Ta-bu-he-zu

Ta-bu-he-zu was a general of the Kirghiz. He was the first envoy the Kirghiz sent to the Tang after they had destroyed the Uyghur khaganate.^[1] He reached the frontier city of Tiande with his retinue in the tenth month of 842, between 6 November and 5 December.^[1]

The embassy

Nearly all that is known of the embassy comes from one letter. Li Deyu drafted it for the military governor Liu Mian to send to the Uyghur minister. It is dated probably to December 842 or January 843.^[1] It was the last known Tang message to the camp of the Uyghur khan Wujie.^[1] The letter was meant to persuade, so some of what it reports may be exaggerated. The envoy’s own message is lost.^[1]

The letter names seven men: General Ta-bu-he-zu, the tarqan Ge-xi-he-hai-yi, the executive officer Yuan-yin-suo-yi-han-a-yi-shi and others.^[2] The Tang pronunciation of the two names shows nothing in Old Turkic. The last three syllables of the second may render the Turkic ayaz, “bright, cloudless”.^[2] The Tang pronunciation of the general’s own name suggests no clear Turkic form. Its first two syllables are slightly reminiscent of Taspar, whom the Chinese write Ta-bo. The element he usually renders Turkic alp, “brave”. This word is common in Kirghiz names and titles of the ninth century. The syllable zu suggests nothing Turkic.^[1]

The petition

The draft quotes the petition. It says that in destroying the Uyghurs the Kirghiz had obtained the emperor’s daughter, the Taihe Princess. They had not dared to keep her, because their nation was originally of the same surname as the Tang.^[2] They had sent General Du-lü-shi Alp to escort her. Since then they had heard nothing, and they did not know whether she and her escort had reached the Tang or been cut off on the way. Their envoys had not come back.^[2] They had now sent out 400,000 troops to search. If the escort had gone to the Tibetans, they would search among the Tibetans.^[2] The number is that of the letter and not a count.^[1]

The envoy also said that the Kirghiz would obtain Anxi, Beiting and five tribes of Tatars and others when they moved to He-luo-chuan and held the former Uyghur land.^[3] The sentence is an announcement. The Chinese text does not say that the Kirghiz reached any of those places.^[4] The letter adds that on his way to Tiande the envoy had met not one Uyghur. It says that Kirghiz cavalry had been ordered to block the road by which the Uyghurs could reach the Tibetans.^[5]

The answer

The first of the letters of Li Deyu to the Kirghiz khan answers this envoy.^[6] One dating puts the letter after 29 March 843, the day the princess reached Chang’an.^[6] The second envoy, Zhu-wu Alp Sol, reached the capital on 16 March 843.^[7] The two missions may have been one, and the second letter of Li Deyu a draft of the first.^[8] The embassies as a whole are told in Kirghiz Embassies to the Tang.

The sources do not say whether the general went home. They do not say how the khan received the answer.^[9]

References

^ a b c d e f g Drompp 2005, p. 103
^ a b c d e Drompp 2005, p. 276
^ Drompp 2005, p. 277
^ Drompp 2005, p. 104–105
^ Drompp 2005, p. 105
^ a b Drompp 2005, p. 125
^ Drompp 2005, p. 131
^ Drompp 2005, p. 135
^ Drompp 2005, p. 125–136

Literature

Michael R. Drompp, Tang China and the Collapse of the Uighur Empire: A Documentary History (2005)
Rachel Lung, Sogdian Translators in Tang China: An Issue of Loyalty (2010)