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Escape from Hengyang by Qiong Yao |
TURKS & UYGURS - PART I
The Turkish website said proudly that their ancestors comprised of Huns and the White Huns, and the Uygur nationalists had further provided two lineages of eastern and western Hunnic kings to support their claim of Hunnic heritage, in direct competition with the Mongols who celebrated the 2000th anniversary of first Hunnic empire in 1991. The Turks are a group of group no secondary to the Huns, and their influence would be felt in Ottoman Empire's conquest of the Byzantium and the Balkans as well as waves of raids into the Indus Valley. Their history had been full of extraordinary events like slaves turning into rulers. Their linguistic flavor found entries in Finno-Ugric language. They pushed Islam to its apex. It is too broad a topic for me to cover them all in here. In this section, I will concentrate on the Turkic origin and influence in China and Mongolia during their early developments. Turks had impacted the Chinese more than the Huns. During the Tang Dynasty, Pogu Huai'eng, an Uygur, had obtained a post as a general in the court. After the fall of Tang Dynasty (AD 619-907), three dynasties among the Five Dynasties of northern China, i.e., Posterior Tang 923-936, Posterior Jin 936-946, Posterior Han 947-950, were ruled by the Shatuo (Sha'to) Turks. (Sha'to Turks were a group of Western Turks who were first employed by the Tibetans as their herald armies, but they later defected to the Tang Chinese and were assigned the border posts in northern China to guard against other nomads and Khitans.) One more interesting thing would be the fact that the Uygur Turks had a long history of co-living with the Chinese. There is on record a big Uygur community around Yuan-shui River in today's Hunan Province, Central China. The famous writer, Jian Bozan, who committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution, happened to be an ethnic Uygur from Hunan Province. Who are those people called Turks then? They did not disappear as the Huns did. Today's Turkish people in Turkey are direct descendants of Osmanli Turks who belonged to the Oghuz confederations which have the origin in today's Mongolia. We had traced the original Huns to a group of people driven out of Hetao area, south of the Yellow River, by Qin (BC 221-206) emperor Shi Huangdi (Shihuangdi). Chinese history books invariably claimed that the Gaoche people, the Tiele Tribe (ancestors of Uygurs), Ruruans (Rou Ran or Ru Ru), and Turks were alternative races of the Huns. We would sort out their relationship below. There is one common feature among those ancient tribes, namely, they loved the nomadic way of life, they never settled down, and they preyed upon Chinese Turkistan and Northern China as an outsider force. In contrast, tribal states of Chinese Turkistan, i.e., Loulan (Rongjiang), Cheshi (Gaochang), Qiuci (Guqa or Kuqa), Yanqi, Yutian (Hotan or Khoten), Shule (Kashi), are recorded to have city-walls and cultivation. Unlike the Huns, the Chinese of Former Han Dynasty did initiate quite some colonization efforts in Chinese Turkistan. The Uygur claim, at http://www.uygur.org/enorg/history/uygurlar_kim.htm, was not that correct in one of the assertions, namely, the Chinese never colonized Xinjiang or Chinese Turkistan. The Chinese, like the Huns and Turks, had been outside contenders. The Huns, after driving out the Yuezhi, did station some official in Chinese Turkistan. The Huns, according to Ban Gu, devised an official entitled 'Tongpu Duwei', similar to governor, and sent this person to the post in charge of ancient tribal states of Yanqi, Weixu and Yuli [Weili], located to the southwest of today's Urumqi. Hunnic 'Rizhuowang' (king of sun chasing) was usually stationed in the 'west court', a place to the north of Altai, while Hunnic 'central court' was always in today's Outer Mongolia. In 121 BC, Han Emperor Wudi ordered a campaign against the Huns, with Huo Qubing and Gongsun Ao departing from northern border, while Li Guang and Zhang Qian from the Beijing area in the east. Huo attacked the Huns in and around Qilian Mountains, the ice and glacier of which fed the farming of the so-called Hexi Corridor (i.e., corridor to the west of the West Yellow River Bend). Hunnic King Hunye, for fear of punishment by Hunnic Chanyu, killed King Xiutu and surrendered his 40,000 people to Huo Qubing. Wudi relocated the Huns to five prefectures, Longxi (today's Weisui and Tiaohe Rivers, Gansu Prov), Beidi (today's northeastern Gansu Prov), Shangjun (today's northeastern Shenxi Prov), Shuofang (somewhere on north bank of the Northern Yellow River Bend), and Yunzhong (today's Tuoketuo County, Inner Mongolia). Wudi further set up Wuwei and Qiuquan Commandaries in the old territories of King Hunye. In 102 BC, Zhangye and Dunhuang Commandaries were set up along the corridor. Civilians were relocated to guard the posts along with the army. After General Li Guangli campaigned against the ancient state of Dawan (Fergana) in Central Asia, more posts were set up on the Silk Road. From Dunhuang to the Qinhaihu Lake, hundreds of 'farming soldiers' were stationed. By the time of Emperor Xuandi (reign 73-48 BC), south of Tianshan Mountains was firmly under Han Chinese control. Hunnic 'Rizhuowang' (king of sun chasing) offended Hunnic Chanyu, and he defected to Han China, yielding to Chinese the Hunnic control of the northern part of Chinese Turkistan. By 62 BC, north of Tianshan Mountains was controlled by Chinese as well. Colonization went as far as the ancient state of Sha'che. This post was responsible for reporting on the situations in such states as Kangju (Kang-chu) and Wu'sun (Ili). During the reign of Emperor Yuandi, 48-32 BC, another group of Huns surrendered to Chinese, and colonization reached Che'shi. The Uygurs and the Mongols, however, could be both right or both wrong in their assertion in regards to the Hunnic ancestry. The Uygur claim could be built on basis of their ancestor Huihe's membership in the Tiele Tribes, a group of people sanwiched between the Huns/Turks and the original dwellers of Xinjiang or Chinese Turkistan. (Uygurs claimed they descended from 'Chunwei', the son of Jie, last Xia Dynasty lord.) The Mongolian claim could be built on basis of the nomadic tribal groups which never left the Mongolian plateau. Western history books tried in vain to make a distinction, and they said that the Genghis Mongols were descendants of the Ruruans. The Ruruans, however, were more Hunnic than Mongol as we would explore in this section and had explored in the section on the Huns. The 'Mongol' claim for Ruruans could be built on basis of one comment in History Of Toba Wei Dynasty, namely, the founder of Ruruan people might have origin in Eastern Hu nomads, a group more associated with the Tungusic people of Manchuria and eastern Mongolia. My research into various records, however, shows that the Ruruans were more Hunnic than anything else after relocating to the west. After the Ruruan founder fled to the Altai Mountains, he conquered and absorbed remnant Hunnic and Gaoche tribes there. To provide as detailed descriptions as possible, I had traced the Huns and Turks according to the specific naming as recorded in history, rather than generic naming. I traced the ending of the Eastern Huns to their relocation to Hebei Province by the Tuoba in AD 523 and that of the western Huns to Attila and his warfare in Europe in AD 433-453. The third group of Huns, Ruruan, and their relationship with Nie-ban (Nirvana) Huns, would be touched upon below and in Huns section. The Turks did not come about till they, employed as a group of iron miners in the Altai Mountains, rebelled against the Ruruans in AD 546-553. We need to make a distinction here between the words of 'Turk', 'Turkic' and 'Turkish'. The word 'Turk' would denote the group of people as recorded in the middle 6th century. The word 'Turkic' means more a language that was spoken by the Euroasian nomads, and the earlier Huns were said to be Turkic as well. The word 'Turkish', however, would denote specifically the people and the language in today's Turkey, i.e., Anatolia. Western history books