Poluomen Khan

Poluomen ruled the Rouran for a few months of 521, while Anagui was a refugee at the Wei court. The Wei Shu is the only source on him. It treats his case as a study in how a client could not be handled.^[1] The usual lists of Rouran khans pass over him. The chapter that lists the khans does not.

Elevation (521)

After the murder of Chounu in 520 and the flight of Anagui to the Wei, Shifa, a cousin who had driven Anagui out, controlled the steppe.^[1] Poluomen, a paternal cousin of Anagui, led several tens of thousands against Shifa and defeated him. Shifa fled to the Didouyu, who killed him. The people then made Poluomen ruler, with the title Mi’oukesheju Khan, “tranquil”.^[1] The civil war has its own article.

Dealings with the Wei

The Wei had just given Anagui a title and a train of gifts to take him home. Now they had two khans to deal with. Yang Jun, the garrison commander of Huaishuo, reported that the Rouran had already set up a ruler, a cousin of Anagui. He added that beasts with the hearts of beasts would hardly go out to welcome the brother of the man they had killed.^[1] Sending Anagui north lightly would only throw away the state’s prestige. Nothing short of a large army would do.^[1] In the second month of 521, Emperor Xiaoming sent Dieyun Juren, an old hand in Rouran embassies, to Poluomen. Juren was to tell him that Anagui should be received back as vassal ruler.^[1] Poluomen was arrogant and made no gesture of yielding. He demanded that Juren do him reverence. Juren, holding his credentials, refused.^[1] Poluomen sent two thousand men under a mohequfen and an irkin to accompany Juren and fetch Anagui. In the fifth month Juren was back at his garrison, reporting the state of things. Anagui was afraid and would not go. He asked to return to the capital.^[1]

Fall

Then the Gaoche drove Poluomen out. Yifu, the Gaoche king, had been restored by the Hephthalites after the death of his brother Mi’etu. He defeated the Rouran. Poluomen, at the head of ten tribes, came to Liangzhou and surrendered. Several tens of thousands of Rouran then came out to welcome Anagui.^[1] In the tenth month the Wei court debated what to do with two khans. It settled on the precedent of the Han’s southern and northern chanyu and the Jin’s eastern and western chanyu.^[1] Anagui was to be placed at the Tuoruoxi springs north of Huaishuo, outside the frontier. Poluomen was to be placed in the old commandery of Xihai north of Dunhuang, inside the frontier.^[1] Each was to gather his own scattered people. The garrisons of Woye, Huaishuo and Wuchuan were each to detail two hundred men to escort them and build for them.^[1] In the twelfth month an imperial commissioner went to Dunhuang to settle Poluomen there.^[1] Poluomen and his people soon plotted to defect to the Hephthalites. The Hephthalite ruler’s three wives were all Poluomen’s sisters. The provincial army pursued and captured him.^[1]

Death

In 524 Poluomen died in the lodge south of the Luo at Luoyang. The court granted him posthumously the rank of general and duke of Guangmu.^[1]

Assessment

Poluomen’s few months show the Rouran at their lowest point before 552. There were two khans, one at a Chinese garrison and one at a Chinese capital. Each depended on the Wei to send him home. The Gaoche were free to defeat whichever of them was in the steppe. The khaganate recovered from this within a decade under Anagui. The recovery shows what Anagui did and why the Ashina still had an overlord in 546. Poluomen’s sisters at the Hephthalite court are the only record of a marriage tie between the two steppe powers. The sources otherwise leave obscure how these powers related to each other.