Li Guang

Lĭ Guăng (Chinese: 李廣; Wade–Giles: Li Kuang, died 119 BC), born in Tianshui, Gansu, was a famous general of the Han Dynasty. Nicknamed The Flying General by his Xiongnu enemies (Chinese:飛將軍李廣), he fought primarily in the campaigns against the Xiongnu peoples to the north of Han 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 Xiongnu to abort the 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 Yizhixie Chanyu to escape after a confrontation between Wei Qing and the Chanyu's main force, whom the Han army narrowly managed to defeat. Refusing to accept the humiliation of a court martial, Li Guang took his own life. The later General Li Ling (Han Dynasty) was Li Guang's grandson. The Imperial family of the Tang Dynasty, who had the surname Li, claimed descent from Li Guang.

Biography

According to the Shiji (Chinese:史記) by Sima Qian (Chinese:司馬遷), Li Guang was a man of great build, with long arms and good archery skills , 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 (Chinese:周亞夫). However, Emperor Jing was unhappy that he had accepted a seal given by the 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, was stripped of official titles and demoted to commoner status with fellow defeated general Gongsun Ao (公孫敖) after paying parole. 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. His 4,000 troops suffered heavy casualties before reinforcements led by Zhang Qian (張騫) arrived in time for the rescue. 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" .

Descendants

The Kirghiz Khagans of the Yenisei Kirghiz Khaganate claimed descent from Li Guang's grandson Li Ling (Han Dynasty), which was mentioned in the diplomatic correspondence between the Kirghiz Khagan and the Tang Dynasty Emperor, since the Tang Imperial Li family claimed descent from Li Guang. The Kirghiz Qaghan assisted the Tang dynasty in destroying the Uyghur Khaganate and rescuing the Taihe princess from the Uyghurs.

The Jiankun, who were ruled by the Xiongnu, were identified as Kirghiz and the Xiongnu appointed as Governor over the Jiankun Li Ling. When the Tang government sent a letter written by Li Deyu to the Kirghiz Qaghan they acknowledged his descent from Li Ling and since Li Ling's grandfather Li Guang was ancestor of the Tang Emperor, the Kirghiz Qaghan was recognized as a member of the Tang Imperial family. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had said to them that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners."

The Kirghiz Qaghan and Tang imperial family were therefore both acknowledged as descendants of Li Guang by the Tang emperor

Li Guang and his family were known for their prowess in warfare. He was considered important in major Chinese histories.

