After the Göktürk invasion of 582, the first emperor of the Sui issued an edict ordering war on the Göktürks.[1] The Bei Shi calls him Emperor Wen.[2] The Sui Shu quotes the edict in full. It says the Son of Heaven was furious and issued it.[1] The Zizhi tongjian enters a shortened text in the fourth month of 583. It places the text after a note that the Göktürks had raided the Sui again and again.[3] The edict gives the Sui court’s view of the khaganate in 583. It was written to justify a war.

The two courts

The edict begins with the past. When the Wei declined, the Zhou and the Qi divided China. The Göktürks dealt with both.[1] The Zhou was anxious about the east and feared how deep the Qi’s friendship with the Göktürks ran. The Qi was wary of the west and feared how warm the Zhou’s was.[1] Both thought that the safety of their states depended on the leanings of the barbarians.[1] They wore out their people to supply the Göktürks’ comings and goings. They threw the wealth of their treasuries into the desert.[1] The Göktürks still robbed the beacon posts and killed officials and people. No month passed without it.[1]

The emperor’s policy

The emperor then sets out his own course. To tax the people heavily in order to bestow gifts on jackals and wolves went against Heaven and Earth. The recipients never felt gratitude, he says, and used the gifts to become bandits.[1] He had stopped the payments and given the goods to his officers and soldiers. The men who had carried them went back to ploughing and weaving.[1] The Göktürks, he says, had not understood his purpose.[1] They had come out of all their lairs together against the northern frontier. His distant garrisons had met and broken them. More than half of those struck by bow and blade did not go home.[1]

The khaganate in the edict

The longest passage describes the enemy. The Göktürks had five chiefs.[1] Brothers fought for seniority. Fathers and uncles suspected each other. Outwardly they patched things over, but at heart they were divided.[1] The peoples of the east bore them private grudges. The chiefs of the west had old resentments.[1] The edict says that to the north of the Göktürks the Khitan ground their teeth and waited for their chance.[1] The Bei Shi has the Qigu instead of the Khitan.[2] A modern translation prefers the Bei Shi’s reading. Its reason is that the Khitan did not live north of the Göktürks.[4]

The edict then lists the revolts. Tardush had attacked Jiuquan. Afterwards Khotan, Persia and the Hephthalites rose against the Göktürks at once.[1] Ishbara had lately made for Zhoupan. Soon afterwards the Bogu and the Shuheluo inside his own tribes had risen.[1] In earlier years Goguryeo and the Mohe had badly beaten Lijicha, and Suopi Shad had been killed by the Hezhi Khan.[1] All their neighbours, the edict says, wished to destroy them.[1]

The edict does not name the five chiefs.[1] A modern translation suggests Ishbara, Amrak, Tardush, Apa and Tanhan as the five khans whose bowmen invaded in 582.[5]

Omens and drought

For nearly twelve years, the edict says, there had been evil omens in the Göktürk land.[1] Beasts spoke with human voices, and men spoke with the words of spirits. They foretold the end of the state and then vanished.[1] Every winter there was thunder. Fire came out of the ground.[1] The Göktürks lived on water and grazing alone.[1] In the past year there had been neither rain nor snow in any season.[1] The rivers dried up. Locusts swarmed, and the plants were burnt.[1] Hunger and pestilence had killed half the men and half the herds. The survivors had moved south of the desert to live a little longer.[1] The edict reads all this as the anger of Heaven, which was driving the Göktürks under the axe.[1]

Aims and limits

His soldiers, the emperor wrote, longed to take the heads of the famous kings and to flog the back of the chanyu.[1] He did not want the steppe itself. The old emperors had stopped at Youdu in the north. The Göktürk land could not be lived in if taken, and its people could not all be killed.[1] Those who surrendered were to be accepted. Those who resisted were to die.[1] The peoples the Göktürks oppressed were to be freed. The frontier was to be fortified so that the Göktürks would never again dare to look south.[1] Near its end the edict asks: what need was there for hostage princes at court, or for homage at the Wei bridge?[1]

The offensive

The Zizhi tongjian follows the edict with the war.[3] The prince of Wei and others were made field marshals. They were sent beyond the frontier by eight routes.[3] In the same month the prince met Ishbara in the battle of Baidao. He broke Ishbara’s army.[3] The edict had promised a war of one blow against a divided enemy. In 583 the Sui fought it.

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 Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  2. ^ a b Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99
  3. ^ a b c d Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 175
  4. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 70
  5. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 67

Sources

Literature

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

Related

What links here10

Persons
Hezhi Khan · Lijicha · Suopi Shad · Tanhan Khan
Conflicts
Mukan's Eastern and Northern Wars
Battles & Events
Battle of Baidao (583) · Battle of Zhoupan (582)
Places
Jiuquan · Zhoupan
Institutions and Titles
Livestock Losses in the Annals

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Edict of Emperor Wen against the Göktürks (583).” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/edict-of-emperor-wen-583/

Last revised: 7 November 2026