Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties)

Translation

In the third year of Tianbao Anagui was defeated by the Göktürks and killed himself.

His crown prince Anluochen, Anagui's cousin Dengzhu Qili, and Dengzhu's son Kuti all took their followers and fled to the Qi.

The rest of the people set up Tiefa, the second son of Zhu, as ruler.

In the fourth year Wenxuan of the Qi sent Dengzhu and his son Kuti back to the north.

Soon afterwards Tiefa was killed by the Khitan, and the people of the country again set up Dengzhu as ruler.

Then Dengzhu in turn was killed by the chief Afuti and others, and the people of the country again set up Kuti as ruler.

In the same year the Göktürks attacked them again, and the whole country fled to the Qi.

Wenxuan then marched north against the Göktürks, received the Rouran, deposed their ruler Kuti, set up Anagui's son Anluochen as ruler, settled them on the Mayi plain, and supplied them with grain and silk.

He pursued the Göktürks in person as far as Shuofang. The Göktürks asked to submit, and he granted it and turned back.

From then on the Rouran sent tribute without interruption.

Translation

At that time the Rouran had been defeated by the Göktürks again and again. In the second year of the Western Wei emperor Gong they led more than a thousand households of their tribe and fled to Guanzhong.

The Göktürks, relying on the strength of their troops and on their friendship with the Western Wei, feared that the remnants would find support with the great state. They sent envoys one after another and asked that all of them be killed to satisfy their hearts.

Wen of the Zhou deliberated and agreed. He had the Rouran ruler and more than three thousand others seized and bound, handed them to the envoys of the Göktürks, and had them beheaded outside the Qing Gate.

Those of the age class of “middle males” and younger were spared and were assigned to the households of princes and dukes.

Translation

Some say that the Göktürks were originally mixed Hu of Pingliang, and that their family name was Ashina.

The Wei emperor Taiwu destroyed the Juqu clan, and the Ashina fled to the Rouran with five hundred households.

Generation after generation they lived on the south side of the Golden Mountain and worked as iron smiths for the Rouran.

The Golden Mountain is shaped like a helmet. In common speech a helmet is called “Tujue”, and so they took this as their name.

Translation

The ancestors of the Göktürks lived to the right of the Western Sea, as a tribe of their own. They were, it seems, a separate branch of the Xiongnu. Their family name was Ashina.

Later a neighbouring state defeated them and destroyed their whole clan.

There was one boy, nearly ten years old. When the soldiers saw how small he was, they could not bear to kill him. So they cut off his feet, severed his arms, and threw him into a grassy marsh.

A she-wolf fed him with meat. When he had grown up, he coupled with the wolf, and she became pregnant.

When the king of that state heard that the boy was still alive, he sent men again to kill him. The envoys saw him beside the wolf and wanted to kill the wolf as well.

At that moment it was as if a divine being threw the wolf to the east of the Western Sea, and she came down on a mountain northwest of the kingdom of Gaochang.

The mountain had a cave. Inside the cave was level ground with thick grass, several hundred li around, with mountains on all four sides.

The wolf hid in it and bore ten sons.

When the ten sons had grown up, they took wives from outside, and the wives became pregnant. After that each of them had a family name of his own. Ashina was one of them, the most worthy, and so he became their ruler.

Therefore a wolf's-head standard is set up at the gate of the headquarters, to show that they do not forget their origin.

In time they grew to several hundred households. After several generations a man called Axian She led the tribe out of the cave and became a subject of the Rouran.

Translation

Later there was Tumen. His tribe grew somewhat stronger, and he first came to the frontier to buy silk and silk floss and wished to have dealings with China.

In the eleventh year of Datong of the Western Wei, Emperor Wen of the Zhou sent An Nuopantuo, a Hu of Jiuquan, to him as envoy.

The people of his country congratulated one another and said: “Now an envoy of a great state has come, and our country is about to rise.”

In the twelfth year Tumen sent envoys in return and presented local products.

At that time the Tiele were about to attack the Rouran. Tumen led his own people to intercept them and defeated them, and took the surrender of all their people, more than fifty thousand encampments.

Relying on his strength, he then asked the ruler of the Rouran for a bride.

Anagui was furious and had a man abuse him, saying: “You are my slave at the forge. How dare you utter such words!”

Tumen in turn grew angry, killed the envoy, broke with the Rouran, and asked the Wei for a bride.

Emperor Wen of the Zhou agreed, and in the sixth month of the seventeenth year he gave him the Wei princess of Changle as wife.

In the first month of the first year of the Deposed Emperor, Tumen sent out troops against the Rouran and defeated them utterly north of Huaihuang.

Anagui killed himself. His son Anluochen fled to the Qi, and the remaining people made Anagui's uncle Deng Shuzi their ruler.

Tumen then styled himself Yili Khan, like the shanyu of old. He called his wife Kehedun, like the yanzhi of old.

He also exchanged envoys with the Qi.