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RouranFirst GöktürkTang ruleSecond GöktürkUyghurKirghizHunsWestern GöktürkTürgeshKarlukKhazar
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The Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang describes the countries that the pilgrim Xuanzang crossed on his journey to India and back between 629 and 645.[1] Xuanzang did not write it with his own hand. The monk Bianji drew it up from the pilgrim’s notes and accounts.[2] One reckoning dates the finished Record to 646, the twentieth year of Zhenguan.[3] A second reckoning dates it to 648.[4]

The Record has twelve books and describes 138 countries.[5] Xuanzang visited 110 of them. The other twenty-eight he knew from chronicles or from report.[5] The first book covers the thirty-four countries from Agni, the Karashahr of later times, to Kapisa. It therefore covers the lands of the western Göktürks.[6]

The Göktürks in the first book

The Göktürks first appear in the first book in the section on Kucha, before the Record reaches Suyab. There the Record repeats, on the authority of earlier accounts, a story of a king of Kucha called Golden Flower. He moved the dragons of a lake to draw his carriage.[6] The dragons took human shape and mated with the women of the country. Their descendants were fast and brave, and they grew proud of their strength and defied the king. The king then called in the Göktürks. The Göktürks killed the people of the city, young and old, and left none alive. The city lay deserted in Xuanzang’s day.[6] The Record dates the story only to recent times. Golden Flower may be an earlier king named Suvarnapuspa, who is known from the Sanskrit leaves of Kucha. If so, he is not the last king before Xuanzang’s visit.[7]

North-west of the great lake lay the town on the Suye river, Suyab, where merchants from many countries lived together.[6] West of it stood several dozen isolated towns, each with its own chief. The chiefs did not take orders from one another, but all of them were subject to the Göktürks.[6] From the Suye river to Kesh the land was called Suli. The people, their writing and their speech went by the same name.[6]

Four hundred li west of the town lay the Thousand Springs. The country is some two hundred li across, with snowy mountains to the south and plains on the other three sides, and it takes its name from its thousand pools and springs. The Göktürk khan came there every summer to escape the heat. Herds of deer lived there with bells and rings on them, tame and unafraid. The khan loved them and forbade his people to kill them on pain of death, so the deer lived out their lives.[6]

South of Talas stood a small town of three hundred households. Its people had once been Chinese, and the Göktürks had carried them off. They had gathered together to hold the town. They had taken on the dress and ways of the Göktürks, but they kept their own speech and manners.[6]

Further west the Record notes Göktürk rule state by state. Chach had dozens of towns, each with its own lord and no ruler over them all, and it was subject to the Göktürks. Sutrishna had its own king, who was attached to the Göktürks.[6] South of the Iron Gate, in Tokharistan, the royal line had died out centuries before. The chiefs had divided the land into twenty-seven states, and all of them were subject to the Göktürks.[6] North of the Oxus, the kings of two small states were Göktürks of the Xisu.[6]

At Balkh, the Record says, the Si Yabgu Khan, son of the Yabgu Khan, had lately led his people against the New Monastery south-west of the city to seize its treasure. In the night he dreamed that the god Vaisravana pierced him through with a long halberd. He woke in pain and sent for the monks to make amends, but he died before his messengers returned.[6] The Si Yabgu of this passage is the son of Tong Yabgu. The passage therefore identifies the Yabgu Khan of the Life of Xuanzang with Tong Yabgu.[8]

Himatala

The twelfth book describes Himatala, a country of mountains and valleys east of Kishm. The Record counts it as an old district of Tokharistan. Its land measured more than 3,000 li round, the climate was cold, and wheat grew there. The people lived in felt tents. The Record says that the borders of the country touched those of the Göktürks, and that its people soon took over their customs.[9][10] Himatala has been identified as a land of the Hephthalites. The chief settlement has been placed at Faizabad in Badakhshan.[10]

The Record and the Life

The Record describes the countries and leaves the pilgrim’s meeting with the khan untold. The Life, written by Xuanzang’s disciples, tells it.[11]

The Record in the Tang histories

The Xin Tangshu describes the road to the town on the Suye river and to the Thousand Springs in its chapter on the Western Regions. It takes this passage from the Record.[12] The wording shows it. The Xin Tangshu repeats that the towns west of Suye each had a chief and that all were subject to the Göktürks.[13] Where the two agree on the western Göktürks, they are one testimony.

