← Fame through time1800-1899
The 19th century
Whose names filled the books of the 19th century - anyone at all, however long dead - counted as mentions per million words printed, so a period that simply published more does not inflate anyone.
Talked about then
Whose names appeared most in Chinese books during the 19th century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Zhu Xi870 - 2
Li Hongzhang149 - 3
Zhang Zhidong86 - 4
Zuo Zongtang43 - 5
Ban Gu40 - 6
Ge Hong40 - 7Chen Shou14
- 8
Mao Zedong12 - 9
Lu Xun11
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Dmitry Pisarev10 decades - 2
Anton Delvig6 decades - 3
Vladimir Gilyarovsky5 decades - 4
Mikhail Katkov4 decades - 5
Aleksey Suvorinnot measured- - 6
Abderrashid Ibrahimnot measured- - 7
Leo Deutschnot measured- - 8
Nicolas Notovitchnot measured- - 9
Pyotr Boborykinnot measured- - 10
Vladimir Meshcherskynot measured- - 11
Ivan Panaevnot measured- - 12
Fyodor Glinkanot measured- - 13
Carl Robert Jakobson0 decades - 14
Johann Voldemar Jannsen0 decades - 15
Pavel Krushevannot measured- - 16
Valerian Zubovnot measured- - 17
Lev Tikhomirovnot measured- - 18
Iakob Gogebashvilinot measured- - 19
Alexander Pypinnot measured- - 20
Hasan bey Zardabinot measured- - 21
Peretz Smolenskinnot measured- - 22
Julius Krohnnot measured- - 23
Zohra Akchurinanot measured- - 24
Garlieb Merkelnot measured- - 25
Nikolai Shelgunovnot measured-
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.