Yenisei Kirghiz

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The Yenisei Kirghiz, also known as the Khyagas or Khakas, were an ancient people that dwelled along the upper Yenisei River in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Depression from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The heart of their homeland was the forested Tannu-Ola mountain range (known in ancient times as the Lao or Kogmen mountains), in modern day Tuva, just north of Mongolia. The Sayan mountains, and much of Mongolia's Great Lakes Depression were also included in their territory at different times. The Kirghiz Khaganate existed from 550 to 1293 CE, in 840 it took over the leadership of the Turkic Khaganate from the Uigurs, expanding their state from the Yenisei territories into the Central Asia and Tarim basin. The Yenisei Kirghiz mass migration to the Jeti-su resulted in the formation of the modern Kirghizstan in the Pamir[disambiguation needed ] area.

Contents

[edit] History

The Yenisei Kirghiz may perhaps be correlated to the Tashtyk culture. The Xiajiasi first appeared as Gekun (Chinese: 鬲昆) or Jiankun (Chinese: 堅昆) in Han period records. Culturally and linguistically, the Yenisei Kirghiz were Turkic. But ethnically it is believed they were part Mongol and part Samoyed because of their red hair and light skin and eyes. Kirghiz with dark features were believed to be descended from the famous Han Dynasty general Li Ling, who defected to Siberia in the first century BCE. By the fall of the Gokturk empire in the eighth century CE, the Yenisei Kirghiz had established their own thriving state based on the Gokturk model. They had adopted the Orkhon script of the Gokturks and established trading ties with China and the Abbasid Caliphate in Central Asia and Middle East. Later, under the Uyghur Khaganate, the Yenisei Kirghiz spent much of their time in a state of rebellion, and in 840 they succeeded in sacking the Uyghur capital in Mongolia's Orkhon valley and driving the Uyghurs out of Mongolia entirely. But rather than replace the Uyghurs as the lords of Mongolia, the Yenisei Kirghiz continued to live in their traditional homeland and exist as they had for centuries. When Genghis Khan came to power in the early 13th century, the Yenisei Kirghiz submitted peacefully to him and were absorbed into his Mongol Empire, putting an end to their independent state. During the time of the Mongol Empire the Yenisei Kirghiz's territory in northern Mongolia was turned into an agricultural colony called Kem-Kemchik. Kublai Khan (who founded the Yuan Dynasty) also sent Mongolian and Chinese officials (along with colonists) to serve as judges in the Kyrgyz and Tuva regions.

[edit] Lifestyle

The Yenisei Kirghiz had a mixed economy based on traditional nomadic animal breeding (mostly horses and cattle) and agriculture. According to Chinese records they grew Himalayan rye, barley, millet, and wheat. They were also skilled iron workers, jewelry makers, potters, and weavers. Their homes were traditional nomadic tents and, in the agricultural areas, wood and bark huts. Their farming settlements were protected by log palisades. The resources of their forested homeland (mainly fur) allowed the Yenisei Kirghiz to become prosperous merchants as well. They maintained trading ties with China, Tibet, the Abbasid Caliphate of the Middle east, and many local tribes. Kirghiz horses were also renowned for their large size and speed.

[edit] Language

There is a discussion of the change of name in the Tang Huiyao (961 CE) article on Jiegu which very likely comes from the Xu Huiyao of Yang Shaofu and others completed in 852, the passage begins:

Now there are those who change the designation to Hegesi. This is also an old name among the northern barbarians... The change to Xiajiasi is probably because barbarian sounds are sometimes quick and sometimes slow so that the transcription of the words are not the same. When it is sometimes pronounced Xiajiasi, it is just that the word is quick. When I enquired from the translation clerk, he said that xiajia had the meaning of "yellow head and red face" and that this was what the Uyghurs called them.

This passage follows after immediately on a quotation from a lost Records of Western Regions by Gai Jiayun, who was Protector General of Anxi, the point of which is to record a legend that dark haired people among the Kirghiz were descendants of Chinese general Li Ling, who was captured by the Xiongnu. Since the Turks were being described as people of small stature in the Tangshu. The description of the Kirghiz as tall, blue-eyed blonds early excited the interest of scholars, who assumed that they could not have originally been Turkic in language. Ligeti cited the opinions of various scholars who had proposed to see them as Germanic, Slav or Ket, while he himself, following Castrén and Schott, favoured a Samoyed origin on the basis of an etymology for a supposed Kirghiz word qaša or qaš for "iron". However Pullyblank argued

As far as I can see the only basis for the assumption that the Kirghiz were not originally Turkic in language is the fact that they are described as blonds, hardly an acceptable argument in the light of present day ideas about the independence of language and race. As Ligeti himself admitted, other evidence about the Kirghiz language in Tang sources shows clearly that at that time they were Turkic speaking and there is no earlier evidence at all about their language. Even the word qaša or qaš may, I think, be Turkic. The Tongdian says: "Whenever the sky rains iron, they gather it and use it. They call it jiasha (LMC kiaa-şaa). They make knives and swords with it that are very sharp." The Tang Huiyao is the same except that it leaves out the foreign word jiasha. "Raining iron" must surely refer to meteorites. The editor who copied the passage into the Xin Tangshu unfortunately misunderstood it and changed it to, "Whenever it rains, their custom is always to get iron," which is rather nonsensical. Ligeti unfortunately used only the Xin Tangshu passage without referring to the Tongdian. His restoration of qaša or qaš seems quite acceptable but I doubt that word simply meant "iron". It seems rather to refer specifically to "meteorite" or "meteoric iron".

[edit] Etymology and names

The trisyllabic forms with Chinese -sz for Turkic final -z appear only from the end of 8th century onward. Before that time we have a series of Chinese transcriptions referring to the same people and stretching back to the 2nd century BCE, which end either in -n or -t:

  • Gekun (EMC kέrjk kwən), 2nd century BCE. Shiji 110, Hanshu 94a.
  • Jiankun (EMC khέn kwən), 1st century BCE onward. Hanshu 70.
  • Qigu (EMC kέt kwət), 6th century. Zhoushu 50.
  • Hegu (EMC γət kwət), 6th century. Suishu 84.
  • Jiegu (EMC kέt kwət), 6-8th century. Tongdian 200, Book of Tang 194b, and Tang Huiyao 100.

Neither -n nor -t provides a good equivalent for -z. The most serious attempt to explain these forms seems still to be that of Paul Pelliot in 1920. Pelliot suggested that Middle Chinese -t stands for Turkic -z, which would be quite unusual and would need supporting evidence, but then his references to Mongol plurals in -t suggest that he thinks that the name of the Kirghiz, like that of the Turks, first became known to the Chinese though Mongol speaking intermediaries. There is still less plausibility in the suggestion that the Kirghiz, who first became known as a people conquered by that Xiongnu and then re-emerged associated with other Turkic peoples in the 6th century, should have had Mongol style suffixes attached to all the various forms of their name that were transcribed into Chinese up to the 9th century.

The change of r to z in Turkic which is implied by the Chinese forms of the name Kirghiz should not give any comfort to those who want to explain Mongolian and Tungusic cognates with r as Turkic loanwords. The peoples mentioned in sources of the Han period that can be identified as Turkic was Dingling (later Tiele, out of whom the Uyghurs emerged), the Jiankun (later Kirghiz), the Xinli (later Sir/Xue), and possibly also the Hujie or Wujie, were all, at that period, north and west of the Xiongnu in general area where we find the Kirghiz at the beginning of Tang.

Among the present-day Turkic Tuvans on the Yenisei headwaters in the Republic of Tuva, one of the traditional clan-names is 'Kirgiz'.

[edit] Relations with Tang Dynasty and Descent from Li Ling

The Kirghiz Khagans of the Yenisei Kirghiz Khaganate claimed descent from Li Ling, which was mentioned in the diplomatic correspondence between the Kirghiz Khagan and the Tang Dynasty Emperor, since the Tang royal Li family claimed descent from Li Ling's grandfather, Li Guang. The Kirghiz Qaghan assisted the Tang dynasty in destroying the Uyghur Khaganate and rescuing the Taihe princess from the Uyghurs.

