Geli Daguan, 哥利達官, is one of the early Göktürk titles that the Tongdian explains from a Göktürk word. The Göktürks, it says, called old geli, and so there was the geli daguan.[1] The passage belongs to the Tongdian’s account of the early ranks of the khaganate. Their names were taken from the body, from age, from colour and hair, from wine and meat, or from animals.[1]
The second word is daguan, which the Chinese histories also give in the titles of other Göktürk officers.[2] The Jiu Tang Shu names Hulu Daguan, an old minister of Ilig Khan, who cut his own throat to follow his master in death.[2] One translation of the Tongdian takes daguan for a spelling of tarkhan, meaning a holder of high office.[3]
The Tongdian names no holder of the geli daguan. It gives the office no duty.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Tongdian, juan 197
- ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
- ^ Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 21
Sources
- Tongdian, juan 197 (after Sui Shu and Zhou Shu)
- Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
Literature
- Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)
What links here3
- Institutions and Titles
- Daguan · The Twenty-Eight Ranks
- Languages
- Chinese transcriptions of Turkic
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Geli Daguan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/geli-daguan/
Last revised: 28 October 2026
