Li Chengqian, a son of the Tang emperor Taizong, was crown prince from his father’s accession.[1] The Xin Tang Shu says that he loved the speech and the dress of the Göktürks.[1] He had servants dressed as Göktürks and set up a camp of felt tents under wolf-head standards. He lived in a domed tent himself.[1] Once he played the death of a khan. He had his people wail, cut their faces and ride round him.[1] The history tells it among the misdeeds that ended in his fall.

The prince

As he grew up Li Chengqian loved music and idle pleasure, the Xin Tang Shu says. But he feared his father and hid it.[1] In the Eastern Palace there was an actor boy of fine looks whom he loved.[1] The emperor heard of it, was furious, and had the boy and several others put to death.[1] Chengqian believed that his brother Tai had informed against him.[1] He built a house with the boy’s portrait, gave him an office and a stele, raised a tomb in the garden and made offerings there morning and evening.[1] Then he pleaded illness and stayed away from court for months.[1]

He also had dozens or hundreds of household slaves learn music and the topknot of the Hu. He had them cut coloured silk into dancing clothes, climb poles and leap among swords. The drums sounded day and night without a pause.[1] He cast a great bronze furnace and a cauldron. He called runaway slaves to steal cattle and horses from other people. He watched the meat boil and ate it with the grooms he favoured.[1]

The camp

Chengqian chose men whose looks were like those of the Hu, put sheepskin coats on them and braided their hair.[1] Five men formed one camp.[1] They stretched felt tents. He had five wolf-head standards made.[1] The halberds were set out in ranks, and pennants and banners hung from them.[1] He pitched a domed tent and lived in it.[1] The groups gathered sheep and boiled them. The men drew the knives from their belts, cut the meat and ate it.[1]

The pieces were taken from what the Chinese histories said of the Göktürks. The Zhou Shu and the Bei Shi say that the Göktürks set a golden wolf’s head on top of their standards.[2] They lived in domed tents of felt and ate meat.[3] The Xin Tang Shu names the Göktürks only for the speech and the dress. For the men’s looks and the topknot it uses the wider word Hu.[1]

The death of the khan

Chengqian played the death of a khan himself.[1] He made the crowd wail and slash their faces, and riders galloped round and up to him.[1] The Sui Shu describes the Göktürk funeral in the same terms. Kinsfolk circled the tent of the dead, wailed and cut their faces with a knife until blood and tears ran together. They did it seven times.[3]

Then Chengqian sprang up.[1] “If I held the empire,” he said, “I would lead tens of thousands of horsemen to Jincheng, then loosen my hair and entrust myself to Simo as one of his shads. Would that not be a joy?”[1] His attendants whispered among themselves and took it for a bad sign.[1]

Armour of felt

Chengqian also folded felt into armour, ranged red banners and drew his groups up in ranks.[1] He and Yuan Chang, the Prince of Han, each took one side. They shouted and charged for sport.[1] Those who did not obey were stripped and beaten against a tree. Some were beaten to death.[1] He said that if he were emperor he would give rein to his desires. If anyone remonstrated, he would kill him: five hundred dead, and the matter would be settled.[1]

The end

Chengqian then plotted with others to kill his brother Tai.[1] When that failed, he swore with Yuan Chang, Hou Junji and others, in blood from their cut arms, to enter the western palace with soldiers.[1] In 643 the Prince of Qi rose in revolt at Qizhou. Chengqian told his men that the wall of his palace stood only twenty paces from the imperial residence, and asked whether that could be compared with Qizhou.[1] One of the men of the plot was imprisoned in the affair of Qizhou and, facing death, reported it.[1] The emperor had his chief ministers investigate. He reduced Chengqian to a commoner and banished him to Qianzhou.[1] Chengqian died there in 645. The emperor suspended court and had him buried with the rites of a duke.[1]

Dating

The Xin Tang Shu gives no year for the camp.[1] It tells the camp after the death of the actor and before the plot against Tai, which was exposed in 643.[1] The Simo of the prince’s remark is probably Ashina Simo, whom the Tang made khan of the Göktürks in 639. If so, the scene falls after Simo became khan.

What survives is a record of how the steppe looked from the Tang court: felt tents, wolf heads, the knife at the belt and the ride round the dead.

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 Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 80
  2. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99
  3. ^ a b Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84

Sources

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Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Li Chengqian's Göktürk Camp.” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/li-chengqians-gokturk-camp/

Last revised: 28 October 2026