classify the Ruruans as 'Mongolian', but the term 'Mongolian' was a much later concept. The term 'Mongolian' did not appear till Khubilai endorced it in the 14th century, supposedly on basis of the word 'Mengwu Shiwei'. Conventional history would make such a distinction between the Turkic and Mongolian ethnicity. Here, I will refer to the Ruruans as 'Hunnic' versus their Turkic adversaries for clarification's sake. The Ruruans are said to be the successors to the Huns, and this group of people had also been responsible for pressuring the so-called 'Huns' into migrations towards Europe as well as cracking down on the eastern Huns in collaboration with the Tuoba. The Ruruans, as we detailed in the Hun section, were more Hunnic than those they chased away towards Europe. The two groups, Ruruans and Turks, were hostile towards each other. Numerous records point to the Turks' chasing the Ruruan khan to the Western Wei Dynasty (AD 535-557) as well as chased other Ruruan royal family members to the Hephthalite Empire of the White Huns (Ye-tai). Ruruans had inter-marriage with both Western Wei and the Ye-tai. In AD 553-68, the Turks and Sassanians in today's Iran allied in destroying the Hephthalite Empire of White Huns [Ye-tai]. Turkic Language Unlike other earlier nomads who left no records of written language, the Turks possessed the so-called Orkhon inscriptions (a Kok Turk invention related to Eastern Khate around AD 682) in a runic-like script, and this script was deciphered back in 1896. There was some element of Chinese language among the early Orkhon scripts, though. Note Han Dynasty Chinese had no problem communicating with the Huns who were speculated to be Turkic-speaking as well. The forms of the lost languages of the Khitans, Tanguts and Jurchens, like the Korean writing, had all appeared to be some kind of revision on top of Chinese pictographs. Among the Turks, the Uygurs were great language masters, and adopted their own script which became known as the Uygur script. They helped Chingiz Khan's Mongols in devising the written Mongol language in early 13th century. The Uygur script indirectly influened the Manchus when the latter adopted the Mongolian script in 1599. (The Manchus first used Khitan's Siniform script and finally adopted Chinese logographic characters.) Turkic language is one of the three language branches in the Altaic language family, namley, Turkic, Mongolian and Tunguzic. My suspicion is that the branches did not distinguish themselves till much later, and the three language branch designations were the products of linguists of 20th century any way. When you look at the photos of ruins of Karakorum, near the Orkhon River, southwest of Ulaanbaatar as well as few slates of tomb stones on the desolate Gobi, the impression will be all yours to imagine who the successive dwellers had been on that land. The control of the area of Mongolia had passed from the Turks to the Uygurs, then to the Kyrgyz. (The Kyrgyz were said to be the last Turkic people to have resided in Mongolia, but in the section on Mongols, we had listed quite a few groups of peoples who appeared to be more Turkic than the later Mongols.) A simple comparison of some words in later Mongolian language yields the following interesting points: The word for the Mongolinas, Mongqol irgen, is the same word 'irgen' as used in ancient Chinese pronunciation which could be corrobated by the Cantonese pronunciation of 'irgen' and Japanese pronuncitation of 'nin' or 'dgen'. Still more interesting is the fact that Genghis Khan's name, Timuchin, shared the same prefix as some of his brothers and sister, with Ti meaning nothing more than a Chinese word 'Tie' for iron or smith. JOHANN WILHELM ADOLF KIRCHHOFF (1826-1908) mentioned two Kara-Kirghiz groups, i.e., "the On or "Right" in the east, with seven branches (Bogu, Sary-Bagishch, Son-Bagishch, Sultu or Solye, Cherik, Sayak, Bassinz), and the Sol or "Left" in the west, with four branches (Kokche or Kfichy, Soru, Mundus, Kitai or Kintai)". As stated at http://57.1911encyclopedia.org/K/KI/KIRGHIZ.htm, the "Sol section occupies the region between the Talass and Oxus headstreams in Ferghana (Khokand) and Bokhara, ... The On section lies on both sides of the Tian-shan, about Lake Issyk-kul, and in the Chu, Tekes and Narin (upper Jaxartes) valleys." Once again, ancient Chinese words, like right for 'you' (mutated into 'on') and left for 'zuo' (mutated into 'sol'), were adopted by nomadic tribes on the steppe. Note that the Huns used to designate their officials into rightside and leftside virtuous kings, similar to Qin Principality's adoption of rightside and leftside prime ministers. Isenbike Togan of Middle East Technical University stated that "written Chinese is also a system of signs... Central Asian people who were not Chinese used this system at some time in the past, including the Turks." Isenbike Togan concluded that the Turkish word for 'freezing' came from Chinese word 'dong[4]'. Reader jianx mentioned that "...many words have similar sound and meaning as chinese -- the madarin... A few examples: Chinese: Bo2: father's brother --> turkish: Bey: same meaning( more general); Wa(1)Di(4): low land --> Vadi: valley; Shui(3): water --> Sui: water; Jie(2): sister --> ajia: female relative, sister. ...Turkish people have chinese last names. For example, Turkish 'Tan' is obviously a chinese last name. In turkish, it means 'sunrise', which is nearly identical to 'Dan(4)' in chinese --- the Zhou Dynasty's famous Zhou(1)Gong(1) Dan(4) --- you should know it means that the sun is rising over the horizon." As to Turkic language, there had existed a much earlier version of language than the Orkhon script. There is on record a poem written by the wife of a Chinese officer under the Di[1] people's Anterior Qin Dynasty (AD 351-394), and it was said that this love poem was sent to her husband who was exiled to the border post in China's silk road. The points to make here is that it was written in so-called 'Hui' language, namely, a terminology that was to be used for denoting Turkic language later. Hui means something self-looping or percolating, in a similar fashion to the Iranian languages. (Today's Chinese designated Muslims as 'Hui Ren' and Islam as 'Hui Jiao'.) The poem, woven on silk clothing, could be read from right to left and from left to right. Both the earlier 'Hui Wen' and later Orkhon script must have been impacted by more than Chinese. Iranian languages had been found in the same area. Excavated in areas rear Turfan would be manuscripts in Bactrian, the ancient language of Bactria in northern Afghanistan. Kushan ruler Kanishka, who was of Yuezhi origin, adopted Bactrian as the language of his coinage. After the collapse of the Kushan empire, Bactrian language continued in use till the ninth-century, as evidenced by inscriptions from the Tochi valley in Pakistan and the remnants of Buddhist and Manichean manuscripts found in the Turfan oasis. In the following, I will tentatively explore the origin of Uygurs, Turks and their history. Origin Of Turks & The Uygur Turks Nationalist Uygurs, at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1730/buh.html, stated that "after 210 B.C., the Uygurs played important roles in the Hun (220 B.C. - 386 A.D.), Tabgach (To'pa) (386-554 A.D.), and Kok Turk (552-744 A.D.) empires which were established in Central Asia". This statement would be erroneous in its lumping together different groups of peoples. The Turks, specifically called Tujüe or Tujue (Turks) at the time of North Dynasties (AD 386-581) and Sui/Tang Dynasties, asserted themselves in late time period of Toba Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-533). Toba Wei split into Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties in AD 534. The Turks rebelled against the Ruruans in AD 546-553. However, there were earlier references to Turkic tents in the 4th and 5th centuries, respectively. Below, I will cite a few records in Chinese history. Among the following sayings, personally, I am more inclined to believe that the ancestors of Turks might be related to the 500 families who fled to the Altai Mountains after Toba Wei Emperor Daowudi (Toba Gui, reign 386-409) defeated the