Afuzhiluo

Afuzhiluo founded the first Turkic-speaking state to break out of the Rouran khaganate. This was sixty-five years before the Ashina did the same. The Tiele whom Bumin intercepted in 546 were the descendants of the people he led west. The Wei Shu tells his story in its chapter on the Gaoche, the “high carts”.^[1]

Secession (487)

The Gaoche, the chapter says, had twelve clans, and the Fufuluo were one of them.^[1] The Fufuluo had been subjects of the Rouran. In the time of Tulun the Rouran state was in disorder and its tribes were scattered. Afuzhiluo of the Fufuluo and his cousin Qiongqi then together commanded more than a hundred thousand tents of Gaoche.^[1] In 487 Tulun raided the Wei frontier. Afuzhiluo and the others remonstrated firmly, but they were not heard. In anger they led their people west in revolt, to the north-west of the Former Division of Gaochang, that is to the Dzungarian side of the Tianshan.^[1] There he set himself up as king. His people called him Houloufule, “great son of heaven” in the Wei gloss, and Qiongqi Houbei, “heir”. The two lived in concord and divided the people, Afuzhiluo in the north and Qiongqi in the south.^[1] Tulun pursued him and was beaten again and again. Tulun led the Rouran east.^[1] The secession has its own article. Modern accounts understand it as a revolt of the Tiele under Rouran control. The Tiele migrated north and west and declared their independence at a safe distance.^[2] The Tölös were subjects of the Rouran from 460. Their successful rising is dated to 508, and they were free for a decade after it.^[2]

Two arrows (490)

In 490 Afuzhiluo sent a hu merchant named Yuezhe to the Wei capital to offer two arrows as tribute and to say: “The Rouran are rebels against the Son of Heaven; I remonstrated with them and was not heard, so I rebelled and came here and set myself up; I will destroy the Rouran for the Son of Heaven.”^[1] The emperor Xiaowen did not believe it. He sent an envoy, Yu Ti, to see whether it was true.^[1] Afuzhiluo and Qiongqi sent an envoy of their own back with Yu Ti. He bore the products of their country.^[1] The Wei sent a second envoy with gifts of embroidered trousers and a hundred bolts of coloured silk for each of the two rulers.^[1] Under the Sogdians, Turkic Atlas takes up the fact that the messenger was a hu, a Sogdian merchant.

Hephthalites and the end

The Hephthalites afterwards killed Qiongqi. They carried off his son Mi’etu and others. His people scattered, some to the Wei and some to the Rouran. The Wei settled those who came to them at the Gaoping garrison.^[1] Afuzhiluo’s eldest son took his father’s other wives and plotted to kill him. Afuzhiluo killed the son.^[1] Then, the chapter says, Afuzhiluo himself turned cruel and lost the hearts of the people. They killed him together and set up his kinsman Baliyan.^[1] A year or so later the Hephthalites marched on the Gaoche to install Mi’etu. The people killed Baliyan and received Mi’etu as their king.^[1] The state Afuzhiluo founded went on without him. Mi’etu killed Futu north of Barkol in 508. In 516 Chounu captured and killed Mi’etu.^[1] His brother Yifu was restored once more by the Hephthalites. He broke the Rouran in 521 and drove Poluomen to the Wei.^[1]

Assessment

Afuzhiluo’s kingdom was the western counterweight to the Rouran for the last sixty-five years of the khaganate. It was alternately beaten by them and beating them. Like the Rouran, it depended on the Hephthalites for its kings. The Wei sought the Gaoche as allies against the Rouran from the 430s. The two arrows of 490 are that alliance offered from the other side.^[3] For the Göktürks the secession is the precedent. A Turkic-speaking subject people of the Rouran broke away under a chief with a title of its own. It held the west against the khan.