TURKS & UYGURS - PART I
|
|
|
| To expound the myth of Koreans and the Altaic-speaking people, most recent DNA analysis needs to be incorporated. Doctorate Li Hui from Fudan University of China had analyzed the DNA of Asians to derive a conclusion that the ancestors of Mongoloid Asians possessed a distinctive Mark M89 by the time they arrived in Southeast Asia. About 30,000 years ago, from the launching pad of Southeast Asia, the early Mongoloids went through a genetic mutation to Marker M122. Li Hui, at http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=memory&MsgID=56818, claimed that the early migrants to the Chinese continent took three routes via two entries of Yunnan and Guangxi-Guanngdong provinces.  In the timeframe of about 10,000 years and developing a genetic mutation to marker M134, this branch of people who went direct north would penetrate the snowy Hengduan Mountains of Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau to arrive at the area next to the Yellow River bends. Owning to cold weather, big nose, heavy lips and long face developed among this group of people. Splitting out of this northbound migrants would be those who went to the east with a new genetic marker M117, i.e., ancestors of modern Han Chinese. Li Hui grouped the 3000-year-old Chu and Qi people in the same category as Han Chinese , albeit meeting the ancient classics records as to Qi statelet's lineage from the Qiangic-Tibetan Fiery Lord. The rest would develop into ancestors of today's Tibetans. This seems to corroborate with Scholar Luo Xianglin's claim that early Sino-Tibetan peoples originated from Mt Minshan and upperstream River Min-jiang areas of Sichuan-Gansu provincial borderline and then split into two groups, with one going north to reach Wei-shui River and upperstream Han-shui River of Shenxi Prov and then east to Shanxi Prov by crossing the Yellow River. The second branch of early Mongoloids, about 10,000 years ago, entered China's southeastern coastline with genetic marker M119. Li Hui, claiming that same ancestry as the Dai-zu and Shui-zu minorities of Southwestern China, firmly believed that his ancestors had dwelled in Hangzhou Bay and Yangtze Delta for 7-8 thousand years. The people with M119 marker would be the historical "Hundred Yue Peoples". Li Hui then pointed out that the ancient Wu people, with M7 genetic marker, came to the lower Yangtze area about 3000 years ago. While Li Hui claimed that the M7 Wu people had split away from the northbound M134 Sino-Tibetan people, historical classics pointed out that Wu Statelet was established by two uncles of Zhou Dynasty King Wenwang, i.e., migrants from the Yellow River area. The last interesting theory adopted by Li Hui would be still one more possible Mongoloid branch of people who, at about 20,000 years, continued to travel non-stop along the Chinese coastline to reach the Liao-he River area of Manchuria where they developed into Altaic-speaking peoples, i.e., ancestors of Huns, Turks and Mongols. This claim did corroborate with this webmaster's historical analysis of Huns, Turks and Mongols which yielded the conclusion that the Mongoloid had a pattern of raiding to the west, not the other way around by the Indo-Europeans. Today's Koreans, in the opinion of Li Hui, would be the mixtures of the early migrants to Manchuria and the later Dong-yi [Eastern Yi] migrants from Eastern China. This certainly dealt a blow to the Korean nationalists' claim of "Siberian origin". (See Assertions By Wang Zhonghan for clues as to the relationsip between Qiangic Proto-Tibetan and Altaic Proto-Hun activities: "the northern barbarians and western barbarians were similar [i.e., Qiangs] at Spring-Autumn time period, but by the time of late Warring States, Chinese began to see the northern barbarians as different from the western barbarians".) |
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 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 of the Xihai (West Sea), i.e., Qinghaihu Lake of Qinghai Prov. 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. (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.
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.)
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.