Maoling

This guide to Maoling in Xi'an opens with a question: why did an emperor order his stonemasons to raise an artificial mountain over one soldier's grave. It follows Huo Qubing, a cavalry commander who first rode against the Xiongnu at eighteen, won six campaigns in a row, and opened a corridor west that Han China had never held before, earning Emperor Wu's fiercest backing. You'll hear how his death at twenty-three, with no battle wound involved, moved the whole court and led to an almost unheard-of honor. Look closely at the sixteen stone animals still guarding the mound, carved barely touched from their natural boulder shapes.