At the Battle of Shahu Mountain, which literally translates to "kill the foreigners" mountain, Tang Chinese forces defeated and killed thousands of Uyghurs and forced their Khagan Ögä to run away and retreat, and managed to locate and rescue the Taihe princess.[1]

Li Deyu composed a a proclomation, placing all the responsibility for the Uighur's devastating defeat upon gthe Uighurs themselves and their behavior, it also made sure that the government would suprevise and keep tabs on all Uighur owned property, assets, and their religious buildings, the Manicahaean temples. The Chinese persecuted Buddhists in addition to the Manichaean Uighurs. The Uighur population in China were to be dispersed and widened out.[2][3] The proclamation also referenced past events such as Hu-han-ye and Zhi-zhi, two Xiongnu leaders whose actions resulted in their fates, as a warning to Ögä Qaghan.[4]

[5]

After the battle of Shahu mountain, the Chinese proceeded to finish the job of destroying all renmant Uighurs and allying with the Kirghiz. The Chinese official Li Deyu and the Kirghiz exchanged diplomatic messages through letters. [6]

Li Deyu reminded the Kirghiz of past diplomatic relations between the Tang dynasty and the Kirghiz people. [7]

The Jiankun, who were ruled by the Xiongnu, were identified as Kirghiz and the Xiongnu appointed as Governor over the Jiankun Li Ling. When the Tang government sent a letter written by Li Deyu to the Kirghiz Qaghan they acknowledged his descent from Li Ling and since Li Ling's grandfather Li Guang was ancestor of the Tang Emperor, the Kirghiz Qaghan was recognized as a member of the Tang Imperial family.[8] Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had said to them that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners."[9]

The Kirghiz had had relations earlier with the Tang dynasty, when the Tang granted the title of "commander-in-chief of the Kirghiz (Jian-kun)" to a Kirghaz leader in 647 and 648 as he visited the Tang.[10]

The Kirghiz legend said that a Kirghiz woman married Li Ling, which resulted in some Kirghiz people having black hair and dark eyes.[11]

The Kirghiz Qaghan and Tang imperial family were therefore both acknowledged as descendants of Li Guang by the Tang emperor[12][13][14]

Besides the Kirghiz, a Uighur leader also claimed Li Ling as his ancestor in order to strengthen his relationship with the Tang Emperor Wuzong. Blond and Red hair were the norm among the Kirghiz, and the few black haired Kirghiz among them were considered Li Ling's descendants.[15]

During the Tang dynasty, the Yellow Emperor, ancestor of the Han chinese and founder of Chinese civilization or the Zhou royal family, were also claimed by other rulers who were not Han Chinese to be their ancestors, in order to connect themselves to the Tang.[16] "Prestige" for the individual and "status" for their country was the goal of those non Han who made claims of desent from these prominent Han figures.[17]

Black eyes were also another trait that Li Ling was said to have contributed to the Kirghiz people.[18] The black haired Kirghiz who were claimed to be descended from Han Chinese such as Li Ling and his troops stood out from other Kirghiz, since blond and red hair and green eyes were the norm among Kirghiz.[19]

Russian archealogists said that Minusinsk krai was where Li Ling and his desendant ended up after his sojourn with the Xiongnu (Hus).[20]

Li Guang and his family were known for their prowess in warfare.[21] He was considered important in major Chinese histories.[22]


[23]

There is a Kirai lake in the Gobi desert which may possibly be connected with the Kirais. The Kirais were divided into several clans, the most complete notice of which we owe to Rashid-ud-din, who names six of them. These are. 1. The Kerait, to which the royal stock belonged and which probably gave its name to the race. 2. The Tongkut, as Berezine reads the name, or Tunegkhait or Tungkait as it is read by Erdmann and D'Ohsson. 3. The Sakiyat. 4. The Jirkins or Chirkirs. 5. The Dobout or Tumaut. 6. The Aliyat or Albat (Berezine, Rashid-ud-din, vol. i. pp. 95, 96, Erdmann, p. 231, D'Ohsson, vol. i. p. 405). In the Yuan chao pi shi we also read of a clan Kirai, of a second Dunkhait, of a tribe Tumian Tubigan, and of another Oman or Oluan (op. cit. pp. 75, 88, and note 241). Let us now try and unriddle the history of the Kirais. We have seen what was the country which they occupied at the end of the twelfth century. Previous to the middle of the ninth century it is most clear that the same area was occupied by the Uighurs, who had their capital at Karakorum, whence they dominated over the various nomads of Central Asia, including the Kirghises. The latter then lived along the Irtish. According to the official history of the Tang dynasty, called the Tang shi, it was in the middle of the year Kian yuan (i.e. 758 A.d.) when the Kirghiz were subdued by the Uighurs, and thenceforward they no longer sent envoys to the Chinese court. The As£ or Oje, as their chief was called, became a tributary of the Khakan of the Uighurs, and their subsequent history is that of their suzerains. In the fourth year Khai sing (i.e. 839), one of the Uighur grandees revolted, and led the S'a tho, a subordinate tribe, against the Khakan of the Uighurs and defeated him. The defeated Khakan killed himself in despair, and his successor had to face in the same year famine, pestilence, and a cattle disease. So that there was great distress among his people. Thereupon we read that the Ase, i.e. the chief of the Kirghises, rebelled too, and proclaimed himself Khakan, and gave his mother and wife the style Khatun, which in[24]effect meant that he aspired, not merely to rule his Kirghises independently, but to be Emperor of Nomadic Asia (Schott, Die Aechten Kirgisen, pp. 456-7). His mother was a daughter of the chief of the Tukisi (?), and his wife a daughter of the ruler of the Khololo or Karluks (Visdelou, Hist, de la Tartaire, ed. 1780, p. 79). The Khan of the Uighurs sent an army against him, but could not subdue him. The war lasted twenty years without interruption. The chief of the Kirghises, inflated by his successes, sent word to the Khan of the Uighurs, saying, "Your time is ended; I will come presently and capture your golden tent, and will hold horse races in front of it (Schott says tether my horses before it), and plant my standards there. If you think you can resist me, I will await you; if you do not think so, you had better retreat at once." The Uighurs were unable to revenge this affront. On the contrary, one of their chiefs named Kiu lo mo ho actually guided the Kirghises in their attack. The Kirghises were completely successful, and cut off the Uighur Khan's head. Thereupon all his chieftains fled, and the Kirghiz ruler captured his camp, and the golden tent of the Chinese Kum chu or princess, whither he was accustomed to retire, and appropriated his treasures. He also captured the Kum chu of Thai ho, i.e. the Chinese princess so called, and transported her to the south of the mountains Ya lao, also called Tu pu; they are distant, we read, fifteen journeys on horseback from the ancient capital of the Uighurs, i.e. from Karakorum (id. 79). Knowing that the Kum chu was a daughter of the Chinese emperor, the Kirghiz chief sent an embassy with an escort to conduct her to the Chinese court. They were waylaid, however, en route by the Uighur Khan, who put the Kirghiz envoys to death. In 844, the chief of the Kirghiz, having learnt of the death of his envoys, sent Chughu ho su to inform the Chinese emperor of what had happened. He was three years en route, and was received with special honour, the emperor placing him before the ambassador of the kingdom of Pohai, and it was ordered that the genealogy of the[25]Kirghiz chief should be recorded alongside of that of the imperial family. The Uighurs were at this time being hard pressed by the Chinese troops, and their chief, Ukiai, retired among the He che tse Tartars or Black "Wagon Tartars on the borders of Manchuria (Visdelou, op. cit. pp. 70, 80). It would seem that the Kirghises now occupied the old country of the Uighurs, and we read that their chief proposed to the Chinese emperor to pursue and capture the Uighur Khan, in the autumn, when the horses were in good condition {id. p. 80). Meanwhile, however, the Uighur chief was put to death by the He che tse {id. p. 70). The Chinese emperor at this time was called Tham vu tsum. He proposed to send envoys to the chief of the Kirghises, offering to give him the official title of Khan, with the further Chinese style of Turn im hium yu chim mim Khan, but died before his envoys could set out. His successor was persuaded to put off carrying this out, inasmuch as it was supposed it would inflate the pride of the Kirghises, as it had previously done that of the Uighurs. He eventually however sent Li ye, President of the Tribunal of Embassies, to confer on the Kirghiz chief the title already named. During the reign of Tham yi tsum, from 860 to 874, three embassies went from the Kirghises to the Chinese, after which the Chinese historians mention no more such embassies, nor the fortunes of the Kirghiz chiefs {id. p. 80). "We read elsewhere how seven hordes of the Shi wei (by whom in this instance apparently the Mongols are meant), having appropriated and divided among them a considerable number of the fugitive Uighurs, the Kirghiz were offended, and sent one of their chiefs with 70,000 horsemen, who fell on the Shi wei, rescued the Uighurs, and then returned home {id. p. 70). "We get some other details from other sources. Thus De Guignes, quoting the Lie tai ki su, tells us expressly that in the year 842 the Khan of the Kirghiz occupied the greater part of the country which had been subject to the Uighurs; inter alia Gan si, Pe thing, and the country of the Tartars (?). He offered the Chinese Emperor a present of two beautiful[26] horses. The latter wished to ask for the restoration to the empire of Gan si and Pe thing, but he was persuaded by his ministers that their remote situation made them a burden rather than otherwise. An officer was appointed to watch the affairs of the Kirghiz. The Khan presently asked permission to be allowed to attack the Uighurs and to settle at Karakorum, which had been their capital. This was in 844. In the year 863 he asked for copies of the Chinese classics, and shortly after for the calendar (De Guignes, vol. ii. pp. 504-505). In the Kang mu the story is told very much the same way, and we read that the Kirghiz, having killed the Khan of the Uighurs, obliged them to fly from their country and to seek shelter at Tien te, on the Chinese frontier, whence they made continual attacks on the frontier, and were at last defeated and forced to fly eastwards to the He che tse (De Mailla, vol. vi. pp. 475 and 483). The same author confirms the statements about Gan si and Pe thing, which no doubt remained in the hands of the Kirghises (id. 484). We read further in the Kang mu that in the year 844 the Kirghiz sent an envoy to ask that their country should be created a kingdom, but it was not thought prudent to do this without first verifying the report that their ruler was descended from Li kuang. An envoy was sent to make inquiries, who on his return reported favourably of the generosity, bravery, and goodness of the Kirghiz, and especially praised their chief for the way he had received him, and further reported that according to the documents shown to him there could be no doubt he was descended from Li kuang, through the brave Li ling. Thereupon the Imperial diploma was sent to him, appointing him Khakan with the style of Yu u ching ming (id. 488). These extracts complete and apparently make quite certain the identification, on other grounds, of the Kirais, contemporary with Chinghiz Khan, with the Kirghiz. They prove that the latter, in the second half of the ninth century, were occupying the very country of the Kirais, with the same capital of Karakorum, and with their settlements reaching the Chinese frontier, and including the districts of Gan si and Pe thing."[27]

