Mumocheng

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

Mumocheng is the capital that Anagui is said to have built for the Rouran in his last years and that Bumin did not take. The name stands in the Liang Shu, which dates the first walls to the Tianjian era, 502 to 519.^[1]

The account

Anagui fortified a capital with a double line of walls a few years before the end. He kept an elite guard there, and governed in part from it through a Chinese chief adviser. It lay somewhere in the eastern steppe. After the second defeat of 552 Bumin and his Göktürks and Tiele marched on it. Either before or after his arrival Anagui killed himself. Bumin, having won, went to Ötüken instead and took the title of khan there. The walls can be read as the first thing the Göktürks left behind. A khan who had built a city had come close to what the steppe most distrusted. Bumin’s choice of Ötüken over Mumocheng was therefore a return to the tradition of the steppe.

The Liang Shu

The Liang Shu’s chapter on the Ruirui, as the southern court called the Rouran, describes a people without walled towns. They followed water and grass and lived in tents.^[1] In the Yongming era, 483 to 493, the Dingling broke them. They became a small state and moved their dwellings south.^[1] In the Tianjian era they broke the Dingling in turn and recovered their old land. Then for the first time they built a walled town, which they named Mumo.^[1] The Wei Shu dates the victory. In 516 Chounu marched west against the Gaoche, broke them and captured their king Mi’etu.^[2] The first walls may date from that victory.^[3] Both dates fall before Anagui’s accession in 520.

The Rouran court in the Wei Shu

The Wei Shu knows the Rouran court as a moving one. Under Shelun its usual meeting place was north of Dunhuang and Zhangye. Under Datan the emperor Taiwu marched to “the enemy’s court” and found tents to burn.^[2] In 521 the Wei settled Anagui at the Tuoruoxi springs north of Huaishuo and sent garrison troops to build for him there. This is the only building for a Rouran khan that the chapter records.^[2] The Wei Shu does not name the town. The Zhou Shu tells the war of 552 as two battles and a suicide and names no city.^[4] Archaeology has not found the site, and its location is not identified.