Chebi is the one khan of the interregnum whose title came from neither Chang’an nor an assembly of tribes. He gave it to himself.[1] He held it for about two decades in country so far north that the Chinese chapter measures it instead of naming it: ten thousand li from the capital.[1]
The title he refused
He was of the Ashina and held a lesser khanship by inheritance. His camp lay north of the Golden Mountain.[1] Ilig was destroyed in 630, and the tribes of the northern waste wanted to raise Chebi as great khan.[1] The Xueyantuo had made a khan of their own, so Chebi did not dare take the title. He brought his people in to the Xueyantuo instead.[1]
The chapter’s judgement of him is unusually direct for a man on the wrong side of it. It calls him brave and resolute, with a head for planning, and says that men attached themselves to him.[1] This following made the Xueyantuo decide to kill him. He learned of the plan and slipped away to his old ground. There he called himself Yizhu Chebi Khan.[1]
The realm in the north
What he held was not a remnant. He had thirty thousand men who could fight. The Karluks to his west and the Kirghiz to his north were subject to him. His eldest son led the Basmil.[1] The Göktürks of the Ordos were counted in Tang prefectures for twenty years. During those years this was the only Göktürk state there was.
The Xueyantuo were broken, and Chebi opened relations with Chang’an. He sent a son with tribute and asked to come himself.[1] A general was sent to fetch him. Chebi did not come, and the emperor was furious.[1]
The campaign of 649
The campaign of 649 was not a Chinese army marching north.[1] Gao Kan was sent to raise Uyghurs and Pugu and strike with them. The effect was immediate. The Karluk chief Nishu Que Ilteber, the Chumukun chief Moheduo Irkin and others turned their tribes against Chebi and came over one after another.[1]
The column reached the Axi mountains in 650. Chebi called up his own troops, and none of them came.[1] He fled with his wife and children and a few hundred riders. His people surrendered entire. Gao Kan took light cavalry after him and caught him.[1]
He was presented at the ancestral temple and at Zhaoling, the dynastic tomb. This was the ceremony reserved for a captured enemy of the state. The emperor listed his crimes and then pardoned him. He gave him a general’s commission and a house in Chang’an.[1] The chapter does not say when he died.
Aftermath
His people were settled at the Yudujun mountain, that is the Ötüken. A Tang command was set up to govern them.[1] His son Anshuo had gone over before the end. He was made a general and given a new prefecture of his own to lead his men.[1]
The chapter draws the conclusion itself. After Chebi was broken, the Göktürks were all subjects within the frontier. The two protectorates of Shanyu and Hanhai were established over them.[1] The prefecture system reached its full extent at the moment the last independent khan lost his army without a battle.
References
Sources
- Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
- Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215 (after Jiu Tangshu)
Literature
- Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)
- Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
What links here13
- Persons
- Gao Kan
- Battles & Events
- Kirghiz embassy of 648
- Places
- Anbei Protectorate · Shanyu Protectorate · Yunzhong
- Institutions and Titles
- Army of the Steppe Empires · Irkin · Ishbara (Title) · Loose-rein prefectures
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Chebi Khan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/chebi-khan/
Last revised: 7 November 2026
