In 563 two envoys of the Northern Zhou, Yang Jian and Wang Qing, held Mukan Khan to a marriage he had promised. He was about to sell it to the Northern Qi.[1] Mukan sent the Qi envoys away and settled the marriage of his daughter to the Zhou emperor.[2] He asked, besides, to march east against the Qi with his whole state.[2] The bargain brought the Göktürks into the war between the two Chinese states.

Two courts and one khan

After the fall of the Rouran both halves of northern China sought the Göktürks. The Zhou Shu says why the Zhou did. They were at war with the Qi, and their war chariots moved every year. They therefore bound the Göktürks to themselves time after time as help from outside.[2]

Twenty years later the first emperor of the Sui looked back on the bidding in an edict. The Zhou, anxious about the east, feared the depth of the Qi’s friendship with the Göktürks. The Qi, anxious about the west, feared the warmth of the Zhou’s.[3] Both courts believed that the safety of their states depended on which way the barbarians leaned.[3] They wore out their people to supply the envoys’ comings and goings. They poured the wealth of their treasuries into the desert.[3] The Zizhi tongjian dates the edict to 583.[4]

The promised daughter

The marriage was older than the Zhou dynasty. Under the Wei emperor Gong, Mukan promised a daughter to Yuwen Tai. The contract was not settled when Yuwen Tai died.[2] Mukan then promised another daughter to Yuwen Tai’s son, the later Emperor Wu.[2]

When the first emperor of the Zhou took the throne, Yang Jian was made Duke of Yaogu and sent to the Göktürks to conclude the marriage.[5] At the khan’s court he met resistance. The khan’s younger brother was the Ditou Khan Ashina Kutou. He controlled the east and was on good terms with the Qi.[5] He urged the khan to break the earlier agreement. The two resolved to hand Yang Jian and his companions over to the Qi.[5]

Yang Jian learned of it. He rebuked the khan to his face, weeping as he spoke.[5] The khan was silent and downcast for a long time.[5] Then he said: “Have no doubt. We shall first pacify the eastern bandits together, and then I shall send off my daughter.”[5] He sent Yang Jian home first to report. He asked for a campaign in the east.[5] The biography does not name the khan. The khan of those years was Mukan.

The Qi bid

Before the marriage was concluded, the Qi sent envoys to ask for a marriage of their own.[2] They had learned of the Zhou betrothal and feared that their two enemies would join against them. Their gifts were very rich.[5] Mukan coveted the gifts and was about to go back on his word.[2]

At Chang’an the court remembered that the Wei had once married into the Rouran, and that the Qi had drawn the Rouran away all the same.[5] It feared the same again. It decided to send envoys to bind the khan.[5]

The court debate of 562

In the second year of Baoding, 562, the Zhou court debated a campaign against the Qi together with the Göktürks.[6] The ministers said that the Qi held half the empire and were rich and strong.[6] The road from north of the desert into Bingzhou was steep and hard. The Qi general Hulü Mingyue, that is Hulü Guang, was not easily withstood.[6] To strike at the Qi heartland, they said, would take a hundred thousand men.[6]

Yang Zhong alone disagreed. An army, he said, wins by concord and not by numbers. Ten thousand horse were enough, and Mingyue was a mere boy.[6]

The embassy

Göktürk envoys had come three times in the first year of Baoding, 561.[7] Then an edict sent Yang Jian, now governor of Liangzhou, and Wang Qing with others to bind the khan.[2] Wang Qing was made Left Wubo for the mission and went as Yang Jian’s deputy.[5] His biography places the embassy in the year in which the campaign into Bingzhou was launched. The edict for that campaign was issued in 563.[8]

The envoy Yang Jian is not the Yang Jian who founded the Sui. The envoy’s name is written 楊荐. The later emperor, the son of Yang Zhong, is written 楊堅.[9]

When Wang Qing and the others reached the khan, they appealed to good faith and right.[2] Mukan broke off with the Qi envoys and settled the marriage. He asked, besides, to march east with his whole state.[2]

Outcome

In the ninth month of 563 an edict sent Yang Zhong with ten thousand horse to attack the Qi together with the Göktürks.[10] When Yang Zhong had crossed the Xing ridge, Mukan met him with a hundred thousand horse.[2] Wang Qing led the Göktürk horse beside Yang Zhong as far as Taiyuan and back.[5] The Jinyang campaign that followed failed before Jinyang in the first month of 564.[2]

The marriage took longer. Yang Jian carried the betrothal gifts to the Göktürks in 564. The bride, Empress Ashina, reached Chang’an in the third month of 568.[8] Mukan had chosen the Zhou over the richer offer. Within the year the Göktürks took the field beside them.

References

  1. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 33
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  3. ^ a b c Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  4. ^ Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 175
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 33
  6. ^ a b c d e Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 19
  7. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 5
  8. ^ a b Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 33; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 5
  9. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 33; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 6; Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 19
  10. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 5

Sources

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Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Envoys and Embassies

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “The Bargain with Mukan (562–563).” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/bargain-with-mukan-562/

Last revised: 7 November 2026