The plateau to the north of the Gobi desert in the sixth to eighth centuries was home to the nomadic Turkic people. At that time, the Turks were playing an extremely important role in Chinese history, and that of Eurasia as a whole. Their origin is shrouded in mystery, but according to the entry concerning them in the History of the Zhou Dynasty, “The Turks are a branch of the Xiongnu. They bear the clan name Ashina. They  were  wiped out by an enemy tribe, all except for one 10-year-old boy, who was suckled by a she-wolf. The wolf later gave birth to 10 boys in the State of Gaochang.  Several generations later, they became the subjects of Ruru. They lived to the south of Jinshan, and became the blacksmiths of Ruru.” The record also states that the 10 boys born of the she-wolf later adopted the surnames of their wives, which is probably a relic of the ancient matriarchal clan system.
    Duan Chengshi of the Tang Dynasty also mentions the origin of the Turkic tribes in Volume IV of his Qiuyang Zazu: “It is said that the ancestor of the Turks was a sea god called Shemo Sheli, who lived to the west of a place called Ashideku. One day, as Shemo Sheli was preparing to go out hunting, his wife said, ”Tomorrow, a white deer with a golden horn will jump out at Ashideku. If you cannot shoot it, our love will die. Sure enough, such a deer did appear at Ashideku, but before Shemo Sheli could shoot it, one of his men did so. It was from this story that the Turks adopted the deer as their totem.
    Of the many nomadic people who spoke Turkic, the Green Turks living south of the Altai Mountains, were the first to come to prominence. In AD 552, Ashnatumen, head of Green Turk Tribe defeated the Rouran  tribe (also called Ruru) and called himself Yili Khan. From then on, a strong Turkish Khanate existed on the grassland north of the Gobi Desert. The state was centered on Ashina (including the Ashide, who married into the tribe) and was composed of the tribes or tribal groups that spoke Turkic - Tiele (including Huihu), Jiegasi, Tujishi and Geluolu - plus the conquered non-Turkic-speaking Rouran, Qidan and Xi. Its boundaries reached Mount Yinshan in the south, the Lamulun River in the east and the Amu and Xi’er rivers in the west.
        The Turks and the Central Plain: Blood that has never been  dry amid war and peace
The Turkish Khanate had a very loose internal organization, and the various tribes were constantly battling for supremacy. In addition, snowstorms fatally weakened the fragile nomadic economy, and in AD 583, the khanate split into eastern and western parts.
    Relations between the Turkic tribes and the people of the Central Plain were mainly peaceful, although clashes broke out from time to time. In AD 585, khan of the Eastern Turks, Shabolue, decided to make himself a tributary of the Sui Dynasty (581-618). In a letter to the Sui emperor, he said, “There cannot be two suns in the sky, or two kings in the land. Only the Sui emperor is the real ruler.”    The Sui Dynasty permitted the Turks to live on the Hohhot Plain in what is now the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and offered them aid.
    In AD 599, Tuli Khan renewed unity with the Sui Dynasty by presenting himself before Sui Dynasty Emperor Yangguang, who bestowed on him the title of Yilizhendou Qimin Khan, and built Dali City for him.  In AD 607, the emperor paid Qimin Khan a personal visit in the latter’s tent on the Hohhot Plain.
    Many centuries of contact between the Turks and the people of the Central Plain had resulted in a great deal of commerce and intermarriage between the two.
    Soon after the Tang Dynasty was founded, in 618,a large number of Turkish herdsmen submitted to Tang Emperor Taizong, who allowed them to settle on the Ordos Plateau, setting up six prefectures on the basis of their tribes. The tribal heads maintained their authority. Their territory came under the authority of the military governors of Yunzhong and Dingxiang.
    However, there were some wars between the Turks and the Tang Dynasty. In AD 639, an uprising by the Ashina clan compelled  Emperor Taizong to relocate all the Turks from the Ordos Plateau to the Hohhot Plain. He appointed Ashina noble Li Simo as the Turkish khan to rule from Dingxiang (Today’s Helinger County). In AD 641, Li Simo (Li was the surname given to him by the emperor) moved to Dingxiang, and ruled a population of 100,000 in 30,000 households. But the Turkish tribes relocated to Hohhot were not willing to obey Li Simo, and moved back to Ordos in AD 643. Taizong then allowed the Turks to live in Sheng and Xia prefectures (today’s Jungar and Wushen banners).
    The following pictures are chosen from Ethnic Groups Pictures of the Qing Dynasty. As regards each ethnic group of the dynasty, the Qing Court not only wrote history about them, but also had their pictures painted by the court painters.
  Despite friction between the Turks and the Tang Dynasty, some marriage alliances took place between the ruling families. In AD 711, Princess Jinshan of Tang married the Turkish ruler Mochuo Khan. Three years later, Mochuo wrote to Emperor Xuanzong, calling himself “son-in-law” and Xuanzong “father emperor.”
    After Bijia Khan succeeded to the throne, he maintained a friendly relationship with the Tang Dynasty. In AD 721 and AD 724, he wrote to Tang Emperor Taizong saying, “(I am) willing to be the son of the emperor” and “my father rules all under Heaven.” When Queteqin, brother and minister of Bijia Khan, died, Xuanzong wrote a stele inscription for his memorial hall in addition to sending his envoy to express his condolences.