-"Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21" by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1889

Kirghiz women marrying with Han like Li Ling and his troops were used to explain the uncommon black hair among the normally blond and red haired and green eyed Kirghiz.[28]

[29]THE history of the Kirghiz is traceable with almost J- perfect clearness from the beginning of time to which man's memory runs, and they seem to occupy, in part at least, almost the same ground now that they did 2,000 years ago, when the Zenghi Chirche overeamo them and made their ordo one of his capitals. Their race was much mixed up with the Kunkalis, ami indeed both they and the High Carts, whom we know to be Kankalis, or rather perhaps the ruling castes[30]of each, are variously reported to have been the descendants of the same almost pre-historical northern Ting-ling, tribes we have assumed to have been Kankalis. They never had any sustained intercourse with China until they were known by the name of Kirghiz; but, Chkh-lt-MO. previously to that, they were known from generation to generation by various names, all having a graduated resemblance to that word, anchprobably merely reflecting the change in dialect. East of them was a Turkish tribe called the Kurkan, who seem to have Ku-li-kan. occupied both the north and south sides of Lake Baikal: the Chinese, noticing how unusually long the summer evenings were in these high latitudes, "the sun only setting during the period required to cook a leg of mutton thoroughly," imagined, in their ignorance of physical geography that they were "near that part of the world where the sun went down." South-west of them were the Karluks, and Lake Balkash was undoubtedly included in the Kirghiz domain. The word Kirghiz is a corrupted word said to mean "tan-coloured faces" in the Ouigour language. Their proper designation was Kerkur. Chinese geographical descriptions are so vague and disproportionate that it is difficult to fix the relative bearings of any two countries, but it would seem that towards the east the Kirghiz must have had, at least at certain seasons of the year, certain Orotchi, Tupo, Mireka, NRo-ehih. and other Tungusic races on their east frontier; for[31]the descriptions given of birch-bark bouses or huts, sledges propelled by poles, sable-hunting on long snowshoes, feeding on the Liliutn spectabile in lieu of grain, placing dead bodies in chests and hanging them on trees or exposing them on the hills, all point to Tungusic habits of life. The description given of the Kirghiz themselves is very full and to the point. When first known through the Turks they possessed 80,000 good soldiers. Their land was marshy in the summer and full of snow-drifts in the winter. They were of toll stature, very active, with a reddish tinge of hair, white complexions, (which peculiarity hardly accords with the 'tancoloured faces'), and a greenish iris to the eye. [It Wu-sun. is to be noted that the nomads of Kuldja, who utterly disappear from Chinese history before the Turks are heard of, also attracted attention by their reddish hair and green or blue eyes. The Ungri or Hungarians who came to Hungary in the ninth century after the Goths, Huns, Gepidae, Lombards, Avars, etc. had in turn displayed themselves in that region, have never been satisfactorily accounted for, and possibly they may be the ancient Awsen, Wu-sun, or "nomads of Kuldja" of Hiung-nu times : the Wu-sun cannot well be the Kirghiz, for the history of the early Kirghiz or Kcrkur is clear and connected, and besides they are alluded to at the same time as, and are never mentioned in sympathy with the nomads of Kuldja.][32] They think black hair is ominous of evil, and they regard those of their people with a blackiris as being the descendants of the Chinese general who surrendered Li Ling, to the Hiung-nu in B.C. 100, and received a royal Tartar wife. The women are more numerous than the men, and wear rings in their cars. The bravest men tattoo their hands. When the girls marry, they tattoo their necks. They live promiscuously, and are mostly lascivious. [Here follows a short description of their methods of time-keeping, which is unintelligible.] They keep count of the year by the use of the Twelve Beasts [the Animal Signs, or Duodenary Cycle, as developed by the Chinese] ; for instance, what the Chinese would call a "yin year " is with them a "tiger year." The climate is mostly cold, and even the largest rivers are half frozen over. Of crops they have rice, millet, wheat, barley, and oats, which they triturate into flour with a machine worked by the feet, planting in April-May and reaping in OctoberNovember. They ferment a spirit out of boiled rice, but have no fruits or vegetables. [Rice so far north seems an anomaly.] They tend their horses until fullgrown, when the best fighter is made leader of the herd. They also possessed wild horses. They owned camels, cattle, and very many sheep, a rich man often owning several thousand. There were the Antilope gutturosu, the Ovis argali, and a deer like the Cervus pygargus, but larger and darker, with a black tail."[33]

-"A thousand years of the Tartars" By Edward Harper Parker, 1895

Ge Jiayun (盖嘉运) 738－739 wrote that "玄宗開元中,安西都護蓋嘉運撰«西域記»,云堅昆國人皆赤髮綠睛,其有黑睛者則李陵之後" ("the people of the Jiankun state all have red hair and green eyes. The ones with dark eyes were descendants of [the Chinese general] Li Ling [who was captured by the Xiongnu]...") in his "A Record of the Western Regions" during Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's rule.[34]

When Tang Taizong first established relations with the Kirghiz, they were called Jiankun (堅昆). They gave tribute to the Tang. The Chinese had many names fothe Kirghiz, ultimately, Xiajiasi (黠戛斯) ended up as the final name with which they were called when Emperor Wuzong of Tang ruled.[35]

[36]

The story of Chinese ancestry among the black haired and dark eyed Kirghiz from Li Ling and his soldiers was also recorded in the Yu-yang tsa-tsu by Tuan Ch'eng-shih. Black hair was viewed as bad luck by the Kirghiz.[37]

