In the disorders at the end of the Sui many Chinese had fallen into the hands of the Göktürks.[1] After the fall of Ilig Khan, an edict of the Tang sent envoys to buy them back with gold and silk.[2] The envoys redeemed eighty thousand men and women and made them commoners again.[2] The Zizhi tongjian records the officials’ report of the total on the day yichou of the fifth month of 631.[3]

The Chinese among the Göktürks

The Göktürks had gathered many Chinese in the years of the Sui collapse. In 620 Chula Khan placed more than ten thousand Chinese from his court under the Sui prince Yang Zhengdao at Dingxiang.[4] In 622 Ilig’s riders carried off more than five thousand men and women from Fenzhou and Luzhou.[5] In 626 Ilig swore the oath at the Wei bridge. Taizong then refused Ilig’s horses and sheep and ordered him instead to send back all the Chinese households he had carried off.[5] In 629 a Tang governor-general named the many Chinese in the north among the reasons why the Göktürks could be beaten.[3]

The ransom

The Xin Tang Shu places the edict among the measures that followed Ilig’s capture in 630.[2] The annals of the Jiu Tang Shu enter the ransom of the eighty thousand under the fourth month of 631. They say that the captives were sent back to their kin.[6] The annals of the Xin Tang Shu enter it under the day yichou of the fifth month.[6]

In the same passage the Xin Tang Shu records a second edict.[2] The bones of Göktürks who had died of pestilence lay south of the Long Wall like hills. The officials were to offer wine and dried meat and bury them.[2]

Not all of the captives came home.[7] After Ilig’s defeat a number of those who had gone to the Göktürks at the end of the Sui fled into Gaochang.[7] An edict ordered that they be escorted home. The king of Gaochang, Qu Wentai, kept them back.[7]

References

  1. ^ Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  2. ^ a b c d e Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
  3. ^ a b Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  4. ^ Tongdian, juan 197
  5. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
  6. ^ a b Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 332
  7. ^ a b c Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 221

Sources

Literature

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

Related

What links here2

Institutions and Titles
Captives and the Unfree · Envoys and Embassies

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Ransom of the Chinese from the Göktürks (631).” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/ransom-of-the-captives-631/

Last revised: 7 November 2026