Shi Kefa, Chinese general and calligrapher (b. 1601)
Shi Kefa (4 February 1601 – 20 May 1645), courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu (祥符; present-day Kaifeng, Henan) and claimed ancestry from Daxing County, Shuntian Prefecture (順天府大興縣; in present-day Beijing). He was mentored by Zuo Guangdou (左光斗). He served as the Minister of War in Nanjing during the early part of his career. He is best remembered for his defence of Yangzhou from the Qing dynasty and was killed when Yangzhou fell to Qing forces in April 1645. After his death, the Southern Ming granted him the posthumous name "Zhongjing" (忠靖; means "loyal and peaceful"). Nearly a century later, the Qianlong Emperor of Qing granted Shi Kefa another posthumous name, "Zhongzheng" (忠正; means "loyal and upright".) His descendants collected his works and compiled them into a book titled Lord Shi Zhongzheng's Collections (史忠正公集).