Li Guang

Li Guang (died 119 BC), born in Tianshui, Gansu, was a general of the Western Han dynasty. Nicknamed "Flying General" by the Xiongnu, he fought primarily in the campaigns against the nomadic Xiongnu tribes to the north of China. He was known to the Xiongnu as a tough opponent when it came to fortress defense, and his presence was sometimes discouraging enough for the Xiongnu to abort a siege.

Li Guang committed suicide shortly after the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC. He was blamed for failing to arrive at the battlefield in time (after getting lost in the desert), creating a gap in the encirclement and allowing Ichise Chanyu to escape after a confrontation between Wei Qing and the Chanyu's main force, which the Han army narrowly managed to defeat. Refusing to accept the humiliation of a court martial, Li Guang took his own life.

Li Guang was a descendant of Laozi and the Qin general Li Xin, as well as an ancestor of the Western Liang and Tang dynasty monarchs. Li Guang belonged to the Longxi branch of the Li clan (隴西李氏).

Biography

According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Li Guang was a man of great build, with long arms and good archery skills,^[1] able to shoot an arrow deeply into a stone (which resembles the shape of a crouching tiger) on one occasion. At the same time, like his contemporaries Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, he was a caring and well-respected general who earned the respect of his soldiers. He also earned the favour of Emperor Wen, who said of him: "If he had been born in the time of Emperor Gaozu, he would have been given a fief of ten thousand households without any difficulty" (Chinese:萬户侯).

Li Guang first distinguished himself during the Rebellion of the Seven States, where he served under the Grand General Zhou Yafu. However, Emperor Jing was unhappy that he had accepted a seal given by Liu Wu, the prince of Liang, hence Li did not get promoted to a marquisate despite his anti-rebellion achievement.

However, Li Guang's late military career was constantly haunted by repeated incidents of what would be regarded as "bad luck" by later scholars. He had a nasty tendency of losing direction during mobilisations, and in field battles he was often outnumbered and surrounded by superior enemies. While Li Guang's fame attracted much of his enemies' attention, Li Guang's troops relative lack of discipline and his lack of strategic planning often put him and his regiments in awkward situations. Li Guang himself narrowly escaped capture after his army was annihilated during an offensive campaign at Yanmen (雁門) in 129 BC, and was stripped of official titles and demoted to commoner status with fellow defeated general Gongsun Ao (公孫敖) after paying parole.^[2] During a separate campaign in 120 BC, Li Guang, this time with his son Li Gan (李敢) by his side, was surrounded again by superior enemies.^[3] His 4,000 troops suffered heavy casualties^[4] before reinforcements led by Zhang Qian (張騫) arrived in time for the rescue.^[5] The rules of the Han army dictated a commander's achievement was measured only according to his number of enemy kills minus the casualties of his own side. These, together with Li Guang's political naivety, denied him of any chance of promotion to a marquisate, his lifelong dream. Emperor Wu even secretly ordered Wei Qing not to assign Li Guang to important missions (such as the vanguard position), on the grounds of Li Guang's famed "terrible fortune".^[6]

Notes

References

• Joseph P Yap. Wars With The Xiongnu - A translation From Zizhi Tongjian, Chapters 3-4. AuthorHouse (2009). ISBN 978-1-4490-0604-4.