Böri (Guard)

The guard of the Göktürk khan bore the name of the wolf.^[1] The Zhou Shu calls the men of the guard 附離, fuli. It says that in Chinese the word means wolf.^[1] It explains that the Göktürks were born of a wolf and meant not to forget their origin.^[1]

The guard in the Chinese histories

The sentence stands in the Zhou Shu’s account of Göktürk customs. It comes directly after the golden wolf’s head that was set on the standards.^[1] The Bei Shi and the Tongdian both repeat it, and both follow the Zhou Shu.^[2] The Xin Tang Shu says only that the guards were called fuli.^[3] It places the line beside the khan’s court on Mount Dujin. At the gate of that court a standard with a golden wolf’s head was raised.^[3]

The word

Modern accounts read the Turkic word behind fuli as böri, wolf.^[4] The Kül Tegin inscription uses böri in a simile for the army of İlteriš: “my father the khan’s army was like wolves, and his enemies were like sheep”.^[5] The inscriptions say nothing of a guard.