Fan Chung-yen (989-1052) was a native of Kiangsu in the Sung Dynasty (960-1280 A.D.). Though he was orphaned and from a poor family, due to his efforts in studies, he passed the national civil service examination to enter the officialdom of the Sung bureaucracy and later managed to be promoted to high ranks in the government. He was an outspoken guardian of the masses, treated himself frugally, but bestowed charity to the poor at all times. In his capacity as commander of the northwestern frontier regiments for several years, he enforced rigorous disciplines with magnanimity towards frontiersmen and his soldiers. The barbaric Chiang and Hsia tribes, aliens in northwest China during that time, were respectful to him and therefore nonaggressive. The last years saw him as Vice Privy Councillor, devoting his efforts to renovating the civil service system and improving administration. 　　 His conviction that a man should make state affairs his foremost concern has since been embedded in the mainstream thought of generations of Chinese intelligentsia. His famous saying 〝Worry before the people worry; rejoice after the people rejoice.〞appears on the stamp in beautiful calligraphy and has been chanted by generations of Chinese elite. Beside the calligraphy is his portrait from the San Tsai Tu Huei.