Yushe Shad

Yushe Shad was a son of Chula Khan. In the 620s he commanded Göktürk tribes on the northern frontier of the Tang.^[1] In the twelfth month of 629, as the Tang armies set out against Ilig Khan, he went over to them with his people.^[2]

On the Tang frontier

The Xin Tang Shu tells how he came to the land south of the Yellow River.^[1] The Tang crown prince Li Jiancheng had proposed giving up Fengzhou and ceding the land of Yuzhong.^[1] Then Chula’s son, the Yushe Shad, moved with the ten thousand tents of his people into the land south of the river, the Ordos. He made Lingzhou the frontier.^[1] The passage gives no year.

The Zizhi tongjian names him in 620, in its account of the end of the rebel Liu Wuzhou.^[3] Liu Wuzhou had left his chief minister Yuan Junzhang to hold Shuozhou.^[3] After the Göktürks had killed Liu Wuzhou, they made Yuan Junzhang the head of his remaining followers. They ordered the Yushe Shad to lead troops to help him hold his ground.^[3]

Under 622 the Zizhi tongjian tells how the Göktürks, allied with the rebel Liang Shidu, sent the Yushe Shad to settle in the old land of Wuyuan.^[4] The Tang commander of Lingzhou, Li Daozong, drove him out and pushed the frontier forward by more than a thousand li.^[4]

In the sixth month of 626 the Yushe Shad camped south of the river with several tens of thousands of horsemen. He crossed the frontier and besieged Wucheng.^[5] At the Tang court the crown prince Li Jiancheng then proposed his brother Li Yuanji, in place of Li Shimin, to lead the armies north. The emperor agreed.^[5]

The loss of his following

Under the emperor Taizong the Tang governor-general of Xiazhou, Dou Jing, secretly sent men to sow discord among the Göktürk tribes.^[6] Nine irkins of the Yushe Shad’s following, Yuguni and others, came over to the Tang with their people.^[6]

The biography of another Tang officer, Liu Lan, names a Yushe Shad Ashina Momo.^[7] At a time when the Göktürks were falling apart, Momo brought his tribe into the land south of the river.^[7] Liu Lan sowed discord among his people. Ilig came to suspect Momo.^[7] Momo took fright. Ilig sent troops after him, and Liu Lan met them and beat them.^[7] Whether Ashina Momo is Chula’s son, the biography does not say.

In 629 Ilig had called himself a subject of the Tang. Then he supported Liang Shidu again.^[2] The emperor sent Li Jing and five other commanders against him.^[2] In the twelfth month Töles, the Yushe Shad, the tegin Yinnai and others came over with their people.^[8] The Xin Tang Shu puts their coming after Li Daozong’s victory at Lingzhou.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian dates the Yushe Shad’s surrender to the day gengyin of the twelfth month.^[9] The event belongs to the Tang conquest of the eastern khaganate.

Name

郁射設ChineseXin Tangshu 215
阿史那摸末ChineseJiu Tangshu

The Jiu Tang Shu and the other histories write his title 郁射設.^[2] The second character can also be read ye or yi.^[10] Another son of Chula, whom the princess Yicheng passed over in 620, bore the title Aoshe Shad, 奧射設, with a different first character.^[2] No passage says whether the two titles belong to one man.