Huo Guang

Also known as Zi Zimeng

Huo Guang, courtesy name Zimeng, half-brother of the general Huo Qubing, was brought to Chang'an by Qubing as a boy and spent over twenty years at Emperor Wu's side. On his deathbed in 87 BCE the emperor made him grand marshal and general-in-chief, charging him, with Jin Midi, Shangguan Jie and Sang Hongyang, to guide the eight-year-old Emperor Zhao. After Shangguan Jie, Sang Hongyang and Liu Dan, King of Yan, died for plotting against him in 80 BCE, power rested with Huo alone. When Zhao died in 74 BCE he installed Liu He, King of Changyi, and twenty-seven days later had the empress dowager depose him, enthroning Emperor Wu's great-grandson as Emperor Xuan. He died in 68 BCE and was buried with imperial honours, but two years later his wife's poisoning of Empress Xu came to light and the Huo clan, implicated in a plot, was wiped out. In 51 BCE his portrait headed the ministers painted in the Qilin Pavilion, labelled by rank and surname alone.