Tongdian

Translation

Shaboluo was greatly pleased and made an agreement that the desert should be the boundary. He then submitted a memorial, saying:

“The subject Shetu, Yili Julu She Shiboluo Mohe Khan of the Great Göktürks, says:

Since Heaven set up the Göktürks, more than fifty years have passed. Our land extends over ten thousand li. Our soldiers and horses are counted by the yi. We have always had the strength to combine the Rong and the Yi, and we have stood as equals in ceremony with Huaxia. Among the northern Di none is greater than we.

Now we are steeped in your virtue and righteousness. Wherever your benevolent influence reaches, the custom of courtesy and deference fills the country from the court to the fields.

I humbly hold that the sky has no second sun and the land no second lord. How would I dare to rely on arms and steal a name and title? Now I turn my heart to him who has the Way and shall be your vassal forever.

I respectfully send my son, your subject Kushezhen, to present this memorial and make it known.”

Translation

Another account says that they came originally from the country of Suo, which lay north of the Xiongnu.

The great man of its tribe was called Abangbu. The brothers numbered seventeen, and one of them, called Yizhi Nishidu, was born of a wolf.

Bangbu and the others were all foolish by nature, and so the country was destroyed.

Nishidu had been touched by an unusual breath of his own and could summon wind and rain.

He married two women, said to be daughters of the spirit of summer and the spirit of winter, and from a single pregnancy four sons were born.

The eldest son was called Nuduliu She. The people took him as their lord, and he took the name “Tujue”.

The sons born to Duliu all took their mothers' clans as family names. Ashina was one of them, and he was called Axian She.

This account differs, but both are of the wolf's stock.

Translation

At the end of the Later Wei their chieftain Tumen found his tribe growing somewhat stronger and first came to the frontier to have dealings with China.

In the twelfth year of Datong of the Western Wei he asked the Rouran for a bride. Anagui, the ruler of the Rouran, was furious and had a man abuse him, saying: “You are my slave at the forge. How dare you utter such words!”

Tumen sent out troops against the Rouran and defeated them utterly north of Huaihuang. Anagui killed himself.

Tumen then styled himself Yili Khan,

which was like the shanyu of old, and he called his wife Kehedun, which was like the yanzhi of old.

His sons and younger brothers were called Tegin. The leaders of separate tribes who commanded troops were called She. His high officials were Quluchuo, then Abo, then Xielifa, then Tutun, then Qijin.

At first the country had ten grades of official titles for high and low. Some were taken from bodily form, some from age, some from colour, beard and hair, some from wine and meat, and some from the names of animals.

Translation

Que Tegin, the son of Gutuolu, gathered the old tribes together. He killed Mochuo's son the Small Khan, all his brothers and his close followers almost to the last, and set up the Wise King of the Left, Mojilian, who became Pijia Khan.

Pijia took the throne in the fourth year of Kaiyuan. In his own tribe he was called Xiaosha.

He was kind and brotherly by nature. Holding that he had won the realm through Que Tegin's merit, he insisted on yielding it to him, but Que Tegin did not accept. So he made him Wise King of the Left, in sole charge of troops and horses.

At that time the Xi and the Khitan came together to the frontier to offer submission. Sulu of the Tuqishi set himself up as khan, and many of the Göktürk tribes wavered in their loyalty. So he summoned Tunyugu, an officer of the headquarters from Mochuo's time, as his chief counsellor.

At first all the officers of the headquarters under Mochuo had been killed by Que Tegin. Tunyugu had made his daughter the kehedun of Xiaosha and so escaped death. He had been dismissed and sent back to his tribe, and when he was employed again he was already over seventy years old, and the people of the tribes greatly respected and obeyed him.

Translation

Guangting asked that an envoy be sent to summon their high ministers to accompany the tour. Then the Göktürks would not dare to refuse, and it would also be hard for them to make any move.

Shuo agreed with these words and sent Yuan Zhen, an attendant of the Secretariat acting as Minister of State Ceremonial, to the Göktürks to announce the intention.

Xiaosha, with his wife, Que Tegin, Tunyugu and the others, sat in a ring in the tent and held a banquet. He said to Zhen: “The Tibetans are a race of dogs, and the Tang state gives them brides. The Xi and the Khitan were formerly slaves of the Göktürks, and they too are married to Tang princesses. The Göktürks have asked again and again to join in a marriage alliance, and only they have not been granted it. Why is that?”

Yuan Zhen said: “The Khan is already a son to the emperor. How can father and son be joined in marriage?”

Xiaosha and the others said: “The two nations were also granted the imperial surname, and still they could marry princesses. If we follow this precedent, what is wrong with it? And we have heard that the princesses sent to the tribes were none of them daughters of the Son of Heaven. What we ask now, why should one ask whether it is genuine or false? To ask again and again without getting it is truly a shame before the other tribes.”

Zhen agreed to present the request. Xiaosha then sent his high minister Ashide Xielifa to court with tribute, and he accompanied the tour to the east.

Setting out from the capital, they reached Jiahuidun. Xielifa and the chieftains of the other tribes were led into the guard and given bows and arrows.

At that moment a hare started up in front of the emperor's horse. The emperor drew his bow, shot at it from the side and caught it.

Xielifa at once dismounted, held up the hare and danced, saying: “The sage's divine martial skill is beyond compare. In heaven above I cannot know, but among men there is none like it.”