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← Fame through time1000-1 BC

The 1st millennium BC

Whose working lives fell in the 1st millennium BC. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1st millennium BC, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Confucius551 BC-479 BC · China · Academics12 decades
  2. 2Qin Shi Huang259 BC-210 BC · China · Historical Figures4 decades
  3. 3Sima Qian145 BC-86 BC · China · Writers9 decades
  4. 4Zhuang Zhou369 BC-288 BC · China · Academics10 decades
  5. 5Emperor Gaozu of Han256 BC-195 BC · China · Models0 decades
  6. 6Qu Yuan343 BC-278 BC · China · Writers11 decades
  7. 7Li Si280 BC-208 BC · China · Politicians7 decades
  8. 8Wang Mang45 BC-23 · China · Historical Figures12 decades
  9. 9Qin Er Shi230 BC-207 BC · China · Models2 decades
  10. 10Han Fei280 BC-233 BC · China · Academics10 decades
  11. 11Xiang Yu232 BC-202 BC · China · Politicians3 decades
  12. 12Shang Yang390 BC-338 BC · China · Politicians7 decades
  13. 13Zhang Qian200 BC-114 BC · China · Historical Figures2 decades
  14. 14Emperor Hui of Han213 BC-188 BC · China · Historical Figures0 decades
  15. 15Emperor Ai of Han24 BC-1 BC · China · Historical Figures0 decades
  16. 16Empress Lü Zhi241 BC-180 BC · China · Modelsnot measured-
  17. 17Emperor Jing of Han188 BC-141 BC · China · Models0 decades
  18. 18Han Xin231 BC-196 BC · China1 decades
  19. 19Ziying239 BC-206 BC · China1 decades
  20. 20King Xi of Handied 273 BC · Chinanot 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.