Hunnic Statelet of Juqu in today's Gansu Province. In China, 16 Nations (AD 304-420) were comprised of various nomadic groups of people: Huns, Jiehu, Xianbei (including Wuhuan & Toba), Qiang, & Di. Ultimately, the Toba (Tuoba), who were of Xianbei heritage, took over northern China. Leftover Huns were absorbed by Ruruan, and Ruruan were defeated and exterminated by Turks. Toba would deal with the onslaughts by the Ruruans first and then the Turks. Toba got sinicized in northern China. Ultimately, Toba Wei Dynasty would be usurped by two generals of Xianbei heritage. Northern Qi and Northern Zhou replaced the two Toba dynasties. Sui China would be built on Northern Zhou Dynasty of Yuwen clan. The origin of the Turk was interesting as well as the name of it. Tang Dynasty writer, Li Yanshou, in his book History Of The Northern Dynasties, wrote that the Turks were alternative Huns whose ancestors had originally dwelled to the right side [northside] of the Xihai [West Sea]. According to Chinese records, the ancestor of the Turks came from a boy whose arms were cut off and whose ankles were also deliberately disabled by the tribal feuds. This boy was from the background of mixed Hu nomads in today's Gansu-Qinhai areas. History Of The Northern Dynasties said that the Turkic clan to which the boy belonged dwelled to the west side of Xi Hai, i.e., Qinghaih Lake of today's Qinghai Province. (Xi Hai was also the name for the Mediterranean). A wolf would be responsibile for saving the life of the boy. When the enemies found out about the boy, they killed the boy. However, the pregnant wolf fled to the mountains near ancient Gaochang Statelet (Turpan) and she gave birth to 10 children who ultimately became the ancestors of later Turks, i.e., Ten Turkic Family Names. The ten Turks used their wives' family name as their respective clan name. Ashina was one of the ten names. Li Yanshou also recorded another theory, namely, the ancestors of the Turks were the mixed Ashina Hu nomads in Pingzhou and Liangzhou areas. About 500 households of them fled to the Ruruan for protection, dwelled to the south of the Altai Mountains, and became the iron slaves of the Ruruans, at the time when Toba Wei Emperor Daowudi (reign 386-409) defeated the Hunnic Statelet of Juqu's Northern Liang in today's Gansu Province. The name of "turk" was in fact something denoting some cloth cover on the head, said to be of the same shape as the Altai mountains in today's Western China. Li Yanshou also said that the Turks could have their origin from a statelet called Suoguo which was to the north of the Huns. The Hunnic tribal chieftan, i.e., A'pangbu, possessed 70 brothers, with one of them born with a wolf. Brother Nishidu would revive the tribe after it was conquered by neighbors. Nishidu had four sons, with one son leading the Qigu statelet, and the elder son living on Mount Ba-si-chu-zhe-shi-shan. This elder son was made into the chieftan, and he bore ten sons, with the youngest named Ashina. Ashina was later selected as the chieftan because he could jump the highest against the tree. Ashina had one of his descendant by the name of Tumen (Bumin). In AD 545, a Western Toba Wei emissary visited Tumen. Tumen was delighted at the visit by grandiose Chinese emissary and thought this visit might for sure bring along luck to him. Tumin sent in tributes to Toba Wei Dynasty the second year. Reconciling all above accounts of Turkic origins, Historian Luu Simian cited Mongol Yuan Dynasty's writing to state that the westernmost Turkic tribe, Ke-sa Tribe, dwelled to the right side of the West Sea. Luu Simian did cite Western and Eastern Turks' common practice of paying pilgrimage to the wolf cave in Altai Mountain, to the northwest of today's Urumqi, as evidence that early Turks fled there and then worked as iron miners. While equating Turks to the Ashina surname, Luu Simian pointed out that the "Nine Names" must have more affinity with Ashina Turks than to the Huihe [Urghur] Tribe. See Turk versus Tiele (Tara or Tole) for details. (There is a Luu Simian confusion here as to the exact sea referred by 'Xi Hai' or the West Sea. Ancient classics claimed that Arabs and Parthians traded with Romans at Xihai Sea in section on Gan Ying's trip across Central Asia. Hence, Xihai was considered by Luu Simian to be likely the Mediterranean Sea. Some Chinese expert believed that West Sea referred to the Arab Sea. The sentence containing the word of right side of the West Sea could be construved as the area of the Caspian, or Aral Sea, Sea of Azov and Black Sea. Though, this webmaster's conviction is that the West Sea referred here is Lake Qinghaihu of today's Qinghai Province.) From the standpoint of one Chinese historian writer (Cai Dongfan), the Turks are a so-called "bie zhong" of the Huns, namely, "alternative race" or "different race" if translated literally. The Turks became a strong power after they, under Tumen, defeated the 'Tiele Tribe' and absorbed about 50,000 households in AD 546. Juqu's Northern Liang connection is the most credible explanation, in my opinion. Early Turkic History Turks, thinking that they helped in rearing the Tiele Tribes on behalf of the Ruruans, proposed a marriage with the princess of the Ruruans. Ruruans declined their request. Hence, Turks sought for marriage with Toba's Western Wei Dynasty. In the 17th year of Western Wei's Datong era, i.e., AD 551, Turkic Khan Tumen (Bumin) obtained Toba Princess Changle as a bride. When Western Wei Emperor Wendi died, Tumen sent in 200 horses as condolences. In the first year of Western Wei Emperor Feidi, Tumen defeated the Ruruans, causing Ruruan Khan commit suicide and Ruruan Khan's son flee to Northern Qi Dynasty. Tumen declared himself Khan Yili and gave his wife the title of Ke-hedun or Kedun (similar to Hunnic title of Yanzhi for queen). Tumen's son, named Keluo, was Khan Yixiji. Khan Yixiji would defeat Ruruan Khan's brother (Dengshuzi). Yixiji's brother, Sijin (Sinjibu?), aka Yandu, would succeed Khan Yixiji as Khan Muchu. Sijin was recorded to be red-faced and possess liuli [brown] eyes, and he would defeat Dengshuzi at Mount Beilaishan and drive Dengshuzi into Northern Zhou territories for asylum. Dengshuzi and his 3000 followers would later be handed over to the Turks for execution by Northern Zhou. ("liuli", now meaning brown and green imperial construction, previously meant for five-color glass. This kind of records, however, did corrobate the fact that Central Asian features, maybe in areas like deep socket eyes and high nose bridge, were rare in relationship with the general physique of the people in the steppe area. Speculation would be that majority Huns were of Mongol stock, but few Altaic people, like Jiehu & Ashina Turks, had inherited or picked up Caucasian features of Chinese Turkistan or Central Asia, possibly after the ancestral Huns raided to the west.) Sijin would now defeat the Ye-tai in the west, the Khitans in the east, and Qigu in the north. Hence, the Turks controlled the vast territories extending from Chinese Turkistan to Manchuria. Turks were recorded to have about 28 levels of officials, including Yehu, She(4), Teqin, Silifa, Tudunfa etc. They had the same custom as the Scandinavian pirates in that they would burn the dead body of their chieftan together with the belongings like horses and clothes. Tents were always opened towards the east where the sun rose. In the third year of Northern Zhou Emperor Wendi (?), the Turks defeated the Tuyuhun in today's Qinghai-Gansu area. Sijin had once wavered, in face of gifts from two Chinese states, several times, in marrying over his daughter to either Northern Qi or Northern Zhou, and he finally settled down on intermarriage with Northern Zhou. In AD 561, i.e., the first year of Baoding Era (Northern Zhou Emperor Wudi), the Turks under Sijin (Khan Muchu), with 100,000 strong army, joined Northern Zhou's Duke Sui (Yang Zhong) in attacking Northern Qi. Turks reached ancient Bingzhou Prefecture (northern Shanxi Prov). Turks requested for a second attack on Northern Qi. Sijin yielded his post to his brother at death bed. Sijin's brother, i.e., Tabo [Tuobo] Khan, would make Shetu as Khan E'fu in charge of the east and a brother (Khan Rudan) as Khan Buli in charge of the west. Tabo Khan would play Northern Zhou and Northern Qi for tributes and treated the two Chinese statelet rulers as stepsons. A Northern Qi monk called Huilin would convert Tabo to Buddhism. After Northern Zhou destroyed Northern Qi, Tabo Khan would welcome a Northern Qi prince called Gao Baoyi (King of Fanyang) and make him the nominal new emperor of Northern Qi. In AD 578, the first year of Xuanzheng Era of Northern Zhou Emperor Wudi, Tabo attacked Beijing and killed a Northern Zhou general called Liu Xiong. Khan Tabo raided Jiuquan of Gansu Prov thereafter; meantime, Yutian [Khotan], Persia and Ye-tai rebelled against the Turks in the west. Northern Zhou Emperor Wudi would promise to send Princess Qianjin to Tabo Khan for reconciliation. Khan Tabo raided Bingzhou and stopped raiding when Princess Qianjin was delivered. Tabo would expell Gao Baoyi to Northern Zhou years later after reaching a deal with Northern Zhou. At the death of Tabo Khan, Tabo Khan asked his son to yield the throne back to his second brother's son. The elder brother's son, Shabolüe, refused to acknowledge the new khan. Hence, Turks would possess four different khans. After Sui Dynasty replaced Northern Zhou in AD 581, Shabolüe's wife, i.e., Princess Qianjin, would pursuade Turks into avenging on the Sui Dynasty. Defeated by Sui, Shabolüe Khan would blame Khan Ah'bo and henced attacked and killed the mother of Ah'bo. Ah'bo fled to the west for asylum with Datou (Tardu) Khan. The Turkic Khans attacked each other. Hence, Sui sent an official called Yu Qingzhe and pursuaded Shabolüe into seeking vasslage with Sui. Shabolue gave his sister to Yu Qingzhe as an appreciation of the peace efforts. When attacked by Turks from the west and the Khitans from the east, Shabolüe Khan was allowed to relocate to the south of the desert and Sui Dynasty acknowledged him as a minister instead of a vassal. Sui Emperor Wendi conferred the family name of Yang on Princess Qianjin and renamed her to Princess Dayi. After the death of Khan Shabolüe, Sui Emperor Wendi mourned for three days. Khan Shabolüe's brother, Shetu (Khan E'fu), was in charge of the east. Shetu asked his son to see another Shabolüe brother called Chuluo-hou and made Chuluo-hou the new khan. Chuluo-hou attacked Turks in the west by demonstrating the flags conferred by by Sui and he captured Khan Ah'bo. After Chuluo-hou died of an arrow wound, Shetu's son, Yongyulu, was made into Khan Duolan. When Sui Emperor sent over the screens of deposed Southern Chinese Dynasty of Chen to Prince Dayi, Prince Dayi thought about revenge again and she contacted a Western Turkic Khan for assistance. Shaobolue's son, Tuli Khan, was in charge of the north. Sui Dynasty asked Tuli Khan to advise Khan Duolan in killing Princess Dayi before Tuli Khan could marry Princess Anyi of Sui Dynasty. Sui Emperor played a trick in bestowing a lot of gifts on Tuli Khan, hence angering the Arch Turkic Khan Duolan into a rivalry against Tuli Khan. Khan Duolan once killed all brothers and children of Khan Tuli. After the death of Princess Anyi, Tuli Khan (Rangan) would marry with Princess Yicheng of Sui Dynasty. Tuli Khan would be entitled Qiren Khan (Qimin Khan) and was allowed to stay south of the Yellow River, at Xia-zhou and Shen-zhou prefectures. Similar to Han Emperor Wudi, Sui Emperor Wendi dispatched multiple columns of armies against the rivalry Turks, several times, deep into northwestern territories. Khan Duolan was killed by his own people. Datou would proclaim himself Khan Bujia and fought wars with both Sui and Khan Tuli. In the first year of Rensou Era, Yang Su was conferred the post of Grand Marshal of Yunzhou and led Khan Qiren Khan to fight the Turks under Nili Khan. Khan Bujia fled to Tuyuhun. Khan Qiren took over the people of both Nili Khan and Bujia Khan. While Sui Dynasty was attacking the Turks, the Tiele Tribes joined in and defeated the Turks in the northwest. Sui armies, joined by Qimin Khan, would quell the rivalry Turks. In AD 607, the third year of Daye Era of Sui Emperor Yangdi, Qimin Khan and Princess Yicheng came to pay respect to Emperor Yangdi and offered 3000 horses when Yangdi arrived at Yulin, Shenxi, in the Hetao area. When Khan Qiren died, Sui Emperor mourned for three days. Khan Qiren's son, Tujieli, would succeed as Khan Shibi. During the 11th year of Sui Emperor's reign, Khan Shibi came to Sui capital. Later, Khan Shibi attacked Sui emperor at Yanmenguan Pass. Duke of Tang, Li Yuan, defeated the Shibi Turks at Mayi. When Sui was in upheaval, Shibi Khan welcomed Sui Emepress Xiaohou. Chinese fled to Turks in hordes for avoiding civil wars, and Turks became powerful while Tang China was weak after emerging from the civil wars after the demise of Sui Dynasty. In the west, the Turks was led by the son of Muchu Khan. When conflicting with Khan Shabolue, Western Turks set up two courts, one in ancient Shi-guo Statelet and the other in ancient Qiuci (Chouci) Statelet. Chouci, Tiele and Yiwu etc were all subject to Western Turks. After Chuluo-hou captured the western Turkic khan, Nili Khan would be enthroned. Nili Khan's son would be Chuluo Khan who resided in the old Wusun territory, i.e., today's Ili. By AD 605, the western Turks were in constant fights with the Tiele Tribes. Sui Dynasty sent a minister called Fei Ju to pursuade Western Turkic Khan Chuluo to seek vassalage with Sui. Khan Chuluo's mother, named Lady Xiang, was a Chinese who was living in Sui capital at the time. Sui tried to have Chuluo Khan attack Tuyuhun using the pretext that Chuluo could safely come to Sui capital to see his mother should Tuyuhun be cleared in the midway. Since Khan Chuluo refused to pay respect to Sui Emperor Yangdi in person, Yangdi would adopt Fei Ju's advice in supporting the grandson of Tardu (Datou) to have Chuluo replaced. Chuluo Khan fled to Gaochang Statelet and he later was pursuaded into surrender by his mother, Lady Xiang. Chuluo Khan later followed Yangdi in the Korean Expedition and was entitled Hesana Khan. Princess Xingyi was married to Khan Chuluo. When Sui Emperor Yangdi was killed by palace corp in Yangzhou, Chuluo Khan fled back to the Sui capital, but he was killed by Turks from the north. When Tang Dynasty's founder, Li Yuan, rebelled against Sui Dynasty, he would sent his minister (Liu Wenjing) to the Eastern Turks (ruled by Khan Shibi) for borrowing 2000 horses and 500 cavalry. At this time, Khan Shibi subjugated Tuyuhun in Gansu-Qinghai, Gaochang near Turpan, Khitans and Shiwei in northwestern Manchuria and eastern Mongolia. Khan Shibi intervened in China's civil wars and assisted Li Yuan's rivals, such as Liu Wuzhou & Liang Shidu. After the death of Khan Shibi, his brother, Chuluo Khan (same name as Chuluo Khan during Sui Dynasty time period), would be enthroned. Chuluo Khan assisted another Tang rival, Wang Shichong. Later, Chuluo Khan retrieved ex-Sui Empress Xiao and ex-Sui royal family from still another Tang rival called Dou Jiande. Chuluo Khan erected an ex-Sui royal member as the new Sui King. Chuluo Khan was determined to fight Tang on behalf of dethroned Sui Dynasty, saying that he wanted to return favor to Sui for Sui's helping his ancestors in the restoration of the Turkic khanate. Later, Chuluo Khan died and his brother, Khan Xieli, would be enthroned. Khan Xieli was disuaded from an alliance with another Tang rival called Xue Ju. Khan Xieli would erect his cousin, i.e., Shibi Khan's son, as Khan Tuli (same name as Tuli during Sui Dynasty time period) in the east, and Tuli would take charge of the ancient tribes of Khitans and Mojie (ancestors of Jurchens) people. Khan Xieli would take over Princess Yicheng as his wife. Princess Yicheng's brother (Yang Sanjing) and Wang Shichong's emissary would somehow pursuade Khan Xieli into challenging Tang Dynasty on behalf of dethroned Sui. In AD 621, Khan Xieli invaded Yanmenguan Pass and Dai Prefecture. For several years, Tang and Turks fought numerous battles across the northern border areas. By the 7th year of Tang Emperor Gaozu, in AD 626, Li Shimin or Li Shih-min (i.e., King Qin of Tang Dynasty and later Tang Emperor Taizong or Tai-tsung, AD 597-649), would sow a dissension