    As relations between the Turks and the people of the Central Plain grew closer, the former were greatly affected by Han culture. A large number of Han words were adopted into the Turkic dialects. Some military techniques of the Han were also adopted, such as bow-making. Meanwhile, the Turks were also learning from neighboring areas and nations. Intermarriage between the Sute (also called the Jiuxing Hu) and the Turks was an important factor leading to the emergence and spread of this culture, which included the adoption of the Han calendar via the Sute. It was said that the father of An Lushan, who launched a major peasant rebellion against the Tang Dynasty was a Jiuxing Hu, and his mother was a Turk of the Ashina tribe.

Such intensive cultural exchanges were spurred by the ever-growing economic relations between the Central Plains region and the frontier areas. This helps to explain how China, as a multinational country could endure turbulence and setbacks over centuries and manage to stay a united entity. For instance, the Dongchahetai Khanate in the Western Regions regarded trade with the markets of the Ming Dynasty as a “golden road.”  Therefore, Dongchahetai and the later Ye’erchang Han State kept close ties with the Ming Dynasty, laying the groundwork for the reunification of the Western Regions with the rest of China under the Qing Dynasty.
    Stone men on the grassland: Traces of the vanished Turks
    During their long habitation of the Western Regions, the Turks left a lot of cultural remains. In the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, archaeologists have found many stone carvings of  human figures, even as far west as the Tianshan area. Some place names reflect the influence of these statues: In Xindigou in the southwest of Jimusa’er County, there are stone men standing on the grassland. Local people call the place “Stone Men Beach,” and Stone Men Township, 40 km to the east of  the Balikun County town, got its name after the remains of stone men carvings. Such stone men are also found on the Mongolian Plateau and in Khazakstan. These relics give an indication of the area the Turks once wandered over.
    The shapes and sizes of stone men found in Xinjiang vary. Some only show the outline of the face. Some clearly depict different characteristics. The stone man now preserved in the Xinjiang Museum found at A’erkate in Wenquan County is unique. Exquisitely carved out of white sandstone, the figure is bearded, and has a round and broad face, with bulging eyes and high cheekbones. He wears a robe with a collar, a pair of apparently leather shoes and a wide belt around his waist, from which are hanging a little bag and a sword. The man is holding a wine cup in his right hand.
    At the Horse-Breeding Farm in Zhaosu County, Xinjiang, a stone statue of a woman was found. The figure wears a scarf and robe. Her long hair is combed into several pigtails hanging down her back. There is an inscription in the Turkic language on the figure.
    These statues seem to be funerary figures. According to the History of the Zhou Dynasty: “The body of the deceased is laid in his tent. His children, grandchildren and relatives place butchered sheep and horses in front of the tent. They then walk around the tent seven times. Every time they reach the door, they scratch their faces with knives, tears mingling with blood. They choose a day to burn the body, the horse he rode and the things he used. Finally, they bury the ashes some time later.”  Archaeologists excavated the stone coffin behind the A’erkate stone man in Bo’ertala, Xinjiang. They found nothing but some bone pieces and ashes in it, evidence that cremation was the normal Turkish way of burial in those days.
    The Turks and the ethnic groups using the Turkic language -- two completely different concepts It is necessary to explain the relationship between the ancient Turks and the existing ethnic Turkic-speaking groups. They are completely different concepts. Turk refers to an ancient ethnic group in northern and northwestern China. It was also the name of a khanate. The ethnic groups living within Chinese territory nowadays are the Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Uzbek, Tatar, Yugur and Tuwa.
    The link between the ancient Turks and the modern Uygur is a hot topic. The Uygur nationality emerged over a long period of time. Some researchers point out: “The ancestors of the Uygur, Dingling, Tiele, Gaoche and Huihe (later called Huihu) nationalities blended with the ancient tribes north of the Gobi desert and Central Asia of different language families and races. In this course, they absorbed the cultures of Tuhuoluo and Sute, of the eastern Persian language branch, and of other Turkic tribes, who lived in the Xinjiang area. Their descendants are the modern Uygur was formed eventually.” Obviously, the bloodline of Uygur contains the element of ancient Turks. So the ancient Turkic culture is an organic part of Chinese civilization as a whole as well as of the Uygur civilization.
    The origin of the name “Eastern Turkistan” is also a controversial topic. This term appeared in the 19th century, with the colonial activities of the Western imperialist powers in Central Asia. At that time, the colonialists called the Central Asia and Xinjiang area “Turkistan” (place where the Turks lived). They distinguished “eastern’ and ‘western” Turkistan, with the Zelafushan River as the line of division. This term was created completely from the point view of linguistic and geographical concepts. But it was painted with a strong political color, and used as a banner later by separatists.
   
About the author:
    Shang Yanbing, Han , gained a doctor’s degree in ancient Chinese history from the Department of History of Nanjing University in 1995. He is professor of history and deputy dean of the Department of History of the Central University of Ethnic Groups. He is also a council member of the Society of the History of China’s Foreign Relations. His publications include “The Culture of the Western Regions” and “Study of the Uygur Ethnic Group During the Yuan Dynasty,” and more than 30 theses.