Commemorative 231 1000th Birthday of Fan Chung-yen Commemorative Issue (1989) (B231)

Stamp SN : B231
Stamp Name : Commemorative 231 1000th Birthday of Fan Chung-yen Commemorative Issue (1989)
Stamp Cat Standard : Commemorative Stamps
Stamp Cat : Culture Heroes,Individuals
Issue date : 1989-09-01
Dimension of stamps(mm.) : 29x37
Printer : China Color Printing Co. Inc., R.O.C.
Sheet composition : 10×10
Process : Deep etch offset
Paper : Locally-made mat finished,
Perforation : 14x13 1/2
Suspersion date : 1991-09-01
Designer : Lee Kuang-chi

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.