Huo Qubing was a Chinese military general and politician of the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. He was a nephew of the general Wei Qing and Empress Wei Zifu, and a half-brother of the statesman Huo Guang. Along with Wei Qing, he led a campaign into the Gobi Desert of what is now Mongolia to defeat the Xiongnu nomadic confederation, winning decisive victories such as the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC.
Huo Qubing was one of the most legendary commanders in Chinese history, and still lives on in Chinese culture today.
Huo Qubing
Tomb of Huo Qubing, statue of a horse stomping a Xiongnu warrior, with detail of the head of the vanquished Xiongnu warrior.
Tomb of Huo Qubing in 1914, Shaanxi, China, photographed by Victor Segalen (1878–1919). The "Horse Stomping Xiongnu" statue appears in front.
The "Horse Stomping Xiongnu" statue at Huo Qubing's tomb
The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China, established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring interregnum known as the Chu–Han contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) established by the usurping regent Wang Mang, and is thus separated into two periods—the Western Han and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD). Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history, and had a permanent impact on Chinese identity in later periods. The majority ethnic group of modern China refer to themselves as the "Han people" or "Han Chinese". The spoken Sinitic language and written Chinese are referred to respectively as the "Han language" and "Han characters".
Western Han painted ceramic jar with raised reliefs of dragons, phoenixes, and taotie
Reverse side of a Western Han bronze mirror with a painted flower motif
Statue of a horse trampling a Xiongnu warrior, at the mausoleum of Western Han general Huo Qubing (d. 117 BC), who fought in the Han–Xiongnu War. This is the first known monumental stone statue in China.
The ruins of a Han-dynasty watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, located at the eastern edge of the Silk Road