Sijie Irkin

The Sijie Irkin held the rank of irkin and was chief of the Sijie, one of the Tiele tribes under the eastern Göktürks.^[1] In 630, after the fall of Ilig Khan, he went over to the Tang with forty thousand people.^[1]

The Zizhi tongjian counts the Sijie among the fifteen Tiele tribes north of the desert. Their customs were much like those of the Göktürks.^[2] The Xin Tang Shu records his surrender after Ilig’s capture.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian dates the surrender to the day gengwu of the third month of 630. It calls him the Göktürk Sijie Irkin.^[3] The texts name him by his tribe and his rank. They give no personal name.

Later in 630 the Zizhi tongjian tells of the Sijie people inside the frontier.^[3] They were hungry and poor. Zhang Jian, the prefect of Shuozhou, gathered them in.^[3] When it was reported that the Sijie meant to rebel, he rode alone into their camp. He won them over and moved them to Daizhou.^[3] The Sijie never rebelled. Zhang Jian had them farm the land, and the harvests were rich.^[3] The surrender belongs to the Tang conquest of the eastern khaganate.