Huo Qubing was an illegitimate son from the premarital affair between Wei Shaoer (衛少兒), daughter of a lowly maid from the household of Princess Pingyang, and Huo Zhongru (霍仲孺), a low-class civil servant who were employed there also at the time [REF].
When Huo Qubing was around two years old, his younger aunt Wei Zifu, who was serving as an in-house singer/dancer for Princess Pingyang, caught the eyes of a visiting young Emperor Wu, who took her and her half-brother Wei Qing back to his palace in the capital Chang'an.