However, not all Sima Qian's Historical Records are described in official fair and just language. Many people recognized by Sima Qian have his personal preference for praise, so we can think that Sima Qian did not recognize Huo Qubing's ability from this perspective.
However, why didn't Huo Qubing, a famous soldier in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, get the favor of Sima Qian? Personally, I think this is mainly Sima Qian's mind. Huo Qubing's great achievements are mainly the result of the appreciation of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, not all because of Huo Qubing's outstanding personal ability.
In fact, this can be seen from Sima Qian's record of Huo Qubing. Huo Qubing won many great victories in dealing with the Huns. However, Sima Qian did not praise the fruits of Huo Qubing's victory, but described the reward and commendation given by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to Huo Qubing, which showed Huo Qubing's ability from this aspect.
At first glance, there is no problem with this description, but on reflection, we can see that Sima Qian did not recognize Huo Qubing, but described history as a recording language as a royal historian. In other words, he did not appreciate Huo Qubing personally, but described Huo Qubing's life experience.
Sima Qian's prejudice is probably because at that time, under the strength gap between Han Dynasty and Xiongnu, in fact, as long as a person with not too bad ability can get Huo Qubing's credit, this is the key point. While watching Huo Qubing's victory over Xiongnu all his life, there is little performance about Huo Qubing's personal ability. On the contrary, it is mostly the strength comparison between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, which can be seen. Huo Qubing has such a high degree because he was favored by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and achieved the high position of general.