Reliability

The Record gives the view of a traveller who crossed the western khaganate in its strongest years. It shows Göktürk rule not as a single territory but as a chain of subject towns and states. Each stood under its own lord, from the Chu valley to the Hindu Kush.

The distances in li that the Record gives are rough. A li is a measure of the road, not of the map, and it runs shorter on steep ground than on level ground. It comes to about 400 metres in the Han chapters and about 375 in the Tang histories.[14] In Xuanzang’s distances on the road from Kashgar to the Lop Nor, it varies between about 270 and 470 metres. His distances therefore do not fix a place.[14]

The passage

Record of the Western Regions, book 1: the Si Yabgu Khan at the New Monastery of Balkh

故諸國君長利之以攻劫。

此伽藍素有毘沙門天像。靈鑒可恃冥加守衛。

近突厥葉護可汗子肆葉護可汗。傾其部落率其戎旅。

奄襲伽藍欲圖珍寶。

去此不遠屯軍野次。

其夜夢見毘沙門天曰。汝有何力敢壞伽藍。

因以長戟貫徹胸背。

可汗驚悟便苦心痛。

遂告羣屬所夢咎徵。

馳請衆僧方申懺謝。

未及返命已從殞歿。

So the lords of various countries coveted it and attacked and plundered it.

This monastery has always had a statue of Vaisravana, whose power can be relied on and who guards it unseen.

Recently the Si Yabgu Khan, son of the Göktürk Yabgu Khan, emptied his tribes and led out his troops,

and made a sudden attack on the monastery, wishing to seize its treasures.

He had halted his army in a camp in the open, not far from here.

That night he dreamed that Vaisravana said to him: “What strength have you, that you dare to destroy this monastery?”

Then with a long halberd he pierced him through, chest and back.

The khan woke in terror and at once felt a pain in his heart.

He told his followers of the dream and its omen of misfortune.

He sent in haste to ask the monks, so as to make repentance and apology,

but before the reply came back he had died.

[6] Record of the Western Regions, juan 1

Record of the Western Regions, book 1: Golden Flower of Kucha and the Göktürks

聞諸先志曰。近代有王。號曰金花。

政教明察感龍馭乘。

王欲終没鞭觸其耳。

因卽潛隱以至于今。

城中無井取彼池水。

龍變爲人與諸婦會。

生子驍勇走及奔馬。

如是漸染人皆龍種。

恃力作威不恭王命。

王乃引搆突厥殺此城人。

少長俱戮略無噍類。

城今荒蕪人煙斷絕。

It is said in earlier records that in recent times there was a king named Golden Flower.

His rule and teaching were clear-sighted, and he moved the dragons to draw his carriage.

When the king was about to end his days, he touched its ear with his whip.

At once it went into hiding, and has stayed hidden to this day.

The city had no well, and its people drew water from that pool.

The dragons changed into men and lay with the women.

The sons born of this were fierce and brave and could run as fast as a galloping horse.

In this way it spread little by little, until all the people were of dragon stock.

Relying on their strength, they behaved with arrogance and did not respect the king's commands.

The king then drew in the Göktürks and had them kill the people of this city.

Young and old were all slain, and hardly a living being was left.

The city is now desolate, and no smoke of human dwellings rises there.

[6] Record of the Western Regions, juan 1

Record of the Western Regions, book 1: the town on the Suye river and the towns subject to the Göktürks

清池西北行五百餘里至素葉水城。

城周六七里。

諸國商胡雜居也。

土宜糜麥蒲萄。林樹稀疎。

氣序風寒人衣氈褐。

素葉已西數十孤城。

城皆立長。

雖不相稟命。

然皆役屬突厥。

Going north-west from the Clear Lake for more than five hundred li, one comes to the town on the Suye river.

The town measures six or seven li round.

Merchants from many countries live there mixed together.

The soil suits millet, wheat and grapes. Woods and trees are sparse.

The climate is windy and cold, and the people wear felt and woollen clothes.

West of the Suye there are several dozen isolated towns.

Each town has set up its own chief.

Although they take no orders from one another,

all of them are in service to the Göktürks and subject to them.

[6] Record of the Western Regions, juan 1

Record of the Western Regions, book 1: the Thousand Springs, the khan's summer seat

素葉城西行四百餘里至千泉。

千泉者。地方二百餘里。

南面雪山三陲平陸。

水土沃潤林樹扶疎。

暮春之月雜花若綺。

泉池千所故以名焉。

突厥可汗每來避暑。

中有羣鹿多飾鈴鐶。

馴狎於人不甚驚走。

可汗愛賞下命羣屬。

敢加殺害有誅無赦。

故此羣鹿得終其壽。

Going west from the town on the Suye for more than four hundred li, one comes to the Thousand Springs.