The free, the untameable, the vagabond, have retained their old names; while the cultivated, who have always been subject to princes descended from Chinghiz Khan, have acquired a softer language and less rude manners, and have their name of Kirghiz qualified by that of Kazak. The original home of the true Kirghises is largely the country now occupied by the Middle Horde of the Kirghiz Kazaks. The Black Kirghises migrated, in considerable numbers apparently so lately as the sixteenth century, to their present camping grounds, but their original home, their fatherland, is the country of the Lake Saissan and the Upper Irtish, the country where the Kirais still live, who, I would urge, have the best claims to be among the truest of true Kirghiz. Before we turn to the history of the Kirais we will devote a few lines to a consideration of their name. Rashidud-din has a characteristic etymology of it. He says that it was reported how in olden times there was a Padishah who had eight sons, all of whom had dark skins, whence they were called Kerait (Erdmann, Temudschin, p. 231). It is not impossible that the name Kirai is connected with Kara, which in Turkish and Mongol (?) is black, although in that case it ought to read Karai and not Kerei. Berezine suggests (vol. i. note 91), that it may be connected with Kerie, in Mongol a crow. In another place (id. note 173) he suggests a connection with the Manchu Kereu, meaning common or general. These derivations are more or less far-fetched and I prefer to see in the name Kirai a mere corruption of Kirghiz. Among the Mongols, as may be seen in Ssanang Setzen, the Kirghiz were called Kerghud; d or t is the plural termination, so that the name of the tribe becomes Kerghu or Kerghi; and as is well known, the dropping of the soft guttural is a most common corruption of Mongol words, thus Baghatur is almost invariably written Baatur, Kaghan Kaan, Khulaghu Khulau, and so on, so that the natural name of the Kirghiz among the Mongols would be Kerei or Kirai. There is a Kirai lake in the Gobi desert which may possibly be connected with the Kirais. The Kirais were divided into several clans, the most complete notice of which we owe to Rashid-ud-din, who names six of them. These are. 1. The Kerait, to which the royal stock belonged and which probably gave its name to the race. 2. The Tongkut, as Berezine reads the name, or Tunegkhait or Tungkait as it is read by Erdmann and D'Ohsson. 3. The Sakiyat. 4. The Jirkins or Chirkirs. 5. The Dobout or Tumaut. 6. The Aliyat or Albat (Berezine, Rashid-ud-din, vol. i. pp. 95, 96, Erdmann, p. 231, D'Ohsson, vol. i. p. 405). In the Yuan chao pi shi we also read of a clan Kirai, of a second Dunkhait, of a tribe Tumian Tubigan, and of another Oman or Oluan (op. cit. pp. 75, 88, and note 241). Let us now try and unriddle the history of the Kirais. We have seen what was the country which they occupied at the end of the twelfth century. Previous to the middle of the ninth century it is most clear that the same area was occupied by the Uighurs, who had their capital at Karakorum, whence they dominated over the various nomads of Central Asia, including the Kirghises. The latter then lived along the Irtish. According to the official history of the Tang dynasty, called the Tang shi, it was in the middle of the year Kian yuan (i.e. 758 A.d.) when the Kirghiz were subdued by the Uighurs, and thenceforward they no longer sent envoys to the Chinese court. The As£ or Oje, as their chief was called, became a tributary of the Khakan of the Uighurs, and their subsequent history is that of their suzerains. In the fourth year Khai sing (i.e. 839), one of the Uighur grandees revolted, and led the S'a tho, a subordinate tribe, against the Khakan of the Uighurs and defeated him. The defeated Khakan killed himself in despair, and his successor had to face in the same year famine, pestilence, and a cattle disease. So that there was great distress among his people. Thereupon we read that the Ase, i.e. the chief of the Kirghises, rebelled too, and proclaimed himself Khakan, and gave his mother and wife the style Khatun, which ineffect meant that he aspired, not merely to rule his Kirghises independently, but to be Emperor of Nomadic Asia (Schott, Die Aechten Kirgisen, pp. 456-7). His mother was a daughter of the chief of the Tukisi (?), and his wife a daughter of the ruler of the Khololo or Karluks (Visdelou, Hist, de la Tartaire, ed. 1780, p. 79). The Khan of the Uighurs sent an army against him, but could not subdue him. The war lasted twenty years without interruption. The chief of the Kirghises, inflated by his successes, sent word to the Khan of the Uighurs, saying, "Your time is ended; I will come presently and capture your golden tent, and will hold horse races in front of it (Schott says tether my horses before it), and plant my standards there. If you think you can resist me, I will await you; if you do not think so, you had better retreat at once." The Uighurs were unable to revenge this affront. On the contrary, one of their chiefs named Kiu lo mo ho actually guided the Kirghises in their attack. The Kirghises were completely successful, and cut off the Uighur Khan's head. Thereupon all his chieftains fled, and the Kirghiz ruler captured his camp, and the golden tent of the Chinese Kum chu or princess, whither he was accustomed to retire, and appropriated