It was stated that "Your nation and ours are of the same family; you cannot be compared with other foreigners." by the Chung-tsung Emperor to the Kirghiz. The Imperial Li family of the Tang dynasty was related to the Kirghiz Kagan via Li Ling.[38]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 114. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&pg=PA114&dq=Shi+Xiong+and+his+troops+then+pursued+the+qaghan+and+engaged+in+a+decisive+battle+at+a+place+called+Shahu+(%22Kill+the+Foreigners%22)+Mountain+on+13+February+843.+The+Uighurs+were+severely+defeated.+A+large+number+given+in+all+sources+as+the+imprecise+number+10,000&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MWkzT6bmMMLl0QGZwrGzAg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Shi%20Xiong%20and%20his%20troops%20then%20pursued%20the%20qaghan%20and%20engaged%20in%20a%20decisive%20battle%20at%20a%20place%20called%20Shahu%20(%22Kill%20the%20Foreigners%22)%20Mountain%20on%2013%20February%20843.%20The%20Uighurs%20were%20severely%20defeated.%20A%20large%20number%20given%20in%20all%20sources%20as%20the%20imprecise%20number%2010%2C000&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "These were followed by his own troops, who fell upon the enemy to the accompaniment of war drums. According to Shi's biography in Jin Tang shu, "Torches lit up the sky, and the hubbub shook the earth. The qaghan, terrified beyond measure, led [some] cavalry and fled."52 the princess was rescued unharmed by Shi's troops. According to Cai Xi's account, he himself was instrumental in this. Cai claimed that he rushed into the Uighur camp, found the princess, and helped her onto a horse. He then led her toward the Tang lines, shouting, "This is the princess!" Shi Xiong heard him and assigned a guard of 30 infantry to protect the princess and lead her to safety. Shi Xiong and his troops then pursued the qaghan and engaged in a decisive battle at a place called Shahu ("Kill the Foreigners") Mountain on 13 February 843. The Uighurs were severely defeated. A large number-given in all sources as the imprecise number 10000-were killed, and many-with estimates ranging from 5000 to 20000-were taken prisoner. Large numbers of livestock were also taken. Ögä, although wounded, escaped with "several hundred" cavalry and fled to the protection of the Black Carts of the Shi-wei.53 The Taihe princess was escorted to Yunzhou and from there to Taiyuan.54" 
  2. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 114. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&dq=The+Uighurs+were+severely+defeated.+A+large+number+given+in+all+sources+as+the+imprecise+number+10%2C000&q=Liu+Mian%27s+victory+memorial+19+February+843#v=snippet&q=Liu%20Mian's%20victory%20memorial%2019%20&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Liu Mian's victory memorial arrived at the Tang capital on 19 February 843.55 Shortly thereafter, the emperor went to the Xuanzheng Hall within the Daming Palace where he received the congratulations of his officials.56 An imperial proclamation promulgated to commemorate the event was written by Li Deyu [Doc.48]. This" 
  3. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 115. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&dq=The+Uighurs+were+severely+defeated.+A+large+number+given+in+all+sources+as+the+imprecise+number+10%2C000&q=Liu+Mian%27s+victory+memorial+19+February+843#v=onepage&q=stinging%20rebuke&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "long and formal document set forth a stinging rebuke of the Uighurs, blaming them for their own destruction since, as the chief minister pointed out, they were not responsive to Tang kindness but instead behaved in an outrageous manner. The proclamation also stated that the campaign would continue until the qaghan and his followers had been destroyed, and offered rewards for those who had established merit in the campaign. It further expressed the imperial thanksgiving for the safe recovery of the Taihe princess. The proclamation then addressed the problem of Uighurs living in China, announcing that those in the capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang would be required to wear Chinese-style clothing and would be parceled out to the various circuits. We may presume that this was intended to keep them from forming communities of significant size within China, and thereby promote their acculturation. Uighur and Manichaean temples, shops, dwellings, money, and goods were all to be inventoried by the government, and the names of the monks of the Manichaean temples were to be recorded as well. The persecution of Manichaeism in China, which had begun with the closing of Manichaean temples in southeastern China and then was rapidly enhanced by this imperial proclamation, paved the way for the persecution of other foreign religions, culminating in Wuzong's famous attack on the Buddhist church.57" 
  4. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 115. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&dq=The+Uighurs+were+severely+defeated.+A+large+number+given+in+all+sources+as+the+imprecise+number+10%2C000&q=Liu+Mian%27s+victory+memorial+19+February+843#v=snippet&q=two%20savages%20calamity%20happiness%20responsible%20befallen&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "The proclamation concluded with a reference to the Xiong-nu leaders Hu-han-ye and Zhi-zhi, stating that "for these two savages (lu), calamity and happiness were entirely of their own choosing." The implication, of course, was that Ögä Qaghan was completely responsible for what had befallen him. The proclamation suggested that all foreign peoples should use the examples of Hu-han-ye and Zhi-zhi as a mirror with which to adjust their own behavior in order to seek felicity and avoid destruction." 
  5. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 115. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&dq=The+Uighurs+were+severely+defeated.+A+large+number+given+in+all+sources+as+the+imprecise+number+10%2C000&q=Liu+Mian%27s+victory+memorial+19+February+843#v=snippet&q=%2023%20February%20843%20honorary%20titles&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "On 23 February 843, Zhang Zhongwu, Liu Mian, and Shi Xiong were granted honorary titles and promotions for their roles in the resolution of the Uighur crisis.58 Absent from the list of those who were granted rewards for the defeat of the Uighurs and the rescut of the Taihe princess was the spy Cai Xi. According to Cai, Liu Mian" 
  6. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 125. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&pg=PA126&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=shahu%20kirghiz%20bu-he-zu%20arrived%20Tiande%20late%20842%20final&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "With the decisive defeat of the Uighurs at Shahu Mountain, two things remained to be done: the establishment of friendly ties with the Kirghiz and the elimination of those Uighurs who remained at large. As we have seen, the first envoy from the Kirghiz, a man name Ta-bu-he-zu, had arrived at Tiande late in 842. Although he apparently never went further into Tang territory, his message was received at the Chinese capital and relayed, at least in part, to the Uighur refugees in Li Deyu's final letter to an Uighur minister [Doc. 43]. And while this first Kirghiz envoy had arrived in the last months of 842, Li Deyu did not compose a reply until after the defeat of the Uighurs and the return of the Taihe Princess to Chang'an, i.e., after 29 March 843.1 If this dating is correct, however, then the reply was also composed after the second Kirghiz envoy had arrived." 
  7. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 125. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&pg=PA126&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=response%20dwells%20pointedly&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "All the Tang court's letters to the Kirghiz ruler, although in the emperor's name, were written by Li Deyu. The earliest of these [Doc. 52], which was a response to the first Kirghiz envoy, is largely formulaic and dwells on events of the past, clearly in an effort to establish some sort of Tang authority over the Kirghiz. It refers pointedly to" 
  8. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 126. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&pg=PA126&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "The letter also gives official acceptance to the idea that the Kirghiz qaghan was related to the Tang imperial house of Li through the Han general Li Ling. After his surrender to the Xiong—nu in 99 BCE, Li Ling had lived in their empire for the remainder of his life, serving as their governor over the Jian-kun people, later equated with the Kirghiz.2 Li Ling was the grandson of the Han general Li Guang (d. 119 B.C.E.),3 from whom the Tang imperial family also claimed descent.4 It is interesting to see how the Kirghiz apparently had retained a tradition of historical memory regarding intermarriage between their people (presumably including their leaders) and Li Ling and his troops, or were at least willing to invent such a "tradition" to gain a special relationship with the Tang ruling house. It is recorded in Xin Tang shu that the Kirghiz qaghan's name was entered into the register of the Tang imperial household at this time." 
  9. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 126. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&pg=PA126&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Chinese sources state that the Kirghiz considered their people with dark hair and eyes to be the descendants of Li Ling and his men; see XTS 217b: 6147, THY 100: 1785, and Duan, Youyang 5a5u 4: 36. According to XTS 217b: 6149, the emperor Zhongzong (r. 684 and 705-710) had once sent a message to the Kirghiz which stated, “Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (5ong). You are not like other foreigners."" 
  10. ^ Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Volume 13 of Brill's Inner Asian library (illustrated ed.). BRILL. p. 126. ISBN 9004141294. http://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC&pg=PA126&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "the successes of Tang Taizong and to his taking the title of "Heavenly Qaghan" at the request of "the peoples of the northwest" in 630/631. The letter goes on to describe how Taizong's envoy was sent to pacify the Kirghiz in 632/633 and how in 647/648 a Kirghiz chieftain came to the Tang court where he was granted titles, including commander-in-chief of the Kirghiz (Jian-kun). All of this implifed Kirghiz suboordination to Tang authority, at least in Chinese eyes. According to the letter, Kirghiz tribute had come to the Tang court "uninterruptedly" until the end of the Tianbao reign period (742-756) when Kirghiz contact with the Tang state was cut off by the rise of Uighur power in Mongolia." 
