In the ninth month of 630 the lord of the oasis town of Yiwu came to the Tang court.[1] He had long been a subject of the Göktürks.[2] After the fall of Ilig Khan he gave up the seven towns of his territory. The Tang made the land a prefecture.[3]

The town between Sui, Göktürks and Tang

The Xin Tang Shu says that Yiwu had been the seat of the Han commandant of Yihe.[4] Foreign merchants lived there among the townspeople. The town kept a thousand fighting men.[4] At the end of the Sui it submitted and became the commandery of Yiwu.[5] When the empire fell into disorder, it became subject to the Göktürks again.[5]

The submission

The Xin Tang Shu tells the submission in its chapter on the eastern Göktürks. There it stands among the surrenders that followed Ilig’s capture.[2] Its notice on the Western Regions dates the lord’s visit to court to the fourth year of Zhenguan, 630.[4] The Zizhi tongjian gives the day wuchen of the ninth month.[1] The Xin Tang Shu calls the new prefecture West Yi. The Zizhi tongjian calls it Yixi.[3] Some scholars add that the prefecture was renamed Yizhou in 632. It lay ten li south of Hami.[6]

The Jiu Tang Shu and the Xin Tang Shu say in their notices on Gaochang that Yiwu had been subject to the western Göktürks before it came under the Tang.[7] The chapter on the eastern Göktürks does not say which Göktürks it had served.[2]

Li Daliang’s advice

The Zizhi tongjian records that in the seventh month of 630, before the lord of Yiwu came, tribes of the western Göktürks were scattered about Yiwu.[1] The emperor Taizong made Li Daliang, the governor-general of Liangzhou, his commissioner for the north-west.[1] Li Daliang stored grain at Qikou to feed those who came. He sent envoys to win them over.[1]

Then he argued against the policy.[8] He wrote that China was the root and the foreign peoples the branches. To tire the root to feed the branches had never brought lasting peace.[1] The Sui had taken Yiwu early. The cost had grown every year without any gain.[9] Yiwu was called a subject, but it lay far off in the desert. Its people were not Chinese, and its land was sand and salt.[9] He advised that those of its people who set up their own lords and asked to become subjects should be received on a loose rein. They should be left outside the frontier as a screen for China.[8] Such a policy, he wrote, was an empty favour that brought real benefit.[1] The emperor followed his advice.[1]

Two months later the town that Li Daliang would have left outside the frontier became a Tang prefecture.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  2. ^ a b c Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
  3. ^ a b Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  4. ^ a b c Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 221
  5. ^ a b Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 221; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193
  6. ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 274
  7. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 198; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 221
  8. ^ a b Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 193; Tongdian, juan 197
  9. ^ a b Tongdian, juan 197

Sources

Literature

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

Related

What links here1

Places
Yiwu

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Submission of Yiwu (630).” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/submission-of-yiwu-630/

Last revised: 8 November 2026