Background
It is not known which year Wei Yuanzhong was born, but it is known that his family was from Song Prefecture (宋州, roughly modern Shangqiu, Henan). He was originally named Wei Zhenzai, but later changed his name to observe naming taboo for Lady Yang, the mother of Emperor Gaozong's second wife Empress Wu (later known as Wu Zetian). He was a student at the imperial university in his youth, and was said to be unrestrained in his behavior, and did not receive a commission as an official for a long time. During that time, he also learned various military strategies from one Jiang Rong (江融) from Zhouzhi (盩厔, in modern Xi'an, Shaanxi).
Read more about this topic: Wei Yuanzhong
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)