The Afu, 阿輔水, is a river in the second origin story of the Göktürks, which the Zhou Shu sets in the state of Suo.[1] The wolf-born Yizhi Nishidu had four sons. One of them founded a state between the Afu and the Jian. The state was called Qigu, 契骨.[1] Qigu is understood as one of the Chinese spellings of the name of the Kirghiz.[2] The Bei Shi names the river in the same sentence.[3] The Tongdian gives a shorter version of the story. It leaves out the four sons and their rivers.[4]
The story does not say where the river ran. The Afu has been identified with the lake Uvs Nuur.[2] A different identification takes it for the Abakan and pairs it with a Jian that is the Yenisei.[5] What the passage fixes is the place of the Kirghiz among the sons of the wolf-born ancestor. It does not fix the course of a river.
References
- ^ a b Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
- ^ a b Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 15
- ^ Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99
- ^ Tongdian, juan 197
- ^ Golden 1992, p. 119
Sources
- Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
- Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99 (after Wei Shu, Zhou Shu and Sui Shu)
- Tongdian, juan 197 (after Sui Shu and Zhou Shu)
Literature
- Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)
- Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)
What links here5
- Persons
- Yizhi Nishidu
- States
- Suo
- Conflicts
- Mukan's Eastern and Northern Wars
- Places
- Chuzhe River · Jian River
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Afu River.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/places/afu-river/
Last revised: 8 November 2026
