In the sixth month of 609 the Sui emperor Yangdi, after his campaign against the Tuyuhun, received the rulers and envoys of the Western Regions at Mount Yanzhi.[1] Qu Boya, the king of Gaochang, and the tudun shad of Yiwu came with the envoys of twenty-seven states and greeted him at the side of the road.[2] The tudun shad bore two Göktürk titles, tudun and shad. The official Pei Ju had brought them there. The reception was staged to show the greatness of China.[3]

Pei Ju and the Western Regions

The Sui Shu tells the background in its biography of Pei Ju.[3] Pei Ju had been sent to Zhangye to oversee the trade with the merchants of the west.[3] The Sui Shu’s chapter on the Western Regions puts this after a journey of the censor Wei Jie and a clerk to the lands of the west.[4] Pei Ju was then ordered to travel between Wuwei and Zhangye and draw the foreign states to court.[4][5] He questioned them about their countries. He wrote the Illustrated Record of the Western Regions in three books, covering forty-four states.[3] The Zizhi tongjian dates the presentation of the book to the tenth month of 607.[6][7] In its preface he named the obstacle. The Göktürks and the Tuyuhun, he wrote, had divided the states of the Qiang and the hu between them and blocked the way. Their tribute therefore could not reach China.[3] The emperor entrusted all his dealings with the foreign peoples to him.[3] The Zizhi tongjian adds that the western merchants and their states came and went from then on. The cost, it says, exhausted the commanderies on the road.[6]

In 608 a Sui army under Xue Shixiong was to attack Yiwu together with Yami Khan, the Göktürk khan of the Sui.[1] Yami did not come. Xue Shixiong crossed the desert alone. The people of Yiwu had not thought a Sui army could reach them, and they surrendered.[1] He built a fort east of the old Han town of Yiwu and left a thousand men in it.[1] Pei Ju told the western states that the Son of Heaven had built the town for the sake of their distant trade.[3]

Before the emperor went west in 609, he sent Pei Ju to Dunhuang.[3] Pei Ju sent envoys to Qu Boya and to the tudun shad of Yiwu. He tempted them with great profit and persuaded them to come to court.[2]

The reception

The emperor reached Zhangye on the day bingwu of the sixth month. On the day renzi he came to Mount Yanzhi.[1] Qu Boya, the tudun shad and the envoys of twenty-seven states greeted him at the side of the road.[3] All had been told to wear gold and jade, brocade and felt, to burn incense and to play music, with singing and dancing.[3] The emperor had the men and women of Wuwei and Zhangye come out in their finest clothes to watch.[3] Riders and carriages crowded the road for several dozen li.[3] The Zizhi tongjian adds that the commanderies made sure that nobody came with shabby clothes, carriages or horses.[1]

The tudun shad offered the emperor several thousand li of land in the Western Regions. The emperor was much pleased.[1] On the next day the Sui set up four commanderies, Xihai, Heyuan, Shanshan and Qiemo. They sent convicts to garrison them.[1] On the day bingchen the emperor received Qu Boya and the tudun shad of Yiwu in the Guanfeng hall.[1] The envoys of more than twenty states stood in the court below. Nine kinds of music and the fish-and-dragon shows were performed for them.[1]

Consequences

The biography of Pei Ju counts the gains.[3] The Tuyuhun were crushed. Several thousand li of land were taken and garrisoned. The frightened states sent tribute one after another.[3] The emperor promoted Pei Ju for his skill in winning the distant peoples.[3] The Zizhi tongjian counts the costs.[1] The supplies for the new lands were carried across the frontier at a cost of hundreds of millions every year. The people of the west were the first to be ruined.[1]

The western Göktürks stayed away.[1] On the same journey the emperor summoned their khan, Heshana, to meet him. Heshana’s people would not let him go.[1] The refusal led to the fall of Heshana.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 181
  2. ^ a b Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 67; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 181
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 67
  4. ^ a b Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 83
  5. ^ Herrmann 1925, p. 579–580
  6. ^ a b Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 180
  7. ^ Herrmann 1925, p. 580

Sources

Literature

  • Albert Herrmann, Die Hephthaliten und ihre Beziehungen zu China (1925)

Related

What links here5

Persons
Pei Ju · Wei Jie · Yiwu Tudun Shad
States
Shanshan
Places
Yiwu

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Assembly at Mount Yanzhi (609).” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/assembly-at-mount-yanzhi-609/

Last revised: 28 October 2026