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Wei Qing

The grand general who struck the Xiongnu seven times undefeated, born a slave groom

Souls of the Battlefield · Generals & Commanders

The southern-desert campaignsGrand generalThe Han–Xiongnu wars

Who they are

Wei Qing was born about as low as possible — a bastard, a mounted groom in the household of Princess Pingyang. He was employed because his sister Wei Zifu won Emperor Wu’s favor, but he proved with battle merit that this was no matter of nepotism: on his first campaign in 129 BC he struck straight at Longcheng, the Xiongnu’s sacred site of sacrifice to Heaven, and thereafter struck the Xiongnu seven times without a single defeat, recovering the Ordos, raiding the Wise King of the Right, and shattering the Chanyu’s main force in the decisive battle north of the desert. Rising to grand general and grand marshal, at the summit of power he stayed modest and yielding, never keeping retainers or forming factions, and treated his subordinates well. With his nephew Huo Qubing, one within and one without, he formed the whole military pillar of Emperor Wu’s counter-offensive against the Xiongnu.

Key stories

First victory at Longcheng

In 129 BC the Xiongnu raided, and Emperor Wu sent four armies of ten thousand horse each: Li Guang’s force was wiped out and he captured (later escaping on a seized horse), Gongsun Ao lost seven thousand men, and Gongsun He gained nothing — only Wei Qing, who had never led troops, drove deep, struck straight at the Xiongnu’s sacrificial site of Longcheng, and took seven hundred. The number was small, the meaning vast: for the first time in the seventy years since the siege at Baideng, a Han army had found and beaten the Xiongnu on the steppe. "If only the Flying General of Longcheng were here" — Tang poets were still savoring this battle.

The grand general who kept no retainers

Someone urged Wei Qing to follow the old famous generals in gathering retainers to build a name, and Wei Qing refused: "A subject need only uphold the law and do his duty — what has he to do with recruiting scholars?" Imperial in-law, plus military merit, plus the people’s hearts, is the death formula for a meritorious minister — and he struck out the last term. Of his contemporaries, the famous Li Guang killed himself, Li Ling surrendered to the enemy, and Huo Qubing died young; Wei Qing alone kept the emperor’s favor undimmed and died at home. Under a ruler like Emperor Wu, this "inaction" was itself great wisdom.