Nadulu Shad

Nadulu Shad is the eldest of the four sons of the wolf-born Yizhi Nishidu. He appears in the second origin story of the Göktürks, which the Zhou Shu sets in the state of Suo.^[1] He lived on Mount Jiansi Chuzheshi. People of Abangbu’s stock still lived on that mountain. They suffered greatly from the cold and the dew.^[1] The eldest son brought out fire for them. He warmed and fed them, and all of them survived.^[1] They raised him together as their lord and gave him the name Türk. He was, the Zhou Shu says, Nadulu Shad.^[1] The second part of the name, 設, is the title shad.^[2]

Nadulu had ten wives. Each of their sons took the clan of his mother as his surname. Ashina was the son of a concubine, 小妻.^[1] When Nadulu died, the sons of the ten mothers met beneath a great tree to choose one of their number. Whoever leapt highest toward the tree was to be lord. The young Axian Shad won.^[1]

The Bei Shi writes his name 納都六設 and then shortens it to Dulu, 都六.^[3] The Tongdian tells a shorter version. It names the eldest son Nadulu Shad at once, has the people raise him under the same name, and leaves out the fire and the tree.^[4]

The Xin Tang Shu opens its chapter on the western Göktürks with a genealogy. Their ancestor was Tuwu, grandson of Nadulu, whose name is written 訥都陸. Tuwu bore the title Great Yabgu.^[5] Tuwu’s eldest son was Tumen Ilig Khan. His second son was Shidianmi.^[5] With that sentence the fire-bringer of the legend becomes the great-grandfather of the first khan.

The Suo story may make Türk a title of rule. The first legend, by contrast, derives the word from the helmet shape of the Altai.^[2] Modern accounts count the name itself among the early names of the house that do not look Turkic. Turkic words do not normally begin with n-.^[6] In the legend, Nadulu Shad is the man through whom the Göktürks receive both their name and their ruling clan.