Hai Rui (1514-1587) was born in Qiongshan (today's Hainan province). He was acclaimed for his integrity as an official in the history. Honest, incorruptible, impartial, upright and never yielding to pressure, Hai Rui was reputed as the "Lord Bao in the south" (Lord Bao is a historical character famous for his integrity as an official) in the folk life.

From an early age, Hai Rui read extensively poetry and classics, thus being quite versatile. During his years as an official, he exerted a positive effect on cracking down on corruption and bribery by promoting an exact measurement of the farming land, averaging taxes, redressing unjust, feigned and wrong cases and punishing the malfeasants. He enjoyed the ardent support from the people for his integrity, his braveness in punishing the powerful officials and his enthusiasm in serving the common people.