The Bei Qi Shu is the official history of the Northern Qi. The Northern Qi was the eastern of the two states that divided northern China in the middle of the sixth century. Li Baiyao compiled the history under the Tang and presented it in 636. The Zhou Shu and the Sui Shu date from the same decade.
Textual history and reliability
The Bei Qi Shu matters for a reason that also limits it. Most of the received text is not the text Li Baiyao wrote. The Bei Qi Shu was largely lost after the Tang. In the Song period the missing chapters were made good out of the Bei Shi. The Bei Shi is itself a compilation that draws on the Zhou Shu and the Sui Shu.
This turns a straightforward citation into a question. Where a passage of the received Bei Qi Shu agrees with the Bei Shi, the agreement may mean nothing at all. The passage may be the Bei Shi, copied back in five centuries later. Which chapters are original and which are supplements is an open philological question. For that reason the Bei Qi Shu counts as dependent on the Bei Shi.
The same rule governs the Bei Shi itself. For the Bei Qi Shu it applies one step further.
The Göktürk notices of juan 8
Juan 8 holds the annals of the last reign of the Northern Qi. It contains six notices on the Göktürks. Three of them give the tribute formula 朝貢. One records that a Göktürk envoy came to ask for a marriage (突厥使來求婚). Two come from the collapse, when the last emperor first intends to flee to the Göktürks and then attempts it (欲走突厥).[1]
Beyond these notices, the history of the Northern Qi rests on the modern accounts.[2]
Bibliographical details
The dynastic histories are cited by chapter, not by page. The full text is available on the Chinese Wikisource.
The passage
後以茹茹為突厥所破，種落分散，慮其犯塞，驚撓邊民，乃詔金率騎二萬屯白道以備之。
而虜帥豆婆吐久備將三千餘戶密欲西過，候騎還告，金勒所部追擊，盡俘其衆。
茹茹但缽將舉國西徙，金獲其候騎送之，並表陳虜可擊取之勢。
顯祖於是率衆與金共討之於吐賴，獲二萬餘戶而還。
Later, because the Rouran had been broken by the Göktürks and their tribes had scattered, it was feared that they would raid the frontier and disturb the border people. So an edict ordered Jin to lead twenty thousand horse and garrison Baidao as a precaution.
The enemy chief Douputu Jiubei, with more than three thousand households, wished to cross to the west in secret. The scouts came back and reported it. Jin marshalled his troops, pursued and attacked, and took all his people captive.
The Rouran Danbo was about to move west with his whole people. Jin captured his scouts and sent them in, and he submitted a memorial setting out how the enemy could be attacked and taken.
Xianzu thereupon led the army and, together with Jin, attacked them at Tulai. They took more than twenty thousand households and returned.
其年秋，突厥衆十餘萬來寇州境，羨總率諸將禦之。
突厥望見軍威甚整，遂不敢戰，即遣使求款。
慮其有詐，且喻之曰：「爾輩此行，本非朝貢，見機始變，未是宿心。若有實誠，宜速歸巢穴，別遣使來。」
於是退走。
天統元年夏五月，突厥木汗遣使請朝獻，羨始以聞，自是朝貢歲時不絕，羨有力焉。
In the autumn of that year more than a hundred thousand Göktürks came to raid the borders of the province, and Xian took command of the generals to withstand them.
When the Göktürks saw how orderly the army was, they did not dare to fight, and at once sent envoys to ask for terms.
Suspecting a ruse, he also admonished them: “You did not come on this journey to bring tribute. You changed only when you saw your chance, and this is not your long-held intent. If you are truly sincere, you should return at once to your lairs and send envoys separately.”
So they withdrew.
In the fifth month, in summer, of the first year of Tiantong, Muhan of the Göktürks sent envoys to ask leave to present tribute at court. Xian was the first to report it, and from then on tribute came at the proper seasons without a break. Xian had a share in this.
二月，茹茹主阿那瓌為突厥虜所破，瓌自殺，
其太子庵羅辰及瑰從弟登注俟利發、注子庫提並擁衆來奔。
茹茹餘衆立注次子鐵伐為主。
In the second month the Rouran ruler Anagui was defeated by the Göktürk enemy, and Anagui killed himself.
His heir Anluochen, Anagui's younger cousin Dengzhu, the ilteber, and Dengzhu's son Kuti all came in flight with their followers.
The remnant of the Rouran set up Dengzhu's second son Tiefa as their ruler.
十二月己未，突厥復攻茹茹，茹茹舉國南奔。
癸亥，帝自晉陽北討突厥，迎納茹茹。
乃廢其主庫提，立阿那瑰子庵羅辰為主，置之馬邑川，給其稟餼繒帛。
親追突厥於朔州，突厥請降，許之而還。
於是貢獻相繼。
On the jiwei day of the twelfth month the Göktürks again attacked the Rouran, and the Rouran fled south with their whole people.
On the guihai day the emperor marched north from Jinyang against the Göktürks, to meet the Rouran and take them in.
He deposed their ruler Kuti, made Anagui's son Anluochen ruler, settled him on the Mayi river, and gave him provisions and silk.
He pursued the Göktürks in person at Shuozhou. The Göktürks asked to submit, and he granted it and turned back.
From then on tribute and gifts followed one after another.
References
Literature
- Emre-E. Yavuz, The Gokturk Empire: 2nd Edition (2025)
Articles resting on this source 24
Anagui · Anluochen · Battle of Huaihuang, 552 · Culture of the Turkic Peoples · Dengzhu · Eastern Wei · Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou · First Göktürk Khaganate · Gao Huan · Hegemony Wars in Northern China · Issik Khan · Jinyang · Mayi · Mukan's Destruction of Dengshuzi (553–555) · Northern Qi · Poliuhan Baling · Revolt of the Six Garrisons · Rouran Khaganate · The Chile Song · The Göktürk–Rouran Wars · The Göktürk–Wei alliance · The Qi March to Shuozhou (553) · The Zhou–Qi war, 557–577 · Western Wei
What links here5
- Persons
- Poliuhan Baling
- States
- Northern Qi · Western Wei
- Conflicts
- Revolt of the Six Garrisons
- Customs & Pastimes
- The Chile Song
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Bei Qi Shu (Book of Northern Qi).” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/bei-qi-shu/
Last revised: 8 November 2026
