Conquest of the Western Turks
Conquest of the Western Turks | |||||||
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Part of the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks | |||||||
Tang's campaigns against Western Turks | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Tang dynasty Former vassals of the Western Turks (Uighurs[1][2]) | Western Turkic Khaganate | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ashina Helu | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
10,000+ Tang and Uyghur infantry and cavalry | 100,000 infantry and cavalry |
The conquest of the Western Turks, known as the Western Tujue in Chinese sources, was a military campaign in 655–657 led by the
The victory strengthened Tang control of the Western Regions, now modern Xinjiang, and brought the regions formerly ruled by the Khaganate into the Tang empire. Puppet qaghans, the Turkic title for ruler, and military garrisons were installed to administer the newly acquired territories. The Tang dynasty achieved its maximum territorial extent as its western borders reached the eastern frontier of the Umayyad Caliphate. Later on, Turkic revolts ended Tang hegemony beyond the Pamir Mountains in modern Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but a Tang military presence remained in Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin. Central Asia absorbed cultural influences from the conflict. Turkic culture and language spread into Central Asia, as did artistic and political influences from the Tang dynasty. Many of the Tang generals and soldiers stationed in the region were ethnically Turkic, and the prevalence of Indo-European languages in Central Asia declined with acceleration of Turkic migration. The Turks, Tibetans, and the Tang competed for control over Central Asia for the next few centuries.
Background
The empire of the Tang dynasty (June 18, 618 – June 1, 907), successor of the
Hostilities between the Tang and the Western Turks had existed since the founding of the dynasty. Emperor Gaozu, the first emperor of the Tang dynasty, aided the assassination of a Western Turk qaghan on November 2, 619.[5] Facing the threat of both the Western and Eastern Turkic Khaganates, Gaozu's successor Emperor Taizong formed an alliance with the Western Turks against the Eastern Turks, adopting a policy of allying "with those who are far away to fight those who are close."[6]
The westward expansion of the Tang dynasty began with their wars against the Eastern Turks, Eastern Tujue in Chinese.
Battles in the Tarim Basin
Several of the Tarim Basin oasis states switched their allegiance from the Tang dynasty to the Western Turks. The oasis states
The nearby kingdom of Karasahr grew wary of the Chinese troops stationed at Gaochang, now under Tang domination. It refused to send tribute to the Tang court and formed an alliance with the Western Turks. A Tang campaign led by commander Guoxiao Ke captured the kingdom in 644 and installed a Tang loyalist as ruler. Military assistance by the Western Turks failed to deter the Tang forces.[12] With the support of the Western Turks, the puppet ruler was later deposed, and another military campaign, led by the Tang general Ashina She'er, a member of the Turkic Ashina royal family, arrived in 648 to re-establish Tang control.[13]
After conquering Karasahr, She'er led his forces to the kingdom of
Campaign
After he established himself as qaghan, Ashina Helu led repeated raids on Tang settlements to the east. He also attacked the Tarim Basin, bringing the territory under Turkic rule for the next six years.[16] Emperor Gaozong, the successor of Taizong, responded by sending Tang forces consisting of a main division led by Su Dingfang, and another led by Ashina Mishe and Ashina Buzhen, Western Turk rivals of Ashina Helu.[14]
Su Dingfang was a commander from south-central Hebei who, earlier in his career as an officer, was responsible for leading the attack against the military camp of Illig Qaghan, qaghan of the Eastern Turks.[18] He also gained military experience as a leader of a regional militia during the civil war fought between the transition from Sui to Tang.[14] Su was a general with military experience in Central Asia, and was familiar with the culture of the steppes. He had been in contact with military leaders from the region. He was one of nine multi-ethnic commanders invited by Emperor Gaozong to a military event in 655. The Turkic general Ashina Zhong, second cousin of Ashina She'er, was another commander in attendance.[19]
Su Dingfang's forces comprised Tang soldiers and 10,000
Su's army marched through the Central Asian steppes from Ordos, Inner Mongolia to the Altai Mountains region.[23] His troops left Ordos in March and arrived in Kyrgyzstan in November, a journey spanning 3,000 miles across steppes and desert. Su avoided stopping at the resource rich oasis states, and historian Jonathan Karam Skaff speculates that the Chinese troops may have relied on livestock for food instead of a supply train, a tactic used by the steppe nomads.[24] The campaign continued through the winter, when the steppes were covered in snow.[25] Describing the journey's ordeal, Su Dingfang is reported to have said: "The fog shed darkness everywhere. The wind is icy. The barbarians do not believe that we can campaign at this season. Let us hasten to surprise them!"[25]
