Wei Qing

Wei Qing
General of the Western Han dynasty
Born	(Unknown)
Died	106 BC
Names
Traditional Chinese	衛青
Simplified Chinese	卫青
Pinyin	Wèi Qīng
Wade–Giles	Wei Ch'ing
Courtesy name	Zhongqing (Chinese: 仲卿; pinyin: Zhòngqīng; Wade–Giles: Chung-ching)
Posthumous name	Marquis Lie of Changping (simplified Chinese: 长平烈侯; traditional Chinese: 長平烈侯; pinyin: Chángpíng Liè Hóu; Wade–Giles: Ch'ang-ping Lieh Hou
Other names	Zheng Qing (birth name)

Wei Qing (died 106 BC), courtesy name Zhongqing, born Zheng Qing in Linfen, Shanxi, was a military general of the Western Han dynasty whose campaigns against the Xiongnu earned him great acclaim. He was a relative of Emperor Wu of Han because he was the younger half-brother of Empress Wei Zifu (Emperor Wu's wife) and the husband of Princess Pingyang. He was also the uncle of Huo Qubing, another notable Han general who participated in the campaigns against the Xiongnu.

Wei Qing was born from humble means as an illegitimate child from an adulterous relationship. His father Zheng Ji (鄭季) was a low-level official for Pingyang County (平陽縣, in modern Linfen, Shanxi) and was commissioned to serve at the estate of Cao Shou (曹壽), the Marquess of Pingyang (平陽侯), and his wife Princess Pingyang (平陽公主, Emperor Wu's older sister). There, he met and had an extramarital affair with a lowly female servant known as Wei Ao (衛媪, literally means "the Wei woman"), and their relationship produced a son named Zheng Qing. The child was initially sent to live in his father's household as his serf mother could not afford to raise him in poverty. However, due to the illegitimacy of his birth, the young boy was detested and mistreated by his father, stepmother and half-siblings, and was made to live as a lowly sheepherder. Unable to tolerate the abuse, Zheng Qing eventually ran away back to his mother's side during his early teenage years, and served as a stableboy in the marquess's estate of Pingyang. He then severed his paternal bond by adopting the surname Wei from his mother's family.

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