Gaoche secession (487)

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The secession of the Gaoche was the first time a Turkic-speaking people left the Rouran khaganate and founded a state against it. The Wei Shu records it twice, once from each side.^[1]

Departure

According to the Gaoche chapter, the Fufuluo clan had been subject to the Rouran. In the time of Tulun the Rouran were in disorder and their tribes scattered. At that time Afuzhiluo and his cousin Qiongqi commanded more than 100,000 tents.^[1] In 487 Tulun raided the Wei frontier.^[1] Afuzhiluo and the others remonstrated firmly, but their advice was not taken. In anger they led their people west in revolt, to the north-west of the Former Division of Gaochang.^[1] There Afuzhiluo set himself up as king with the title “great son of heaven” and made Qiongqi his heir. The one was in the north and the other in the south.^[1]^[2] The Gaoche word behind the first title, houlou fule, has been understood as Turkic. Some scholars identify it with idüg baglik, “great majesty”. The title of the heir, houbei, has been explained as ul-bai, “child lord”.^[2] Neither man took the title khan.^[3] Tulun pursued them, and Afuzhiluo beat him again and again. Tulun then led the Rouran east.^[1]

In 490 Afuzhiluo sent a merchant of the Hu to the Wei court with two arrows as tribute.^[1] He sent word that the Rouran were the emperor’s enemies, that he had warned them in vain and had therefore left, and that he would destroy the Rouran for the emperor.^[1] The emperor did not believe him and sent an envoy, Yu Ti, to see for himself. Afuzhiluo and Qiongqi then sent an envoy of their own to court with local goods.^[1] Some scholars identify the merchant as a Sogdian. They see in the embassy a sign that Sogdian traders came to the Wei court from the northern slopes of the Tian Shan and from the Gaoche state in Dzungaria.^[4]

The Rouran chapter places the same departure under the Wei campaign of 492. In that year the emperor Xiaowen sent seventy thousand horse under twelve generals against Tulun.^[5] The Gaoche Afuzhiluo, who was inside the Rouran state, led more than 100,000 tents west and set himself up as ruler.^[5] Tulun and his uncle Nagai set out in pursuit on two roads. Tulun went north of Mount Junji and west. Nagai set out from the Golden Mountain.^[5] Tulun was beaten repeatedly. Nagai won repeatedly. The people then killed Tulun and his mother and made Nagai khan.^[5] The five-year difference lies in the two chapters themselves. It is not resolved here. A third account places the departure in 485 or 486.^[4]

Meaning

Modern accounts understand the secession as a revolt of the Tiele under Rouran control. The Tiele migrated further north and west and declared their independence at a safe distance under A-fu-chih-lo. Tulun could not defeat his erstwhile subjects, and he was toppled and killed.^[6] A second reckoning dates the subjection of the Tölös to 460 and their successful rising to 508. In this reckoning the decade of freedom follows the death of Tahan, that is Futu. For that decade, it is the better reckoning.^[7] The Wei Shu’s Gaoche kingdom of 487 is the older layer of the same story. It is the state that Mi’etu, Yifu and their successors ruled. This state killed Futu in 508, Chounu broke it in 516, and it beat the Rouran again in 521.^[1] The Tiele whom Bumin intercepted in 546 on their way to attack the Rouran were these people’s descendants. The defeat of 546 ends the sequence that begins here.

Another account counts the Gaoche kingdom from 487 to 541, with war against the Rouran from 520 to 542.^[8] It has Afuzhiluo lead 100,000 warriors west.^[8] It regards the Gaoche as the tribes nearest to the Tiele, and it identifies some of the fifteen Tiele tribes as descendants of the Xiongnu.^[9] The Tiele tribes spoke Turkic languages, it says, although their origins and culture differed from those of the other Turkic-speaking peoples.^[10]

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j Wei Shu, juan 103
^ a b Kurakichi 1926, p. 18
^ Kurakichi 1926, p. 17–19
^ a b Mori 1983, p. 345
^ a b c d Wei Shu, juan 103; Golden 1992
^ Golden 1992
^ Yavuz 2025
^ a b Litvinsky 1996, p. 319
^ Litvinsky 1996, p. 318–319
^ Litvinsky 1996, p. 320

Sources

Wei Shu, juan 103

Literature

Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
Masao Mori (護雅夫), Soğdluların Orta-Asya'daki Faaliyetleri (1983)
Shiratori Kurakichi, A Study on the Titles Kaghan and Katun (1926)
B. A. Litvinsky; Zhang Guang-da; R. Shabani Samghabadi (ed.), History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. III (1996)