Wei Qing (died 106 BC), courtesy name Zhongqing, born Zheng Qing in Linfen, Shanxi, was a Chinese military general and politician of the Western Han dynasty who was acclaimed for his campaigns against the Xiongnu, and his rags to riches life. He was a consort kin of Emperor Wu of Han as the younger half-brother of Emperor Wu's wife Empress Wei Zifu, and later the third husband of Emperor Wu's older sister Eldest Princess Yangxin. There is evidence to suggest that he was also a lover of Emperor Wu. He was also the maternal uncle of Huo Qubing, another decorated Han general who participated in the war against the Xiongnu. Early life Wei Qing was born from humble means as a bastard child from a serf family. 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, Zheng 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 (who was already raising four other children) could not afford to raise him in poverty, but due to the illegitimacy of his birth, the young boy was detested and mistreated by his father and step-family, 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" of his mother's family. Early career Legend says that Wei Qing once followed his master on a visit to Ganquan Palace (甘泉宮) and encountered a cangued prisoner, who foretold that it would be Wei Qing's fate to achieve nobility and marquisate, a prediction Wei Qing simply dismissed as a joke, citing that not getting caned would be fortunate enough for someone living the life of a serf. After Princess Pingyang offered the singer Wei Zifu to Emperor Wu as a concubine c. 139 BC, Wei Qing followed as an accompanying gift and served as a horseman