Reformer of the 1898 Hundred Days' Reform, 戊戌变法, who refused to flee when it was crushed, saying reform in China needed someone to shed blood first, and was executed as one of the 戊戌六君子.
The poem he is said to have written on his cell wall has the line 我自横刀向天笑, 'blade in hand, I laugh up at the sky', still quoted for facing death without fear. His book 《仁学》 (On Benevolence) blended Confucian, Buddhist and Western ideas.