Commanders in the Tang army were familiar with the political culture of nomadic empires. Nomadic alliances were formed through distributing war plunder and ensuring the security of tribal property, and grew tenuous when rulers failed to deliver their promises. The Chinese understood that disaffected tribes were vulnerable to switching allegiances, and used this to their advantage.[26]
Su Dingfang recruited tribes to side with Tang, and these former tribal vassals of the Western Turks contributed additional soldiers. The tribe Chumukun offered their support after they were defeated by Su, and the tribe Nishu aided Su after their children and wives, originally captured by Helu, were returned along with gifts offered by the Tang.[23]
The
I am a defeated and ruined war captive, that's it! The former emperor [Taizong] treated me generously, but I betrayed him. In my present defeat, Heaven has vented its fury at me. In the past I have heard that Han law stipulates that executions of men be carried out in the city marketplace. When we arrive in the capital, I request to Zhaling [the tomb of the previous Tang emperor Taizong] to atone for my crimes to the former emperor. This is my sincere desire.[28]
Gaozong received Helu's plea and agreed to his request,
Historical significance
Aftermath
The conquest strengthened Tang rule over modern
Su continued his career as military general, and later commanded Tang forces in a war against Baekje in 660.[18] The Tang dynasty achieved its maximum extent following its conquest of the Khaganate.[36] The inhabitants of the new territory did not become sinicized like many of the other kingdoms and tribes conquered by the Tang.[37] Tang military activity in Central Asia brought in a wave of Turkic migrants serving in the Tang military as soldiers and generals, leading to the spread of Turkic language and culture.[38] At the same time, the prevalence of Indo-European languages in the Western Regions was on the decline.[10] Central Asia also absorbed cultural influences from Tang China. Central Asian art incorporated Tang stylistic features, like the sancai three color glaze used in pottery.[39] Chinese coins remained in circulation in Xinjiang after the decline of the Tang.[40] Cultural remnants of Tang architectural influence are still visible in the Buddhist architecture of Dunhuang, on the border between the Western Regions and the Hexi Corridor.[7]
The sheer size of the newly conquered lands made it difficult to govern through the Tang military garrisons.[27] The Tang emperor Gaozong appointed two puppet qaghans to rule over the Western Turks, who were later overthrown in a rebellion that began in 662. The revolt reduced Tang's western extent to Beshbalik, Dzungaria in northern Xinjiang and ended direct Tang control of Central Asia beyond the Pamir Mountains in modern Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The expansion of the Tibetan Empire from the south threatened China's hold on southern Xinjiang.[36] Tibet invaded the Tarim Basin in 670, but Tang forces regained the area in 693 and Kashgar in 728, restoring the Anxi Protectorate and Four Garrisons. The conflict between Tibet and the Tang continued for the remainder of the Tang dynasty.[41]
At its maximum extent, Tang expansion brought China into direct contact with the rising
Puppet qaghans
The Tang emperor Gaozong installed two puppet qaghans, the cousins Ashina Buzhen and Ashina Mishe, and controlled the region by proxy.[44] Buzhen and Mishe were enemies of Helu who had aided Su Dingfang during his campaign against Helu and the Western Turkic Khaganate.[14] Gaozong divided the ten tribes of the area among the two cousins. Buzhen governed half of the tribes located in the west, while Mishe governed the other half located in the east.[44]
The son of Buzhen, Khusrau, and the son of Mishe, Yuanqing, resided in Chang'an, the capital of Tang, while their fathers administered the former khaganate as qaghans. Empress Wu Zetian sent Yuanqing and Kusrau westward in 685 to succeed their fathers as proxy rulers.[44]
Neither of the qaghans were able to successfully exert control. Turkic tribes resisted Yuanqing's rule, defeating the qaghan and forcing Yuanqing to return to Chang'an. Kusrau was able to bring the western tribes temporarily under his rule, but was defeated in 690 during an invasion by the Second Turkic Khaganate, and he too was forced to escape the region with his loyalists. Later attempts to install puppet qaghans failed, and the title was reduced to a symbolic position in the Tang court.[44]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Kenneth Scott Latourette (1964). The Chinese, their history and culture. Macmillan. p. 144.
