In the ninth month of 758 the Uyghurs told the Tang court that they had broken 50,000 Kirghiz.[1] The message came with the thanks of the Uyghur khan for a Tang princess. It is the only report of the fight.[2] After the defeat the Kirghiz could not reach China. The Uyghurs gave their ruler a title that did not include the word khan.[3]

The report

The Uyghur khan of these years was Bayanchur, the Moyanchuo of the Chinese.[4] In the seventh month of 758 the emperor had given his youngest daughter to the Uyghur khan as Princess Ningguo.[1] In the eighth month the Uyghur prince Guzhuo came with 3,000 men to help the Tang against the rebels. The emperor put the troops under Pugu Huai’en.[1] On the day jiashen of the ninth month the Uyghurs sent the great chief Gai Jiang and others to give thanks for the princess.[1] The day is 21 October 758.[5] At the same time they sent up a memorial that they had broken 50,000 Kirghiz.[1] The emperor gave a banquet in the Zichen Hall and presents according to rank.[1]

The Xin Tang Shu tells it more shortly. The Uyghurs sent the great chief General Gai and three women to give thanks for the marriage. At the same time they reported the achievement of destroying Jiankun.[3] The newer history draws on the older one. The two therefore make one report.[6]

The report is dated, but the fight is not. It took place before the ninth month of 758. The Xin Tang Shu puts the defeat in the Qianyuan period, which began that year.[3] In these passages the Chinese name of the Kirghiz is Jiankun, the old name.[1]

Before 758

In the 740s and early 750s the Uyghurs campaigned successfully against the Karluks and the Çik, allies of the Kirghiz.[7] An Old Turkic inscription found near the Selenga, the Shine-Usu stone, is reported to record the events of the Uyghur khan to 757. It is also reported to name clashes with the Çik and the Kirghiz on the Yenisei in 750 and 751, and a Kirghiz khan.[4]

After the defeat

The Xin Tang Shu says that the Uyghurs broke the Kirghiz in the Qianyuan period and that from then on the Kirghiz could not reach China.[3] It says that they leaned on the Arabs, the Tibetans and the Karluks. It adds that the Uyghurs gave their ruler the office of Bilga Ton Irkin.[3] The Chinese text puts that grant after the defeat and gives no year.[3] The Chinese 毗伽頓頡斤 stands for Bilga Ton Irkin. It is a Turkic title without the word khan.[8]

The Chinese took the defeat for final. The likely reason is that Kirghiz embassies stopped coming to China.[4] The Kirghiz lost the khan’s title and their independence, but they kept their own rule.[4] The Kirghiz ruler styled himself khan again about 820. The war that ended in 840 followed.[9]

The Uyghur hold on the Kirghiz was not overwhelming. The Xin Tang Shu speaks of Kirghiz trade that went on with the Karluks, the Tibetans and the Arabs.[3] Even so, the Uyghur blockade between China and the upper Yenisei held so well that little is known of the Kirghiz until the fall of the Uyghurs in 840.[10] The Chinese record of Kirghiz envoys at the Tang court runs from 648 to 758. The defeat ended it.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
  2. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  4. ^ a b c d Barthold 1927, p. 15
  5. ^ Mackerras 1972, p. 66
  6. ^ Mackerras 1972, p. 12–13
  7. ^ Golden 1992, p. 180
  8. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 36; 15; Barthold 1927, p. 36; 15
  9. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 36–37
  10. ^ Drompp 2002, p. 482
  11. ^ Drompp 1999, p. 402

Sources

Literature

  • Colin Mackerras, The Uighur Empire According to the T'ang Dynastic Histories (1972)
  • Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
  • Michael R. Drompp, Tang China and the Collapse of the Uighur Empire: A Documentary History (2005)
  • Michael R. Drompp, Breaking the Orkhon Tradition: Kirghiz Adherence to the Yenisei Region after A.D. 840 (1999)
  • Michael R. Drompp, The Yenisei Kyrgyz from Early Times to the Mongol Conquest (2002)
  • V. V. Barthold, Kirgizy: istoričeskij očerk [Киргизы: исторический очерк] (1927)

Related

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Uyghur victory over the Kirghiz (758).” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/uyghur-victory-over-the-kirghiz-758/

Last revised: 8 November 2026