Ancient Turks / (Part 1)
L. N. Gumilev - "MTF", - (part of the Steppe Trilogy)
This is a condensed version of a much longer book, but it well arrives at a conclusion in 54 pages, and about 21,000 words, in two parts. It is another dizzying account of war after war in the central Asian Steppe.
(Note on Translation Artifacts: As with all the books in this library, this is a translation from the Russian. The three possibilities are that words have a direct meaning in both languages, or that from the context, the correct version of the meaning can be divined, or lastly that foreign words are translated by sound. But the phonetic alphabets of Russian and English are different. So the A. I. translator takes a guess, each time differently. Thus we get Zhujan, zhujang, Zhuzhan, Juan-Juan, Juanjan, Jujans, Jurajans, all referring to the same group. Sometimes I try to choose one, like between Gumilev and Gumilyov. Other time I leave it to your imagination.)
"Ancient Turks" is the well-known work of the brilliant Russian historian, geographer and philosopher L.N. Gumilev (1912-1992) devoted to the comparatively little-studied period of the world history of VI - VIII-th centuries AD, that coincided with the formation and blossoming of the Great Turkic Kaganate. The realization by the author’s analysis of ethnic, political and the religious aspects of this power is presented in a fascinating and imaginative narration manner peculiar to the author.
© Gumilev L.N. © MTF ISBN 5-306-00313-3
Table of contents
(page numbers are from the Russian edition, before re-editing)
From the author 5
Introduction 6
Part One 8
Chapter one 8
Changes on the Yellow River 8
Zhuzhans and Teleuts 9
Zhuzhan Khanate 11
Chapter two 12
War of Zhuzhan Khanate with the Wei Empire 12
Teleut Khanate - Gaogyu 13
Discord in Zhuzhan 14
Descendants of the Wolf Woman 16
Chapter Three 19
Beginning of the History of the Ancient Turks (Turkuts) 19
Defeat of Juzhan 20
War in the East 21
War in the West 23
The Avars in the Black Sea 25
Defeat of the Ephtalites 27
Chapter Four 29
Caravan Trade 29
Sogdian Maniach 30
Sharing of Ephtalite Succession 32
War with Byzantium 32
China and Caravan Route 34
Chapter Five 36
Power and the People 36
End of Introduction Fragment. 38
Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev Ancient Turks
I dedicate this book to our brothers, the Turkic peoples of the Soviet Union.
From the author
This book was begun on December 5, 1935. Since then, it has been repeatedly revised and replenished. However, it has not exhausted all the abundance of material, and has not covered all the problems associated with the history of the ancient Turks. That's why continuing the research is not only desirable, but necessary.
For the rest of my life, I will cherish the memory of those who helped me to carry out this work, and who have long since passed away among us: my excellent predecessor G.E. Grumm-Grzhimailo, my mentors N.V. Kühner, A.Yu.
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my teacher M. I. Artamonov, Professors S. L. Tikhvinsky and S. V. Kalesnik, who recommended the book for publication, my friends L. A. Voznesenskii, and D. E. Alshibai.
I also thank all my reviewers for their advice and criticism: I. P. Petrushevsky, V. V. Mavrodin, M. A. Gukovsky, A. P. Okladnikov, M. V. Vorobiev, A. F. Anisimov, B. I. Kuznetsov, S. I. Rudenko, T. A. Krukova. Finally, I thank our common alma mater, Leningrad University, where I learned the high craft of history.
Introduction
Theme and its significance:
The history of mankind has been studied extremely unevenly. While the sequence of events and changes of social formations in Europe and the Middle East was outlined in compiled works already at the end of 19th century, and India and China were described at the beginning of 20th century, the vast territory of Eurasian steppe is still waiting for its researchers. This is especially true of the period before the appearance of Genghis Khan on the historical scene, when two remarkable peoples, the Huns [see: 63] and the ancient Turks, as well as many others who did not have time to make their names famous, formed and perished in the Central Asian steppe.
It would be a mistake to believe that all of them only repeat each other, although their mode of production - nomadic cattle breeding - is indeed the most stable form of economy, almost impossible to improve upon. But the forms of life, institutions, politics, and place in the world history for the Huns and ancient Turks are completely different, just as their fates were different.
On the background of the world history the history of ancient Turkic people and the empire created by them boils down to the question: why did the Turks arise, and why did they disappear, leaving their name as a legacy to many people who are not their descendants?
Attempts to solve this problem by analyzing only political history or only social relations have been made repeatedly, but failed. The ancient Turks, despite their great importance in the history of mankind, were small in number, and their close proximity to China and Iran could not fail to affect their internal affairs. Consequently, the social and political history of these countries are closely intertwined, and to reconstruct the course of events we must keep both in view. Equally important were changes in economic conditions, particularly those associated with high or low levels of Chinese exports and the Iranian government's barrier measures.
Since the borders of the Turkic Kaganate at the end of the 6th century were closed in the west with Byzantium, in the south with Persia and even India, and in the east with China, it is natural that the peripeteia (unexpected reversal) of the history of these countries at the considered period are connected with the fates of the Turkic state. Its formation was in some ways a turning point in human history, because until then, the Mediterranean and Far Eastern cultures had been separated, although they knew about each other's existence. The vast steppes and mountain ranges hindered relations between East and West. Only later the invention of metal stirrups and pack horses, which replaced carts, allowed caravans to cross deserts and mountain passes with relative ease. That is why from the 6th century the Chinese had to reckon with the prices on Constantinople market, and the Byzantines had to count the number of the Chinese king's lances.
In this situation Turks not only played the role of mediators, but at the same time developed their own culture which they thought possible to contrast with the culture of China, and Iran, and Byzantium, and India. This particular steppe culture had ancient traditions and deep roots, but is known to us to a much lesser extent than the culture of the settled countries. The reason, of course, is not that the Turks and other nomadic tribes were less gifted than their neighbors, but because the remains of their material culture - felt, leather, wood, and fur - are preserved much worse than stone, and so among Western European scholars arose the mistaken opinion that the nomads were "drones of humanity" (Viollet-le-Duc).
Nowadays the archaeological work in southern Siberia, Mongolia, and Central Asia refutes this opinion every year, and soon the time will come when we will be able to speak of the art of the ancient Turks. But even more than material culture, the researcher is struck by the complex forms of social institutions of the Turks: the unit-loyal system, hierarchy of ranks, military discipline, diplomacy, as well as the presence of well-established worldview, which is opposed to the ideological systems of neighboring countries.
