The Sui emperor Wen gave an archery match in the Wu’an Hall.[1] The biography sets it soon after Yami was made khan, which the Sui Shu’s account of the Göktürks puts in 599.[2] The match followed soon after the Sui had made Yami a khan.[2] Twelve good archers were chosen and divided into two sides.[1] Yami asked to shoot on the side of the envoy Zhangsun Sheng. Through the envoy, he said, he had come to see the Son of Heaven.[1] The emperor allowed it.[1] Sheng was given his arrows. Yami’s side won.[1] Then a flock of birds went up. The emperor told Sheng to bring some down.[1] Sheng shot ten times. Ten times a bird fell.[1] The officials received gifts that day, and Sheng received most.[1]

Zhangsun Sheng’s archery

The Sui Shu introduces Zhangsun Sheng as a man good with the pellet bow and skilled in archery, agile beyond his fellows.[1] At a court that valued war, the sons of the Zhou nobility vied with one another in riding and shooting. He stood above the men of his age.[1] Yang Jian, who became the emperor Wen, saw him once and took him by the hand. Master Zhangsun had no equal in the martial arts, he told the people around him. Was he not the famous general of the next age?[1]

Under the Zhou emperor Xuan the court sent Sheng, as deputy envoy, to escort the princess Qianjin to the camp of the Göktürk khan.[1] The princess set out in 580. The biography calls the khan Shetu, the name it gives to the later Ishbara.[3] The khan had shown little courtesy to the dozens of envoys who came before.[1] Sheng alone pleased him. They hunted together. The khan kept Sheng there for a whole year.[1] One day two eagles flew up and fought over a piece of meat. The khan handed Sheng two arrows and asked him to shoot them. Sheng rode out at a gallop and drew. One shot pierced both birds.[1] The khan was delighted. He told his sons, brothers and nobles to make friends with Sheng, in the hope of learning to shoot like him.[1] One translation takes the name Shetu to be an error for Taspar.[3]

The khan’s younger brother was Bagha, whom the Chinese call Chuluohou. He held the title Tuli Shad and had won the hearts of the people.[1] The khan was wary of him.[1] Bagha sent a trusted man to make a secret pact with Sheng. The two went hunting together.[1] On these rides Sheng learned the lie of the land and the strength of every group of the Göktürks. He reported it to Yang Jian, who was then chancellor of the Zhou.[1] Yang Jian was delighted and promoted him.[1]

Yami and the Sui court

In 593 Sheng advised the emperor to promise Yami a Sui princess.[1] Yami was a son of Chuluohou, he said, and the house had been sincere for two generations.[1] In 597 Yami sent five hundred riders, who came with Sheng to fetch the bride, the princess Anyi. Sheng persuaded him to move his people south to the old garrison of Dujin.[1]

In 599, in the civil war, Tulan and Tardush attacked Yami and killed his brothers, sons and nephews.[4] Yami fled by night with five horsemen and the Sui envoy Sheng.[4] At court the emperor had Yami and an envoy of the attacking khan question each other. Yami’s case held.[5] In the summer Gao Jiong and Yang Su defeated Tardush.[5] The emperor then made Yami Yili Zhendou Qimin Khan, which in Chinese means “wise and strong”.[5] The biography of Sheng tells the shooting match next.[1]

The match

The biography names the hall and the number of the archers, but gives nothing more.[1] It does not say where the Wu’an Hall stood.[1] It does not name the other ten archers or say how the sides were scored.[1] Sheng was given his arrows. The text says that every shot he loosed went “into the deer”, 發皆入鹿.[1] It does not say what the deer was.[1] The Sui Shu has the arrows “for six hou”, 六侯. It does not explain the phrase.[1] The Cefu Yuangui, an encyclopaedia completed in 1013, has the same sentence with six arrows, 六隻, in place of 六侯.[6]

In asking for Sheng’s side, the new khan placed himself with the man who had brought him to court.[1] The emperor’s consent settled the sides. The side with the khan won.[1]

The second feat was the emperor’s idea. A flock was flying over. He said to Sheng, “You are good with the pellet bow; bring some down for me.”[1] The text says that all ten shots hit and that the birds fell at the pellet, 並應丸而落.[1] One translation names the birds as crows.[7]

The witnesses

The match is told in the biography of Zhangsun Sheng in the Sui Shu.[1] The chapter on the Göktürks gives Yami’s flight with Sheng and the title of 599. It does not mention the match.[5] The Bei Shi and the Tongdian follow that chapter and do not mention it either.[8] The Cefu Yuangui repeats the passage almost word for word under the tenth year of the Kaihuang era, 590.[6] Yami’s title belongs to 599. The tenth year is therefore probably a slip for the nineteenth.[9] The encyclopaedia copies the biography and is not a second witness.[10] Sheng died in 609 at the age of fifty-eight. The match survives as one episode in his life.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 51
  2. ^ a b Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 51; Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  3. ^ a b Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 133
  4. ^ a b Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84; Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 51
  5. ^ a b c d Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  6. ^ a b Cefu yuangui, juan 974
  7. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 143
  8. ^ Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99; Tongdian, juan 197
  9. ^ Cefu yuangui, juan 974; Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  10. ^ Cefu yuangui, juan 974; Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 51

Sources

Literature

  • Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)

Related

What links here1

Customs & Pastimes
Mounted Archery

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “The Archery Match at the Wu'an Hall (599).” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/archery-match-599/

Last revised: 28 October 2026