Mount Jiansi Chuzheshi

Mount Jiansi Chuzheshi is the mountain of the second origin story of the Göktürks, which the Zhou Shu sets in the state of Suo.^[1] The eldest of the four sons of the wolf-born Yizhi Nishidu lived there.^[1] People of Abangbu’s stock still lived on the mountain. They suffered greatly from the cold and the dew.^[1] The eldest son brought out fire, warmed and fed them, and all of them survived. Together they raised him as their lord and gave him the name Türk. He was Nadulu Shad.^[1]

The Bei Shi writes the first character of the name as 跋, Ba, where the Zhou Shu writes 踐, Jian.^[2] The editors of the Zhou Shu note that the Cefu Yuangui has the same reading as the Bei Shi. They conclude that it takes the passage from the Bei Shi.^[1]

The mountain has been identified with the Qingshan of the notice on the Kirghiz in the Xin Tang Shu. That range is taken, with a query, for the Western Sayan, west of the Jian.^[3] From the eldest son’s residence there it has been inferred that the mountain was the centre of the tribe.^[3] In the story, the mountain is the place where the line of the wolf-born ancestor took both rule and the name of the Göktürks.