Chai Shao

Chai Shao
Portrait of Chai Shao (1747)
General of the Tang dynasty
Born	588
Died	638 (aged 49–50)
Names
Traditional Chinese	柴紹
Simplified Chinese	柴绍
Pinyin	Chái Shào
Wade–Giles	Chai Shao
Courtesy name	Sichang (Chinese: 嗣昌; pinyin: Sìchāng; Wade–Giles: Szu-ch'ang)
Posthumous name	Duke Xiang of Qiao (simplified Chinese: 谯襄公; traditional Chinese: 譙襄公; pinyin: Qiáo Xiāng Gōng; Wade–Giles: Chiao Hsiang Kung)

Chai Shao (588–638), courtesy name Sichang, posthumously known as Duke Xiang of Qiao, was a Chinese general who served under the emperors Gaozu and Taizong in the early Tang dynasty.

Chai Shao was the son of Chai Shen, the Duke of Julu. He married Princess Pingyang, a daughter of Emperor Gaozu, the founder of the Tang dynasty, and distinguished himself as a general in the battles between the Tang Empire and Turkic invaders. On one occasion, when he was attacking the Tuyuhun forces which then threatened the frontier, his army was almost overwhelmed by a dense shower of arrows from the enemy's bows. However, Chai Shao sent forward some girls to play and dance to the Tartar guitar, which so fascinated the Tartar soldiers that they desisted from the fight to watch. Meanwhile, Chai Shao, by a rapid strategic movement, succeeded in surrounding them, and the whole force was cut to pieces. He aided Emperor Taizong in consolidating his control over the Tang Empire. In 628, he was appointed as the Governor of Huazhou in Shaanxi.

This article incorporates text from entry in A Chinese Biographical Dictionary by Herbert A. Giles (1898), a publication now in the public domain.