Background
Despite Xin Maojiang's high status, little is firmly established about his background or career except for the years that he served as chancellor -- as, unusual for a chancellor, he did not have a biography in either the Book of Tang or the New Book of Tang. (The table of chancellors family trees in the New Book of Tang gave his grandfather's name as Xin Zheng (辛政) and father's name as Xin Zhao (辛肇), but did not give any office titles for them, implicitly indicating that they were not governmental officials.) Little is known about Xin Maojiang's career prior to his becoming chancellor in 658.
Read more about this topic: Xin Maojiang
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“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 (18171862)
“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 (18441900)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedys conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didnt approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldnt have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)