The Thousand Springs is a country more than two hundred li square.

Snowy mountains lie to the south, and level ground on the other three sides.

Water and soil are rich and moist, and the woods and trees spread thickly.

In the last month of spring, mixed flowers are like patterned silk.

There are a thousand pools and springs, and so it took its name.

Every time the Göktürk khan comes, it is to escape the summer heat.

Within live herds of deer, many of them adorned with bells and rings.

They are tame with people and are not easily startled into running away.

The khan loves and admires them and gave his followers this order:

whoever dares to harm or kill them is put to death without pardon.

So these deer live out their full span of years.

[6] Record of the Western Regions, juan 1

Record of the Western Regions, book 1: Tokharistan and its twenty-seven states under the Göktürks

出鐵門至覩貨邏國（舊曰吐火羅國訛也）。

其地南北千餘里東西三千餘里。

東阨葱嶺西接波刺斯。

南大雪山北據鐵門。

縛芻大河中境西流。

自數百年王族絕嗣。

酋豪力競各擅君長。

依川據險。分爲二十七國。

雖畫野區分總役屬突厥。

Passing out of the Iron Gate, one comes to the country of Duhuoluo (the form Tuhuoluo, formerly used, is a corruption).

The land measures more than a thousand li from north to south and more than three thousand li from east to west.

In the east it is hemmed in by the Onion Range, in the west it borders Persia.

To the south lie the Great Snow Mountains, to the north the Iron Gate holds the land.

The great river Fuchu flows west through the middle of the land.

For several hundred years the royal line has died out.

The chiefs compete by force, each setting himself up as ruler.

Relying on rivers and holding strongholds, they have divided into twenty-seven states.

Although the lands are divided by boundaries, all of them are in service to the Göktürks and subject to them.

[6] Record of the Western Regions, juan 1

References

  1. ^ Julien 1853, lxxviii
  2. ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 193
  3. ^ Kaiyrken 2026, p. 4
  4. ^ Julien 1853, v
  5. ^ a b Julien 1853, v–vi
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Record of the Western Regions, juan 1
  7. ^ Lüders 1930, p. 22–23
  8. ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 194
  9. ^ Record of the Western Regions
  10. ^ a b Herrmann 1925, p. 575–576
  11. ^ Record of the Western Regions, juan 1; Life of Xuanzang, juan 2
  12. ^ Chavannes 1903, p. 120
  13. ^ Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 221
  14. ^ a b Herrmann 1910, p. 37–38,51–53

Sources

Literature

  • Stanislas Julien (trans.), Histoire de la vie de Hiouen-Thsang et de ses voyages dans l'Inde (1853)
  • Stanislas Julien, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales (1857–1858)
  • Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux (1903)
  • Tursynkhan Zakonuly Kaiyrken; Abdulvahap Kara, Xuan Zang'ın Seyahat Notlarında Batı Göktürk Kağanı Tong Yabgu'nun Devlet Adamı Portresi (2026)
  • Albert Herrmann, Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China und Syrien. Beiträge zur alten Geographie Asiens, Bd. 1 (1910)
  • Albert Herrmann, Die Hephthaliten und ihre Beziehungen zu China (1925)
  • Heinrich Lüders, Weitere Beiträge zur Geschichte und Geographie von Ostturkestan (1930)

Articles resting on this source 22

Aksu · Alchon Huns · Felt · Göktürk Dress and Hair · Grape Wine in Central Asia · Hephthalites · Huo · Issyk-Kul · Karashahr · Kesh · Khotan · Kucha · Life of Xuanzang · Nezak Shahs · Si Yabgu Khan · Thousand Springs · Tong Yabgu · Trade Routes of the Steppe · Turk Shahi of Kabul and Kapisa · Western Göktürk Khaganate · Xuanzang's visit to Tong Yabgu · Yabgus of Tokharistan

Related

What links here8

Persons
Si Yabgu Khan
Places
Huo · Issyk-Kul · Thousand Springs
Peoples
Alchon Huns
Institutions and Titles
Göktürk Dress and Hair
Foods
Grape Wine in Central Asia
Sources
Life of Xuanzang

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Record of the Western Regions.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/datang-xiyuji/

Last revised: 8 November 2026