  11. ^ Veronika Veit, ed. (2007). The role of women in the Altaic world: Permanent International Altaistic Conference, 44th meeting, Walberberg, 26-31 August 2001. Volume 152 of Asiatische Forschungen (illustrated ed.). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 61. ISBN 3447055375. http://books.google.com/books?id=OBEIq8kTQBcC&pg=PA61&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Indeed, in one of the more interesting sidelines to this tale, the Kirghiz claimed to believe that at least some of their people were related by blood to the Tang imperial house of Li. This stems form a tradition, by this time already more than 900 years old, that the Han general Li Ling, sent out to attack the Xiong-nu, had, after his defeat and surrender, been sent by the Xiong-nu to help them in the governance of the Kirghiz (identified with the people then called Jian-kun in Chinese sources), and apparently married a Kirghiz woman. This was said to have begun the appearance of black hair and dark eyes among the Kirghiz, and persons who bore such traits were known as the progeny of Li Ling and his troops.23 It is remarkable that the Kirghiz of the ninth century should have kept alive this very old story, and that they should have used it as their reason for attempting to send the qatun back to Chang'an. It is also worth noting that the reigning Tang emperor Wuzong (r.840-846) publicly accepted the historicity of these ancient ties with the Kirghiz.24" 
  12. ^ Veronika Veit, ed. (2007). The role of women in the Altaic world: Permanent International Altaistic Conference, 44th meeting, Walberberg, 26-31 August 2001. Volume 152 of Asiatische Forschungen (illustrated ed.). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 61. ISBN 3447055375. http://books.google.com/books?id=OBEIq8kTQBcC&pg=PA61&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "24 The emperor's first letter to the Kirghiz qaghan, written by Li Deyu, directly acknowledges Kirghiz descent from Li Ling, who was himself a descendant of an ancestor of the Tang imperial house, the Han general Li Guang; see Li Deyu, Li Weigong Huichang yipin ji (Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1936), ch. 6, p. 38. It is recorded in Ouyang Xiu et al., Xin Tang shu (ch. 2 1 7b, p. 6 1 50) that the Kirghiz qaghan 's name was at this time entered into the register of the Tang imperial family. Even prior to this, the Tang emperor Zhongzong (r. 684 and 705-710) had sent a letter to the Kirghiz that noted the special relationship that existed between the imperial family and the Kirghiz; see Ouyang Xiu et al., Xin Tang shu, ch. 217b, p. 6149." 
  13. ^ Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Paul Rakita Goldin, ed. (2005). Hawai'i reader in traditional Chinese culture (illustrated ed.). University of Hawai'i Press. p. 376. ISBN 0824827856. http://books.google.com/books?ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&id=XdouAQAAIAAJ&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&q=capture+officer+qaghan+descendants+troops. Retrieved February 2012 8. "The Tang imperial house of Li claimed Li Guang as one of its ancestors. As for the connection between Li Ling and the Kirghiz, it was reported that after his capture by the Xiongnu, Li Ling was appointed by them as an officer over the Kirghiz. According to Chinese sources, some Kirghiz (apparently including this qaghan) considered themselves descendants of Li Ling and his troops." 
  14. ^ Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Paul Rakita Goldin, ed. (2005). Hawai'i reader in traditional Chinese culture (illustrated ed.). University of Hawai'i Press. p. 376. ISBN 0824827856. http://books.google.com/books?ei=fIwwT-TZOoeM0QHt8f2CCA&id=XdouAQAAIAAJ&dq=Li+Ling+%28d.+74+bce%29+was+Li+Guang%27s+grandson%3B+although+referred+to+in+this+text+simply+as+%22commander%22+%28dmvei%29%2C+his+proper+tide+was+as+given.+While+campaigning%2C+Li+Ling+was+captured+by+the+Xiongnu+in+99+bce+and+lived+among+them+for+the&q=text+simply+commander+99. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Li Ling (d. 74 bce) was Li Guang's grandson; although referred to in this text simply as "commander" (duwei), his proper tide was as given. While campaigning, Li Ling was captured by the Xiongnu in 99 bce and lived among them for the rest of his days." 
  15. ^ Mark Edward Lewis (2009). China's cosmopolitan empire: the Tang dynasty, Volume 4 (illustrated ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 201. ISBN 067403306X. http://books.google.com/books?id=sq_J0Vkxor8C&pg=PA201&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Yet another genealogical strategy was to claim that one's founding ancestor was an ethnic Han who had been captured by alien tribes or for some other reason carried off to the west. The great Tang poet Li Bo, almost certainly of non-Han origins, invented such a genealogy. The ancestor most often chosen for this purpose was the Han dynasty general Li Ling, who was captured by the Xiongnu in 99 bc Descent from Li Ling was usually claimed by relatively unassimilated peoples such as the Uighurs and Kirghiz, who asserted this kin tie to assist them in making political alliances with the Chinese. Thus, both the Tang Emperor Wuzong and an allied Uighur leader claimed shared descent from Li Ling as a foundation of their collabboration. Tang writers explained the occasional appearance of black hair among the Kirghiz, who generally had blond or reddish hair, as being the result of intermarriage between Li Ling's soldiers and the ancestors of the Kirghiz. A final genealogical strategy for dealing across ethnic lines was the" 
  16. ^ Mark Edward Lewis (2009). China's cosmopolitan empire: the Tang dynasty, Volume 4 (illustrated ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 202. ISBN 067403306X. http://books.google.com/books?id=sq_J0Vkxor8C&pg=PA202&dq=occasional+practice+among+non-Han+leaders+of+tracing+descent+from+the+legendary+Yellow+Emperor+himself%E2%80%94the+founding+ancestor+of+the+Han+Chinese+people%E2%80%94or+from+the+ancient+Zhou+ruling+house.+Such+claims+flattered+both+those+who+made+them+and+their+Tang+recipients&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5lEwT8fdHoy40AHv8snnCg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=occasional%20practice%20among%20non-Han%20leaders%20of%20tracing%20descent%20from%20the%20legendary%20Yellow%20Emperor%20himself%E2%80%94the%20founding%20ancestor%20of%20the%20Han%20Chinese%20people%E2%80%94or%20from%20the%20ancient%20Zhou%20ruling%20house.%20Such%20claims%20flattered%20both%20those%20who%20made%20them%20and%20their%20Tang%20recipients&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "occasional practice among non-Han leaders of tracing descent from the legendary Yellow Emperor himself—the founding ancestor of the Han Chinese people—or from the ancient Zhou ruling house. Such claims flattered both those who made them and their Tang recipients, who could thus assert a larger realm for their putative ancestor. The Chinese had linked themselves to more distant peoples through a common origin in the ancient sage-kings at least since the late Warring States and early Han mythic geography, the Canon of Mountains and Seas (Shan hai jing).48" 
  17. ^ Marc Samuel Abramson (2008). Ethnic identity in Tang China. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 154. ISBN 0812240529. http://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&pg=PA154&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Non-Han who had greater cultural and social pretensions imitated Han counterparts in claiming descent from Chinese culture heroes of antiquity, particularly the Yellow Emperor and King Wen of the Zhou, even while acknowleding their non-Han roots.22 Such assertions did not intend to assert or broaden the notion of Han ethnicity. Instead, they aimed to garner prestige for the claimant and to give the claimant's original homeland greater status by including it within the mythical geography of the spread of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and the Zhou royal house. These claims highlight the extent to which public ethnic identities were predicated on both descent and geography, treated with equal importance in Chinese genealogies." 
  18. ^ Alekseĭ Pavlovich Okladnikov (1971). Volume 1, Issue 1 of Russian translation series, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (reprint ed.). AMS Press. p. 41. http://books.google.com/books?ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&id=ZhOBAAAAMAAJ&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&q=Kirghiz+Khans+considered+account+diplomatic. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Ling's rule in the country of Khakass remained for a long time in the memory of the local population. As the history of the T'ang dynasty reports, all black0eyed people were regarded here as the descendants of Li Ling. The Kirghiz Khans considered themselves his descendants and the Chinese took this into account in diplomatic relations with the Kirghiz. Thus, the influenced of chinese culture found its way to the Yenisei through the Huns, whose aristocratic class was at the time in close relation with China, and" 
  19. ^ Marc Samuel Abramson (2008). Ethnic identity in Tang China. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 101. ISBN 0812240529. http://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&pg=PA154&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz%20black%20hair%20captured&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "The belief in inherited physical characteristics was the foundation of claims made by both Han and non-Han that some ethnically non-Han groups or individuals were, in fact, descended from Han. Thus whereas according to Tang ethnographies the typical Kirghiz had blond hair, green eyes, and a red beard, Kirghiz with black hair were explained away as the descendants of the Han dynasty general Li Ling and his soldiers who had been captured by the Xiongnu around 100 B.C.E.111" 
  20. ^ Alekseĭ Pavlovich Okladnikov (1971). Ancient population of Siberia and its cultures. Volume 1, Issue 1 of Russian translation series, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (reprint ed.). AMS Press. p. 41. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZhOBAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw. Retrieved February 2012 8. "tem with flues placed under the floor. It is very likely that the Chinese general Li Ling, who was captured in 99 B.C. by the Huns, resided here, or his descendants who ruled the country of the Khakass, Chinese reports on Li Ling's fate disclose the concrete conditions under which the influence of Chinese culture manifested itself so definetly on the Yenisei about the beginning of our era, during the time of the Han dynasty in China. These reports combined with archaelogical data furnish a guide for a better understanding of the history of Minusinsk krai during the first millenium of our era." 
