Fang Xiaoru

Fang Xiaoru (方孝孺, Fāng Xìaorú) (1357—1402), an orthodox Confucian scholar of the Ming dynasty, famous for his loyalty to the emperor Jianwen (Ming Huidi), of whom he had been a tutor.

After Prince of Yan, Zhu Di usurped the throne in 1402, he addressed Fang Xiaoru, an outstanding literary figure of the time, demanding to write an inaugural address, but was refused.

Threatened with the capital punishment of Mie Zu, Fang Xiaoru is reported saying: "莫說九族，十族何妨！" ("Nevermind nine agnates, go ahead with ten!"). Thus he was granted his wish with perhaps the only case of "extermination of ten agnates" in the history of China. In addition to his own execution, the blood relations from his nine-agnates family hierarchy were killed; as if that was not enough, his students and peers were added to be the 10th group. Altogether 873 people are said to have been executed.

Before death, Fang Xiaoru was forced to watch his brother's execution. Fang Xiaoru himself was executed by severing-waist technique(腰斬). The legend goes that prior to his death he dipped his finger in his own blood and wrote on the ground the Chinese character "篡", which means "usurp"(er)".