among Xieli Khan and Tuli Khan. Unable to call upon Tuli to fight Tang further, Xieli Khan sent Tuli Khan and Simo to Tang for sake a peace treaty with Tang. Tuli Khan and King Qin promised to be brothers, while Tang Emperor Gaozu said to Simo that he felt he had seen Khan Xieli by meeting with Simo. In the following two years, Tang was busy building ships around the North Bend of the Yellow River for defence against Turks, while Turks broke the peace and kept attacking Tang. In AD 627, Tang Emperor Taizong got enthroned after staging "Xuan Wu Men Coup D'etat" during which he killed two brothers and forced Emperor Gaozu into abdication. This year, Tiele Tribes, including Xueyantuo, Huihe and Bayegu, rebelled against the Turks. Khan Xieli accused Khan Tuli of failing to quell the Tiele rebellion. Being attacked by Khan Xieli, Khan Tuli requested for help with Tang Emperor Taizong in AD 628. The next year, Xueyantuo proclaimed themselves as a khan and sought allianace with Tang. In the fourth year, AD 630, Tang ordered General Li Jing on a full campaign against Khan Xieli and captured Khan Xieli. Further details of Turkic history will be covered in Eastern Khnanate and Western Khnanate. The Uygurs Huihe would be a more correct name for the ancestors of the Uygurs. Interestingly, nationalist Uygurs had produced two lineages of eastern and western Hunnic kings on their website dating back to Before Christ era. Uygurs claimed they descended from 'Chunwei', the son of Jie, last Xia Dynasty lord. According to Shi Ji, Chunwei fled to the northern plains where he became ancestors of the Huns. The Hunnic successors will include the Ruruans, Gaoche, the Tiele Tribes and the Turks etc. New History Of Tang Dynasty, written by Song Dynasty's Ouyang Xiu, mentioned that the ancestors of Huihe were Hunnic, and they were called Gaoche because of their custom of riding in high-wheeled carts. They were alternatively called 'Chile' which was to mutate into 'Tiele'. History of the Northern Dynasties mentioned that the Gaoche people could be related to 'Dingling', descendants of the Chi Di or Red Di people who once resided in the Shanxi areas. They dwelled to the northwest of Luhun (?) Sea. Chinese history put Gaoche (descendants of Chidi or Red Di people, also known as Dingling), in a different category from the dozens of tribal states in Chinese Turkistan. Chidi once dwelled in Hetao and should belong to the earlier Rongdi Rongs. (Rong-di could relate to Sino-Tibetan Qiangic people. See hun.htm section for details.) Rongdi had intermarriage with Zhou court, while Chidi with Jin Principality. Chidi first was called Dili, and then Gaoche and Dingling. They were recorded to have similar language to the Huns. Gao-che People Record showed that the Gaoche people had similar traits as the early Huns and they were the nephews of the Huns. Among the Gaoche would be clans like Hulü, Di(2), Yuanhe, Jiepi, Hugu, and Yiqijin. Twelve family names could be found: Qifuli, Tulu, Dalian, Dabo, A'lun, Muoyun, Sifen, Fufuluo, Qiyuan, and Youshupei etc. The words Gao-che mean "high wheeled carts" which was to point that the Gaoche people liked to ride in high-whelled carts. The high-whelled carts were said to have lots of radius grooves or shafts. I have noticed that some Uygur website had adopted the Yuanhe clan of the Gaoche people as their ancestors. http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/society/A0849917.html had mentioned that the Uygurs (Uigurs) were the Yue-che of ancient Chinese records. This should be a typo of the Yuanhe clan. http://ignca.nic.in/pb0013.htm corroborated the phrase of Yue-che or Yueche as nothing other than a mutated form of spelling for the Yuezhi or Yueh-chih people who relocated to Bactria from Gansu. Tiele Tribes History records from the Toba Wei period contain many references to the 'Tiele' or 'Chilie' tribes and their rebellions against the Toba Wei Dynasty. Toba Emperor Daowudi defeated the Gaoche people. Gaoche tribes sought vassalage with Toba, and one chieftan was conferred the post of Yangwei (exhibiting awe) Jiangjun (general), and another chieftan Weiyuan (awe far-reaching) Jiangjun (general). Both enjoyed Toba bestowals in clothing and grains. The Ruruan Khan, Shelun, would invade Gaoche lands. Hulü tribe defeated the Ruruan army and then slept with Ruruan women for days. Ruruan Khan Shelun then attacked Gaoche all of a sudden. Only 20-30 percent of Hulü people escaped and they sought asylum with Toba Wei Dynasty. Hulü Beihouli was conferred the title of Duke Mengdugong and King of Zhongzhuangwang posthumously. Toba General Yiwei later conquered the remnant Yuanhe Tribe. At a place called Sinipo, Daowudi conquered over 100,000 households of the Gaoche people and then relocated them to south of desert. Gaoche bagan to learn agriculture. When Toba Emperor Xiaowendi called upon them to campaign in the south, Yuanhe Tribe selected a person called Shuzhe as a chieftan and fled to the north. Toba General Yuwen Fu was defeated. Yuanhe first fled to the Ruruans, but then left the Ruruans. According to History Of Toba Wei Dynasty, the Uygurs originated from the Tiele Tribes who were in turn descendants of the Huns. Tiele Tribes would be a generic name pointing to the dozens of tribal states across the northern belt of today's western China or Chinese Turkistan. These peoples were subject either to the Eastern Turks or to the Western Turks by the time of Sui Dynasty. During late Toba Wei Dynasty, there appeared many references to the 'Tiele' or 'Chile' tribes and their rebellions against the Tobas. History said that Tiele Tribes derived from the Gaoche people. As mentioned in the Hun section, there were two distinct groups of people in Western China: the Huns and the Yüeh-chih. The Yüeh-chih dwelled to the west of Chinese, in today's Gansu Province. After a defeat by the Huns, about 500,000 (?) Yüeh-chih migrated to the Afghanistan. The Yüeh-chih tribal affiliates, like Kangju (Kang-chu) and Wu'sun, also fled to the west and set up satellite kingdoms. Those Yüeh-chih statelets invariably used the city name of 'Zhaowu' of Gansu Province as their royal family names. The Yüeh-chih people are said to be Indo-European, with speculation of links to the mummies excavated in Western China. A good speculation will be to link the Tiele Tribes to the mixed group of people between the Huns and the Yüeh-chih. Bear in mind that the Huns and the Yüeh-chih were feuds, not friends. The Huns had retained the skull of Yuezhi king as a drinking utensil for hundreds of years, and at one time, two Chinese emissaries had an oath with the Huns by killing a White horse and drinking wine from this "skull" utensil. The later White Huns (Ye-tai) were also of the Yüeh-chih family according to Chinese history. Chronicles stated that Ye-tai was a family name of Yüeh-chih. Reading though history, two conclusions could be reached, i.e., that the tribal states of Loulan (Rongjiang), Cheshi (Gaochang), Qiuci (Guqa or Kuqa), Yanqi, Yutian (Hotan), Shule (Kashi) had been in continuous existance though the actual inhabitants of those states might have changed over the course of history, and that both the Huns and the Turks had appeared to be an outsider force that preyed upon those tribal states from the northern altitude of the Altai Mountains and Mongolia. More, according to Ban Gu of Latter Han Dynasty, the tribal states of Loulan (Rongjiang), Cheshi (Gaochang), Qiuci (Guqa or Kuqa), Yanqi, Yutian (Hotan), Shule (Kashi) are recorded to have city-walls and cultivation, while the Huns or later Turks did not possess those features. Toba, Gao-che (Yuanhe), Ruruan During early Toba period, Toba Wei Emperor Daowudi (reign 386-409), launched numerous campaigns against the Ruruans as well the Gaoche people. While Gaoche were at odds with Ruruans, they raided into Toba Wei as well. Daowudi personally led several campaigns against Gaoche and quelled their tribes. Gaoche people, however, were frequently mentioned as an ally in the war against Ruruans. The early Gaoche people had different names from later Tiele Tribes. There is an often-mentioned name called 'Hulü' among Gaoche, and in Toba Wei Dynasty, quite a few generals bearing this name were