Early in 647 the Tang emperor Taizong gave a banquet for the chiefs of the Uyghurs and the other Tiele tribes before they went home.[1] The tribes had destroyed the Xueyantuo and submitted to the Tang. Their lands had just been made Tang governorships.[2] The Xin Tang Shu says that wine welled up from a hidden spring into a silver jar on a high stand before the hall. Several thousand Uyghurs drank from it without emptying it by half.[3] After the banquet the chiefs asked for a road through their lands to the emperor’s court.[3]

The Tiele at court

In 646 the Uyghurs under their chief Tumidu and the other tribes broke the Xueyantuo and took their lands.[4] Eleven tribes sent word that the Xueyantuo had brought their ruin on themselves. They asked the emperor for Tang officials.[2] Taizong travelled to Lingzhou to receive their submission.[5] At the end of 646 the chiefs came to court. The emperor feasted them in the Fanglan hall and had them entertained every fifth day.[6]

In the first month of 647 an edict made the Uyghur land the governorship of Hanhai. It made the lands of the other tribes governorships and prefectures, each under its own chief.[2] The Tang used the same form for other steppe peoples who had submitted, the loose-rein prefectures. The chiefs received fish-shaped tallies of black metal inscribed in gold. The emperor had robes of crimson and yellow brocade, precious swords and rare vessels made for them.[3] The Tiele had never seen such things.[7] They held the gifts above their heads, cheered, bowed and danced. They rolled in the dust.[1]

The fountain

The court was then at Chang’an.[6] The Xin Tang Shu sets the banquet in an inner hall of the palace. The emperor sat there while the court’s ten kinds of music were played.[3] In front of the hall stood a high stand with a silver jar on it, 朱提瓶.[3] Wine welled up as from a hidden spring.[3] It ran in a concealed channel from the side hall on the left to the foot of the stand. It rose into the jar and flowed on into a silver basin that held a hundred hu, a Chinese measure of capacity.[3] Several thousand Uyghurs drank.[3] When they had finished, the basin was not yet half empty.[3] The emperor also ordered the civil and military officials of the fifth rank and above to hold a farewell drinking for them in the Department of State Affairs.[3]

The road to the Heavenly Khan

The chiefs then spoke together to the emperor.[3] They had been born in a wild and rude land, they said. Now the emperor had given them offices and ranks and made them his people, and they looked to the Tang as to father and mother.[3] They asked for a great road through the lands of the Uyghurs and the Göktürks. They promised to be subjects of the Tang for all generations.[3] The Xin Tang Shu calls it the Road for Paying Court to the Heavenly Supreme One. The Zizhi tongjian calls it the Road for Paying Court to the Heavenly Khan.[2] The emperor ordered sixty-eight post stations set up south of the desert, by the Pelican Spring. They were stocked with horses, milk and meat for the envoys.[3] The tribes were to pay a yearly tax in sable skins.[2] The Zizhi tongjian has wine and meat at the stations instead of milk and meat.[6]

Tumidu was made a general and governor of Hanhai.[5] Privately he already called himself khan. He named his officials as the Göktürks had done.[4]

The witnesses

The fountain stands in the Xin Tang Shu alone.[3] The Zizhi tongjian and the Cefu yuangui record a farewell banquet in the Tiancheng hall, with the ten kinds of music, but no fountain.[1] The banquet in the Tiancheng hall is the same banquet as the one in the Xin Tang Shu. The Xin Tang Shu speaks only of an inner hall and gives it no name. The Jiu Tang Shu says only that the Uyghur envoys were feasted in the inner hall in 646 for their part in the destruction of the Xueyantuo.[8] The Cefu yuangui, the Xin Tang Shu and the Zizhi tongjian were all compiled in the eleventh century from older records of the Tang court. Only the Xin Tang Shu kept the fountain.

References

  1. ^ a b c Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 198; Cefu yuangui, juan 974
  2. ^ a b c d e Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 198
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  4. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217; Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 198
  5. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  6. ^ a b c Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 198
  7. ^ Cefu yuangui, juan 974
  8. ^ Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195

Sources

Related

What links here10

Persons
Shiboqu Azhan
States
Xueyantuo Khaganate (Syr Tardush)
Battles & Events
The Ten Steeds of 647 · The Uyghur Demand for the Prince's Dance (762)
Places
Anbei Protectorate
Institutions and Titles
Furs and Musk among the Turkic Peoples · Post and Communication · Trade Routes of the Steppe
Religions
Manichaean Diet of the Uyghurs
Foods
Grape Wine in Central Asia

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Banquet of the Wine Fountain (647).” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/events/wine-fountain-banquet-647/

Last revised: 7 November 2026