Li Sao
In pre-imperial China, the honest official Qu Yuan remonstrated with his king but was driven out of the court by vicious rivals. Rather than rebel, he drowned himself in the river, leaving behind his poem, Li Sao (Encountering Sorrow). His failed attempt in 228 BCE to assassinate the King of Qin, who would become the First Emperor of China, made Jing Ke a martyr.