Not long after Qi's army moved to Fujian to fight Japanese pirates. The army won one victory after another in Hengyu, Xinghua and Xianyou. After over ten years' resistance, the piracy at China's southeast coast was cleared. Qi Jiguang was repeatedly commended by the court.
Apart from fighting against pirates, Qi Jiguang was often sent to guard the northern borders. He spent more than ten years to fortify the Great Wall and thus the defence at the northern border was strengthened.
Qi Jiguang was not only an outstanding general but also a strategist. His books on warfare were important works in history.
Qi Jiguang was also a poet. He expressed his patriotic sentiments and his noble personality in his poems.
My tent is filled with edicts
My sword, like a star, sends out sheen
I do not aim at a title of marquis
But I hope the seas will be serene
Qi Jiguang's heroism and upright characters have been widely praised.
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