Xue Ping

Xue Ping (薛平) (753? – February 25, 832), courtesy name Tantu (坦途), formally the Duke of Han (韓公), was a general of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, whose father Xue Song ruled Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, then-headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan) semi-independently from the imperial government. After Xue Song's death, Xue Ping declined the soldiers' request for him to take over Zhaoyi Circuit and fled to imperial territory. Subsequently, he had a long career as a general of the imperial armies.

Xue Ping was born in 753, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. When he was 11, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong's grandson Emperor Daizong, he was made the prefect of Ci Prefecture (磁州, in modern Handan, Hebei), one of the prefectures then under the rule of his father Xue Song, the military governor (Jiedushi) of Zhaoyi Circuit, a former general of the rebel Yan state of the Anshi Rebellion who submitted to Tang Dynasty rule in the aftermaths of Yan's collapse but who thereafter ruled Zhaoyi Circuit semi-independently from the imperial government.

When Xue Song died in 773, the soldiers demanded that Xue Ping inherit the command of the circuit. Xue Ping initially pretended to agree, but then yielded the command to his uncle Xue E and, in the middle of the night, took his father's casket and fled back to his father's ancestral home of Jiang Prefecture (絳州, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi). Xue E subsequently was unable to stand against the attacks by the neighboring warlord Tian Chengsi the military governor of Weibo Circuit (魏博, headquartered in modern Handan) and forced to flee; part of Zhaoyi Circuit was merged into Weibo Circuit and part was merged with the imperially-controlled Zelu Circuit (澤潞, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), with the newly constituted circuit still named Zhaoyi. Meanwhile, after Xue Ping completed his period of mourning for his father, Emperor Daizong made him a general of the imperial guards — where he stayed for over 30 years.

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