  21. ^ Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Paul Rakita Goldin, ed. (2005). Hawai'i reader in traditional Chinese culture (illustrated ed.). University of Hawai'i Press. p. 376. ISBN 0824827856. http://books.google.com/books?id=XdouAQAAIAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA. Retrieved February 2012 8. "21. Li Guang (d. 119 B.C.E.) was a famous Han-era general whose family had been distinguished for generations for their martial abilities. He spent much of his life campaigning against the Xiongnu and held the title of Governor (taishou) of Youbeiping, located in the northeastern frontier region of the Han empire (in the northeast corner of modern Hebei). The name of the commandery of youbeiping was shortened to" 
  22. ^ Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Paul Rakita Goldin, ed. (2005). Hawai'i reader in traditional Chinese culture (illustrated ed.). University of Hawai'i Press. p. 376. ISBN 0824827856. http://books.google.com/books?ei=fIwwT-TZOoeM0QHt8f2CCA&id=XdouAQAAIAAJ&dq=Li+Ling+%28d.+74+bce%29+was+Li+Guang%27s+grandson%3B+although+referred+to+in+this+text+simply+as+%22commander%22+%28dmvei%29%2C+his+proper+tide+was+as+given.+While+campaigning%2C+Li+Ling+was+captured+by+the+Xiongnu+in+99+bce+and+lived+among+them+for+the&q=text+simply+commander+99. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Beiping (Northern Peace) after the Han period; hence the use of this truncated form in the document. Li Guang's life was considered of sufficient significance to be recounted in two famous Han histories, the Shiji of Sima Qian and the Hanshu of Ban Gu." 
  23. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1889). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21. VOLUME THE TWENTY-FIRST. LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. p. 382. http://books.google.com/books?id=0nyFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=black%20kirghises%20migrated%20lately%20present%20camping%20grounds%20original%20home%20fatherland%20saissan&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Kirghises proper and the Kirghiz Kazaks did not exist, and that all were in fact Kirghiz. The free, the untameable, the vagabond, have retained their old names; while the cultivated, who have always been subject to princes descended from Chinghiz Khan, have acquired a softer language and less rude manners, and have their name of Kirghiz qualified by that of Kazak. The original home of the true Kirghises is largely the country now occupied by the Middle Horde of the Kirghiz Kazaks. The Black Kirghises migrated, in considerable numbers apparently so lately as the sixteenth century, to their present camping grounds, but their original home, their fatherland, is the country of the Lake Saissan and the Upper Irtish, the country where the Kirais still live, who, I would urge, have the best claims to be among the truest of true Kirghiz. Before we turn to the history of the Kirais we will devote a few lines to a consideration of their name. Rashidud-din has a characteristic etymology of it. He says that it was reported how in olden times there was a Padishah who had eight sons, all of whom had dark skins, whence they were called Kerait (Erdmann, Temudschin, p. 231). It is not impossible that the name Kirai is connected with Kara, which in Turkish and Mongol (?) is black, although in that case it ought to read Karai and not Kerei. Berezine suggests (vol. i. note 91), that it may be connected with Kerie, in Mongol a crow. In another place (id. note 173) he suggests a connection with the Manchu Kereu, meaning common or general. These derivations are more or less far-fetched and I prefer to see in the name Kirai a mere corruption of Kirghiz. Among the Mongols, as may be seen in Ssanang Setzen, the Kirghiz were called Kerghud; d or t is the plural termination, so that the name of the tribe becomes Kerghu or Kerghi; and as is well known, the dropping of the soft guttural is a most common corruption of Mongol words, thus Baghatur is almost invariably written Baatur, Kaghan Kaan, Khulaghu Khulau, and so on, so that the natural name of the Kirghiz among the Mongols would" 
  24. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1889). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21. VOLUME THE TWENTY-FIRST. LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. p. 383. http://books.google.com/books?id=0nyFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBQ#v=snippet&q=official%20history%20Tang%20kian%20&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "be Kerei or Kirai. There is a Kirai lake in the Gobi desert which may possibly be connected with the Kirais. The Kirais were divided into several clans, the most complete notice of which we owe to Rashid-ud-din, who names six of them. These are. 1. The Kerait, to which the royal stock belonged and which probably gave its name to the race. 2. The Tongkut, as Berezine reads the name, or Tunegkhait or Tungkait as it is read by Erdmann and D'Ohsson. 3. The Sakiyat. 4. The Jirkins or Chirkirs. 5. The Dobout or Tumaut. 6. The Aliyat or Albat (Berezine, Rashid-ud-din, vol. i. pp. 95, 96, Erdmann, p. 231, D'Ohsson, vol. i. p. 405). In the Yuan chao pi shi we also read of a clan Kirai, of a second Dunkhait, of a tribe Tumian Tubigan, and of another Oman or Oluan (op. cit. pp. 75, 88, and note 241). Let us now try and unriddle the history of the Kirais. We have seen what was the country which they occupied at the end of the twelfth century. Previous to the middle of the ninth century it is most clear that the same area was occupied by the Uighurs, who had their capital at Karakorum, whence they dominated over the various nomads of Central Asia, including the Kirghises. The latter then lived along the Irtish. According to the official history of the Tang dynasty, called the Tang shi, it was in the middle of the year Kian yuan (i.e. 758 A.d.) when the Kirghiz were subdued by the Uighurs, and thenceforward they no longer sent envoys to the Chinese court. The As£ or Oje, as their chief was called, became a tributary of the Khakan of the Uighurs, and their subsequent history is that of their suzerains. In the fourth year Khai sing (i.e. 839), one of the Uighur grandees revolted, and led the S'a tho, a subordinate tribe, against the Khakan of the Uighurs and defeated him. The defeated Khakan killed himself in despair, and his successor had to face in the same year famine, pestilence, and a cattle disease. So that there was great distress among his people. Thereupon we read that the Ase, i.e. the chief of the Kirghises, rebelled too, and proclaimed himself Khakan, and gave his mother and wife the style Khatun, which in" 
  25. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1889). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21. VOLUME THE TWENTY-FIRST. LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. p. 384. http://books.google.com/books?id=0nyFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=special%20honour%20genealogy&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "effect meant that he aspired, not merely to rule his Kirghises independently, but to be Emperor of Nomadic Asia (Schott, Die Aechten Kirgisen, pp. 456-7). His mother was a daughter of the chief of the Tukisi (?), and his wife a daughter of the ruler of the Khololo or Karluks (Visdelou, Hist, de la Tartaire, ed. 1780, p. 79). The Khan of the Uighurs sent an army against him, but could not subdue him. The war lasted twenty years without interruption. The chief of the Kirghises, inflated by his successes, sent word to the Khan of the Uighurs, saying, "Your time is ended; I will come presently and capture your golden tent, and will hold horse races in front of it (Schott says tether my horses before it), and plant my standards there. If you think you can resist me, I will await you; if you do not think so, you had better retreat at once." The Uighurs were unable to revenge this affront. On the contrary, one of their chiefs named Kiu lo mo ho actually guided the Kirghises in their attack. The Kirghises were completely successful, and cut off the Uighur Khan's head. Thereupon all his chieftains fled, and the Kirghiz ruler captured his camp, and the golden tent of the Chinese Kum chu or princess, whither he was accustomed to retire, and appropriated his treasures. He also captured the Kum chu of Thai ho, i.e. the Chinese princess so called, and transported her to the south of the mountains Ya lao, also called Tu pu; they are distant, we read, fifteen journeys on horseback from the ancient capital of the Uighurs, i.e. from Karakorum (id. 79). Knowing that the Kum chu was a daughter of the Chinese emperor, the Kirghiz chief sent an embassy with an escort to conduct her to the Chinese court. They were waylaid, however, en route by the Uighur Khan, who put the Kirghiz envoys to death. In 844, the chief of the Kirghiz, having learnt of the death of his envoys, sent Chughu ho su to inform the Chinese emperor of what had happened. He was three years en route, and was received with special honour, the emperor placing him before the ambassador of the kingdom of Pohai, and it was ordered that the genealogy of the" 
  26. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1889). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21. VOLUME THE TWENTY-FIRST. LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. p. 385. http://books.google.com/books?id=0nyFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=uighurs%20were%20being%20hard%20pressed%20by%20the%20chinese%20troops%20chief%20ukiai&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Kirghiz chief should be recorded alongside of that of the imperial family. The TJighura were at this time being hard pressed by the Chinese troops, and their chief, Ukiai, retired among the He che tse Tartars or Black "Wagon Tartars on the borders of Manchuria (Visdelou, op. cit. pp. 70, 80). It would seem that the Kirghises now occupied the old country of the Uighurs, and we read that their chief proposed to the Chinese emperor to pursue and capture the Uighur Khan, in the autumn, when the horses were in good condition {id. p. 80). Meanwhile, however, the Uighur chief was put to death by the He che tse {id. p. 70). The Chinese emperor at this time was called Tham vu tsum. He proposed to send envoys to the chief of the Kirghises, offering to give him the official title of Khan, with the further Chinese style of Turn im hium yu chim mim Khan, but died before his envoys could set out. His successor was persuaded to put off carrying this out, inasmuch as it was supposed it would inflate the pride of the Kirghises, as it had previously done that of the Uighurs. He eventually however sent Li ye, President of the Tribunal of Embassies, to confer on the Kirghiz chief the title already named. During the reign of Tham yi tsum, from 860 to 874, three embassies went from the Kirghises to the Chinese, after which the Chinese historians mention no more such embassies, nor the fortunes of the Kirghiz chiefs {id. p. 80). "We read elsewhere how seven hordes of the Shi wei (by whom in this instance apparently the Mongols are meant), having appropriated and divided among them a considerable number of the fugitive Uighurs, the Kirghiz were offended, and sent one of their chiefs with 70,000 horsemen, who fell on the Shi wei, rescued the Uighurs, and then returned home {id. p. 70). "We get some other details from other sources. Thus De Guignes, quoting the Lie tai ki su, tells us expressly that in the year 842 the Khan of the Kirghiz occupied the greater part of the country which had been subject to the Uighurs; inter alia Gan si, Pe thing, and the country of the Tartars (?). He offered the Chinese Emperor a present of two beautiful" 
