Nishufu was khan for about a year. He is the first of the three men raised in four years at the end of the interregnum. The chapter that records him does not say who he was. It says only what was done with him.[1]

The rising of 679

Map of northern China and the steppe, 679 to 681: the Göktürks of the Ordos and of Yunzhong in revolt, Pei Xingjian's marches from Chang'an to Black Mountain and into the west against Ashina Duzhi, Funian raised at Xiazhou, numbered in the order of events
679–681: In 679 the Göktürks of the Chanyu protectorate raise Nishufu as khan, and twenty-four prefectures rise with them. Pei Xingjian beats them at Black Mountain in 680, and Nishufu is killed by his own men. Funian, raised next at Xiazhou, surrenders to Pei Xingjian in 681 and is beheaded at Chang'an. The numbers follow the order of events. Modern map; the roads are drawn, not recorded.
© Emre-E Yavuz 2026

In 679 two Ashide chiefs within the Shanyu protectorate, Wenfu and Fengzhi, rose together. They set up Nishufu as khan.[1] The response was large. Twenty-four prefectures rebelled with them.[1] Those prefectures were the Göktürk tribes as the Tang had organised them. They went over as units. The loose-rein system had kept the tribes intact. In 679 they used the structure they had been given.

The first Tang force was destroyed. Wenfu beat Xiao Siye and Li Jingjia, who lost more than ten thousand men.[1] That is the only defeat on this scale the Tang suffered on the northern frontier in the whole period the chapter covers between 630 and 682.

The end

The second army was of a different order. Pei Xingjian was made Grand Commander of the Dingxiang road and came north with more than three hundred thousand men. He broke Wenfu badly.[1]

The khan did not fall in that battle. Nishufu was killed by his own followers, and Fengzhi was taken alive.[1] The chapter gives no reason and none can be established from it.

Aftermath

The tribes did not go back to quiet. Within months they fetched Ashina Funian from Xiazhou and answered him as they had answered Nishufu. Two years after that Ilterish gathered the men who had scattered from Funian’s defeat.[1] Nishufu is the first attempt in a sequence of three. The sequence succeeded.

One thing distinguishes him from the two who followed. Funian and Ilterish were both of the Ashina, and the chapter says so in the same breath as their names. For Nishufu it says nothing.[1] The sources do not settle whether the men of 679 raised a khan from outside the ruling house. They do not settle whether that is why the rising went the way it did.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194

Sources

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)

Related

What links here6

Persons
Ashide Yuanzhen · Ashina Funian · Pei Xingjian
States
The Göktürk interregnum, 630–682
Places
Shanyu Protectorate
Lineages
Ashide

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Nishufu Khan.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/nishufu-khan/

Last revised: 7 November 2026