- ISBN 978-0-7607-1976-3.
- ^ Ebrey 2010, p. 108.
- ^ a b c d Ebrey 2010, p. 111.
- ^ Benn 2002, p. 138.
- ^ Findley 2004, p. 40.
- ^ a b Findley 2004, p. 41.
- ISBN 978-1-83860-868-2.
- ISBN 978-1-932476-13-2.
- ^ a b Wechsler 1979, p. 228.
- ^ Wechsler 1979, p. 225.
- ^ Wechsler 1979, p. 226.
- ^ Grousset 1970, p. 99.
- ^ a b c d e Skaff 2009, p. 183.
- ^ Hansen 2012, p. 79.
- ^ a b Twitchett 2000, p. 116.
- ^ Skaff 2009, p. 181.
- ^ a b Graff 2002, p. 285.
- ^ Skaff 2009, p. 188.
- ^ Skaff 2012, p. 189.
- ^ a b c Skaff 2012, p. 190.
- ^ Skaff 2012, p. 249.
- ^ a b c d e Skaff 2009, p. 184.
- ^ Skaff 2009, p. 189.
- ^ a b Grousset 1970, p. 102.
- ^ Skaff 2009, p. 187.
- ^ a b c Twitchett & Wechsler 1979, p. 280.
- ^ a b Skaff 2009, p. 284.
- ^ a b Skaff 2009, p. 285.
- ^ Skaff 2009, p. 286.
- ISBN 978-90-04-48294-4.
- ^ Millward 2007, p. 33.
- ISBN 978-1-83860-868-2.
- ^ Grenet, Frantz (2004). "Maracanda/Samarkand, une métropole pré-mongole". Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 5/6: Fig. B.
- ^ Skaff 2012, p. 281.
- ^ a b c Millward 2007, p. 33.
- ^ Lewis 2009, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Millward 2007, p. 42.
- ^ Millward 2007, p. 41.
- ^ Millward 2007, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Millward 2007, p. 34-35.
- ^ Park 2012, p. 25.
- ^ Park 2012, pp. 25–26.
- ^ a b c d Skaff 2012, p. 179.
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- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (2010). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-12433-1.
- Findley, Carter Vaughn (2004). The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988425-4.
- Graff, David (2002). Medieval Chinese Warfare 300-900. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-20668-3.
- Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.
- Hansen, Valerie (2012). The Silk Road:A New History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3.
- Lewis, Mark Edward (2009). China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05419-6.
- Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3.
- Park, Hyunhee (2012). Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01868-6.
- Skaff, Jonathan Karem (2009). Nicola Di Cosmo (ed.). Military Culture in Imperial China. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03109-8.
- Skaff, Jonathan Karam (2012). Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580-800. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973413-9.
- Twitchett, Denis; Wechsler, Howard J. (1979). "Kao-tsung (reign 649-83) and the Empress Wu: The Inheritor and the Usurper". In Denis Twitchett; John Fairbank (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China Part I. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9.
- Twitchett, Denis (2000). H. J. Van Derven (ed.). Warfare in Chinese History. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-11774-7.
- Wechsler, Howard J. (1979). "T'ai-Tsung (Reign 626-49): The Consolidator". In Denis Twitchett; John Fairbank (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China Part I. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9.