赵食其 / Zhao Shiqi (Western Han)

Overview

赵食其 / Zhao Shiqi is the Western Han right general paired with 李广 on the eastern route during Li Guang’s final campaign against 匈奴. The current source develops him only through the shared navigation failure and his later punishment.

Current Profile

Hanji 325-2 says Zhao Shiqi and Li Guang march from the east without a guide, become lost in the desert, and miss the main battle under 卫青. Unlike Li Guang, who kills himself before questioning, Zhao is tried, redeems the capital sentence with payment, loses office, and becomes a commoner.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han right general assigned to the same eastern route as Li Guang.
• Co-commander in a guide and navigation failure that causes the force to miss the main engagement.
• Surviving defendant who loses military and official status after redeeming the reported capital sentence.

Evidence

Final campaign:

• Hanji 325-2 pairs Zhao Shiqi with Li Guang on the eastern route and attributes their failure to the absence of a guide and becoming lost.

Legal outcome:

• Hanji 325-2 says Zhao faces trial, pays to redeem the death sentence, and is reduced to commoner status.

Qualifications

The current profile comes from one short podcast note and is not a complete biography. The episode does not establish the division of responsibility between Zhao Shiqi and Li Guang, reproduce the legal record, or independently verify the sentence, payment, titles, route, and guide failure. The supplied transcript’s “赵一鸡 / 赵易基” forms are treated as ASR errors rather than separate people.

What Changed

• Created a canonical, disambiguated page for the right general previously present only through transcript errors.
• Separated the shared route failure from Zhao Shiqi’s distinct post-campaign legal outcome.

Relationships

• 李广 - co-commander on the eastern route and contrasting fatal outcome after the missed battle.
• 卫青 - senior commander whose force Zhao Shiqi and Li Guang fail to rejoin in time.
• 匈奴 - campaign opponent whose main force the eastern-route contingent misses.