Despite all this, the path on which ancient Turkic society embarked was disastrous, as the contradictions within the steppe and on its borders proved insurmountable. At critical moments, the vast majority of the steppe population rejected the support of the Khans; this led to the dissolution of the Kaganate in 604 into the Western and Eastern Khaganates; in 630 and 659 it resulted in the loss of independence of the Kaganate. - Of course, this destruction of the people did not mean the extermination of all the people that made it up. Some of them submitted to the Uighurs who inherited the power in the steppe, while the majority took refuge in the Chinese frontier troops. In 756 the latter revolted against the Tang dynasty emperor. The remnants of the Turks actively participated in it and were hacked to pieces along with other rebels. This was the true end of the people and the epoch (and thus our theme).
But the name "Turk" did not disappear. Moreover, it spread to half of Asia. The Arabs began to call all the warlike nomads to the north of Sogdiana the Turks, and they adopted this name, because the original bearers of this name after it disappeared from the face of the earth, became a model of valor and heroism for the steppe. Later on, the term was transformed once more and became the name of a language family. Thus, many peoples who were never part of the great Kaganate of the 6th-7th centuries became "Türks". Some of them were not even Mongoloid, such as Turkmens, Ottomans, and Azerbaijanis. Others were the worst enemies of the Kaganate: The Kurykans, the ancestors of the Yakuts, and the Kyrgyz, the ancestors of the Khakasses. Others were formed earlier than the ancient Türks themselves, such as Balkars and Chuvash. But even that widespread linguistic interpretation which nowadays is given to the term "Türks" has a certain basis: the ancient Türks most vividly embodied those principles of steppe culture which were in the Hun's time and were in a state of anabiosis (suspended animation) in the 3rd - 5th cc.
Thus, the importance of ancient Turks in human history was enormous, but the history of this people is still unwritten. It was told in passing and in abbreviated form, which allowed avoiding the difficulties of source, onomastic, ethnonymic and toponymic nature. These difficulties are so great that the present work does not claim to have any definitions. The author only hopes that it will serve as a stepping-stone to the solution of the problem.
This book is an attempt to combine methods of historical analysis and synthesis. It analyzes selected phenomena in the history of the ancient Turks and peoples related to them, or their predecessors. This also includes a critique of sources, onomasticism, and ethnogenesis.2 By synthesis, the history of the Türks1, Blue2 Türks-Uygurs3 is understood as a single process which forms a certain integrity in terms of periodization, and the described phenomenon is mapped onto the canvas of world history.
1 The Türks of the First Kaganate (546-658).
2 Kok-Türks of the Second Kaganate (678-747).
3 Mentioned here is made only of the Uigur nomadic Khanate (747-847), (the later Uigur sedentary ones are not considered here.)
Part One: The Great Türkic Kaganate
Chapter One, The Eve (420-546) Changes on the Yellow River
The Great Migration of Peoples in Europe, which broke the decrepit Rome in the 5th century, occurred in East Asia 100 years earlier. In what is known in Chinese history as the era of the Five Barbary Tribes (304-399), northern China was invaded and conquered by the Xiongnu (Huns) and the Xianbi, who established a number of ephemeral states resembling the barbarian kingdoms of the Goths, Burgundians, and Vandals.
Just as in Europe, the Eastern Roman Empire survived on the Balkan Peninsula, so in China, on the banks of the great Yangtze River, did the independent Chinese Empire, the heir to the Han Empire. It was as similar to its great predecessor as the early Byzantine Empire was to Rome in its heyday, and also found strength only to defend itself against the barbarians assailing from the north and west. The weak and incompetent rulers of the dynasties4 left the Chinese population of the "Middle Plain", as the Huang He Valley was called at that time, to the barbarian chiefs. However, despite the oppression of foreigners and the bloodshed of their continuous feuds, the Chinese in Northern China prevailed over their conquerors and this conditioned the rebirth of China in the 6th century.
The Toba tribe, which had defeated all its rivals5, succumbed to the charm of Chinese culture. By 420, the early feudal state created by the Tobas united all of northern China into one empire, which was given its Chinese name, Wei (386). This was the first step of the Toba'ath Khan to compromise with the Chinese population, who constituted an absolute majority of his subjects. The process of assimilation of nomads that began led to the fact that by the end of the 5th century the descendants of Tobasians had cut their braids, and communication with the subjugated undermined their strength and traditions. They even stopped using their native language and began speaking Chinese. Along with their language and clothing, they lost the steppe valor and cohesion that had once enabled them to triumph, yet they did not merge with the Chinese population, since they stubbornly sought to recreate their own state.
As the palace upheavals and ensuing massacres weakened the power of the Wei dynasty, the Chinese commanders in the service of the Xianbi emperors proved stronger and more vigorous than their masters. In 531 in the north-east Gao Huan rebelled, defeated the Tobasian troops and occupied the capital - Luoyang. Initially he acted ostensibly in the interests of the dynasty and proclaimed one of the princes as emperor. However, he, fearing his commander, fled to the west, to Chang'an, where he found support in another governor, Yuyvin Tai, an okytai syanbi. Gao Huan enthroned another prince from the same Wei dynasty. Thus, the empire split into the Western Wei and the Eastern Wei. In fact, the rulers of both territories were Chinese military commanders who temporarily retained the Xianbei emperors as a screen. This state of affairs could not last long. The harsh rule of the Jin dynasty fell in 420,(4), the Liu Song in 479, the Southern Qi in 502, and the Liang in 557.(5) The Xiongnu, Muyun, Di, Yuvin (ancestors of the Tartars), and Kidan of the Syanbi so embittered the Chinese that, when power was in their hands, they were not inclined to be ceremonious with the defeated. Yuvin Tai poisoned several false emperors and his son in 557 considered himself powerful enough to abolish the hated dynasty and found his own, the Bei Zhou6.
The Xianbi were treated even more harshly in Northeastern China. In 550, Gao Huan's heir, Gao Yang, forced the last emperor to abdicate the throne in his favor and poisoned him. The emperor's 721 relatives were murdered and their bodies were thrown into water to deprive them of burial. The new dynasty was called Bei-chi.
Both northern kingdoms were quite strong economically and politically. The Chinese population, freed from alien domination, developed a vigorous activity to rebuild their culture. However, the rivalry that arose between the Bei Zhou and the Bei Qi bound their forces and deprived them of the opportunity to pursue an active policy.
In the south, the last emperors of the Liang dynasty marked their rule with arbitrariness and crimes, and the successive Chen dynasty continued these traditions. The 557-palace coup and the execution of the last Liang emperor provoked armed resistance from supporters of the fallen dynasty. The rebels were able to repel Chen's forces and establish a small state of Hou-Liang in central China.