  27. ^ Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1889). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 21. VOLUME THE TWENTY-FIRST. LONDON: W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. p. 386. http://books.google.com/books?id=0nyFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "horses. The latter wished to ask for the restoration to the empire of Gan si and Pe thing, but he was persuaded by his ministers that their remote situation made them a burden rather than otherwise. An officer was appointed to watch the affairs of the Kirghiz. The Khan presently asked permission to be allowed to attack the Uighurs and to settle at Karakorum, which had been their capital. This was in 844. In the year 863 he asked for copies of the Chinese classics, and shortly after for the calendar (De Guignes, vol. ii. pp. 504-505). In the Kang mu the story is told very much the same way, and we read that the Kirghiz, having killed the Khan of the Uighurs, obliged them to fly from their country and to seek shelter at Tien te, on the Chinese frontier, whence they made continual attacks on the frontier, and were at last defeated and forced to fly eastwards to the He che tse (De Mailla, vol. vi. pp. 475 and 483). The same author confirms the statements about Gan si and Pe thing, which no doubt remained in the hands of the Kirghises (id. 484). We read further in the Kang mu that in the year 844 the Kirghiz sent an envoy to ask that their country should be created a kingdom, but it was not thought prudent to do this without first verifying the report that their ruler was descended from Li kuang. An envoy was sent to make inquiries, who on his return reported favourably of the generosity, bravery, and goodness of the Kirghiz, and especially praised their chief for the way he had received him, and further reported that according to the documents shown to him there could be no doubt he was descended from Li kuang, through the brave Li ling. Thereupon the Imperial diploma was sent to him, appointing him Khakan with the style of Yu u ching ming (id. 488). These extracts complete and apparently make quite certain the identification, on other grounds, of the Kirais, contemporary with Chinghiz Khan, with the Kirghiz. They prove that the latter, in the second half of the ninth century, were occupying the very country of the Kirais, with the same capital of Karakorum, and with their settlements reaching the Chinese frontier, and including the districts of Gan si and Pe thing."" 
  28. ^ Marc Samuel Abramson (2008). Ethnic identity in Tang China. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 154. ISBN 0812240529. http://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&pg=PA154&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "One the one hand, one could claim descent form a known historigal Han figure, usually male, who had ended up in non-Han territory and intermarried with the local populace. The Western Han general Li Ling, taken captive by the Xiongnu in 99 BCE,19 was the archetypal figure in the Tang and and subsequent periods. This claim was usually made by or about relatively unassimilated peoples in the Tang Empire, including groups not subject to the Tang, such as the Kirghiz and Uighurs, who were viewed as impervious to hanicization or sinicization and thus threatening. The claim was usually not made as part of a strategy of social mobility via hanicization but made in order to establish a basis for a political relationship —Emperor Wuzong claimed common kinship with a Uighur leader through their alleged common descent from Li Ling —or to account for ethnographic anomalies.20 One Tang writer explained the appearance of black hair among Kirghiz, who were stereotypically known for their blond or reddish hair and green eyes, as the result of intermarriage between Li and his Han soldiers and female ancestors of the Kirghiz.21" 
  29. ^ Edward Harper Parker (1895). A thousand years of the Tartars. SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE : KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED.: S. Low, Marston & company (limited). p. 251. http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=shado%20remained%20returned%20kur%20kara%20usu%20cathayan%20dynasty&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "There do not seem to have been any exceptional peculiarities in the manners of the Shado Turks. Unlike the Northern and Western houses, they were not of the house of Assena, but belonged to one of the obscurest and smallest tribes, originally under one of the sub-khakhans, subject first to the viceroys of the west and afterwards to Dalobian and his successors. They seem to have been distinguished for their unusual courage, loyalty, bravery, and skill in fighting; while the whole of their history, so far as we know it, is bound up with Chinese interests. It is singular that the weakest of the Turkish tribes should have been the only one to attain to the dignity of Chinese Emperors. Maokire, especially, is spoken of by the historians with extreme respect. The Shado were still in their old quarters near Kuku-khoto in Marco Polo's time. The Ntichen dynasty, a century later than Maokire, moved the Kan Suh portion to Liao Tung, but somo of the Tenduc tribe of North Shan Si became Christians, and, under the name of Ongku, married into Genghis Khan's family. Marco Polo, confusing Ongku with Wang Khan of the Keraits, calls the former Prester John. Some at least of the Shado must moreover have remained in or returned to their old Kur-kara-usu territory, for during the Cathayan dynasty, which preceded the Niichuus, we find them a vassal tribe there." 
  30. ^ Edward Harper Parker (1895). [http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=kirghiz%20traceable%20occupy%20zenghi%20chirche%20ordo%20&f=falseIt is important to bear one thing in mind. When the Hiung-nu fled westward, it was probably not the nation that fled, but only the Zenghis and the other three or four noble clans; for no nomad empire was ever more than an ill-digested political conglomeration. So, when the Turkish Empires came to an end, most of the people, being unsympathetic tribes, would remain where they were: it was merely the Assena family of masters that gave place to another. The broadly distinguishing feature in Hiung-nu and Turkish as distinct from Sien-pi and Cathayan administration is the hereditary and aristocratic organization of the state. Before we dismiss the subject of the Turks we must take a look at the Kirghiz and other obscure tribes. CHAPTER IV. Thk Kihghiz. 'I 'HE history of the Kirghiz is traceable with almost J- perfect clearness from the beginning of time to which man's memory runs, and they seem to occupy, in part at least, almost the same ground now that they did 2,000 years ago, when the Zenghi Chirche overeamo them and made their ordo one of his capitals. Their race was much mixed up with the Kunkalis, ami indeed both they and the High Carts, whom we know to be Kankalis, or rather perhaps the ruling castes A thousand years of the Tartars]. SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE : KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED.: S. Low, Marston & company (limited). p. 252. http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=kirghiz%20traceable%20occupy%20zenghi%20chirche%20ordo%20&f=falseIt is important to bear one thing in mind. When the Hiung-nu fled westward, it was probably not the nation that fled, but only the Zenghis and the other three or four noble clans; for no nomad empire was ever more than an ill-digested political conglomeration. So, when the Turkish Empires came to an end, most of the people, being unsympathetic tribes, would remain where they were: it was merely the Assena family of masters that gave place to another. The broadly distinguishing feature in Hiung-nu and Turkish as distinct from Sien-pi and Cathayan administration is the hereditary and aristocratic organization of the state. Before we dismiss the subject of the Turks we must take a look at the Kirghiz and other obscure tribes. CHAPTER IV. Thk Kihghiz. 'I 'HE history of the Kirghiz is traceable with almost J- perfect clearness from the beginning of time to which man's memory runs, and they seem to occupy, in part at least, almost the same ground now that they did 2,000 years ago, when the Zenghi Chirche overeamo them and made their ordo one of his capitals. Their race was much mixed up with the Kunkalis, ami indeed both they and the High Carts, whom we know to be Kankalis, or rather perhaps the ruling castes. Retrieved February 2012 8. 
  31. ^ Edward Harper Parker (1895). [http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false A thousand years of the Tartars]. SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE : KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED.: S. Low, Marston & company (limited). p. 253. http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "of each, are variously reported to have been the descendants of the same almost pre-historical northern Ting-ling, tribes we have assumed to have been Kankalis. They never had any sustained intercourse with China until they were known by the name of Kirghiz; but, Chkh-lt-MO. previously to that, they were known from generation to generation by various names, all having a graduated resemblance to that word, anchprobably merely reflecting the change in dialect. East of them was a Turkish tribe called the Kurkan, who seem to have Ku-li-kan. occupied both the north and south sides of Lake Baikal: the Chinese, noticing how unusually long the summer evenings were in these high latitudes, "the sun only setting during the period required to cook a leg of mutton thoroughly," imagined, in their ignorance of physical geography that they were "near that part of the world where the sun went down." South-west of them were the Karluks, and Lake Balkash was undoubtedly included in the Kirghiz domain. The word Kirghiz is a corrupted word said to mean "tan-coloured faces" in the Ouigour language. Their proper designation was Kerkur. Chinese geographical descriptions are so vague and disproportionate that it is difficult to fix the relative bearings of any two countries, but it would seem that towards the east the Kirghiz must have had, at least at certain seasons of the year, certain Orotchi, Tupo, Mireka, NRo-ehih. and other Tungusic races on their east frontier; for" 
