Mukan Khan destroyed the last Rouran in the steppe, who followed Anagui’s uncle Dengshuzi.[1] Dengshuzi fled with the survivors to the Western Wei. There they were handed to Mukan’s envoys and killed.[1] The campaign closed the Göktürk–Rouran Wars in the steppe.

Background

After Anagui’s death in 552, the remnant of the Rouran in the steppe set up his uncle Dengshuzi as their ruler.[1] Bumin’s son and successor, Issik, broke Dengshuzi once more at Mount Mulai, north of Woye, in the battle of Mount Mulai.[1] The Zizhi tongjian enters that battle under 553.[2] Issik died soon after.[1] He passed over his own son Ishbara and made his younger brother Sijin his successor. Sijin reigned as Mukan Khan.[3]

The campaign

Mukan led an army against Dengshuzi and destroyed him.[1] The Zhou Shu gives the campaign one clause. It names no year, no place and no numbers.[1] Dengshuzi fled with the rest of his people to the Western Wei.[1] The Rouran chapter of the Bei Shi sets the flight into Guanzhong in 555 and counts more than a thousand households.[4] The campaign therefore falls between Issik’s death in 553 and that flight.

End

Mukan’s envoys came to Chang’an one after another to ask for the deaths of the fugitives.[5] The Wei chancellor Yuwen Tai agreed. Dengshuzi and some three thousand of his people were handed over and killed outside the Qingmen gate, in the Qingmen executions.[1]

It is not settled whether this Dengshuzi was the same man as the Dengzhu whom the Qi sent north in 553. The Qi annals have their Dengzhu killed by his own chief Afuti in that year, in the months before the Qi march to Shuozhou.[6] After Mukan’s campaign, no Rouran ruler is recorded in the steppe.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  2. ^ Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 165
  3. ^ Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99
  4. ^ Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 98
  5. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 98
  6. ^ Bei Qi Shu (Book of Northern Qi), juan 4

Sources

Related

What links here3

Persons
Dengzhu
Conflicts
The Göktürk–Rouran Wars
Battles & Events
The Qi March to Shuozhou (553)

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Mukan's Destruction of Dengshuzi (553–555).” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/mukans-destruction-of-dengshuzi/

Last revised: 28 October 2026