Yeon Gaesomun
Traditional Korean histories painted Yeon Gaesomun as a despotic leader, whose cruel policies and disobedience to his monarch led to the fall of Goguryeo. However, his achievements in defending Goguryeo against Chinese onslaughts have inspired Korean nationalist historians, most notably the 19th-century Korean historian and intellectual Sin Chaeho, to term Yeon Gaesomun the greatest hero in Korean history. Many Korean scholars today echo Shin Chaeho and praise Yeon Gaesomun as a soldier-statesman without equal in Korean history.