China became fragmented into four mutually warring states. The tense situation that constrained China's strength was a lifesaver for two small and relatively weak nomadic powers: the Zhuzhan horde and the Togon (Tu-yu-hun) kingdom. They were among the leading powers of East Asia due to the easing of pressure from the south. The Rouran, a steppe khanate formed in the middle of the fourth century, experienced a crisis in the early sixth century that nearly destroyed it.
But that is what we are going to talk about.
The kingdom of Togon lay in the steppe highlands of Tsaidam. As early as 312, a small Syanbi tribe with princes of the Muyun clan migrated from southern Manchuria to the west and settled near Lake Kukunor. Here they waged successful wars against isolated Tibetan clans and unsuccessful ones against the Tobasians. The latter resulted in Togon becoming a vassal of the Wei Empire, but its collapse gave the Togons their freedom back. In the second quarter of the 6th century, Prince Kualyu declared himself Khan and in 540 A.D. sent an embassy to Gao Huan, thus becoming an enemy of the Yui-Win Tai. This fact determined the further foreign policy of Togon, which we will encounter below. Despite the fact that Togon occupied a vast territory with "cities" (76, p. 84 in the full book), and had an already organized government, apparently borrowed from the Tobasians, it was not a strong state. The Tibetan clans, subjugated by arms, dreamed of liberation and revenge; the economy was based on extensive animal husbandry; the level of culture was low; and the arbitrariness of the Khans caused constant plotting, treason and repression, which added fuel to the fire. All these circumstances limited Togon's opportunities and later led him to an ignominious end.
Zhuzhan and Teleuts
The question of the origin of the Juan-Juan people has been raised repeatedly, but has not received a final resolution. It is possible to think, that the formulation of the question is wrong, because it is necessary to speak not about an origin, but about addition. As a people, Zhuzhan did not have a single ethnic origin. The origins of Zhuzhan were somewhat peculiar. In troubled times, there have always been many people who have been knocked out of the saddle and compromised. There were also many of them in the middle of the IV c. Everyone who could not stay in the tobas khan's rate or in the capital of the Xiongnu shanyu, fled to the steppe.6
What is meant by the North Zhou dynasty (Bei - Northern dynasty).
They also fled there from their cruel masters, deserters from armies, impoverished peasants from impoverished villages. What they had in common was not their origins, nor their language, nor their faith, but the fate that doomed them to a miserable existence; and this fate demanded that they get organized. In the fifties of the fourth century, a certain Yugului, a former slave in the Xianbi cavalry, was condemned to death. He managed to flee to the mountains, and about a hundred fugitives like him gathered around him. The fugitives found a way to negotiate with neighboring nomads and lived together with them.
Yugului's successor, Gyulyuhoi, established relations with the Tobas Khans and paid them an annual tribute in horses, sables and martens. His horde was called Zhuzhan. Zhuzhan wandered all over Khalkha up to Khingan, and their khan's headquarters were located near Khangai. The life and organization of Zhuzhan were both very primitive and extremely far from the tribal system. A regiment of a thousand men was considered a unit of combat and administrative power. The regiment was subordinated to the leader appointed by the Khan. The regiment had ten banners of a hundred men each, and each banner had its own chief. Zhuzhans had no written language at all; sheep dung or wooden notations with serifs were used as a counting tool. Laws corresponded to the needs of war and looting: the brave were rewarded with a larger share of the loot, and cowards were beaten with sticks [30, vol. I, p. 209]. For 200 years of existence in the Juan-Juan horde, any progress was imperceptible - all efforts were spent for a robbery of neighbors.
In what language did the Juan-Juan speak with each other?
Chinese sources give us very mixed data. "Weishu" sees the Juanji as a branch of the Dunhu. "Sunshu, Lianshu and Nanshu”. [275, S. 18-19] consider them a tribe related to Huns, and finally Bei shi (?) ascribes to Ju-yüü the Gaogu origin [29, p. 101, 44, vol. II, p. 174-175]. The information of the Southern Chinese historians is derived second-hand, and the origin of Iugulüyü itself does not matter, because it is clear that not all tribesmen gathered around him. Most likely, Juan-Juan was explained in Syanbi, i.e. in one of dialects of the Mongol language, because translating the titles of their khans in Chinese, a Chinese historian indicates how they sounded in the polldin "in the language of Wei state", i.e. in Syanbi [30, vol. I, p. 209 ff]. Juan-Juan also considered themselves of the same origin as Toba [Ibid, p.226], but, taking into account the diversity of their people, it has to be supposed, that a reason for such claim came from the similarity of their languages, instead of a vague genealogy [44, pp. 174-175; 160].
The main strength of the Zhuzhan Khanate was the ability to keep the Tele tribes in submission. At the dawn of their history, i.e. in the 3rd century B.C., the Telesians lived in the steppe west of the Ordos. In 338 they submitted to the Tobas Khan and at the end of the fourth century they migrated north to Dzungaria and spread across western Mongolia, as far as the Selenga River. Being scattered, they could not resist the Jujans and were forced to pay tribute to them.
The Tele tribes were very necessary for the Juan-Juan, but the Juan-Juan horde was not necessary for the Telesians at all. Juan-Juan was formed by those people who avoided exhausting labor, their children preferred to replace labor by tribute. The Telesians were cattle breeders, they wanted to graze their cattle and not pay anyone anything.
The political systems of both peoples were formed in accordance with these inclinations: the Juan-Juan merged into a horde, to live at the expense of their neighbors with their military power; the Tele remained a loose confederation of tribes, but they defended their independence by all means.
The Tele lived close to the Jujans, but were nothing like them. They left the Hunnu empire early, retaining their primitive patriarchal system and nomadic way of life. Neither did Chineseization touch the humble nomads who inhabited the remote steppes, where there was nothing attractive to the Chinese. The Tele had no general organization; each of the 12 clans was governed by an elder, the head of the clan, with "relatives living in harmony". [30, vol. I, p. 215].
The Tele roamed in the steppe, moving in carts with high wheels, they were warlike, free-loving and not inclined to any kind of organization. Their self-name was "Tele"; it still lives on in the Altai ethnonym - Teleut. The descendants of the Teleuts are Yakuts, Telengits, Uigurs, and others. Many of them have not survived to this day.
Zhuzhan Khanate.
At the beginning of V century in the steppe from Khingan to Altai ruled undividedly Juan-Juan Khan Shelun, by the nickname Deudai - "Shooting at a gallop from a bow". Having conquered the Telian nomads, he encountered the Central Asian Huns, who settled on the Ili River. Their head was a certain Zhiba-yegi. In a persistent fight at the r. Ongin ravine Jiba-egi defeated Shelun, but could not cope with the Juan-Juan power as a whole, and "by submission bought his peace". [Ibid, p. 249].
