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Xue Rengui
Tang general who rose from the ranks in white armour in 645, subdued the Tiele with three arrows at the Tianshan, and governed Pyongyang after Koguryo fell
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 Ming Li · Zi Rengui
Xue Rengui, whose given name was Li, came from Longmen in Jiangzhou and grew up a poor farmer. When Emperor Taizong invaded Koguryo in 645 he volunteered, and at the battle of Andi he charged the enemy in white with halberd and bow, shouting; the emperor saw him from afar and promoted him on the spot. In the Longshuo years, campaigning against the nine Tiele tribes at the Tianshan, he shot three riders dead with three arrows and the rest dismounted to surrender, and the troops sang that the general had settled the Tianshan with three arrows. After Koguryo fell in 668 he stayed on at Pyongyang as protector-general. In 670 the Tibetan commander Lun Qinling routed him at Dafei River, and he was stripped of rank and later exiled. Recalled in 682 to command Daizhou, he met the Turks at Yunzhou, where they lost heart on recognising his face, and broke them. He died the following year at sixty-nine.
Life and times
Dates 614 CE–683 CE