his treasures. He also captured the Kum chu of Thai ho, i.e. the Chinese princess so called, and transported her to the south of the mountains Ya lao, also called Tu pu; they are distant, we read, fifteen journeys on horseback from the ancient capital of the Uighurs, i.e. from Karakorum (id. 79). Knowing that the Kum chu was a daughter of the Chinese emperor, the Kirghiz chief sent an embassy with an escort to conduct her to the Chinese court. They were waylaid, however, en route by the Uighur Khan, who put the Kirghiz envoys to death. In 844, the chief of the Kirghiz, having learnt of the death of his envoys, sent Chughu ho su to inform the Chinese emperor of what had happened. He was three years en route, and was received with special honour, the emperor placing him before the ambassador of the kingdom of Pohai, and it was ordered that the genealogy of theKirghiz chief should be recorded alongside of that of the imperial family. The Uighurs were at this time being hard pressed by the Chinese troops, and their chief, Ukiai, retired among the He che tse Tartars or Black "Wagon Tartars on the borders of Manchuria (Visdelou, op. cit. pp. 70, 80). It would seem that the Kirghises now occupied the old country of the Uighurs, and we read that their chief proposed to the Chinese emperor to pursue and capture the Uighur Khan, in the autumn, when the horses were in good condition {id. p. 80). Meanwhile, however, the Uighur chief was put to death by the He che tse {id. p. 70). The Chinese emperor at this time was called Tham vu tsum. He proposed to send envoys to the chief of the Kirghises, offering to give him the official title of Khan, with the further Chinese style of Turn im hium yu chim mim Khan, but died before his envoys could set out. His successor was persuaded to put off carrying this out, inasmuch as it was supposed it would inflate the pride of the Kirghises, as it had previously done that of the Uighurs. He eventually however sent Li ye, President of the Tribunal of Embassies, to confer on the Kirghiz chief the title already named. During the reign of Tham yi tsum, from 860 to 874, three embassies went from the Kirghises to the Chinese, after which the Chinese historians mention no more such embassies, nor the fortunes of the Kirghiz chiefs {id. p. 80). "We read elsewhere how seven hordes of the Shi wei (by whom in this instance apparently the Mongols are meant), having appropriated and divided among them a considerable number of the fugitive Uighurs, the Kirghiz were offended, and sent one of their chiefs with 70,000 horsemen, who fell on the Shi wei, rescued the Uighurs, and then returned home {id. p. 70). "We get some other details from other sources. Thus De Guignes, quoting the Lie tai ki su, tells us expressly that in the year 842 the Khan of the Kirghiz occupied the greater part of the country which had been subject to the Uighurs; inter alia Gan si, Pe thing, and the country of the Tartars (?). He offered the Chinese Emperor a present of two beautiful horses. The latter wished to ask for the restoration to the empire of Gan si and Pe thing, but he was persuaded by his ministers that their remote situation made them a burden rather than otherwise. An officer was appointed to watch the affairs of the Kirghiz. The Khan presently asked permission to be allowed to attack the Uighurs and to settle at Karakorum, which had been their capital. This was in 844. In the year 863 he asked for copies of the Chinese classics, and shortly after for the calendar (De Guignes, vol. ii. pp. 504-505). In the Kang mu the story is told very much the same way, and we read that the Kirghiz, having killed the Khan of the Uighurs, obliged them to fly from their country and to seek shelter at Tien te, on the Chinese frontier, whence they made continual attacks on the frontier, and were at last defeated and forced to fly eastwards to the He che tse (De Mailla, vol. vi. pp. 475 and 483). The same author confirms the statements about Gan si and Pe thing, which no doubt remained in the hands of the Kirghises (id. 484). We read further in the Kang mu that in the year 844 the Kirghiz sent an envoy to ask that their country should be created a kingdom, but it was not thought prudent to do this without first verifying the report that their ruler was descended from Li kuang. An envoy was sent to make inquiries, who on his return reported favourably of the generosity, bravery, and goodness of the Kirghiz, and especially praised their chief for the way he had received him, and further reported that according to the documents shown to him there could be no doubt he was descended from Li kuang, through the brave Li ling. Thereupon the Imperial diploma was sent to him, appointing him Khakan with the style of Yu u ching ming (id. 488). These extracts complete and apparently make quite certain the identification, on other grounds, of the Kirais, contemporary with Chinghiz Khan, with the Kirghiz. They prove that the latter, in the second half of the ninth century, were occupying the very country of the Kirais, with the same capital of Karakorum, and with their settlements reaching the Chinese frontier, and including the districts of Gan si and Pe thing."

-"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21" by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1889

Reference

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