The main task of Shelun was to prevent the strengthening of the Toba-Wei empire, whose forces far exceeded those of Zhuzhan Khan. Only continuous wars in the south of China prevented the Toba-wei emperor from settling his subjects, and therefore Shelun supported all the Toba's enemies. In 410 Shelun died and his brother Hului became khan.
Hului left Toba alone and turned north, where he subjugated the Yenisei Kyrgyzov (Yegu) and Khevei (some Siberian tribe). In 414, he fell victim to a conspiracy, but the leader of the conspirators, Buluchzhen, died in the same year. A cousin of Shelun, Datan, became the Khan. The beginning of his reign was marked by a war with China, but the Zhuzhans' raid was fruitless as well as the punitive expedition sent to follow them. The situation remained unchanged.
In 418-419 the war between Juan-Juan and Central Asian Huns and Yuezhi resumed7. Jujans penetrated into Tarbagatai and scared everybody there, that the leader of the group of Juja Tsidolo (Kidara), wanting to avoid neighborhood with Jujans, went south and occupied the town Bolo [30, vol. II, p. 264] in Karshi oasis [78, p. 201-207]8. Here he faced Persians and Ephtalites. Kidar's companions, Kidarites, are known in history not by their ethnic name, but by the name of their leader.
7 The date of this war is calculated as follows: Datan, who fought with Yueban, ascended the throne in 414; in 415 he raided China - hence was occupied in the east. The next raid on China took place in 424. So, the war with Yuebang falls in this interval. Clarification is achieved by using numismatics. In 417 a coin bearing the name of Kidara was issued, but S. K. Kabanov considers the date of the Kidarite kingdom as 420. [30, vol. I, p. 189; vol. II, p. 259; 78, p. 172].
8 The assumption of R.M.Hirschman that the capital of Kidarites was in Balh [222, p. 79-80] was not confirmed.
Chapter Two Ancestors, The War of the Zhuzhan Khanate with the Wei Empire
The year 420 was the culmination of Zhuzhan's power. Easy victories over the northern and western tribes made Zhuzhan a hegemon in the Great Steppe, but by no means ensured this khanate neither peace nor prosperity. Zhuzhan's principal enemy was the Toba-wei Empire, and Zhuzhan's khan, Datan, sought to do all he could to prevent the strengthening of his natural rival.
In 424 Dathan invaded China with some 60,000 cavalry and marched into the capital, sacking the palace of the empire. The mobilization of the Tobasian troops and the lack of discipline among the Zhuzhans forced him to return without taking up arms. In 425 the Tobasians drove the Juanjans beyond the Gobi. In 430, Emperor Tai-wu-di (Toba Dao) decided to exterminate the Jurajans in order to free his hands in southern China. A huge army entered the steppes, and the Juanjans scattered to wherever they went. Dathan fled to the west and disappeared without a trace. The Telesians slaughtered his men. Datan's son, Wu-di, refused to continue the struggle and began paying tribute to the Wei Empire. However, the peace was broken in 437 by Wu-di himself, who conducted a raid. Apparently, the Juan-Juan could not imagine their existence without plundering. The return raid in 439 gave nothing to the Toba emperor: he had to return without meeting Juan-Juan, who had hidden in gorges.
In 440 Wu-di, taking advantage of the war of Toba against Hesi, attacked the border again, but the barriers left on the border captured his vanguard. The Jujans once again fled. The same story was repeated in 445, after which Wu-di died, passing the throne to his son Tuhezhen (445-464).
Now the roles had been reversed: the Tobo-Wei Empire had reached its zenith and its troops were invading the steppe, forcing the Juanjans into hiding in the mountains. In essence, this was not war, but merely punitive campaigns.
Tuhezhen's son and successor, Yucheng (464-485), tried to continue the struggle but was defeated in 470 and in 475 asked for peace and submitted tribute. Juzhen weakened, and raids on China became an unaffordable luxury. The poorer and weaker western region was now chosen as an object of plunder. In 460 the Juan-Juan seized the Turfan valley, where they massacred their former allies, the Southern Huns, who had fled there from the victorious Toba. In 470 the Jurajans sacked Khotan, but the strengthened state of the Ephtalites put an end to the Jurajani aggression. The border Zhuzhan became Tien Shan.
The new Zhuzhan Khan, (same as Juanjan), Doulun (485-492), was a "violent man prone to murders". [30, vol. 1, p. 195]. He marked his accession to the throne by the execution of one of the nobles and his entire clan. This aroused indignation in the country. The Khan's desire to attack China was even more disliked. Everyone understood that a raid, even a successful one, would be followed by a campaign of the Chinese troops, the repulsion of which was out of the question.
The Tele Elder Afuzhilo strongly advised the Khan not to start a war with China, but when he was convinced that his arguments did not work, he rebelled with all the Tele people. The number of Tele tribes was not small at that time (according to the Chinese data, 100 thousand kibitaks). At that time, Afuzhilo roamed to the west, to the Irtysh valley. There he took a title "Great Son of Heaven" [Ibid, p.217], whereby he reflected his claim to a place of equality with the Juan-Juan khan, and the war broke out like a flame.
In 490 the Chinese troops entered the steppe from the east and, together with the Telesians, pinched Zhuzhan in a pincer. Rouran nobles laid all responsibility on the hapless khan and killed him (492).
The Tele to the west was an event of the utmost importance: in the west, these scattered nomads formed their own power9. The process of ethnogenesis began again in Asia. At the same time, the Turks formed a nation in the Altai Mountains, the Tibetans in the Brahmaputra Valley, and a renaissance began in China, producing the magnificent medieval culture of the Sui and Tang dynasties. The ancient period of East Asian history was coming to an end, and the ugly remnant of it, Zhuzhan, was to perish.
Middle Asia on the eve of Turkic power creation - end of V century.
Teleut Khanate – Gaogyu
The fall of the Teleuts and the coup d'état of 492 was a turning point in the history of Zhuzhan. It lost its hegemony in Central Asia and was forced to fight not for power, but for existence. Nagai, who replaced the murdered Daulun, ruled for only one year. He adopted the motto of his rule: "Quietly", i.e., he abandoned the warlike intentions of his predecessor. Nagai's son, Futu, continued his father's policy as long as it was possible [30, vol. I, p. 196].
