Tuwu

Tuwu is the father of Bumin and Istemi. He was the chief under whom the Ashina lived in the Altai as subjects of the Rouran in the generation before the khaganate. The earliest sources give him a title. The latest source gives him a name. The title and the name do not come from the same text.

In the sources

The Sui Shu and the Bei Shi tell the descent of the Göktürks from the cave in the mountains. They also tell of the Axian Shad, who led the people out of it.^[1] They say that the Göktürks served the Rouran for generations, and that “by the time of the Great Yabgu the stock had gradually grown strong; at the end of the Wei there was the Illig Khan”. The Illig Khan is Bumin.^[1] The Bei Shi is here the Sui Shu’s copy. It is therefore not a second witness.^[2] The Zhou Shu, the earliest account, passes from the Axian Shad of the legend to Bumin with the words “afterwards there was Tumen”. It names no father and no yabgu.^[3] The name comes only from the Xin Tang Shu, four centuries later. Its chapter on the western Göktürks opens with the sentence that their ancestor was Tuwu 吐務, grandson of Nadulu 訥都陸, titled Great Yabgu.^[4] Tuwu’s elder son was Tumen Ilig Khan and his second son Shidianmi, also written Sedimi. Shidianmi’s son was Datou Khan, also called Bujia Khan.^[4] Where the Song compilers took the name is not stated. The chapter depends on the older Tang histories for the Tang period. This genealogy, however, has no parallel in the Jiu Tang Shu’s Göktürk chapter. The name therefore rests on the Xin Tang Shu alone.

Beyond the chapter

One reconstruction from the Chinese histories makes the first khan Bumin the son of T’u-wu, who bore the title Great Yabgu, grandson of the Axian Shad and great-grandson of Naduliu. The same reconstruction lists T’u-wu among the early Göktürk names whose appearance is not Turkic.^[5] Modern accounts name the leaders of the clan from its founding in the Altai to the sixth century as Nishidu, Neduliu, called Ashian, Tuwu, and Bumin.^[6] The same reconstruction describes the Ashina under Tuwu, son of Ashian, at the beginning of the sixth century as a people who let themselves be subjected by the Rouran.^[6] It is hard to say whether they submitted after resistance or without a fight. There are some indications that they did not resist in arms.^[6] The literature’s Tuwu is the Xin Tang Shu’s Tuwu. The equation of the Great Yabgu of the Sui Shu with the father of Bumin rests on that chapter, which gives the same title to the same man.^[4] Naduliu and the Xin Tang Shu’s Nadulu 訥都陸 are one name. The chapter makes Tuwu his grandson, so that Axian Shad stands between the two. The line is therefore Nadulu, Axian Shad, Tuwu, Bumin. Tuwu is Axian Shad’s son.^[7] On that reckoning the Axian Shad of the legend was Nadulu’s son, Tuwu’s father and Bumin’s grandfather.^[8] The Zhou Shu itself only says that after the Axian Shad came Tumen, 其後曰土門. One translation takes Tumen as his successor and another as his grandson.^[9]^[8] The view that puts Tuwu a generation lower, as Axian’s grandson, is recorded beside it.^[5] The title yabgu is taken as the Ashina’s own before 552. It is first attested among them and not, as has been argued, among Indians, Iranians or Chinese.

Under the Rouran

The sources say in one clause what the Ashina did under Tuwu: they worked iron for the Rouran in the Altai. The Sui Shu and the Zhou Shu say that the Golden Mountain was shaped like a helmet and that this gave them their name.^[10] Nothing puts them on either side of the Tiele risings of 508 or 520. Their absence from the record most likely means neutrality. Under Anagui, Turkic Atlas notes that Tuwu had submitted and did not move when the Tiele rose. He sent no help to the rebels and no rebels of his own. He appears to have died about 542. In that year Bumin appears in the record at the head of the tribe, crossing the frozen river into Western Wei territory. The date is an inference from the son’s first appearance and not a statement of any source.

Assessment

Tuwu is the last chief of the Ashina before the khaganate. He is also the last of whom nothing is known but a title. That is itself a fact about the Ashina of the Altai. They were a people of smiths, and the Chinese did not need to name their leader until his son asked for a Rouran princess.