TURKS

The Uygurs
 ( Uygur means "unity" or "alliance." The origin of the ethnic group can be traced back to the Dingling nomads in northern and northwestern China and in areas south of Lake Baikal and between the Irtish River and Lake Balkhash in the third century B.C. Some people maintain that the forefathers of the Uygurs were related to the Hans. The Dingling were later called the Tiele, Tieli, Chile or Gaoche (high wheel). The Yuanhe tribe reigned supreme among the Gaoche tribes during the fifth century A.D., and the Weihe among the Tiele during the seventh century. Several tribes rallied behind the Weihe to resist Turkic oppression. )
Huihe would be a more correct name for the ancestors of the Uygurs. Interestingly, nationalist Uygurs had produced two lineages of eastern and western Hunnic kings on their website dating back to Before Christ era. Uygurs claimed they descended from 'Chunwei', the son of Jie, last Xia Dynasty lord. According to Shi Ji, Chunwei fled to the northern plains where he became ancestors of the Huns. The Hunnic successors will include the Ruruans, Gaoche, the Tiele Tribes and the Turks etc. New History Of Tang Dynasty, written by Song Dynasty's Ouyang Xiu, mentioned that the ancestors of Huihe were Hunnic, and they were called Gaoche because of their custom of riding in high-wheeled carts. They were alternatively called 'Chile' which was to mutate into 'Tiele'.
 
History of the Northern Dynasties mentioned that the Gaoche people could be related to 'Dingling', descendants of the Chi Di or Red Di people who once resided in the Shanxi areas. They dwelled to the northwest of Luhun (?) Sea.
 
Chinese history put Gaoche (descendants of Chidi or Red Di people, also known as Dingling), in a different category from the dozens of tribal states in Chinese Turkistan. Chidi once dwelled in Hetao and should belong to the earlier Rongdi Rongs. (Rong-di could relate to Sino-Tibetan Qiangic people. See hun.htm section for details.) Rongdi had intermarriage with Zhou court, while Chidi with Jin Principality. Chidi first was called Dili, and then Gaoche and Dingling. They were recorded to have similar language to the Huns.
 
Gao-che People   Record showed that the Gaoche people had similar traits as the early Huns and they were the nephews of the Huns. Among the Gaoche would be clans like Hulü, Di(2), Yuanhe, Jiepi, Hugu, and Yiqijin. Twelve family names could be found: Qifuli, Tulu, Dalian, Dabo, A'lun, Muoyun, Sifen, Fufuluo, Qiyuan, and Youshupei etc. The words Gao-che mean "high wheeled carts" which was to point that the Gaoche people liked to ride in high-whelled carts. The high-whelled carts were said to have lots of radius grooves or shafts. I have noticed that some Uygur website had adopted the Yuanhe clan of the Gaoche people as their ancestors. http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/society/A0849917.html had mentioned that the Uygurs (Uigurs) were the Yue-che of ancient Chinese records. This should be a typo of the Yuanhe clan. http://ignca.nic.in/pb0013.htm corroborated the phrase of Yue-che or Yueche as nothing other than a mutated form of spelling for the Yuezhi or Yueh-chih people who relocated to Bactria from Gansu.
 
Tiele Tribes   History records from the Toba Wei period contain many references to the 'Tiele' or 'Chilie' tribes and their rebellions against the Toba Wei Dynasty. Toba Emperor Daowudi defeated the Gaoche people. Gaoche tribes sought vassalage with Toba, and one chieftan was conferred the post of Yangwei (exhibiting awe) Jiangjun (general), and another chieftan Weiyuan (awe far-reaching) Jiangjun (general). Both enjoyed Toba bestowals in clothing and grains.
 
The Ruruan Khan, Shelun, would invade Gaoche lands. Hulü tribe defeated the Ruruan army and then slept with Ruruan women for days. Ruruan Khan Shelun then attacked Gaoche all of a sudden. Only 20-30 percent of Hulü people escaped and they sought asylum with Toba Wei Dynasty. Hulü Beihouli was conferred the title of Duke Mengdugong and King of Zhongzhuangwang posthumously. Toba General Yiwei later conquered the remnant Yuanhe Tribe. At a place called Sinipo, Daowudi conquered over 100,000 households of the Gaoche people and then relocated them to south of desert. Gaoche bagan to learn agriculture. When Toba Emperor Xiaowendi called upon them to campaign in the south, Yuanhe Tribe selected a person called Shuzhe as a chieftan and fled to the north. Toba General Yuwen Fu was defeated. Yuanhe first fled to the Ruruans, but then left the Ruruans.
 