Meanwhile, the Teleuts mastered the new settlement and destroyed Yueban, the last remnant of the Hun's era. At the new place the Teleuts tried to create their own state. For this purpose, they divided the people into two halves: the northern ruler Afujilo took the title "Great Emperor", and the southern one - the title "Crowned sovereign". [Ibid., p. 217]. It is not known what they called their own state, but the Chinese called it Gaogyu, which means "high cart". It has gone down in history under this name.
Politically, the Gaogyu had a Chinese orientation, counting on silk for clothing, but this silk did not do him any good. In 494, the Ephtalites defeated Iran and, having secured their rear, turned north. The southern part of the Gaoguish power was defeated with lightning speed.9 It is convenient and correct to call them Western Teleuts, since the Altai Teleuts are their descendants, and the disconnected tribes of the eastern Teleuts are Teleuts, as is customary in Soviet historiography.
The "hereditary sovereign" was killed, his family taken captive, and the people dispersed: some submitted to the Juanjans, some went to the Chinese possessions. In the following year, 496, the northern power was just as quickly conquered. The Ephtalites chose from among the captives a prince, Miwotu, and placed him over the remaining Teleuts. So, Gaogyu turned into a vassal of Eftalites, an enemy of Jujans and an ally of Chinese, who paid to him for the alliance 60 pieces of silk cloth [Ibid.] Apparently, at that time (497) Ephtalites captured Karashar, and the governor of the princedom Gaochan in Turfan oasis, a Chinese Ju, asked the Chinese government to accept and transfer his subjects to the Chinese lands.
A circle of steel was closing around Zhuzhan. But the Gaochan did not want to leave their settled place and, after killing their ruler, joined Zhuzhani. This somewhat defused economic tensions, as the agricultural Gaochan could supply Zhuzhan with bread, fruit and cloth; but it also heightened political tensions, as it irritated the Chinese emperor Xuan-wu-di. To the request of Futu Khan for peace the emperor said that he had no views to the north only because he was busy with conquering South China, and in general he considered Futu and Rzhuzhan rebellious subjects [Ibid, p. 196]. Meanwhile, in Gaochan the Chinesephiles triumphed and the alliance with Zhuzhan was dissolved (500) [30, vol. II, p. 251].
To support the Chinese interests in the Western Province, a three-thousand detachment of regular troops under the command of Myn Wei was sent there. Based in Hami, it constrained the Zhuzhans. Futu's new embassy to China went unanswered. The Teleuts were raised against the Jujans, who had to pay in blood for their 60 pieces of silk. At Lake Pulay, Miwotu defeated the Jujans. They fled southward, but were met by Chinese units of Myn Wei in the Beishan mountains. Panicked, the Jouzhans rushed back, ran into Teleuts and were defeated again (508). In the massacre the ill-fated Futu Khan died. Miwotu sent his scalp to Myn Wei. In return, he was given gifts: a complete set of musical instruments, 80 musicians, 10 pieces of crimson and 60 pieces of multicolored silk cloth.
Cheunu, the successor of the dead Futu, twice tried to negotiate with China, but realized that only force could save him. In 516 he attacked Gaogyu, defeated Miwotu, and, after capturing him, killed him in a very peculiar way. The prisoner's legs were tied under the belly of a nag, which was driven until Miwotu died from the jolting. Miwotu's skull was then varnished and turned into a bowl. Teleuts, who escaped from Jujans, joined the Ephtalites [30, vol. 1, p. 218]. After that, the embassy of Juan-Juan khan was received by Emperor Wei - Xiao min-di (518). They were reprimanded for inaccurate execution of vassal duties [Ibid, p. 197]. Such wording allowed for any compromise, and it seemed that Zhuzhan had escaped from a hopeless situation.
Discord in Zhuzhan.
Cheunu did everything possible to save Zhuzhan. Having defeated the Teleuts, he did not continue the war in the west and made a treaty with the Ephthalites. The alliance was cemented by marriages of Jujuan princesses and Ephtalite nobles [Ibid, p.203]10. In the east Juan-Juan and Korean (Gao-Guili) crashed together to defeat one of the Manchjurian tribes, Dedeugan, and weakened the position of the Wei house in Manchuria [30, vol. II, p. 74]. The Turfan issue was also successfully resolved. In 518 the Chinese government officially gave up the idea to withdraw population from Turfan oasis to the Inner China and recognized the Principality of Gaochan [Ibid, vol.I, p.252].10 Apparently, the conclusion of Jujuan-Eftalite alliance broke off friendly relations between Eftalite kingdom and Wei empire. In the 516-520 and 526 years Eftalite embassies were sent already to Southern China, to the Lyan empire, and in these negotiations, it is possible to see an attempt of anti-Tobas coalition organization [227, p.452-453].
They were regularly supplied with bread and fabrics. The iron goods were delivered to Juan-Juan by their Altai vassals, Turkuts (Türks-Tukyu).
But the unity in the horde was broken. Buddhism penetrated into Juan-Juan. As usually, Buddhist missioners first of all made the Khan a Buddhist. The "shamyni" - Buddhist priests and "ni" - nuns appeared in the rate. Under the new conditions, Buddhism took fantastic forms: for example, nuns had legitimate husbands, but this apparently did not embarrass the Khan. However, despite the scarcity of information, we can say that not everyone liked Buddhism. Opposition arose both in the khan's family and in the army. The Juja lost the unity it needed more than ever. In 513 the head of the Zhuzhan embassy to China was the shaman Hongxuan, who brought "an idol encrusted with pearls" [30, vol. I, p. 196]. This is the first case in the history of nomads when a cleric acted in a secular role.
Even more revealing is the following. A young shamaness, named Deu-hun divan, lived in the Zhuzhan stake. It is striking that the nickname "divan" was Persian: "oder- vivan. "She cured and sorcered (i.e. shamanized with the power of spirits), and Cheunu always had faith in her". [Ibid, p. 197]. The Chinese chronicler considers her a charlatan and relays an account of her fraud, but that is not what interests us. "Cheunu greatly respected and loved her, and, acting on her advice, led the state administration into confusion" [ibid.] In 520, when Cheunu was on a campaign, the divan was killed on the order of the mother-khanshah, and when Cheunu returned, his mother, in collusion with the nobles, killed him and gave the throne to her other son, Anahuang.
Ten days later, Cheunu was avenged. A certain Shifa, a relative of the khan, attacked the stake and smashed it. Anahuang managed to flee to China, and his mother and brothers were killed. While Anahuang was begging for mercy in China, his uncle Polomyn gathered his supporters and defeated Shifa. Shifa fled to Manchuria to tribe Dideugan [30, vol. II, p. 79] and there was killed. Poloman accepted a title of Khan. In 521 year, he was defeated by rebellious Teleuts and with the rest of his subjects migrated to China. Zhuzhan was again on the brink of destruction.
