King Mu of Balhae (Dae Muye)

King Mu (Dae Muye) was the second ruler of Balhae, who stabilized the newly founded kingdom while proclaiming his own reign-era name, "Inan." He greatly expanded Balhae's territory by conquering neighboring peoples such as the Dumangnu, and he pursued an assertive foreign policy toward the Tang dynasty, going so far as to launch a preemptive strike on Dengzhou on the Shandong Peninsula. Through these conquests and his hard-line stance against the Tang, King Mu is remembered as the ruler who raised Balhae into a major power in Northeast Asia.