According to History Of Toba Wei Dynasty, the Uygurs originated from the Tiele Tribes who were in turn descendants of the Huns. Tiele Tribes would be a generic name pointing to the dozens of tribal states across the northern belt of today's western China or Chinese Turkistan. These peoples were subject either to the Eastern Turks or to the Western Turks by the time of Sui Dynasty.
 
During late Toba Wei Dynasty, there appeared many references to the 'Tiele' or 'Chile' tribes and their rebellions against the Tobas. History said that Tiele Tribes derived from the Gaoche people.
 
As mentioned in the Hun section, there were two distinct groups of people in Western China: the Huns and the Yüeh-chih. The Yüeh-chih dwelled to the west of Chinese, in today's Gansu Province. After a defeat by the Huns, about 500,000 (?) Yüeh-chih migrated to the Afghanistan. The Yüeh-chih tribal affiliates, like Kangju (Kang-chu) and Wu'sun, also fled to the west and set up satellite kingdoms. Those Yüeh-chih statelets invariably used the city name of 'Zhaowu' of Gansu Province as their royal family names. The Yüeh-chih people are said to be Indo-European, with speculation of links to the mummies excavated in Western China. A good speculation will be to link the Tiele Tribes to the mixed group of people between the Huns and the Yüeh-chih. Bear in mind that the Huns and the Yüeh-chih were feuds, not friends. The Huns had retained the skull of Yuezhi king as a drinking utensil for hundreds of years, and at one time, two Chinese emissaries had an oath with the Huns by killing a White horse and drinking wine from this "skull" utensil. The later White Huns (Ye-tai) were also of the Yüeh-chih family according to Chinese history. Chronicles stated that Ye-tai was a family name of Yüeh-chih.
 
Reading though history, two conclusions could be reached, i.e., that the tribal states of Loulan (Rongjiang), Cheshi (Gaochang), Qiuci (Guqa or Kuqa), Yanqi, Yutian (Hotan), Shule (Kashi) had been in continuous existance though the actual inhabitants of those states might have changed over the course of history, and that both the Huns and the Turks had appeared to be an outsider force that preyed upon those tribal states from the northern altitude of the Altai Mountains and Mongolia. More, according to Ban Gu of Latter Han Dynasty, the tribal states of Loulan (Rongjiang), Cheshi (Gaochang), Qiuci (Guqa or Kuqa), Yanqi, Yutian (Hotan), Shule (Kashi) are recorded to have city-walls and cultivation, while the Huns or later Turks did not possess those features.  
 
Toba, Gao-che (Yuanhe), Ruruan   During early Toba period, Toba Wei Emperor Daowudi (reign 386-409), launched numerous campaigns against the Ruruans as well the Gaoche people. While Gaoche were at odds with Ruruans, they raided into Toba Wei as well. Daowudi personally led several campaigns against Gaoche and quelled their tribes. Gaoche people, however, were frequently mentioned as an ally in the war against Ruruans. The early Gaoche people had different names from later Tiele Tribes. There is an often-mentioned name called 'Hulü' among Gaoche, and in Toba Wei Dynasty, quite a few generals bearing this name were in existence. One Gaoche lord, Hulü Beihouli, fled to Toba Wei after being defeated by Ruruans, and he was conferred the title of Duke Mengdu. Daowudi relocated Gaoche people to the south of the desert and the Gaoche people began to learn cultivation. Gaoche posessed 12 family names, and they were enslaved by Ruruans mostly. Gaoche rebelled against Ruruans frequently. Gaoche were also subject to attacks from Ye-tai.
 
Tiele Tribes (Huihe)   By late Toba Wei's Northern Wei Dynasty, a new alliance of people called Tiele (Toles) would emerge. The Tiele Tribes, descendants of the Huns, with many of later familiar Huihe family names, were recorded to have spread everywhere, i.e, north of the Luo River (e.g., clans like Tongluo, Bayegu, Pugu, Weihe, Fuluo, carrying names of Mengchen, Tuluhe, Sijie, Hun, Huxie), west of Yiwu & north of Yanqi (clans like Qibi, Boluozhi, Subo, Nahe, Wuhu, Hegu, Yunihu), southwest of the Altai Mountains (e.g., Xueyanto or Sheyanto, Shiban, Daqi), north of ancient Kangju Statelet (e.g., Ye-tai, Hejie, Bahu, Bigan, Juhai, Hebeiji, Bayemo), east and west of Nihai (?) Sea (Sulujie, Sahu), south of Beihai Sea (Dubo), and east of Byzantium (Eng'qu, A'lan, Beiru, Qiuli), numbering tens of thousands in each direction. History said the Tiele people in the west were good at cultivation and they had more buffalos and less horses. The Tiele people would now include the Ye-tai, with a strong hint that the composition would be both Yüeh-chih and Hunnic.
 
