A Xiongnu-born slave of the Tangyi household who went with him as guide and bowman and kept the party fed by shooting game when the rations gave out. One of the two men, out of over a hundred, who came back.
The Xiongnu man who went with him was a good shot: when the party's food gave out, he lived by shooting birds and beasts for the fire.The historian's note on the guide — the record preserves no speech of his; Shiji, juan 123, Memoir of the Peoples of the West; Hanshu, juan 61, Memoir of Zhang Qian and Li Guangli
Appears in
Relations
- Zhang Qian commander — He rode out as Zhang Qian's guide and bowman, was the only man who kept the party fed when the rations failed, and came home with him as one of two survivors.
Myth vs record
The loyal barbarian servant who saves the hero on the road — a stock figure with a story of his own.
He is real, and he is one clause. The histories name him only as a Xiongnu of the Tangyi household, a good shot who kept the party alive by hunting when there was nothing to eat, and they give him one reward after the return: the title Lord Who Bore the Mission, which is a title and not a marquisate. The Books say nothing at all about the son his master left behind in the steppe, and the only figure the historian sets against the whole thirteen years belongs to the party and not to the man: a hundred-odd went out, two came back.