  32. ^ Edward Harper Parker (1895). [http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=reddish%20tinge%20hair%20white%20complexions%20greenish%20iris%20eye&f=false A thousand years of the Tartars]. SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE : KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED.: S. Low, Marston & company (limited). p. 254. http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=reddish%20tinge%20hair%20white%20complexions%20greenish%20iris%20eye&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "the descriptions given of birch-bark bouses or huts, sledges propelled by poles, sable-hunting on long snowshoes, feeding on the Liliutn spectabile in lieu of grain, placing dead bodies in chests and hanging them on trees or exposing them on the hills, all point to Tungusic habits of life. The description given of the Kirghiz themselves is very full and to the point. When first known through the Turks they possessed 80,000 good soldiers. Their land was marshy in the summer and full of snow-drifts in the winter. They were of toll stature, very active, with a reddish tinge of hair, white complexions, (which peculiarity hardly accords with the 'tancoloured faces'), and a greenish iris to the eye. [It Wu-sun. is to be noted that the nomads of Kuldja, who utterly disappear from Chinese history before the Turks are heard of, also attracted attention by their reddish hair and green or blue eyes. The Ungri or Hungarians who came to Hungary in the ninth century after the Goths, Huns, Gepidae, Lombards, Avars, etc. had in turn displayed themselves in that region, have never been satisfactorily accounted for, and possibly they may be the ancient Awsen, Wu-sun, or "nomads of Kuldja" of Hiung-nu times : the Wu-sun cannot well be the Kirghiz, for the history of the early Kirghiz or Kcrkur is clear and connected, and besides they are alluded to at the same time as, and are never mentioned in sympathy with the nomads of Kuldja.]" 
  33. ^ Edward Harper Parker (1895). [http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=bkacj%20hair%20blackiris%20chinese%20general%20li%20ling%20received%20royal%20tartar%20wife&f=false A thousand years of the Tartars]. SHANGHAI, HONGKONG, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE : KELLY & WALSH, LIMITED.: S. Low, Marston & company (limited). p. 255. http://books.google.com/books?id=qykPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFUQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=bkacj%20hair%20blackiris%20chinese%20general%20li%20ling%20received%20royal%20tartar%20wife&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "They think black hair is ominous of evil, and they regard those of their people with a blackiris as being the descendants of the Chinese general who surrendered Li Ling, to the Hiung-nu in B.C. 100, and received a royal Tartar wife. The women are more numerous than the men, and wear rings in their cars. The bravest men tattoo their hands. When the girls marry, they tattoo their necks. They live promiscuously, and are mostly lascivious. [Here follows a short description of their methods of time-keeping, which is unintelligible.] They keep count of the year by the use of the Twelve Beasts [the Animal Signs, or Duodenary Cycle, as developed by the Chinese] ; for instance, what the Chinese would call a "yin year " is with them a "tiger year." The climate is mostly cold, and even the largest rivers are half frozen over. Of crops they have rice, millet, wheat, barley, and oats, which they triturate into flour with a machine worked by the feet, planting in April-May and reaping in OctoberNovember. They ferment a spirit out of boiled rice, but have no fruits or vegetables. [Rice so far north seems an anomaly.] They tend their horses until fullgrown, when the best fighter is made leader of the herd. They also possessed wild horses. They owned camels, cattle, and very many sheep, a rich man often owning several thousand. There were the Antilope gutturosu, the Ovis argali, and a deer like the Cervus pygargus, but larger and darker, with a black tail. Of their" 
  34. ^ Rachel Lung (2011). [http://books.google.com/books?id=qsNoHtgkGPkC&pg=PA108&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFsQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false Interpreters in Early Imperial China]. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 108. ISBN 9027224447. http://books.google.com/books?id=qsNoHtgkGPkC&pg=PA108&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFsQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "玄宗開元中,安西都護蓋嘉運撰«西域記»,云堅昆國人皆赤髮綠睛,其有黑睛者則李陵之後... ...蓋鐵勒之種,常以稱紇骨矣。其轉為黠戛斯者,蓋夷音有緩急,即傳譯語不同。其或自稱黠 黠斯者,語急而然耳。訪於吏,譯云黠戛斯是黃頭赤面義,即似為回鶻所呼。今使者稱自有此名,未知熟是。( Tanghuiyao100:1785) Durng the reign period of Kaiyuan of [emperor] Xuanzong, Ge jiayun, composed A Record of the Western Regions, in which he said "the people of the Jiankun state all have red hair and green eyes. The ones with dark eyes were descendants of [the Chinese general] Li Ling [who was captured by the Xiongnu]...of Tiele tribe and called themselves Hegu. The change to Xiajiasi is probably because barbarian sounds are sometimes quick and sometimes slow so that the transcriptions of the words are not the same. When it is sometimes pronounced Xiajiasi, it is just that the word is quick. When I enquired from the transcriptions of the words are not the same. When it is somestimes pronounced Xiajiasi, it is just that the word is quick. when I enquired from the translation clerk, he said that Xiajia had the meaning of 'yellow head and ref face' and that this was what the Uighurs called them. Now the enboys say that they themselves have this name. I don't know which is right.". . .In order to clarify the various terms relating to the Kirghiz, Ge Jiayun actually solicited help from a translation clerk in China. The translator here expalined to him the literal meaning of "Kirghiz" as "yellow head and red face" and the various Chinese references to this tribe in histories." 
  35. ^ Rachel Lung (2011). [http://books.google.com/books?id=qsNoHtgkGPkC&pg=PA108&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFsQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false Interpreters in Early Imperial China]. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 108. ISBN 9027224447. http://books.google.com/books?id=qsNoHtgkGPkC&pg=PA108&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CFsQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=li%20ling%20kirghiz&f=false. Retrieved February 2012 8. "The Kirghiz tribe first came to pay tribute to emperor Taizong by the tribal name of Jiankun (堅昆). It rose as a phenomenal presence on the Mongolia steppes after crushing the Uighürs in 839, a late Tang rival and menace during the reign of emperor Wuzong (r. 841-846). Its contact with the Tang court preceding the military success was, for a lengthy period of time, interrupted and blocked because of the political turmoil in Central Asia. In this connection, Drumpp sumarizes the relevant Tang archives (Tanghuiyao 100:1784-1785 and Xintangshu 217b:6146-6147) and says Tang sources sometimes refer to the Kirghiz by the archaic name of Jian-kun, but more commonly refer to them by various names such as Jiegu (結骨), Hegu (紇骨), Hegusi (紇戛斯), or Juwu (居勿) (Drompp 2005:36) During the Huichang reign period of emperor Wuzong, the Chinese transcription to “Kirghiz” was changed to Xiajiasi (黠戛斯) subsequent to several visits of Kirghiz envoys to the Tang court. This new form was sometimes mistakenly represented as "Jiajiasi". Again in the words of Drompp," 
  36. ^ Murat Ocak (2002). Hasan Celāl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay. ed. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ The Turks: Early ages]. Volume 1 of The Turks. Yeni Türkiye. http://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ. Retrieved February 2012 8. "It is observed that Kirghizs started to be mentioned in historical texts following the establishment of Gok- tiirk State. It is estimated that Kirghizs lived in the region between Kem River and Abakan River during the period before 552." 
  37. ^ Murat Ocak (2002). Hasan Celāl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay. ed. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ The Turks: Early ages]. Volume 1 of The Turks. Yeni Türkiye. http://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ. Retrieved February 2012 8. "time state that they considered black hair to be unlucky, and called those with dark hair and eyes the progeny of the Han general Li Ling (see below)11 Tuan Ch'eng- shih, author of Yu-yang tsa-tsu, wrote that dark-haired and dark- eyed Kyrgyz were the descendants of Li Ling and his Chinese troops, which is more logical than attributing their existence to Li Ling alone.12 The tenth- century Persian source Hudud al-'Alam describes the Kyrgyz as having "rough faces and scanty hair,"13 while the eleventh-century Ghaznavid author. . . ans of empire died with him when he was defeated by a Chinese army led by the Han general Ch'en Tang in 36 BCE. It is to be supposed that after his demise, the Kyrgyz once again came under the domination of the Hsiung-nu. But after Hsiung-nu power weakened further in te first century CE, it seems likely that the Kyrgyz enjoyed greated political autonomy, although we have no real evidence for this." 
  38. ^ Murat Ocak (2002). Hasan Celāl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay. ed. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ The Turks: Early ages]. Volume 1 of The Turks. Yeni Türkiye. http://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ&q=li+ling+kirghiz&dq=li+ling+kirghiz&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hAAvT-3QOeSE0QHuktzJCg&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ. Retrieved February 2012 8. "Chinese emperor.24 According to the Chinese sources, our first indication of the Chinese acceptance of the Li Ling story-a very important connection, since the Tang royal house of Li claimed descent from one of Li Ling's relatives-is found in a statement by emperor Chung-tsung (r. 684, 705-710), who is reported to have said, "Your nation and ours are of the same family; you cannot be compared with other foreigners."25 During this time, the power of the Eastern Turks was reestablished in Mongolia by Elterish Kagan. . .Kyrgyz were under the domination of the Uygurs. Chinese sources state that the ruler of the Kyrgyz was no longer referred to as kagan, but by a term rendered in China as a-je, the original form of which is uncertain. According to the Chinese sources, the Uygurs granted the a-je the title of Bilge Ton Irkin:34 It is uncertain if this title was used by all the a-je, or only one. And yet the Karabalghasun inscription refers to the rebellious Kyrgyz" 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yenisei_Kirghiz&oldid=477937776"
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