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Li Ling
Western Han officer and grandson of Li Guang who surrendered to the Xiongnu after a desperate infantry campaign, and whose defence cost Sima Qian his manhood
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Shaoqing
- Roles
- Commanders
Li Ling, courtesy name Shaoqing, was the posthumous son of Li Guang's eldest son Li Danghu and trained archers at Jiuquan and Zhangye as a cavalry commandant. In 99 BC, during Li Guangli's campaign against the Xiongnu, he asked to lead five thousand foot soldiers north from Juyan; at Mount Junji he met the chanyu with thirty thousand riders, later joined by eighty thousand more, and when his arrows ran out he surrendered. Sima Qian defended him and was castrated for it. The emperor later believed a false report that Li Ling was drilling Xiongnu troops and put his mother, wife and children to death. The chanyu gave him a daughter in marriage and made him Youxiao King; when Huo Guang sent an old friend to bring him home, he said a man could not be shamed twice, and he died among the Xiongnu in 74 BC. The Letter in Reply to Su Wu that the Wenxuan anthology prints under his name is widely thought a later forgery.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–74 BCE
- c. 100 BCESu Wu's Captivity Among the Xiongnu
- c. 99 BCELi Ling Surrenders; Sima Qian Punished