By the end of Kaihuang Era [581-600], King of Jinn (Yang Guang, i.e., later Sui Emperor Yangdi), defeated Bujia Khan of the Turks and dispersed the Tiele vassalage of the Turks. In the first year of Daye Era, i.e. AD 605, Chuluo Khan attacked various Tiele Tribes as well as suspected the loyalty of Xueyantuo Tribe. Chuluo Kkhan assembled hundreds of Xueyantuo chieftans and killed them all. Xueyantuo selected their own leader, Silifa and Sijin, and fought against Chuluo Khan. Xueyantuo people declared themselves as Khan Yihuzhenmuohe. Khan Yihuzhenmuohe would take over Yiwu, Gaochang and Yanqi from the Turks.
 
Before Gaoche-Tiele, namely, in earlier Han times, there are simply too many tribal groups and states sandwiched between the Huns and the Han Chinese for me to pinpoint exactly where the Uygur ancestors came from. By the time of Sui-Tang, The Tiele tribes had over a dozen or so tribes which include the Xueyantuo (Sheyanto) tribe that the Uygurs defeated later. (Xueyantuo Tribe was from the last name of 'Xue' and a conquered tribal name of 'Yantuo'.) Huihe was comprised of four of the dozen Tiele tribes, including Pogu, Tongluo, Bayegu and Weiqi.
 
Huihu   Huihe was renamed to Huihu in AD 809. According to Old History Of Five Dynasties, the Huihe people sent an emissary to Tang court in AD 809 and claimed that they changed their name to Huihu [Huigu] by which they meant for a kind of eagle called 'hu' flying rotatingly in the skies. (The character for 'hu' could also be pronounced as 'gu' for a different bird called 'gu zhou', and could be pronounced as 'he' when combined with character 'hui'.)
 
It is a bit unscientific to use the names of Uygur and Huihe/Huihu interchangeably here. The above historic literature points to the Uygur's ancestor being the Huihe peoples. The name 'Uygur' was probably a mutation of Huihu. In Ming Dynasty's records, the name 'Uygur' was widely cited in the descriptions about their tributaries. I will come back to this naming in the section on Ming Dynasty.
 
Today's Uygurs, also spelled as UIGUR, UIGHUIR, UIGUIR, UYGHUR and WEIWUER in Mandarin, live largely in Xinjiang or Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (so-called Eastern Turkestan). They have a present population of over 10 million around or more.   There are also considerable number of them in Western Turkestan which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.  Among the Uygurs inside of China, there are three major groups, consisiting of the Yugur or Yellow Uygur in today's Gansu Province, and the Uygurs south and north of Khan Tengri (Tianshan Mountains).  The nationalist Uygurs disputed the specific naming like Kazaks, Uzbeks, and Turkmens etc, and they claimed they were of the same family.
 
The Huihe people would come into prominence during the Tang times. At Tang times, the Huihe people were a long time ally of Tang Chinese in campaigns against both the Eastern Turks and the Western Turks, at least for a time period of over 200 years to AD 840.   The Huihe people had once ranked second to Xueyantuo tribe among the eleven tribes which had helped Tang in defeating Eastern Turkic Khanate in AD 630-640. For almost a hundred years, they would assert control over north Mongolia with the remaining Turks who re-established Eastern Khanate in AD 682/683 in Mongolia and Turkic Khanate in the Tarim Basin in AD 691.
 
Around AD 640, the Uygurs helped Tang army in quelling the rebellion of Turkic tribe 'Xueyantuo' which took advantage of emperor Taizong's first Korean expedition in attacking Tang. Tribes of the Huihe killed the khan of Xueyantuo tribe and hence controlled northern Mongolia where the Turkic tribe Xueyantuo once held. A review of the major Turkic tribes in Mongolia yielded a tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz' or the Eight Oghuz with a smilar pronunciation to Xueyantuo. The historic records showed 'Sakiz Oghuz' was a name which existed in 8th century, later than the fight between Uygurs and the Xueyantuo tribes.
 
