Han Fei
c. 280 BC – 233 BC · 47 years · Xinzheng (State of Han) · Asia
Chief theorist of Legalism: a state rests on strict laws, rewards and punishments rather than on the ruler's virtue. Qin Shi Huang adopted his ideas.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 3rd century BC
Portrait: Sabinowitz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Archimedes — mathematician, physicist and engineer, 7 years older
- Epicurus — ancient Greek philosopher, 61 years older
- Zeno of Citium — ancient Greek philosopher, founder of Stoicism, 54 years older
Africa
- Hannibal — Carthaginian general, 33 years younger
- Eratosthenes — scholar, head of the Library of Alexandria, 4 years younger
- Euclid — ancient Greek mathematician, 45 years older
- Arsinoe II — queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, 36 years older
Asia
- Qin Shi Huang — first emperor of China, 21 years younger
- Ashoka — Maurya emperor, 24 years older
- Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu of Han) — founder of the Han dynasty, 24 years younger
- Xunzi — Chinese Confucian philosopher, 30 years older
The world in their lifetime
- c. 280 BC–247 BC Lighthouse of Alexandria — aged 0, Africa
- c. 261 BC Kalinga War — aged 19, Asia
- c. 250 BC The rise of Djenné-Djenno — aged 30, Africa