In 545 the Western Wei chancellor Yuwen Tai sent a mission to the Göktürks under An Nuopantuo, a Sogdian.[1] Bumin received the mission with open satisfaction at being approached by a great state.[1] In the following year Bumin returned an embassy of his own, with gifts.[1] The Zhou Shu says that before the mission Bumin’s people had already come to the frontier with two aims. They wanted to buy silk and to open relations with China. The Zizhi tongjian adds that under Bumin the Ashina had grown strong and had begun to encroach on the western border of the Wei.[2] Some scholars hold that only the second aim was met in 545. The silk for which they had come did not follow.[3]

The choice of a Sogdian intermediary reflects the position that Sogdian merchants held on the routes between China and the steppe. The name behind the transcription 安諾槃陀 is understood as the Sogdian Anāhitā-banda, servant of Anāhitā.[4]

Map of Asia in 545: the embassy of the Western Wei under An Nuopantuo from Jiuquan to the Ashina in the Altai, subjects of the Rouran, who rule the eastern steppe with the Tiele as further subjects, beside the Western and Eastern Wei, the Liang, the Tuyuhun, the Hephthalites, Sasanian Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire
545: Yuwen Tai, chancellor of the Western Wei, sends An Nuopantuo, a Sogdian of Jiuquan, to the Göktürks in the Altai, who are still subjects of the Rouran. It is the first embassy of a Chinese state to the Ashina. Modern map; the road is drawn, the source names no route.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

Significance

The exchange gave the Ashina direct access to Chinese goods, silk above all, without the intermediaries who had stood between them and the south. It gave them something less tangible as well. A Chinese state addressed them as a party in its own right, not as a component of the Rouran realm. This is the first sign in the record that the Ashina were regarded from outside as an independent actor. Northern China was divided between the Western Wei and the Eastern Wei. Each had reason to seek allies against the other and against the Rouran. Yuwen Tai’s mission was one move in that rivalry.[1]

The winter raids, the raid of 542 among them, had made the Göktürks known to the Wei. The embassy of 545 showed the Göktürks that the Wei were willing to negotiate. The alliance it began was sealed six years later by the Wei princess Changle. It lasted for thirty years, through the Wei’s successor the Northern Zhou.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  2. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 159
  3. ^ Ecsedy 1968, p. 133
  4. ^ de la Vaissière 2005a, p. 205

Sources

Literature

  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
  • Ildikó Ecsedy, Trade-and-War Relations between the Turks and China in the Second Half of the Sixth Century (1968)
  • Étienne de la Vaissière, Sogdian Traders: A History (2005)

Related

What links here14

Persons
An Nuopantuo · Princess Changle · Yuwen Tai
States
Northern Zhou · Western Wei
Conflicts
The Turkic War of Independence
Battles & Events
Göktürk raid of 542 · The Göktürk–Wei alliance · The Göktürk–Zhou alliance
Places
Jiuquan · Pingliang
Institutions and Titles
Border Markets · Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Envoys and Embassies

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Western Wei embassy of 545.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/western-wei-embassy-545/

Last revised: 8 November 2026