in existence. One Gaoche lord, Hulü Beihouli, fled to Toba Wei after being defeated by Ruruans, and he was conferred the title of Duke Mengdu. Daowudi relocated Gaoche people to the south of the desert and the Gaoche people began to learn cultivation. Gaoche posessed 12 family names, and they were enslaved by Ruruans mostly. Gaoche rebelled against Ruruans frequently. Gaoche were also subject to attacks from Ye-tai. Tiele Tribes (Huihe) By late Toba Wei's Northern Wei Dynasty, a new alliance of people called Tiele (Toles) would emerge. The Tiele Tribes, descendants of the Huns, with many of later familiar Huihe family names, were recorded to have spread everywhere, i.e, north of the Luo River (e.g., clans like Tongluo, Bayegu, Pugu, Weihe, Fuluo, carrying names of Mengchen, Tuluhe, Sijie, Hun, Huxie), west of Yiwu & north of Yanqi (clans like Qibi, Boluozhi, Subo, Nahe, Wuhu, Hegu, Yunihu), southwest of the Altai Mountains (e.g., Xueyanto or Sheyanto, Shiban, Daqi), north of ancient Kangju Statelet (e.g., Ye-tai, Hejie, Bahu, Bigan, Juhai, Hebeiji, Bayemo), east and west of Nihai (?) Sea (Sulujie, Sahu), south of Beihai Sea (Dubo), and east of Byzantium (Eng'qu, A'lan, Beiru, Qiuli), numbering tens of thousands in each direction. History said the Tiele people in the west were good at cultivation and they had more buffalos and less horses. The Tiele people would now include the Ye-tai, with a strong hint that the composition would be both Yüeh-chih and Hunnic. By the end of Kaihuang Era [581-600], King of Jinn (Yang Guang, i.e., later Sui Emperor Yangdi), defeated Bujia Khan of the Turks and dispersed the Tiele vassalage of the Turks. In the first year of Daye Era, i.e. AD 605, Chuluo Khan attacked various Tiele Tribes as well as suspected the loyalty of Xueyantuo Tribe. Chuluo Kkhan assembled hundreds of Xueyantuo chieftans and killed them all. Xueyantuo selected their own leader, Silifa and Sijin, and fought against Chuluo Khan. Xueyantuo people declared themselves as Khan Yihuzhenmuohe. Khan Yihuzhenmuohe would take over Yiwu, Gaochang and Yanqi from the Turks. Before Gaoche-Tiele, namely, in earlier Han times, there are simply too many tribal groups and states sandwiched between the Huns and the Han Chinese for me to pinpoint exactly where the Uygur ancestors came from. By the time of Sui-Tang, The Tiele tribes had over a dozen or so tribes which include the Xueyantuo (Sheyanto) tribe that the Uygurs defeated later. (Xueyantuo Tribe was from the last name of 'Xue' and a conquered tribal name of 'Yantuo'.) Huihe was comprised of four of the dozen Tiele tribes, including Pogu, Tongluo, Bayegu and Weiqi. Huihu Huihe was renamed to Huihu in AD 809. According to Old History Of Five Dynasties, the Huihe people sent an emissary to Tang court in AD 809 and claimed that they changed their name to Huihu [Huigu] by which they meant for a kind of eagle called 'hu' flying rotatingly in the skies. (The character for 'hu' could also be pronounced as 'gu' for a different bird called 'gu zhou', and could be pronounced as 'he' when combined with character 'hui'.) It is a bit unscientific to use the names of Uygur and Huihe/Huihu interchangeably here. The above historic literature points to the Uygur's ancestor being the Huihe peoples. The name 'Uygur' was probably a mutation of Huihu. In Ming Dynasty's records, the name 'Uygur' was widely cited in the descriptions about their tributaries. I will come back to this naming in the section on Ming Dynasty. Today's Uygurs, also spelled as UIGUR, UIGHUIR, UIGUIR, UYGHUR and WEIWUER in Mandarin, live largely in Xinjiang or Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (so-called Eastern Turkestan). They have a present population of over 10 million around or more. There are also considerable number of them in Western Turkestan which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Among the Uygurs inside of China, there are three major groups, consisiting of the Yugur or Yellow Uygur in today's Gansu Province, and the Uygurs south and north of Khan Tengri (Tianshan Mountains). The nationalist Uygurs disputed the specific naming like Kazaks, Uzbeks, and Turkmens etc, and they claimed they were of the same family. The Huihe people would come into prominence during the Tang times. At Tang times, the Huihe people were a long time ally of Tang Chinese in campaigns against both the Eastern Turks and the Western Turks, at least for a time period of over 200 years to AD 840. The Huihe people had once ranked second to Xueyantuo tribe among the eleven tribes which had helped Tang in defeating Eastern Turkic Khanate in AD 630-640. For almost a hundred years, they would assert control over north Mongolia with the remaining Turks who re-established Eastern Khanate in AD 682/683 in Mongolia and Turkic Khanate in the Tarim Basin in AD 691. Around AD 640s, the Uygurs helped Tang army in quelling the rebellion of Turkic tribe 'Xueyantuo' which took advantage of emperor Taizong's first Korean expedition in attacking Tang. Tribes of the Huihe killed the khan of Xueyantuo tribe and hence controlled northern Mongolia where the Turkic tribe Xueyantuo once held. A review of the major Turkic tribes in Mongolia yielded a tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz' or the Eight Oghuz with a smilar pronunciation to Xueyantuo. The historic records showed 'Sakiz Oghuz' was a name which existed in 8th century, later than the fight between Uygurs and the Xueyantuo tribes. Uygurs henced relocated to Mongolia and they ultimately set up Uygur Kingdom in AD 744/45 after defeating the remnant Turks in the area. The 'Sakiz Oghuz' tribe is said to have some remnants left in Mongolia. When the Kirghiz defeated the Uygurs in AD 840 and took over northern Mongolia, there was a group of people called the Naimans who remained in their homelands in the Altai Mountains and attached themselves to the Kirghiz. The Naimans were said to be a Mongol name for a group of the Turkic tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz'. (The Oghuz Turks would find their way to Anatolia, separately.) Uygurs & Karlaks vs Orkhon Turks: Emperor Xuanzong, in AD 714, defeated Khan Mochuo of the Eastern Turk (Orhkon Turks) at Beiting [i.e., Lake Issuk-kul area] and won over the defection of Mochuo's brother-in-law. Back in 713, Governor-general Sun Quan of Youzhou Prefecture attempted to recover Yingzhou from Xi-Khitans by leading 20,000 army together with Li Kailuo & Zhou Yiti. At Lengjing, chieftan Li Dapu of Xi-Khitan ambushed the Chinese. Only Li Kailuo escaped. Li Dapu surrendered Sun Quan & Zhou Yiti to Khan Muchuo for execution as a show of alliance against China. The two parties hence allied to harass the Chinese border. Tang court sent emissary to the Turks for peace. Muchuo dispatched son Yangwozhi to the Tang court for marriage with Chinese princess. Emperor Xuanzong promised to marry over Prince Nanhe-xian the daughter of King SHu-wang. In spring of AD 714, Muchuo dispatched son Tong'e-tele and brother-in-law Huoba-xielifa-shishibi on an attack at Bei-ting Governor-general Office as a retaliation over Emperor Xuanzong's delay of releasing princess. Protector General Guo Qianguan ambushed the Turks outside of the citywall, pierced dead Tong'e, killed over half the Turk force, and chased Huoba. Huofa, being rebuked by Khan Muchuo, fled to seek asylum with Chinese together with wife and sons, and received the conferral of King Yanshan-jun-wang. The Orkhon [Eastern] Khante would end in the hands of the Uygurs and the Karluks. History said the Tang Chinese conspired to have the Uygurs and Karlaks attack the Orkhon Turks of Khan Muchuo (Mo-ch'o). To check the Orkhon Turks, Tang Chinese also allied with the Western Turks called Turgesh [who were situated in today's Ili, between the Arabs and the Chinese] from AD 716 to AD 733. After Khan Mochuo was killed by the tribesmen from the Tiele Tribes, the Orkhon Turks came to terms with Chinese, and their successors were said to have erected a stone monument cursing the Chinese for the treachery and the Tiele tribesmen for betrayal. The Uygurs ultimately set up Uygur Kingdom in AD 744/45 after defeating the remnant Turks in the area. After Orkhon Turks were defeated