Taizong the Greatest Emperor

Taizong (Tang 626~649) - He is typically considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, emperor in all of Chinese history. He was considered to be an important government figure at his young age and he was the one who persuaded his father, the first emperor of Tang, to rebel against the Sui empire. He was very intelligent and had a great knowledge reagarding governing a country. He became an emperor by killing his older brother, who was supposed to be next inhertiacne to the throne and his younger brother who tried to kill Taizong with the older brother. Then, Taizong imprisoned his father, who was first empoeror of Tang dnasty, and got the title oas a prince. However, like all the other kings mentioned in this blog, he died due to a disease, after failed attempt to conquer Goguryeo with his 300,000 army.

• Taizong, compared to Macbeth, killed his blood related relatives in order to inherit the throne. However unlike Macbeth, who killed his Duncan due to his ambition, Taizong's actions were actually necessary. His two brothers were planning to kill him and Taizong had a right to defend himself. However Taizong was considered to be great emperor in Chinese history. Macbeth was more considered as a tyrant than a great king. On the other hand, Taizong was corrupted by his ambition also by attacking Goguryeo just to show his power. His failed attempts led to his illness which eventually led to his death.
  
  

Gung Ye the One-Eyed Monk

Gung Ye (ruled 901–918) was the king of a short-lived state called Hu Goguryeo (901-918) on the Korean peninsula. He was a perfect leader with his charismatic personality and great leadership. He was beloved by all his generals and always shared the amount of treasures he gained from the battle. Gung Ye was literally the prince of Shila, but he was dumped by his parents while he was just a baby. Due to this tragic event, Gung Ye's hatred toward Shila grew strong and targeted Shila as his first victim. Eventually, Gung Ye conquered most of northern Shila and had to face Hu Baek Jae. However, as time went by, Gung Ye became mentally ill and started to become a tyrant and killed anyone, who he believed, was going to raise an army against him. He also called himself Mireuk, or Buddha who came to the world to guide and save suffering people from all hardship. Therefore, he believed that no human being could there damage him physically. Then later, his most trusted general, Wang Gun, along with four generals who disbelieved in Gung Ye’s actions, rebelled against Gung Ye. Gung Ye, totally taken by the surpirse attack, ran away from the castle dressed as a peasant. However, his mental illness got worse and he was later killed by group of peasants.

• Just like Mobon, Gung Ye did not kill any one to inherit the throne. However, just like Macbeth, Gung Ye was great as a general and as the King of Hu Goguryeo. It was just the mental illness that has taken over both of these characters during their time of reign that corrupted these two figures. Macbeth and Gung Ye started to kill people just by suspicion and their greed for more power.

King Mobon of Goguryeo

King Mobon of Goguryeo (? - 53, r. 48-53) was the fifth king of Goguryeo, the northernmost of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. He was killed by a court official named Duro, from Mobon. He was buried in Mobon-won. Mobon was fierce and stubborn. He was second son of the great King Daemusin. However, Mobon, despite of the fact he was next inheritance to the throne, was not able to inherit the throne after his father. Instead, King Daemusin's younger brother, Minjung inherited the throne. After King Minjung's death Mobon finally became King with an ambition of conquering China and had best intentions of showing his subjects how great he is. In the year 49, he attacked Han Dynasty China several times, but later signed a peace treaty with them. He was a great king at the beginning, since he wanted to show his loyal subjects that age does not matter to rule Go Gu Ryu. Therefore, he ordered his generals to attack Eastern China (Han Empire) and conquered most of the lands. After conquering Eastern Han Empire, King Mobon believed that he was the greatest king in history, and started to corrupt. He ordered his subjects to act as his pillow and if the ‘pillow’ moved, he would immediately kill the ‘pillow’.

• King Mobon, compared to Macbeth, was way more obnoxious them him. Unlike Macbeth, who was a general before he became a King, Mobon was a prince and has his right to become King. However, Mobon's rightful position of King, was stolen by King Minjung and that could be the main reason of Mobon's corruption. However Mobon did not kill his uncle, Minjung, in order to become King. Macbeth on the other hand, killed his uncle Duncan to inherit the throne.
  

Dong Zhou

Dong Zhuo (d. May 22, 192) was a powerful warlord during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of China. Dong Zhuo deposed the rightful heir to the throne and instated the puppet Emperor Xian. Dong Zhuo was once a loyal subject to Supreme General He Jin, but after his execution due to treason, Dong Zhuo practically had control over the Han Empire. At first, Dong Zhuo tried his best to support the Emperor with his best intentions, but as time went by and Emperor’s powers were weak due to revolution of Yellow Turbans, Dong Zhuo got full control over the empire. He was very obnoxious and greedy, he killed his general, who pledged his loyalty to him, just to gain his step son, Lu Bu to join his side. Lu Bu, back then, was the greatest general in Han history. After he persuaded Lu Bu to join his side, Dong Zhuo's actions got worse, he ordered his soldiers to cut the fingers off of those who disobeyed him, and dump them into boiling pot of oil just to show how he will deal with enemies. Later, he is killed by his most trusted general, Lu Bu due to a fight over a imaginative historic figure called Diao Chan.

• Dong Zhuo, in comparison to Macbeth, has a lot of similarities. Macbeth was once a most loyal general to King Duncan, but after he murdered the King, he was corrupted mentally by overwhelming power. Dong Zhuo, like Macbeth, after persuading Lu Bu to his side, believed that no generals in Han Empire would dare match Lu Bu's skills. After his corruption, warlords over Han Empire rose to form a union to rebel against Dong Zhuo. Just like Macbeth, where Thanes from different cities gained to rebel against Macbeth. After the rebellion succeeded, Dong Zhuo was killed with a fire torch lit up on his stomach. Macbeth, on the other, hand did not die in such uncivilized way.