At last China achieved its goal: both Zhuzhan khans fell into its hands. Those who came from the north said that "the state was in great turmoil.” Each clan lives separately, and alternately plunder each other". [Ibid, vol. I, p. 202].
The Teleuts took advantage of the strife: the younger brother of the tortured Miwotu, Ifu, restored the Gaogu state and in 521 defeated the Polomyn zhuzha, driving them into China [30, vol. 1, p. 219]. In the autumn of the same year Sinifa, Anahuang's brother, who replaced him, fled to China from the Gaoguys. The Chinese government decided to consolidate its success. Polomyn and his followers settled within China, at Lake Kukunor, and Anahuang, who had more confidence, abroad, north of Dunhuang. Polomyn immediately tried to flee to the Ephthalites, as three of his sisters were married to the Ephthalite king. But Polomynian was detained and died in prison. Anahuang had more fortitude. In 522 he begged 10 thousand sacks of millet for sowing, but apparently the Juanjans ate the millet, and as a result, the following year they had a famine that led to the plunder of the Chinese population. Anahuang detained the Chinese official sent to look into the matter, robbed everything in the vicinity, and with the entire horde retreated northward. There the Chinese official was released. The pursuit sent for Anahuang returned with nothing [Ibid, p. 204]. This dizzying adventure saved the Zhuzhan.
The Wei empire was disintegrating at an astonishing speed, and a new political situation was created every year. Already in 496 western Manchuria was lost, where the Khi (Tatabs) revolted [30, vol. II, p. 73]; the Liang empire in the Southern China was activated, and, finally, in 524 in the north of the country broke out and quickly grew rebellion in the Woyie fortress. Anahuan volunteered to suppress this rebellion and defeated the rebels in the spring of 525. For this he was rewarded with "miscellaneous things" and a full pardon. Now it was Gaogyu's turn. Left face to face with the Teleuts, the Jouzhans defeated them head-on. Ifu was killed by his younger brother Yuegyu, who tried to continue the war, but was also defeated in 534-537. Ifu's son, Bidi, killed his uncle and led the resistance. In 540 Bidi was defeated by the Juju and the Gaogyu power ceased to exist. Meanwhile, in China, the Wei Empire split into eastern and western parts that fought among themselves. Here Anahuang emerged as the hegemon, for both sides ingratiated themselves with him. This was the last ray of bloody Zhuzhan glory.
Descendants of the she-wolf.
Knowledge of genealogies and special study of them was a long time peculiar to Central Asian peoples [148, vol. I, p. 153]. At the same time, it is interesting that many of them named as their ancestor this or that animal. So, Tibetans considered their ancestors a male monkey and a female rakshasa (forest spirit), Mongols - a gray wolf and a fallow deer, Telesians - also a wolf and the daughter of the Hun's shanyu, and Turks - the Hun's prince and she wolfs. The last two legends originated a very long time ago, apparently in the period when these peoples inhabited the southern edge of the great Gobi Desert, because the mythology is to some extent corrected by the facts of political history and ethnogenesis.
Among the tribes defeated by the Tobasians in their conquest of northern China were "five hundred Ashina families”. This "five hundred families" arose "from the mixing of different clans" [30, vol. [I, p. 221], who lived in the western part of Shaanxi, reconquered in the 4th century from the Chinese by Huns and Syanbi 12. The Ashina were subordinated to the Hun prince Mugan, who owned Hesi (area west of the Ordos, between the bend of the Huang He and Nanshan). When in 439 the Tobas defeated the Huns and annexed Hexi to the Wei empire, the prince "Ashina with five hundred families fled to Zhuzhans and, settling on the southern side of the Altai mountains, mined iron for Zhuzhans". [30, vol. I, p. 221].
The text talks about the origin not of the whole nation of ancient Turks, but only of their ruling clan. There is nothing legendary in this version of the origin of ancient Turks. Apparently, Ashina was a leader of a small team, composed of the daredevils, who for some reason didn't get along in numerous Syanbi and Hunnish princedoms. Such petty military units, which cannot be called states, arose constantly during the turbulent era of the 3rd to 5th century, but disappeared without leaving a trace.
The Chinese called the subjects of the Khans of Ashin Tu-kyu. This word is deciphered by P. Pelliot as "Türk + yut", i.e. "Türks", but with a plural suffix which is not Turkic, but Mongolian. In Old Turkic all political terms are formed in Mongolian plural. That gives a ground to think that they were brought into the Türkic language from outside.
The word "Türk" itself means "strong, sturdy". According to A. N. Kononov, it is a collective name which later turned into the ethnic name of a tribal community. Whatever the original language of this association, by the 5th century, when it entered the arena of history, all its members understood an intertribal language of that time - the Xianbi, i.e. Old Mongolian. It was the language of command, bazaar, and diplomacy. With this language the Ashina moved to the northern edge of the Gobi in 439. The word "Ashina" meant "wolf." In Turkic the wolf is buri, or kaskir, and in Mongolian shono/chino. "A" is a prefix of respect in Chinese. Consequently, "Ashina" means "noble wolf. [62, с. 104-105.
11 "Five hundred families" is a figurative expression meaning "a few" [62, p. 105].
12 In Chinese historiography this epoch is called Wu-hu, i.e., "five Pre-barbarian tribes". The list of the states formed by nomads on the territory of China [see: 52, p. 658-662].
The word not subjected to Chinggislation is preserved in the Arabic record of this name Shane [241, p. 289].
The question how much right it is to call Ashin's Khans totemists cannot be solved given the present state of our knowledge [206, p. 1-22 (separate print)], but it is clear that the name "wolf" was very important for the 6th c. Türks. Chinese authors consider the concept "Türkic khan" and "wolf" synonyms, evidently based on the Türkic khans' views. It is not by chance that the Syanbi princess said about her husband, khan Shabolio: "Khan by his properties is a wolf". [30, vol. I, p. 237]; and in the instruction for attacking Turks, it is told: "That is a measure to be used: to chase the nomads and to attack wolves". The golden wolf's head of the Türkiye [Ibid, p. 290; 198, p. 61]. A golden wolf's head decorated the Turkic banners [30, vol. I, p. 229], and, finally, in the two legends about the origin of Turks, the first place belongs to the progenitor Wolf [Ibid, p. 220 et seq; 234, p. 327-328; 240, S. 5]. The two slightly different legends are characterized by the absence of any hint on the historical event - the crossing of the Ashina horde from Gansu. Therefore, one must assume that the legends originated in the Altai and may have been created specifically to justify the rights of the newcomers to an exclusive position.