by Uygurs, Uygurs would control Kirghiz and Khitans. After the fall of Tang Dynasty (AD 619-907), three dynasties among Northern China's Five Dynasties (AD 907-960), i.e., Posterior Tang 923-936, Posterior Jinn 936-946, Posterior Han 947-950, were ruled by the Sha'to Turks. The remaining Orkhon Turks were not heard from after China's Five Dynasties time period. Uygurs (Uighurs) took refuge in Ganzhou and Xinjiang after being replaced by the Kirghiz. Uygurs vs Kirghiz: Uygur nationalists claimed that "in AD 840, Tang Chinese emperor, in order to get rid of the encroachment of the Uygur (who were earlier invited by Tang emepror to come to Tang capital to quell rebellion) and wipe out the humilation, had incited the Kirghiz in attacking and replacing the Uyghurs in Mongolia. The Uygurs fled to Gansu [Kansu] province, south and north of Khan Tengri (Tianshan Mountains) and established three separate successive Uygur kingdoms." According to New History Of Five Dynasties, Kirghiz belonged to the ancient 'Jiankun' Statelet which was located to the western-most of the Huns. At one time, during Tang Emperor Suzong's reign of AD 758-760, the Huihu (Uygur) conquered the Jiankun Statelet of the Kirghiz. The Kirghis allied themselves with Tibetans, Arabs and Karlaks. Kirghiz, with the help of a defector Huihu (Uygur) general and combining a cavalry forces of 100000, defeated Huihu (Uygur) and killed the Huihu khan around AD 840s. Tang emperors did not intend to support the Kirghiz as a replacement for the Uygurs for fear that someday the Kirghiz would pose a threat to Tang China as in the case of the former. It would be in AD 859 that Tang Emperor Xuandi decided to confer the Kirghiz the title of Khan Bravery-Intelligence. New History Of Five Dynasties said that Kirghiz possessed lighter skin, red hair, green eyes and taller height, and that those Kirghiz with black hair must be the descendants of Li Ling. See Hun section for more descriptions of Non-Mongolian Physiques. Yellow Uygur: The Yugur or Yellow Uygur are one of China's 56 officially recognized nationalities, consisting of 12,297 persons according to the 1990 census. Linguistically, this group of people were classified by belonging to Mongol language. The Yugur live primarily in Gansu Province, in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, within the county of Zhangye. The Yugur live in an area where four different language groups, Turkic, Mongolic, Chinese and Tibetan converge. The Yugur nationality itself consists of four linguistically different groups. The largest of these groups are the Turkic speaking Western Yugur. The Mongolian speaking Eastern Yugur number the next. A very small number of the Yugur speak Tibetan. The remaining Yugur of the Autonomous County speak Chinese. The Western Yugur are considered to be the descendants of a group of Uygur that fled from Mongolia southwards to Gansù after the collapse of the Uygur Empire in 840 A.D. The Yugur people have been living together for about six centuries. Turfan Mummies In Turfan, a town of oasis famous for grapes, Hami melons (from seed introduced by Henry Wallace in 1940s) and mummies, not far away from Urumqi, there have been excavated a huge number of mummies. Those mummies are not of the kind of so-called "Loulan Beauty". They are all of Tang Dynasty Chinese from 1200 years ago, wealthy officials who chose this propitious place for their tombs which usually ran ten steps into a corridor underground, decorated with murals on both sides. People, especially Western people, however, are more interested in the Caucasoid mummies. Nova, in its TV series, had provided evidence that Caucasians did exist very close to China once upon a time. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/chinamum/taklamakan.html shows the excavations of mysterious 3000-year-old mummies in China's western desert, inside today's New Dominions Province. NOVA pointed out that those preserved 3000-year-old mummies excavated in late 1980's show that Chinese civilization did not evolve alone and Western counterpart might have played an important role in elevating the Chinese via possible introduction of 'donkey carts' and wheels, and even bronze knives. It further extrapolated that those mummies belong to the so-called Tocharians (http://www.wlc.com/oxus/tocharia.htm) with a tongue that is more closely related to the languages of Indo-European origin. This leads me to say that it sounds almost like another revolution similar to the Indo-European invasion of ancient India. But, if the mummie people had so advanced system, they could have crushed Chinese the lowland sedentary people easily and accomplished the feats of the Huns thousands of years earlier. Besides, the Indo-European language would have replaced the pictographic Chinese language of today. http://homepages.utoledo.edu/nlight/uyghhst.htm had a good exposition of the "remarkably racialized ideas" and approaches built on basis of the mummies. "Loulan Beauty", the name given to a woman excavated near Loulan and those exotic mummies, however, only corroborate the historical fact that the ancient Scythians, warrior tribes of Saka, had once roamed the entire Altaic region, with today's Kyrgyzstan as their base. The Scythians are a loosely denoted term for Caucasoid nomads, while the Huns, on the other hand, would point to another loosely-termed Mongoloid nomads who roamed the trans-Euroasian continent of the time. The Scythians are better known in Persian, Rome and Greek records. Before Scythians, there were Cimerians of roughly 1000 BCE. http://www.geocities.com/kaganate/tribelist.html has a good account of historic Steppes nomad tribes, saying that the Scythians, approximately in the 8th century BCE, took the place of the Cimerians; that Scythians were related to Saka in the area of modern Kazakhstan; and that Amazons (possibly so-called Nü-ren or Women Statelet in Chinese records, and that Sarmatians, offspring of the Scythians and the Amazons, came onto the scene in roughly the 3rd century BCE. Alexander the Great met stiff resistance from Saka tribes in his 4th century BC advance through Central Asia. Later, the Yüeh-chih or Yuezhi people, a relative of the Saka people, migrated southwest in 141-128 BC to the Oxus Valley, i.e., the modern Amu Darya, after being defeated by the Huns in Gansu, China in 174-161 BC. The Yüeh-chih would push the Scyths out of their way and overran the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, which is renamed Tocharistan. In Turpan, archaeological finds made in the early 20th century will also include Nestorian literature and extant Manichaean literature. Whatever mummies, later historical developments point to the influx of Mongoloid peoples into this area, and today's residents in Central Asia possessed more Mongoloid lineage than Caucasoid. Further, after the peoples of Yüeh-chih/Scythians and before the rise of the Turks/Uygurs, there had existed numerous other groups of people: Huns, Ruruans (i.e., Juanjuans, successors of the Huns), Xianbei, Qiang, and Toba, making it difficult to trace the origins of Turkic peoples. For further discussions on Barbarians & Chinese, please refer to
