Lü Guang

Lü Guang (Chinese: 呂光; 337–400), courtesy name Shiming (世明), formally Emperor Yiwu of (Later) Liang ((後)涼懿武帝), was the founding emperor of the Chinese/Di state Later Liang (although during most of his reign, he used the title "Heavenly Prince" (Tian Wang)). He was initially a Former Qin general, but in light of Former Qin's collapse starting in 384, he decided to found his own state, initially including nearly all of modern Gansu. As his reign continued, however, his domain dwindled after Southern Liang and Northern Liang declared independence. His death in 400 left Later Liang in an unstable state, and it would be no more by 403.

Lü Guang was ethnically Di (although he claimed ancestry from an ethnically Han man named Lü Wenhe (呂文和) who fled from Pei County (in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu, the same county that Han Dynasty emperors' ancestors came) from a disaster and who settled in Di lands). He was born in 337, when his father Lü Polou (呂婆樓) was a follower of the Di chieftain and Later Zhao general Pu Hong (蒲洪, who later changed his family name from Pu to Fu). Eventually, after Fu Hong's son Fu Jiàn founded Former Qin, Lü Polou served on the staff of Fu Jiàn's nephew Fu Jiān (notice different tone) the Prince of Donghai. After Fu Jiān overthrew Fu Jiàn's violent and capricious son and successor Fu Sheng in 357, Fu Jiān claimed the throne and made Lü Polou one of his senior advisors. Lü Guang, however, was not well regarded by his father's colleagues, because he did not study much and instead concentrated his efforts on hunting and riding. However, Fu Jiān's prime minister Wang Meng valued him and persuaded Fu Jiān to make him a general. He first received renown when he, while fighting with the army of the warlord Zhang Ping (張平) in 358, defeated and captured Zhang Ping's fierce adoptive son Zhang Hao (張蚝).

...
Wikipedia