Kang Sumi

Kang Sumi was a chief of the hu, the western foreigners, at the court of Ilig Khan.^[1] In 630 he went over to the Tang. He brought with him the last members of the Sui house at the Göktürk court.^[1]

The defection of 630

In the first month of 630 the Tang general Li Jing fell on Dingxiang by night. Ilig moved his camp to Qikou.^[1] The hu chief Kang Sumi and others then came over to the Tang with the Sui empress Xiao and Yang Zhengdao.^[2] The empress was the widow of the Sui emperor Yang.^[1] Yang Zhengdao was the emperor’s grandson. Chula Khan had made him king of Sui at the court in exile in 620.^[3]

The Zizhi tongjian counts Kang Sumi among the men closest to Ilig.^[4] According to the same text, Li Jing had sent spies to turn the khan’s confidants against him.^[4] The party reached the capital on the day yihai of the same month.^[4] The Cefu yuangui calls him the head of the hu.^[5] The Xin Tang Shu calls him a great chief. It writes the last character of his name 蜜.^[6] In the Xin Tang Shu, the biography of Zhishi Sili credits Zhishi Sili with the escort of the empress.^[7]

In Tang service

In the sixth month of 630 the Tang made Kang Sumi, then a general of the Right Courageous Guard, governor-general of Bei’anzhou.^[4] The command lay in the Ordos.^[8] The origin of the Sogdian settlement in the Ordos may lie in his surrender and in that of other Sogdians of high rank after 630.^[8]

Name

康蘇密ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
康蘇蜜ChineseXin Tangshu 215
*SumitSogdian

The surname Kang is one of the family names that the Chinese texts give to people from Sogdiana.^[9] Modern accounts take his given name to be the Sogdian Sumit, from the Indian name Sumitta.^[8] The Tang histories call him a hu chief. Modern accounts regard him as a Sogdian.^[10]