Axian Shad

Axian Shad is the chief who stands at the head of the Ashina in the Chinese origin stories of the Göktürks. He comes after the legendary ancestors and before the historical house.

In the Zhou Shu’s story of the state of Suo, he is chosen after the death of Nadulu Shad.^[1] The sons of Nadulu’s ten wives gathered beneath a great tree and agreed that whoever leapt highest toward it should be raised as lord.^[1] The son of Ashina, young in years, leapt highest. The other sons raised him as their lord under the title Axian Shad.^[1] The words 阿史那子 can be taken in two ways. They may mean Ashina’s son. This makes Axian Shad the grandson of Nadulu.^[2] A second takes them as the son named Ashina. Then Ashina himself won the leap.^[3] The Tongdian leaves out the tree. It gives the title Axian Shad to Ashina, one of Nadulu’s sons.^[4]

The Sui Shu does not tell the Suo story. It puts Axian Shad into the story of the wolf and the cave.^[5] There the she-wolf bore ten sons, and the one surnamed Ashina became their lord. Then an Axian Shad led the tribe out of the cave. They served the Rouran for generations.^[5] By the time of the Great Yabgu, the title of Tuwu in the Xin Tang Shu, the stock had grown strong.^[6] The Bei Shi has these sentences in its cave story and the leap in its Suo story. Axian Shad therefore appears in both.^[7]

From Axian Shad the Zhou Shu passes to Bumin, whom it calls Tumen, with the words 其後曰土門. One translation takes them to make Tumen his successor.^[2] A second makes Tumen his grandson.^[8] The Xin Tang Shu makes Tuwu the grandson of Nadulu. Read together with it, Axian Shad becomes Nadulu’s son, Tuwu’s father and Bumin’s grandfather.^[8]

The last character, 設, is the title shad.^[8] The character 賢 occurs in Xiongnu titles and is understood as wise or sage, a counterpart of the Turkic bilge.^[3] The name has also been counted among the early names of the house that do not look Turkic.^[9] Whichever story carries him, Axian Shad is the last figure of the legend before the house enters history with Tuwu and Bumin.