A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ang Yü-ch'un
143 Ch'ang Yü-ch'un 常遇春 (T. 伯仁). A.D. 1330—1369. Originally a bandit of 懷遠 Huai-yüan, he joined Chu Yüan-ch'ang in 1355, and by extraordinary acts of valour won a place second only to Hsü Ta. On several occasions during the struggle to gain the empire, he turned defeat into victory, and more than once he saved the lives of his master and Hsü Ta. Made a State Counsellor and a Duke, he shared in the victorious northward campaign of 1368—69. Brave to a fault, he treated his men with kindness. A good strategist, though no scholar, he was never defeated; and from his frequent boast that with 100,000 men he could sweep the empire, he was nicknamed 常十萬 Hundred Thousand Ch'ang. His statue ranked second in the Temple of Men of Merit, and he received a place in the Imperial Temple. Posthumously ennobled as Prince, and canonised as 忠武.