Relationship Between Shang Dynasty, Succeeding Zhou Dynasty & Barbarians Difference Between Rong and Chinese In 'Culture', Not 'Blood-line' Merging and Subjugating Barbarians By Zhou Dynasty & Principalities Assertions By Luo Xianglin & Wang Zhonghan Continuing Zigzags With Barbarians Where Were Yuezhi, Wusun & Sai-ren [Scythians]? Nomadic Players Hun, Xianbei & Toba: Hunnic Han Dynasty & Hunnic Zhao Dynasty (AD 304-329), set up in today's Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan Provinces, ended when Shi Le's Posterior Zhao (Jiehu barbarians, one of the five nomadic groups "ravaging China at the time", comprising of Huns, Jiehu, Xianbei- Wuhuan-Toba, Qiang, & Di) usurped the power. Thereafter, the five nomadic groups would set up a dozen of short-lived states, categorically called "Sixteen Nations" in Chinese chronicle (prior to south-north dynasties), until Toba's Northern Wei united northern China in AD 386. Toba nomads are said to be the northern-most branch of the Xianbei nomads, the proto-Tunguz people who had descended from Dong-hu or Eastern Hu nomads. Dong-hu split into Xianbei in the north and Wuhuan in the south after they were defeated by Hunnic Chanyu Modok. Toba Xianbei was recorded to have dwelled to the northeatern-most of all Xianbei, in a place called 'Ga Xian Dong', somewhere near the north segment of the Greater Xing'an Ridge. The Xianbei (Syanbiy) were the northern branch of the Donghu (or Tung Hu, the Eastern Hu), a proto-Tunguz group mentioned in Chinese histories. By the first century, two major subdivisions of the Donghu had developed: the Xianbei in the north and the Wuhuan in the south. The Xianbei expanded their territories by taking advantage of the Hunnic decline, and they took over most of the northern territories held by the Huns previously. There appeared a Xianbei chieftan called Tanshikui (reign AD 156-181) who established a Xianbei alliance by absorbing dozens of thousands of Huns (numbering 200 thousand). Tanshikui Xianbei dissolved after the death of this chieftan. By the time of Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280), the Wuhuan nomads took control of today's Hebei Province and Peking areas. Warlord Yuan Shao campaigned against the Wuhuan and controlled three prefectures of Wuhuan nomads. Before Toba's march towards northern China, the Xianbei people had absorbed most of the Wuhuan branch. Wuhuan fell apart after Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao and his Wuhuan allies. After Ts'ao Ts'ao defeated Yuan Shao, Yuan's two sons (Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi) fled to seek refuge with the Wuhuans. Ts'ao Ts'ao campaigned against the Wuhuan, killed a chieftan called Datu (with same last character as Hunnic Chanyu Motu), and took over the control of southern Manchuria. Xianbei alliances would consist of Greater Xianbei under Budugeng, Lesser Xianbei under Ke'bineng, and Manchurian Xianbei. Cao Wei Dynasty broke a new Xianbei alliance by sending an assasin to kill a Xianbei chieftan called Kebineng. By the "Sixteen Nations" time period, Xianbei could be distinguished into: a) Eastern Xianbei; b) Western Xianbei; and c) Toba Xianbei. The Eastern Xianbei would include tribes like Yuwen, Murong and Duan, while the Western Xianbei would include Qifu & Tufa (to mutate into Tubo in Chinese and Tibet in English). One ancient Chinese account put early Yuwen tribe in the Hunnic category. The Xianbei would later establish many successive states along the Chinese frontier. Among these states was that of the Toba Xianbei, Tufa Xianbei and Murong Xianbei etc. In earlier times of Western Jinn Dynasty, Tobas were befriended by a Chinese border general called Liu Kun whose strategy was to "fight the aliens via the aliens". Liu Kun, a general famous for "practicing swords in early mornings at the sound of cock crow" with general Xie Xuan in their teenage times, had requested with Western Jinn emperor for the authorization to have the Toba settle down in today's Yanmenguan Pass, an area called the Dai prefecture in Qin Empire's times. Liu Kun would later die in the hands of his Xianbei ally in today's Beijing area. Tobas, before their ascension to power, were at first very vulnerable to attacks from the Xianbei whose Murong (or Mujong) kingdom would evolve into Anterior Yan, Posterior Yan and Southern Yan. (Northern Yan is Chinese.) Chinese family clans, such as Zu Di, Liu Kun & Xie Xuan, had undertaken the tasks of safeguarding the southern Chinese Jinn court or northern expeditions at the time of turmoil. Eastern Jinn Chinese, under the banner of General Liu Yu, would retake from the Xianbei nomads the garrisons in Hebei-Shandong areas of northern China, and then took over Shaanxi-Henan ares by defeating the Qiang nomads in today's Xi'an. However, General Liu Yu, eager to go back to Nanking to usurp the power (and formally started the history of South-North), would only leave his 13 year old son in charge of Xi'an, despite pleas from local elderly who said that they said they had not seen Han clothes for almost 100 years by that time and feared that they would be lost to the nomads again should General Liu leave. A short-lived Hunnic Dynasty, called Xia, would attack the Chinese in Xi'an. General Liu's son would barely escape alive after the Chinese generals had internal turmoils in face of Hunnic attacks. One general, Wang Zheng'er, a general responsible for taking Xi'an from the Qiangs in early campaigns and the grandson of Wang Meng who had aided Emperor Fu Jian of Anterior Qin (Di nomads) as prime minister, was killed by his comarade. The remnant Chinese then fled south. Tobas, having emerging from Dai in the Shanxi Province area between A.D. 338 and 376, would take advantage of Chinese northern expedition against Xianbei and Qiang in establishing control over the region as the Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-533). Toba first defeated the Xianbei. Toba (Tuoba) would finish Hunnic Xia Dynasty soon and then unite northern China. Ruruans, Kok Turks & Tobas: Meanwhile, Ruruans, a newly arising people, called Rouran or Rui-rui in Chinese (Juan-Juan) came into power in steppes north of the Altai Mountains in the 4th cent. Western historians called the Ruruans by "Mongolian", a term that would not appear till the 14th century. The Ruruans lost the wars to the Tobas in northern China. The Ruruan founder was said to be a 'Hu' by Toba. Toba claimed heritage from Huangdi and hence dispised other nomads as 'Hu'. The terminology for 'Hu' was categorical. Toba, in order to show their disdain for the Ruruans, despised the Ruruan and nicknamed them as 'ru ru', meaning a kind of slow crawling insect on the ground. Toba, claiming Yellow Emperor heritage, certainly treated other nomads as barbarian. There is one more comment in History Of Toba Wei Dynasty, namely, the founder of Ruruan might have origin in Eastern Hu nomads. Chinese records showed that the ancestor of the Ruruans was a Hu nomad who served as the bodyguard for the Toba founder. This person later offended the Toba founder and fled to the Altai Mountains where he subjugated the remaining Hunnic tribes and Gao-che people. Toba (Tuoba) treated the Ruruans as the descendants of the Huns and commented that "though Ruruans were Hunnic in nature but their ancestry was hard to corroborate". On another occasion, Tuoba Wei Emperor agreed to Rouran asylum-seeker that they were in deed from the same family, i.e., Eastern Hu nomads. (See Li Yanshou's Bei Shi, namely, History Of The North. Alternatively speaking, it is no strange to see non-Chinese websites advocating a school of thought stating that Ruruan [Zhuzhan], like Toba, were people of Eastern Mongolia and Western Manchuria and that "from the IInd and up to the IVth centuries, Altai lived under the influence of Syanbiy tribes. From the end of the IVth century the Altaian tribes were subjugated by the Zhuzhans ... and were to pay tribute to them [by ironware]." Also see http://www.altai-republic.com/history/altai_history_eng.htm for details.) But after the Ruruan founder fled to the Altai Mountains, he conquered and absorbed remnant Hunnic tribes and Gao-che people there. Ruruans and Gao-che people warred with each other as well as allied with each other. Hence, the Ruruans were more Hunnic than anyone else. History Of Toba Wei Dynasty further commented that "Ruruans, though the descendants of the Huns, could not have their exact ancestry traced." Western history books stated that "in c. 370, the so-called Huns were pressured by the Ruruans into invading Europe from the Central Asian steppe." We could say that the Ruruans were more Hunnic than the Western Huns they drove away towards the Europe, especially so after the Ruruans subjugated the remaining Hunnic tribes in the area. Western history recorded that the Attila Huns were so savage and barbaric that they ate raw meat. This life style was totally different from those eastern Huns who were semi-sinicized and civilized. A brief discussion of the relationship between the Ruruans and the remnant Hunnic statelets to the west and northwest is needed. To the west and northwest of Ruruans will be Hunnic tribes such as Nie- |
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