17: Wang Mang, first and only emperor of the Xin Dynasty usurped the Chinese throne and instituted a series of sweeping reforms, including the abolition of slavery and radical land reform.
Wayne Wang | Vera Wang | Xiaoming Wang | Wang Beixing | Wang Laboratories | Wang Jingwei | Wang Wei (8th-century poet) | Wang Wei | Wang Yuegu | Wang Ying (actress) | Wang Ying | Wang Xiaoshuai | Wang Weiyi | Wang Mang | Wang Hui | Wang Guangyi | Wang Bingyu | Wang Baoqiang | Sungei Wang Plaza | Patrick Wang | Cyndi Wang | Wang Zuo | Wang Zhen | Wang Zhaojun | Wang Yung-ching | Wang Yi | Wang Xizhi | Wang Tao | Wang Sengbian | Wang Sanyun |
A more recent ancestor who held the post of Regional Inspector of Jingzhou, during the Former Han, resisted the usurpation of the Han dynasty by "the bandit", Wang Mang (33 BC-22 AD), and was exiled to Langya in modern Shandong province.
Liu Yan, a descendant of a distant branch of the Han imperial clan, who lived in his ancestral territory of Chongling (舂陵, in modern Xiangfan, Hubei), had long been disgusted by Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han throne, and had long aspired to start a rebellion.