Qikou

Qikou, 磧口, the mouth of the desert, was a place at the edge of the Gobi, north of the Chinese frontier.^[1] The name means the entrance to the desert.^[2] Twice it became the seat of a Göktürk khan. Once this happened under Sui protection, and once in flight from the Tang.^[3]

In 603 the state of Tardush fell apart. He had called himself Bujia Khan.^[4] The Pugu and other Tiele tribes, more than ten in all, left him and went over to Yami Khan. Tardush fled west to the Tuyuhun.^[4] The Sui official Zhangsun Sheng then escorted Yami to Qikou and settled him there. Yami took over all of Tardush’s people.^[4]

In the first month of 630 Li Jing attacked Dingxiang by night from the Eyang ridge. Ilig Khan then moved his camp to Qikou.^[5] In that sentence the Cefu yuangui writes the name as Qishi, 磧石.^[6] In the second month Ilig fled on to the Iron Mountain.^[7] Li Jing broke him there. Ilig made for the desert with more than ten thousand men.^[1] Li Shiji’s army was camped at Qikou. Ilig could not cross, and his chief men surrendered with their people.^[1] Li Shiji took more than fifty thousand captives.^[1]

In the Zizhi tongjian the same two characters stand for a place on the north-western frontier of the Tang.^[1] There, in 630, grain was stored for the western Göktürk tribes that were scattered about Yiwu.^[1] The name described a kind of place and could be given to more than one.

One identification places the Qikou of 630 north of the Yin mountains, 140 li north-west of the Maoming’an banner of the Mongols.^[2]