Image caption: Jiang Ziya fishing with a straight hook that is 3 inches above water.  Image courtesy of http://www.xwxian.cn.

伍子胥 vs. 姜子牙

Both are historical figures from ancient times, with similar political posts and background.  They were both renown for their outstanding talents, astounding loyalty, magnamious concern for public welfare and the common people, and admirable ambitions.  But, one lead an entirely different destiny of polar opposite to the other.

伍子胥:      Wu Zixu (485 BCE)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zixu

一夜白髮　hair whitens overnight
遭君背棄   betrayed and rejected by his king
悲愤殉国   bitterly committed suicide and sacrificed himself for the sake of his country at a young age (probably before 50)

versus

姜子牙:      Jiang Ziya (1211-1072 BCE) he lived for 139 years but birthday not on wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiang_Ziya

願者上钩    "he who desires so will bite [the hook]" or more aptly, "put one's own head in the noose."  Jiang, at the advanced age of 90 and perturbed by his incessantly nagging wife for him to do something about their abject poverty, used a straight hook kept 3 inches above the water to "fish" by a city creek everyday until the local ruler came to see him and solicited him to advisory post in court.

權貴軍師宰相  he later unleashed his superior talents and assisted his king, a small rural monarch, in full-on battles with the corrupt ruling Empire to establish a new Dynasty.  His power and prestige was top of all military and civic advisors (the strategic army general and the grand visier, or the "secretary of state.")
調動鬼神    He commanded dieties and demigods in his armies and military strategies.  The stories from Chinese classic novel Fengshen Yanyi (封神演義 or 封神榜), sometimes translated as Creation of the Gods" are, in my humble opinion, if not more entertaining then at least equally so, as any of the Greek masterpieces.

很有意思。Very fun.

Classical Strategists series
Jiang Taigong: The Supreme Strategist
http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/tao_heal/meh1223.html  (ENGLISH)

Really awesome pictures and paintings are found here, nested in a lengthy Chinese history article on Jiang Ziya located at http://hcw99966.blog.163.com/blog/static/61554255200861423844563/  (CHINESE-SIMPLIFIED)

Wikipedia indicates that his birth and death days are unknown but this is not true.  There are very detailed records according to ancient Chinese political and astronomical calendars indicating his birth and death. 

公元前1211年，殷朝庚丁八年已酉年八月初三日出生于今山东省日照市；公元前1072年戊辰年，周康王六年，卒于周首都镐京，岁寿139岁。