Ban Chao

Also known as Zi Zhongsheng

Ban Chao, courtesy name Zhongsheng, was the youngest son of Ban Biao and brother of the historian Ban Gu. Working as a government copyist, he once threw down his brush and vowed to win merit abroad like Fu Jiezi and Zhang Qian. In 73 he joined Dou Gu's campaign against the northern Xiongnu; sent on to the Western Regions, at Shanshan he led a night attack on a Xiongnu embassy, saying that one cannot catch tiger cubs without entering the tiger's den; Khotan, Kashgar and others then submitted. He became protector-general in 91, subdued Karashahr in 94, and was made Marquis of Dingyuan the next year. In 97 he sent Gan Ying toward Rome; Gan Ying turned back at the sea in Tiaozhi. After thirty-one years in the west he begged to be allowed home alive through the Jade Gate; with his sister Ban Zhao's support he returned in 102 and died a month later. The idiom 'throwing down the brush to join the army' comes from his story.