Shatuo Turks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shatuo (沙陀) (also: Seyanto, Sha-t'o) were a Turkic tribe that heavily influenced northern Chinese politics from the late ninth century through the tenth century. They are noted for founding three of the Five Dynasties in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
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[edit] Ethnic Origins and Geography
The Shatuo Turks are part of the broader Turkic group of peoples that have stretched from Inner Asia to Anatolia in modern-day Turkey. They emerged from the Chuyue tribe of the western Turks, of Tiele stock, and after a split among the tribe in the seventh century, the remaining Chuyue Turks began referring to themselves as Shatuo. Early Chinese sources identify this people with the ethnonym Seyanto, quoting them as one of the most powerful tribes among the descendants of the Xiongnu. Actually they emerged as part of the Üç-Oğuz confederation of Oghuz Turks [1].
[edit] Shatuo Turks and the Tang Dynasty
The Shatuo Turks were long important to the Tang Dynasty. The Chinese had long been used to putting barbarian tribes against one another to keep them at bay. The Tang continued this long Chinese tradition. They had begun providing military assistance to the Tang in the 630s against other border peoples. When emperor Taizong crushed the Eastern Göktürks around 630, the Shatuo/Seyantos indeed gained his recognition and could build up a vast state spanning from the Altai to the Gobi desert. In a few years they proved however in turn a menace, and were heavily defeated when in 641, under their khagan Inan (d. 645), they attacked other Chinese-aligned Turkic tribes. Five years later their short-lived state was all but destroyed by a Tang-Uyghur alliance; the remnants of the tribe moved west to Dzungaria and the Semirechye area.
At the beginning of the 8th century, they were vassalized by Tang China. The Shatuo provided significant aid to Tang Emperor Suzong alongside the Huihe (Uyghurs) during the Anshi Rebellion in the 750s. Consequently their chieftain Zhuye Guduozhi was conferred the title of tejin (governor) and xiaowei shang-jiangjun (colonel high general). However, already before the great rebellion the Chinese had been severely defeated by the Arabs at Talas, and the recently established Uyghur Empire was rising to great power.
By the end of the eighth century, the Shatuo had fallen out with the Tang and had formed an alliance with the Tibetans as they felt oppressed by the Huihe-Uyghurs. Though the Shatuo fought alongside Tibetan armies for more than a decade against the Tang, the Tibetans were concerned about their loyalty, and with reason. When, in 808, the Shatuo decided to leave, the Tibetans pursued them, fighting battles along the way. The fugitives made it to Lingzhou Prefecture in the Gansu corridor, where Tang general Fan Xichao granted them asylum. A source quotes them as committing a mass suicide in 832 while fighting for a Uyghur ruler; but this seems to refer to a related tribe who had settled far west, into the Fergana valley. The Shatuo who had escaped Tibetan rage managed to maintain a power base in northern China around modern-day Shanxi from the late ninth century into the tenth century.
In the middle of the ninth century, the Shatuo rewarded the generosity of the Tang by fighting alongside them against the invading Tibetans, playing a prominent role in numerous victories. They also helped quell the Pang Xun Rebellion and the Wang Xian Zhi Rebellion.
[edit] Li Keyong
Li Keyong was conferred the post of ci shi for Daizhou. He hired more than ten thousand Dadan nomads to bring back to Daizhou, but was denied admittance to en route Shiling Guan Pass. In 882, Su You and Helian Duo combined to prepare for an attack on Li. However, he launched a pre-emptive on Su’s stronghold at Weizhou. However, the Tang emperor would soon offer amnesty to assist against Huang Chao, who led a fierce rebellion against the Tang. Li Keyong was named the Prince of Jin in 895 for his loyalty to the Tang.
[edit] Five Dynasties
The Tang Dynasty fell in 907 and was replaced by the Later Liang Dynasty. The Shatuo Turks formed their own state, called Jin, in the area now known as Shanxi. They had tense relations with the Later Liang, and cultivated good relations with the emerging Khitan power to the north.
[edit] Later Tang Dynasty
Li Cunxu succeeded in destroying the Later Liang Dynasty in 923, declaring himself the emperor of the “Restored Tang”, officially known as the Later Tang Dynasty. In line with claims of restoring the Tang, Li moved the capital from Kaifeng back to Luoyang, where it was during the Tang Dynasty.
The Later Tang controlled more territory than the Later Liang, including the Beijing area, the surrounding Sixteen Prefectures and Shaanxi Province.
This was the first of three Shatuo Turk dynasties, and was the first of the Conquest Dynasties, beginning nearly a millennium, during most of which a significant portion of the Chinese nation was controlled by foreigners.
[edit] Later Jin Dynasty
The Later Tang Dynasty was brought to end in 936 when Shi Jingtang (posthumously known as Gaozu of Later Jin), also a Shatuo Turk, successfully rebelled against the Later Tang and established the Later Jin Dynasty. Shi moved back the capital to Kaifeng, then called Bian. The Later Jin controlled essentially the same territory as the Later Tang except the strategic Sixteen Prefectures area, which had been ceded to the expanding Liao Empire established by the Khitans.
Later historians would denigrate the Later Jin as a puppet regime of the powerful Liao to the north. When Shi’s successor did defy the Liao, a Khitan invasion resulted in the end of the dynasty in 946.
[edit] Later Han Dynasty
The death of the Khitan emperor on his return from the raid on the Later Jin Dynasty left a power vacuum that was filled by Liu Zhiyuan, who founded the Later Han Dynasty in 947. The capital was at Bian/Kaifeng and the state held the same territories as its predecessor. Liu died after a single year of reign and was succeeded by his teenage son, in turn unable to reign for more than two years, when this very short-lived dynasty was ended by the Later Zhou.
[edit] Legacy of the Shatuo Turks
As the first of four major foreign groups to gain control over significant portions of the heartland of Chinese civilization, the Shatuo left a significant legacy. While later groups would create more innovations on how to rule the Chinese, the Shatuo Turks showed others that outsiders could go beyond simply raiding the Chinese and settling down to actually rule them. Like other nomadic conquerors of China, the Shatuo Turks would gradually assimilate into Chinese society. This realization would have a direct bearing on the progression of Chinese civilization over the next thousand years.
[edit] References
Mote, F.W. (1999). Imperial China: 900-1800. Harvard University Press.
LKJ. Retrieved on October 11, 2006.
5 DYNASTIES & 10 STATES. Retrieved on October 11, 2006.
Kipchaks. Retrieved on January 2, 2007.
Shatuo. Retrieved on January 13, 2007.
