Liu Bei

Liu Bei, courtesy name Xuande (玄德), was a warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who founded the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period and became its first ruler. Though he was a distant relative of the imperial family, Liu Bei's father died when he was a child and left his family impoverished. To help his mother, he sold shoes and straw mats. When he reached the age of fifteen, his mother sent him to study under Lu Zhi. In his youth, Liu Bei was known as ambitious and charismatic. He gathered a militia army to fight the Yellow Turbans. Liu Bei fought bravely in many battles and started getting famous. Rather than join the coalition against Dong Zhuo, he joined his childhood friend Gongsun Zan and fought under him against Yuan Shao many times with recognition.