The Rouran–Wei wars, 402–449

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

For about fifty years the two powers of the north-east were a steppe khaganate and a steppe people that had become a Chinese dynasty. They fought each other across the Gobi, and neither could finish the war.

Two states out of the same material

The Northern Wei were Tuoba, of the Xianbei. The Rouran, by contrast, were the power that took the eastern steppe after the Xianbei left it. The war between them is therefore not the usual war of the steppe against China. It is a war between a people that had moved in and taken the plough country and a people that had stayed and taken the grass.

According to the Wei Shu, Shelun was the first ruler in this field to be called khan, about 402, and the title was his innovation.^[1] The title article follows the question of where the title came from.

Course of the war

The Chinese histories give the same pattern for every northern war. In this case both sides of the record confirm it.^[1] The Rouran raided Wei territory. The Wei answered with expeditions into the steppe. Neither the raids nor the expeditions settled anything for long.^[1]

The heaviest blow was Taiwu’s campaign of 429, which has its own article.^[1] The Wei went deep, took the herds and broke the Rouran camp. The khan fled, and his following scattered.^[1] The campaign did not end the Rouran. They were the power of the eastern steppe for another 120 years.

The Ashina in it

The war matters for a reason the Wei Shu does not state. The Chinese account of the next century shows the Ashina as smiths at the Altai who worked for the Rouran. This subject status came from the period in which the Rouran were strong enough to hold the western marches while fighting the Wei in the east.

The Rouran outlasted the Wei by eighteen years. When they fell in 552, they fell not to a Chinese dynasty but to the people who had made their iron.^[2]