The first legend is curious because it knows about the "branch of the Xiongnu house from the Western edge to the west", i.e. about Attila's power. This branch was utterly exterminated by its neighbors; only one nine-year-old boy survived, whose hands and feet were chopped off by his enemies and he was thrown into a swamp. There the wolf became pregnant from him. The boy was killed all the same, and the wolf-wolf escaped to Altai and gave birth to ten sons there. The clan multiplied, and "after several tribes, someone Asyan-she with all aimak came out of the cave and recognized himself as a vassal of Juan-Juan Khan". Thus, according to this legend, the Altai Türks (Turkuts) descended from the Western Huns, but not directly, and mystically, through the mediation of a wolf, and if to consider that the Western Huns were annihilated about 468, and the Türks appear as a people already in 545, one could only marvel at their rapid reproduction and the change of generations!
The second legend deduces the Turks from a local clan So, and again from a wolf. All representatives of the So clan, according to the legend, died "because of their own stupidity" (it is not explained in what way), only four grandsons of the wolf survived. The first turned into a swan, the second settled between the rivers Abu and Gyan under a name Tsigu, and the third and the fourth on the river Chusi (Chuya) in the southern Altai. This legend was explained by N.A.Aristov, who compared the So legend with the tribe of the Kumandins - a Northern Altai tribe on the Biya River, linked the first grandson with the tribe of the Lebedins - Ku-Kizhi, and linked the second with the Kirghiz, who lived between Abakan (Abu) and Yenisei (Gyan - Kem). The grandson of the eldest son is Asyan-she of the first legend. Here they both converge [4, p. 5].
The foothills of the Mongolian Altai, where the fugitives found themselves, were inhabited by tribes descended from the Huns and speaking Turkic languages. The men of the Ashin prince's cohorts merged with these natives and gave them the name "Turk", or "Turkut".
The destiny of this word is so remarkable and important for our subject that we should pay special attention to it. The word "Turk" for 1,500 years changed its meaning several times. In the 5th century, as we have seen, the name "Türks" was given to the horde consolidated around prince Ashin, who in the 6th-8th centuries formed a small nation which already spoke Türkic. But the neighboring peoples, who spoke the same language, were not called Türks. Arabs referred to all nomads of Central and Central Asia as Turks, without regard to language. Rashid-ad-Din began to differentiate Turks and Mongols, apparently based on language, and nowadays "Turk" is a purely linguistic concept, without ethnography or even origin, as some Turkic peoples assimilated the Turkic language in their relations with their neighbors. With such a variation in the use of the term a clarification is necessary. That people, which history is described in our book, in order to avoid confusion, we will call them Turkuts, as they were called by Jurajans and Chinese in the 6th c.13
Whatever was the origin of those "five hundred families" that united under the name Ashin, they were inter-connected in Mongolian until the vicissitudes of military success threw them out of China into Altai. However, a century's stay in a Turkic-linguistic environment should certainly have contributed to a rapid change in the spoken language, especially since the "five hundred families" of the Mongols were a drop in the Turkic Sea. We must assume that by the middle of the 6th century both the members of the Ashina clan, and their companions were completely Turkicized, and retained traces of the Mongol language only in the titulature they brought with them.
On the basis of the above said, it is clear that the origin of the Türkic-speaking and the origin of the people which called themselves "Türkic"/"Türkiyut" are completely different phenomena. The languages that are now called Turkic were formed in ancient times [19, p. 30 full book], while the Turkic peoples emerged at the end of the 5th century as a result of ethnic mixing in the forest-steppe landscape of the Altai and its foothills. The aliens merged with the local population to such an extent that a century later, by 546, they were a coherent entity which is commonly referred to as the ancient Turkic peoples or Türkuts.
And the Turkic-speaking milieu itself at that time had already managed to spread far to the west of the Altai, to the countries where the Oguzes, Kangls, or Pechenegs, the ancient Bulgars and Huns lived.
13 This conventional term was suggested by us in 1959. [see: 48, p. 105; 7, p. 104].
Chapter Three, Creation of Great Power of Ashina Kind (545-581)
The Beginning of the History of the Ancient Turks (Turkuts)
Though the history of every nation is deeply rooted in antiquity, the historians of all epochs have a tendency to begin their descriptions with the date which, in their opinion, defines the origin of a people. For example, the Romans had an extremely tentative date, the foundation of Rome; the Arabs had a realistic date, the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina; Russian chroniclers chose 862, and attributed the "beginning" of Russian history to it; French chroniclers attributed the "beginning" to Clovis of Merovingian, and historians, at the instigation of Augustin Thierry, attributed it to 843, the division of Charlemagne's Empire, etc. For the Turkites this date turned out to be 545.
A new war broke out in Northern China [207, p. 356]. The ruler of the Eastern Wei empire, Gao Huan, having made an alliance with Zhujan khan Anahuang and Tong khan Kualyu [76, p. 85], attacked the Western Wei empire and strongly constrained his rival Yu-vin Tai; however, the allies did not receive a decisive victory. In search of supporters, the emperor of the Western Wei, Wen-di, sent a certain An Nopanto14 to the Turkic prince Bumyn15 to establish friendly relations.
The messenger, who arrived to Turks in 545. [234, p. 329]16, was received cordially. "In the horde all began to congratulate each other, saying: now an envoy from a great power has come to us, soon our state will also rise". This seemingly insignificant fact indicates that the domination of Juan-Juan was oppressive for Turkuts, and the inevitability of the war for freedom did not scare them.
Conforming to the sentiments of his people, Bumyn was disloyal to his suzerain, the Jujiang khan, sending to the capital of the Western Wei, Chang'an, a return embassy with gifts, and thus cementing an alliance with the enemy of his lord. However, this did not cause a rupture with the Jujans: apparently the negotiations were conducted in strict secrecy. These embassies for a quarter of a century determined the eastern policy of the Turkic power as an ally of the Western Wei and its successor Bei-Zhou, directed against the Northeastern China, where since 550 the Bei-Qi dynasty was consolidated. However, Buming was aware that he was too weak to fight the zhujang, of whom he was a tributary, when he became involved in world politics. Bumyn decided to do his duty as an ally and vassal in good faith. The opportunity presented itself in the same year.
The western Telian tribes were taking the Zhujan yoke hard. Finally, their patience burst: they rebelled, and from the western Dzungaria moved to Khalkha to strike a blow in the heart of Juan-Juan. The campaign was so poorly organized and the timing so badly timed that one would assume a spontaneous outburst of popular indignation rather than a systematically organized war. History has not even preserved the names of the leaders of the rebellion. When the Telesians were midway, from the gorges of the Gobi Altai, rows of Turkuts in platted skulls and cloaks rode out into the mountains.