Uygurs henced relocated to Mongolia and they ultimately set up Uygur Kingdom in AD 744/45 after defeating the remnant Turks in the area. The 'Sakiz Oghuz' tribe is said to have some remnants left in Mongolia. When the Kirghiz defeated the Uygurs in AD 840 and took over northern Mongolia, there was a group of people called the Naimans who remained in their homelands in the Altai Mountains and attached themselves to the Kirghiz. The Naimans were said to be a Mongol name for a group of the Turkic tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz'. (The Oghuz Turks would find their way to Anatolia, separately.)
 
Uygurs & Karlaks vs Orkhon Turks: Emperor Xuanzong, in AD 712, defeated Khan Mochuo of the Eastern Turk (Orhkon Turks) and won over the defection of Mochuo's brother-in-law. The Orkhon [Eastern] Khante would end in the hands of the Uygurs and the Karluks. History said the Tang Chinese conspired to have the Uygurs and Karlaks attack the Orkhon Turks of Khan Muchuo (Mo-ch'o). To check the Orkhon Turks, Tang Chinese also allied with the Western Turks called Turgesh [who were situated in today's Ili, between the Arabs and the Chinese] from AD 716 to AD 733. After Khan Mochuo was killed by the tribesmen from the Tiele Tribes, the Orkhon Turks came to terms with Chinese, and their successors were said to have erected a stone monument cursing the Chinese for the treachery and the Tiele tribesmen for betrayal. The Uygurs ultimately set up Uygur Kingdom in AD 744/45 after defeating the remnant Turks in the area.
 
After Orkhon Turks were defeated by Uygurs, Uygurs would control Kirghiz and Khitans. After the fall of Tang Dynasty (AD 619-907), three dynasties among Northern China's Five Dynasties (AD 907-960), i.e., Posterior Tang 923-936, Posterior Jinn 936-946, Posterior Han 947-950, were ruled by the Sha'to Turks. The remaining Orkhon Turks were not heard from after China's Five Dynasties time period. Uygurs (Uighurs) took refuge in Ganzhou and Xinjiang after being replaced by the Kirghiz.
 
Uygurs vs Kirghiz: Uygur nationalists claimed that "in AD 840, Tang Chinese emperor, in order to get rid of the encroachment of the Uygur (who were earlier invited by Tang emepror to come to Tang capital to quell rebellion) and wipe out the humilation, had incited the Kirghiz in attacking and replacing the Uyghurs in Mongolia. The Uygurs fled to Gansu [Kansu] province, south and north of Khan Tengri (Tianshan Mountains) and established three separate successive Uygur kingdoms."
 
According to New History Of Five Dynasties, Kirghiz belonged to the ancient 'Jiankun' Statelet which was located to the western-most of the Huns. At one time, during Tang Emperor Suzong's reign of AD 758-760, the Huihu (Uygur) conquered the Jiankun Statelet of the Kirghiz. The Kirghis allied themselves with Tibetans, Arabs and Karlaks. Kirghiz, with the help of a defector Huihu (Uygur) general and combining a cavalry forces of 100000, defeated Huihu (Uygur) and killed the Huihu khan around AD 840s. Tang emperors did not intend to support the Kirghiz as a replacement for the Uygurs for fear that someday the Kirghiz would pose a threat to Tang China as in the case of the former. It would be in AD 859 that Tang Emperor Xuandi decided to confer the Kirghiz the title of Khan Bravery-Intelligence.
 
New History Of Five Dynasties said that Kirghiz possessed lighter skin, red hair, green eyes and taller height, and that those Kirghiz with black hair must be the descendants of Li Ling. See Hun section for more descriptions of Non-Mongolian Physiques.
 
Yellow Uygur: The Yugur or Yellow Uygur are one of China's 56 officially recognized nationalities, consisting of 12,297 persons according to the 1990 census.  Linguistically, this group of people were classified by belonging to Mongol language. The Yugur live primarily in Gansu Province, in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, within the county of Zhangye.  The Yugur live in an area where four different language groups, Turkic, Mongolic, Chinese and Tibetan converge.  The Yugur nationality itself consists of four linguistically different groups.   The largest of these groups are the Turkic speaking Western Yugur.   The Mongolian speaking Eastern Yugur number the next.  A very small number of the Yugur speak Tibetan.  The remaining Yugur of the Autonomous County speak Chinese.  The Western Yugur are considered to be the descendants of a group of Uygur that fled from Mongolia southwards to Gansù after the collapse of the Uygur Empire in 840 A.D.  The Yugur people have been living together for about six centuries. 
 
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