In 579 Taspar Khan asked the Northern Zhou for a marriage alliance.[1] The emperor gave a daughter of Yuwen Zhao, the prince of Zhao, the title Princess Qianjin and promised her to the khan.[2] In return he told Taspar to seize the Qi pretender Gao Shaoyi and send him to the court.[1] The princess went north in 580, and in the same year Taspar surrendered Shaoyi.[3] The Zhou Shu calls Taspar’s request heqin, 和親, the old word for a peace bound by a marriage.[1]

The bargain of 579

Since the fall of the Qi in 577, Taspar had sheltered Gao Shaoyi and his court in exile and had raided the Zhou on Shaoyi’s behalf.[1] The Zhou annals enter the betrothal in the second month of 579: the daughter of the prince of Zhao was made Princess Qianjin and married to the Göktürks.[4] The Zizhi tongjian enters it in the same month. It adds that Taspar did not obey the order about Shaoyi.[5] According to the Zhou Shu, he went on raiding Bingzhou instead.[1] The Zhou annals date that raid to the fifth month of 579, and they record that in the sixth month the Zhou called up the people of Shandong to repair the Long Wall.[4]

Some scholars call Qianjin a cousin of the new Zhou emperor Xuan. They make the surrender of Shaoyi the first condition the Zhou set.[6] Others find in Taspar’s request no sign of weakness, although the Zhou court took it for one. He asked for peace and a wife a few weeks after his campaigns against the Zhou.[7] The Zhou court had just been beaten and was in no position to demand anything of him. Taspar went on raiding instead of surrendering Shaoyi.[7]

The princess goes north

On the wuwu day of the second month of 580 the Göktürks brought tribute to the Zhou court and came to fetch Princess Qianjin.[8] Shaoyi still stayed with the khan.[1] At the Zhou court the chancellor Yang Jian used the princess’s departure as a pretext. He called five princes to Chang’an, her father among them.[9] In the sixth month of 580 the Zhou sent Shenqing, the duke of Runan, and Zhangsun Sheng to escort her to the Göktürks.[9]

The khan liked Zhangsun Sheng for his archery and kept him for a whole year.[10] He told his sons, brothers and nobles to make friends with Zhangsun Sheng. He hoped to learn his way of shooting.[10] A modern translation of Zhangsun Sheng’s biography adds that he brought down two eagles with one arrow while hunting with the khan.[11] The biography names the khan Shetu. The translator holds the name to be an error for Taspar.[11]

The surrender of Shaoyi

The Zhou sent Heruo Yi to bribe Taspar and to press him for Shaoyi.[9] Taspar went hunting with Shaoyi on his southern border and let Heruo Yi seize him.[9] The Zhou annals record that on the jiashen day of the seventh month the Göktürks delivered Gao Shaoyi.[12] The Zhou Shu sums up the exchange: Taspar gave Shaoyi up only when Heruo Yi came to persuade him.[1]

The princess and the Sui

In 580 Yang Jian falsely accused her father of conspiracy and killed him and his sons.[9] In 581 he took the throne and founded the Sui.[10] A modern account adds that he had the Zhou nobles at court executed. He spared only the Göktürk empress Ashina.[13]

After Taspar’s death Qianjin became the wife of his nephew Ishbara.[14] The Sui Shu says that she grieved for the end of her house’s ancestral sacrifices. She never ceased to urge Ishbara to take revenge on the Sui.[14] The Zizhi tongjian gives Ishbara’s answer: “I am a kinsman of the Zhou; now the duke of Sui has made himself emperor and I cannot stop him; with what face could I see the katun again?”[10] A modern note counts three khans whom she married in turn: Taspar, Ishbara and Tulan.[15] The Sui later gave her the title Princess Dayi. In the end Tulan killed her in his tent.[14]

The marriage of 580 gave the Zhou the last Qi pretender. To the Sui it left an enemy at the khan’s side.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  2. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  3. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 174
  4. ^ a b Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 7
  5. ^ Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 173
  6. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 309
  7. ^ a b Ecsedy 1968, p. 162
  8. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 7; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 174
  9. ^ a b c d e Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 174
  10. ^ a b c d Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 175
  11. ^ a b Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 133
  12. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 8
  13. ^ Yavuz 2025, p. 318
  14. ^ a b c Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  15. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 120

Sources

Literature

  • Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
  • Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)
  • Ildikó Ecsedy, Trade-and-War Relations between the Turks and China in the Second Half of the Sixth Century (1968)

Related

What links here11

Persons
Princess Qianjin
States
Northern Zhou
Conflicts
Hegemony Wars in Northern China
Battles & Events
Death of Princess Dayi · The Archery Match at the Wu'an Hall (599) · The Göktürk–Zhou alliance · The Qi Court in Exile (577–580) · The Siege of Jiuquan (578)
Institutions and Titles
Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Envoys and Embassies
Customs & Pastimes
Hunting among the Göktürks

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “The Marriage of Princess Qianjin (580).” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/qianjin-marriage-580/

Last revised: 8 November 2026