Yukuk Shad

Yukuk Shad, whom the Chinese histories call Yugu Shad, was a prince of the eastern Göktürks under Ilig Khan.^[1] He commanded Tiele tribes north of the desert until they rose against Ilig in 627. In 630, after Ilig’s fall, he went over to the Tang.^[2]

Before the rising

In 625, during the Göktürk campaign of that year, the Yugu Shad plundered Suizhou. He asked for peace and withdrew.^[3] The Zizhi tongjian describes his command in its account of Ashina She’er, a son of Chula Khan.^[4] She’er held the title Tuo Shad and had his camp north of the desert. He and the Yugu Shad divided the command of the Tiele tribes between them.^[4]

The rising of 627

When Ilig’s government fell into disorder, the Xueyantuo, the Uyghurs and the Bayirku rose together.^[5] Ilig sent the Yugu Shad against them with a hundred thousand horsemen.^[5] Pusa, the chief of the Uyghurs, met him with five thousand at Mount Malie and broke his army.^[5] The Yugu Shad fled. Pusa pursued him as far as the Tianshan and took many of his people captive.^[5] The Xueyantuo also beat four of Ilig’s shads. Ilig could not master them.^[5] After the Yugu Shad’s defeat, Ilig sent his nephew Töles, whom the Chinese call Tuli, against the risen tribes. Töles was beaten as well.^[1] The Jiu Tang Shu says in one clause that the tribes drove off Ilig’s Yugu Shad.^[1] The Cefu yuangui dates the rising to 626.^[6]

One modern account tells his fate otherwise.^[7] In it the Yukuk Shad, who had governed the Nine Oghuz from whom the Uyghurs later came, was killed by the leaders of that federation.^[7] In the Chinese histories he survived the rising and was still alive in 630.^[8]

Flight and surrender (629–630)

In 629 the Tang governor-general of Daizhou, Zhang Gongjin, set out why the Göktürks could now be taken.^[9] One of his reasons was that Töles, the Tuo Shad and the Yugu Shad had all fallen out of favour with Ilig and had nowhere to turn.^[9] When Ilig was beaten in 630, the Yugu Shad fled to Gaochang.^[8] He heard that Töles had been received with honour by the Tang, and he too came over to them.^[9] The Zizhi tongjian dates his surrender to the day wuwu of the eighth month of 630.^[9]

Kinship

The Uyghur chapter of the Jiu Tang Shu calls him Ilig’s son.^[10] The Zizhi tongjian calls him the son of Ilig’s elder brother in 627 and the younger brother of Töles in 630.^[11] Töles was a son of Ilig’s elder brother Shibi. Therefore the two notices agree. The Xin Tang Shu calls him the khan’s younger brother.^[3] Some scholars take all these notices to concern one man and hold him to be Ilig’s son.^[12]

Name

Yukuk ShadOld Turkic
欲谷設ChineseJiu Tangshu 194
Yugu ShadChinese

Yukuk is the Turkic form one modern account gives him.^[7] The Tang histories use the same characters, 欲谷設, for a prince of the western Göktürks, whom the western tribes raised as Yipi Duolu Khan in 638 (Üç Tuğlu Khan).^[1] He is a different man. The eastern prince had gone over to the Tang in 630.