Huo Qubing

Huo Qubing the Chinese cavalry general of the Western Han dynasty (140-117 BC) who won a series of spectacular victories over the Xiongnu and became one of the youngest and most celebrated commanders in Chinese history. In a brief career he drove the nomads from the Hexi Corridor, opened the route to the west and extended the empire's frontier deep into the northern steppe.

Origins and Rise

Huo Qubing was born in 140 BC into a humble background, the illegitimate son of a minor official of the Han palace and a serving woman. His fortunes changed through his maternal aunt, the celebrated consort Wei Zifu, who became an empress, and through the patronage of her brother Wei Qing, who was already one of the empire's leading generals. The young Huo Qubing was raised in the shadow of the imperial household and trained in the arts of war and horsemanship.

He entered military service as a young man and quickly displayed an exceptional talent for cavalry warfare. In 123 BC, at the age of seventeen, he accompanied Wei Qing on a campaign against the Xiongnu and led a detachment of eight hundred horsemen deep into enemy territory, killing and capturing a large number of the enemy and taking prisoners of importance. For this exploit the emperor granted him the title of marquis.

His rise was rapid even by the standards of an age that rewarded daring. He was made a general in his early twenties, and over the next few campaigns he established a reputation for speed, boldness and the ability to find and destroy enemy forces far from the protection of the main army. His youth, his personal courage and his rapport with his troops made him a popular and legendary figure.

The Hexi Campaigns

The Han had long defended itself against the Xiongnu by a combination of tribute, marriage alliances and static border defences. Emperor Wu changed this strategy, adopting an aggressive policy of pushing the frontier forward and striking deep into the steppe. Huo Qubing became the instrument of this new approach, and his campaigns in the west transformed the strategic situation of the empire.

In 121 BC he led two great expeditions into the Hexi Corridor, the narrow strip of territory between the Qilian Mountains and the deserts that formed the gateway between China and Central Asia. In the first he swept through the territory of the Xiongnu in a rapid campaign, defeating five subordinate kings. In the second, during the summer, he advanced much farther, crossing the Qilian range and destroying the principal forces of the enemy in the region, capturing enormous numbers of men and animals.

These victories broke the power of the Xiongnu in the corridor and forced the surviving princes to surrender. The Han established the commanderies of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang in the conquered lands, and the routes that Zhang Qian had surveyed were secured for Chinese trade and administration. The campaigns set up a resounding success and demonstrated that the Han army could operate far beyond its own frontiers and defeat the nomads on their own ground.

The Northern Campaign and Desert Victory

In 119 BC the emperor launched the largest campaign of the war, sending two great columns of cavalry northwards across the Gobi. Wei Qing commanded one force and Huo Qubing the other, and the two generals destroyed the main bodies of the Xiongnu army. Huo Qubing's column is said to have advanced more than a thousand kilometres into enemy territory, and his campaigns were marked by the extraordinary distances covered and the speed of the attack.

Huo Qubing led his cavalry to the Khentii Mountains in the far north, in what is now Mongolia, where he attacked the camp of the Xiongnu chanyu and inflicted a decisive defeat. According to the records he climbed a sacred mountain and performed a ceremony of sacrifice to heaven and earth, reporting his victory to the unseen powers on behalf of the empire. The expedition destroyed the enemy's ability to mount large-scale raids for years.

For these achievements the emperor appointed him grand commander and lavished honours upon him. His victories, however, did not finally destroy the Xiongnu, who recovered and remained a great power beyond the frontier for centuries. Yet the campaigns of 121 and 119 BC shifted the strategic balance and secured the northern and western frontiers for a generation, and they made the reputation of the young general who led them.

Methods and Character

Huo Qubing was famous for the speed and unpredictability of his operations. He dispensed with the heavy baggage trains and lengthy preparations that slowed conventional armies, and he led his cavalry on long forced marches, guided by local herdsmen and prisoners who knew the terrain. His ability to appear suddenly in the enemy's heartland demoralised the Xiongnu and made him in their eyes a figure of terror as well as of legend.

He was also notable for the care with which he provided for his troops. The official histories record that while he personally enjoyed the luxury of the court, he insisted on the welfare of his men and refused to abandon the sick or wounded. On one campaign, it is said, he was so moved by a herdsman's complaint that the army did not distribute the provisions it had captured that he took steps to remedy the wrong, and such stories helped to shape the memory of a commander beloved by his soldiers.

His career was marked by the ambition and the confidence of youth. He proposed schemes for settling surrendered Xiongnu and for transforming the frontier, and he was trusted by the emperor to a degree unusual for a man of his age. He combined personal bravery with a strategic imagination that understood the importance of the west and the need to carry the war to the enemy rather than wait on the defensive.

Death and Legacy

Huo Qubing died in 117 BC at the age of twenty-three, after an illness that the histories do not describe in detail. His early death was deeply mourned by the emperor, who ordered that his tomb be built in the shape of the Qilian Mountains that his campaigns had conquered, an enduring monument in earth to the achievements of his brief life. The large mound still stands near the imperial tomb complex outside Xi'an.

His tomb, with its stone carvings of horses and beasts trampling the Xiongnu, became one of the most celebrated groups of early Chinese sculpture. The images of a mounted horseman and of animals in combat express the martial spirit of the age and the pride of an empire that had turned the tables on its nomadic enemies. The tomb and its monuments are counted among the treasures of Han art and archaeology.

Huo Qubing is remembered as one of the greatest cavalry commanders in Chinese history and as a symbol of youthful achievement and patriotic valour. Later dynasties celebrated his victories and his family name, and his deeds were recounted in poetry and popular tradition. The campaigns he led with Wei Qing secured the Hexi Corridor and opened the way west, and the routes he protected became the roads of the Silk Road, so that his short life had consequences that endured for centuries.

See also

• Xiongnu
• Wei Qing
• Emperor Wu of Han
• Silk Road