Xiazhou

Xiazhou, 夏州, was a prefecture south of the Yellow River, on the northern frontier of China.^[1] Notes in the Tongdian give it as the Shuofang commandery of their own day. They give its neighbour Shengzhou, 勝州, as the Yulin commandery.^[2] The Sui settled the people of Yami Khan beside Xiazhou. The Göktürks crossed the Yellow River there in 619 and in 680.^[3]

The pasture of Yami Khan

In 599 the Sui built the town of Dali in Shuozhou for Yami Khan.^[4] Tulan Khan attacked Yami again. The emperor then brought Yami’s people inside the frontier.^[1] The raids went on. On the advice of the Sui envoy Zhangsun Sheng, the emperor moved Yami’s people south of the Yellow River, between Xiazhou and Shengzhou.^[4] The river was to be their defence.^[5] A ditch several hundred li long was dug. The land it closed off was bounded by the river on east and west and became Yami’s pasture, according to the Sui Shu.^[1] The Zizhi tongjian gives the enclosure four hundred li from north to south.^[5]

The Tang and the Göktürks

In the second month of 619, Shibi Khan led his army across the Yellow River to Xiazhou. The rebel Liang Shidu came out to join him for a raid.^[6] From there Shibi sent riders into the Gouzhu pass and gathered more troops to attack Taiyuan. He died in the same month.^[7] In 622 Ilig Khan invaded. The Tang general Duan Decao was to cut off his return by way of Xiazhou, in the campaign of 622.^[8]

Liang Shidu held his land under Göktürk protection. In 628 the Tang sent an army against him.^[9] A great Göktürk force came to his relief and was defeated some tens of li short of his town of Shuofang. The Tang then laid siege to the town.^[9] The Göktürks did not dare to come again.^[9] When the food ran out, Liang Shidu’s cousin Luoren killed him and surrendered the town. His land was made the prefecture of Xiazhou.^[9]

After the revolt of Jiesheshuai, a brother of Töles, the Tang sent Ashina Simo and the surrendered Göktürks back north of the Yellow River in 639.^[10] His people numbered a hundred thousand, including forty thousand fighting men. They did not accept his rule.^[7] According to the Jiu Tang Shu, they turned against him in 643. They crossed south of the river and asked to be settled between Shengzhou and Xiazhou. An edict granted it.^[11] After his death Simo was named governor-general of Xiazhou.^[7]

The Second Khaganate

In the Xianheng years, 670 to 673, most of the Göktürks who had come over to the Tang were settled in six prefectures: Feng, Sheng, Ling, Xia, Shuo and Dai. They were called the surrendered households.^[12] In 680 the Göktürks received Ashina Funian, the son of an elder cousin of Ilig, at Xiazhou. They crossed the Yellow River to raise him as khan, in the war of restoration.^[13]

In 698, in the first year of his wars with the Tang, Kapgan Khan of the Second Khaganate demanded the surrendered households of the six prefectures.^[12] The court handed over several thousand tents to him, together with seed and farming tools.^[14] The Jiu Tang Shu dates Kapgan’s growing strength from this transfer.^[7] The Xin Tang Shu adds that Kapgan later raided Yanzhou and Xiazhou. He drove off a hundred thousand sheep and horses.^[15]