Yulin, 榆林, was a commandery on the northern frontier of Sui China, the place where the emperor Yangdi received Yami Khan in 607.[1] Notes in the Tongdian give Shengzhou as the Yulin commandery of their own day.[2] Between Shengzhou and Xiazhou, south of the Yellow River, the Sui had earlier settled Yami and his people behind a ditch several hundred li long.[1] Some scholars equate the Yulin commandery with Shengzhou and with the Ordos country between the Long Wall and the bend of the Yellow River.[3] It places the town west of Tuoketuo, where the river turns south.[3]

The visit of 607

The Sui Shu has the emperor Yangdi come to Yulin in the fourth month of 607.[1] The Zizhi tongjian has him halt at the Yulin commandery in the sixth month.[4] Yami, whom the Sui called Qimin Khan, came to the travelling palace with his wife, the Sui princess Yicheng.[1] He presented three thousand horses in all. The emperor gave him twelve thousand pieces of silk.[1] In a memorial Yami asked leave to dress his people in Chinese clothes. The emperor refused.[1] The Bei Shi and the Tongdian repeat the account of the visit.[5]

The emperor then feasted Yami and three thousand five hundred of his chiefs in a tent that held a thousand people.[1] He gave them two hundred thousand pieces of silk.[1] The Zizhi tongjian puts the great tent east of the town and the feast in the seventh month.[4]

Frontier works of 607

At Yulin the emperor decided to march beyond the frontier through the Göktürk lands. He sent the general Zhangsun Sheng ahead so that Yami would not take alarm.[4] Yami had called together the chiefs of the peoples under him, among them the Xi and the Shiwei.[4] At Zhangsun Sheng’s urging he cut the weeds before his own tent with his knife, and his nobles did the same.[4] Then the whole people was set to work. They opened an imperial road from the northern border of Yulin to Yami’s camp and on east to Ji, three thousand li long and a hundred paces wide.[4]

In the seventh month of 607 the emperor ordered more than a million men to build a long wall from Yulin in the west to Zihe in the east. The work was done in twenty days.[4] In the eighth month he left Yulin, passed Yunzhong and travelled up the Jin river to Yami’s camp.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  2. ^ Tongdian, juan 197
  3. ^ a b Mau-tsai 1958, Turkish edition, p. 90
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance), juan 180
  5. ^ Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 99; Tongdian, juan 197

Sources

Literature

  • Liu Mau-tsai, Çin Kaynaklarına Göre Doğu Türkleri (1958, Turkish edition)

Related

What links here9

Persons
Yami Khan
States
Sui
Battles & Events
Sui Variety Shows for Yami Khan (606–610) · Yangdi's Visit to Yami Khan (607)
Places
Dingxiang · Jin River · Xiazhou · Yunzhong · Zihe Garrison

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Yulin.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/places/yulin/

Last revised: 8 November 2026