Tiele Revolt (605)

In 605 the Tiele tribes rose against Heshana, the khan of the western Göktürks. He was later called Heshana Khan.^[1] Heshana had attacked them and taxed them heavily. Fearing a rising, he gathered their chiefs and had them all killed.^[1] The tribes made Geleng of the Qibi their own khan, with his seat at Tanhan Mountain. They beat Heshana again and again.^[2]

The Tiele under the Göktürks

The Sui Shu describes the Tiele as the most numerous of peoples, spread through the mountains and valleys from the western sea eastward.^[1] Their tribes had no single ruler and belonged partly to the eastern, partly to the western Göktürks.^[1] Since the Göktürks had founded their state, they had used the Tiele in every war in the east and the west.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian names the Pugu, the Tongluo, the Qibi and the Xueyantuo among them. It says that their chiefs bore the title irkin.^[3]

Heshana was the son of Niri, the western khan, and of a Chinese woman, the Lady Xiang.^[1] He ruled without the right way, the Sui Shu says. Many of his people rebelled.^[1] He fought the Tiele several times and was badly beaten by them.^[1]

The killing of the chiefs

In the first year of Daye, 605, Heshana attacked the Tiele tribes and taxed their goods heavily.^[1] He distrusted the Xueyantuo and the others and feared that they would rise.^[1] He gathered several hundred of their leaders and had them all killed.^[2] According to one modern account, a new tax policy came first and protest followed. That account counts about a hundred chiefs executed at a single meeting.^[4]

The Tiele khan

The tribes rose together and refused Heshana.^[1] They raised Geleng, a chief of the Qibi who bore the titles xilifa and irkin, as Yiwuzhen Mohe Khan. He took his seat at Tanhan Mountain.^[1] A Xueyantuo chief named Yedie became lesser khan beside him.^[2] The notice on the Xueyantuo in the Xin Tang Shu calls this lesser khan Yishibo. It gives him the title Yedie Khan, with his seat at Mount Yanmo.^[5] One modern account has the same names.^[4]

Geleng was brave beyond compare. He won the hearts of his people, and his neighbours feared him.^[1] Yiwu, Gaochang and Yanqi all adhered to him.^[1] He fought Heshana and beat him again and again.^[3] When Heshana had been beaten, Geleng grew great.^[1] According to one modern account, the rebels drove Heshana from Dzungaria into the country of the Ili river by about 605.^[4]

Consequences

Heshana’s defeats opened the way for the Sui.^[1] The official Pei Ju was drawing the western states to the Sui from Dunhuang. He heard that Heshana’s state was in turmoil and proposed an embassy to him, the embassy of Cui Junsu.^[1] In 607 the Tiele themselves sent envoys with local products to the Sui. From then on the envoys did not stop.^[1] The same year the Tiele raided the Sui frontier.^[3] A Sui army under Feng Xiaoci went out from Dunhuang against them without success. The Tiele then sent envoys to apologise and ask to submit.^[3] In 608 Pei Ju persuaded the Tiele to attack the Tuyuhun. They inflicted a heavy defeat on them.^[6]

The independence of the Tiele khan did not last.^[5] Shegui made the western Göktürks strong again. Geleng and the Xueyantuo khan then gave up their titles and submitted to him.^[5]