A few weeks ago, then out-going Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang (or Su Zhenchang in standard Pinyin) said something that caused quite a stir: 

"Had Yuan Chonghuan not died, how could the Manchu army have breached the Great Wall?"

To understand why this rather curious rhetorical question caused the controversy it did, you obviously have to know who Yuan Chonghuan was.

Here, then, is the story of the Cantonese man who, in the waning years of the Ming Dynasty, did perhaps more than anyone else to defend his country against northern invaders.

Support the show