Duoxifu

Duoxifu was a brother of Kapgan Khan and a holder of high office in the khaganate that Ilterish restored. The Tang histories name him twice: once in the list of appointments that followed Ilterish’s rising, and once in the account of the year 699.^[1]

Yabgu under Ilterish

Ilterish gathered the fugitives of the defeated Funian in the Zongcai mountains and raided the Nine Surnames until he was strong. Then he set himself up as khan, and he made his brother Mochuo shad and Duoxifu yabgu.^[1] The Xin Tang Shu dates the rising to 682, the Jiu Tang Shu to 683. The literature follows 682.

The sentence does not say how Duoxifu was related to Ilterish. It names him straight after Mochuo, and Mochuo is the later Kapgan Khan.^[1] The account of 699 calls Duoxifu the younger brother of Mochuo.^[2] Since Mochuo was Ilterish’s brother, the literature counts Duoxifu as Ilterish’s brother as well.^[3]

The left wing in 699

In 699 Kapgan gave the khaganate its shape. He set his brother Duoxifu over the left wing and Ilterish’s son Moju over the right, and each of them commanded more than twenty thousand men.^[2] Above both stood Kapgan’s own son Fuju, the Lesser Khan, with the troops of the Ten Surnames in the west.^[2] The Chinese text writes the wing commanders with the character 察, cha. The literature renders them as shad of the left and shad of the right.^[4]

The Eletmiš Yabgu of the Ongin stone

The Ongin inscription names an Eletmiš Yabgu in the family of its dead man. Two editions set him beside Duoxifu, and they differ on who stands where.

One edition takes the Eletmiš Yabgu for the father of the dead man and equates him with Duoxifu. Its ground is the title: Ilterish gave Duoxifu the rank of yabgu, and the stone gives the same rank to the man it names. No source puts the two names side by side.^[3] The other edition takes the dead man himself for Duoxifu. It reads his name as *Turs Bäg and sees his son in the man who raised the stone.^[5] The two editions agree that the Eletmiš Yabgu is Duoxifu, and they disagree on who lies under the stone.^[6]

References

^ a b c Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215
^ a b c Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
^ a b Dobrovits 2000, p. 149
^ Dobrovits 2000, p. 149,63; Li 2013, p. 149,63
^ Ōsawa 2011, p. 196
^ Dobrovits 2000, p. 149,196; Ōsawa 2011, p. 149,196

Sources

Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 215 (after Jiu Tangshu)
Ongi inscription

Literature

Mihály Dobrovits, Ongin Yazıtını Tahlile Bir Deneme (2000)
Yong-Sŏng Li, On the 51st Line of the Tuñuquq Inscription / Tunyukuk Yazıtı’nın 51. Satırı Üzerine (2013)
Takashi Ōsawa, Revisiting the Ongi inscription of Mongolia from the Second Turkic Qaγanate on the basis of rubbings by G. J. Ramstedt (2011)