The concept of martyrdom in China during the premodern period largely concerned loyalty to political principles and was developed in modern times by revolutionaries, such as the Tongmenghui and the Kuomintang parties during the Xinhai Revolution, Northern Expedition, and Second Sino-Japanese War. Martyrdom and loyalty 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. In the Han dynasty, the court historian Sima Qian was also maligned by rivals and the Emperor Han Wudi sentenced him to either death by suicide or being castrated. He explained his choice of the second punishment in a famous Letter to Renan. He said "Now there is no man who does not naturally cling to life and avoid death, love his parents and cherish his wife and children. But the man who is devoted to the right sometimes has no choice but to behave otherwise." Later generations viewed Sima as a martyr and loyal to his ideals. In the Song dynasty military official Yue Fei warned of the danger of invasion but was ignored, then put to death on spurious charges. Christian martyrs Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians were mostly accepted along with other religious persuasions but sometimes accused of disloyalty. Government officials executed Christians in the 18th and 19th centuries for their refusal to renounce their faith, which the officials regarded as subversive. The largest number of martyrs were those killed by local groups in the Boxer Uprising, when some 30,000 Chinese citizens and foreign missionaries were killed because their faith was considered foreign. Modern Development Revolutionaries of the Tongmenghui who died in attempts to overthrow the Qing dynasty were recognized as martyrs by the Republic of China after the Xinhai Revolution. During the Xinhai Revolution itself, many Chinese revolutionaries became martyrs in battle. "Dare to Die" student corps were founded, for student revolutionaries wanting to fight against Qing dynasty rule. Dr. Sun Yatsen and Huang Xing promoted the Dare to Die corps. Huang said, "We must die, so let us die bravely". During the revolution, suicide squads were formed by Chinese students going into battle, knowing that they