14 An Nopanto is called "nomadic foreigner from Jiu-Quan". [30, vol. I, p. 228], i.e. from Hesi, where 100 years ago came out of the Ashin horde. The source stresses its origin not by accident: was sent a person who knew the Turkic language, and it indicates that the connections of the Ashina horde with its homeland were not lost.
15 In the Orkhon inscriptions he is called Bumyn-kagan. V. Bartold (13a, p. 358] and P.M.Melioransky [111, p. 64, 94-95] tried to combine him in one person with Istemi-khan. However Thomsen [281, p. 95], Marquart [243, S.185], Aristov [4, p. 9] and G.E.Grumm-Grzhimailo [44, vol. II, p. 219] brilliantly proved that these are two brothers, corresponding to the Chinese Il-Khan Bumyn and Istemi.
16 N.J.Bichurin writes 535, but this date is less probable, as the empire has just broken up and the balance of forces was still unclear. Liu Mao-tszai gives date 545 [240, S. 6].
Telesians did not expect a flank attack, and besides, they were going to fight not with the Turkuts, from whom they had never seen anything bad, but with the hated Jujans. So, they immediately expressed full submission to Bumyn, and he, in accepting it, committed a second disloyal act towards the Jujans.
Obedience in the steppe is a mutually binding concept. One can be the subject of 50,000 tuktaks [30, vol. I, p.228]17 only if one does what their inhabitants want; otherwise, one will lose both his subjects and his head. The Telesians wanted one thing: to destroy the Juan-Juan, and Bumyn evidently knew this when he accepted them into his horde. But since that was what his tribesmen wanted as well; war was inevitable. The khan shared the desire of his subjects, and so events moved swiftly.
The defeat of Jujani
Bumyn went to the trouble of provoking the Zhuzhan and, at the same time, did not want to be seen as an offender, so he turned to the Zhuzhan. He asked Zhuzhan Khan Anahuang to marry him a princess.
This would immediately put him, according to the steppe customs, on an equal footing with the khan, which the latter could not agree to, without dropping his authority. The angry khan answered rudely: "You are my smelter [Turkuts smelted iron for zhujans], how dare you make me such an offer". [30, vol. I, p. 228]. The refusal put Bumyn in the position of the offended, which is exactly what he wanted. To cut off paths to reconciliation, he ordered the execution of the Zhuzhan ambassador, and now the alliance with the Western House of Wei was of great use to him. He immediately resumed negotiations with Wen-di and, in the summer of 551, he married the Chinese princess Chang-li, which finally consolidated his authority among the nomads. In an effort to take advantage of the suddenness of the attack, Buming campaigned in the winter of 552 and won a complete victory over the Zhuangs. Anahuang committed suicide, and his son Yanlochen fled to his Tsis allies[8] 18.
Bumyn took the title Ilkhan, but died at the end of 552. His son ascended the throne, taking the title Kara Issyk-Khan (i.e., Black Hot Khan).19
The Jujans, suddenly [234, vol. III, p. 350] defeated by the Turkuts, chose as their leader the uncle of their dead khan, Dynshuzza, and continued the struggle. But in the battle near Mount Laishan they were again completely defeated. In the end, they were defeated once again. By their luck, however, very short-lived, Kara Issyk-Khan died under mysterious circumstances, his son Shetu [see p. 64 of this full book] was dismissed, and a younger brother of Kara Issyk-Khan, Kushu, with the title Mugan-Khan, ascended the throne20.
The new khan was firm, rigid, brave, clever and was not interested in anything, except wars [30, vol. I, p. 229]. In late autumn of 553 he defeated Juan-Juan again. The Cis emperor accepted his unhappy allies and repulsed Turkuts pursuing them [77]. But the Jurajans could not get along in China. Deprived of their herds and property, unused to labor, they took to plundering, and the Tsisian government was forced to send troops against them already in the spring of 554. The Juanjans were defeated. But this did not change their behavior, in the summer of 555.
17 Г. Е. Grumm-Grzhimailo supposed that against Juan-Juan appeared "Parpurums" [44, 220]. The number of kibitaks coincides with the number of all Tele tribes of the Central Asia, cited by D.Pozdneev [128, p. 38-39]. Therefore, should be thought that Bumyn subdued the entire confederation of Tele tribes, which until then inhabited Dzungaria, and after the death of Jujans spread east to Baikal and Kerulen.
18 С. Julien translates differently: Anahuan himself killed his son Yan-lochen and escaped to Pi [234, vol. III, p. 330], but Gan-mu (in translation by Ia-kinfa [see: 76]) reports about Anahuan's suicide.
19 Kolo Ishigi-khan.
20 This khan had names: "animal" - Tszushu (kushu - bird); clan name - Sygin (yegin - grandson, nephew); nickname - Yandy - victor; title name - Muyuy, or Mugan-khan. We retain for him the last name, which became customary in scientific literature [see: 234, p. 331].
The Tsisk emperor expelled Juan-Juan from his territory to the steppe, where they were immediately defeated by Turkuts and Kidans [240, S.35]. Dynshutszy with the remnants of the horde rushed to Western Wei to seek refuge, but there they needed Turkuits as allies against the Qi empire, and gave out to the Turkic ambassador three thousand bound Zhuzhans. The ambassador ordered to behead all adults, but spared children and servants "following princes" [30, vol. I, p. 208]. The Juan-Jugs were finished, and Turkuits became masters of the whole eastern half of the Great Steppe.
For the rendered services in extermination of Jujans Türkjuts paid off the Western Wei empire in the same 556 year. At the time when Jujans heads were rolling before the eastern gate of Chang'an, the joint Türkic-Chinese troops broke into Togon, whose population had to seek refuge in the Nanshan mountains [76, p. 85]. The victors took the residence of Kualyu Khan - a town Shudun, located near Kukunor, and another town - Khamchen. The next year, the Togonians tried to repay the raid with a raid on the Chinese lands, but, unable to take the fortresses, they were forced to retreat. The Qi empire could not help its dying allies, since earlier it spent forces to repulse the Kidan from the north (553 [207, p. 359]) and the Liang kingdom from the south (555 [77]). The successes inspired Yuyvyn Tai's son, Yuyvyn Tszu, dared to throw away the screen of legitimism and, having forced the last emperor of the Wei dynasty to abdicate, he ascended the throne in 557 and named his dynasty Bei-Zhou.
See part two for:
Türküt power at the end of the 6th century.
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