Tiele people
The Tiele, also transliterated as Chile, Dili, Zhile and Tele, who were also known by the Chinese exonym Gaoche or Gaoju, were a tribal confederation of Turkic ethnic origins living to the north of China proper and in Central Asia, emerging after the disintegration of the Xiongnu confederacy. Chinese sources associate them with the earlier Dingling.
Chile and Gaoche
The names "Chile" and "Gaoche" first appear in Chinese records during the campaigns of Former Yan and Dai in 357 and 363 respectively. However, the protagonists were also addressed as "Dingling" in the records of the Southern Dynasties. The name Gaoche was a nickname given by the Chinese.The Book of Jin, listed Chile as the fifth of 19 Southern Xiongnu tribes. By the time of the Rouran domination, the Gaoche comprised six tribes and twelve clans.
One group known as the Eastern Gaoche probably dwelled from the Onon River to Lake Baikal. However, their relationship with the rest of the Gaoche and its tribal components is unclear.
Mythological origin
The Book of Wei preserved the Gaoche's origin myth.Rouran Domination
In 391 the Rouran chief, Heduohan was killed by the Tuoba Northern Wei. Heduohan's brother Shelun raided several tribal dependencies of the Tuoba in retaliation, but reportedly suffered a serious defeat in 399, and was forced to flee westward. Here Shelun defeated the Hulu tribe and subjugated them. With the aid of a Hulu named Chiluohou, Shelun conquered most of the Gaoche tribes and proclaimed himself Kaghan of the Rouran on March 11, 402. Many Gaoche, such as Chiluohou, were promoted to establish better control.During the reign of Shelun and his successor Datan, the Rouran pushed as far as the Issyk Kul, where they defeated the Wusun and drove them south. In the east they raided the Northern Wei before they were defeated on June 16, 429. Afterwards, as many as 1.5 million Gaoche were said to have been captured and settled to areas adjacent to the capital Pingcheng in the south.
After this settlement they were called the Western Chile, including a section of the Ordos Desert south of the Yellow River known as the Hexi Chile, the Eastern Chile, between Wuzhou and the capital suburbs, and the Northern Chile, to the north and around the borders.
The greater part of the latter two possibly fled back to the steppe and were not heard of after 524 and 445 respectively. The Western Chile being caused by a horse race, by which south and north were eventually assimilated.
With the loss of numerous subjects and vital resources, the Rouran went into a temporary decline. However, in 460 they launched new campaigns in the west, destroying the remnant of Northern Liang. During a campaign against Khotan in 470, the king wrote in his supplicatory letter to the Toba Emperor that all of the statelets in the west had submitted to the Rouran. In 472, Yucheng attacked Northern Wei across the western border. By the time of his death in 485, Yucheng had restored the Kaghanate to a status even more powerful than the times of Datan.
During these wars, a southwestern Gaoche tribal group known as the Fufuluo united twelve clans and rebelled, but were defeated by the Rouran. They escaped and established a state northwest of Gaochang in 487. From then on, little is known about the rest of the Gaoche until the Göktürks.
Fufuluo
The Fufuluo were a Gaoche tribe of twelve clans, dwelling close to the Gaochang kingdom allied with the Touba. In 481, the Fufuluo began to interfere with the Gaochang and deposed one of their kings. The Fufuluo were then subjugated by the Rouran Khaganate.After the death of the Rouran ruler Yucheng in 485, his belligerent son Dulun fought more wars against the Touba Northern Wei.
After a disagreement, A-Fuzhiluo betrayed him, and in 487, together with his younger cousin Qiongqi, they managed their clans of over 100,000 yurts to escape from the pursuing armies, led by Dulun and his uncle Nagai by defeating them.
After they settled, he founded a statelet under the title of Ulu Beglik. Like the later Qibi and Xueyantuo in 605, the Fufuluo divided their rule between north and south at Dzungaria.
The Fufuluo allied with the Northern Wei in 490 and fought against the Rouran until 541 when they were dispersed by them.
Shortly after the death of Dulun in 492, several important cities on the eastern route were taken by Fufuluo, separating the Rouran from the west. With the elimination of Rouran influence, the Hephthalites, kindred steppe nomads, for the first time extended their domain as far as Karashahr, where Qiongqi was killed and his son Mietu was taken hostage.
After 507, the Hephthalites simultaneously sent eighteen embassies with gifts to the Chinese courts, as opposed to only one in 456. The Hephthalites helped Mietu. He returned to his realm and Biliyan, the successor of A-Fuzhiluo, was overthrown by his tribesmen, while shortly paying tribute to the Touba. In 508, Yujiulü Futu attacked the Fufuluo and was victorious, but was killed by Mietu on his way back. Later in 516, Yujiulü Chounu, son of Futu, defeated Mietu, and in reprisal had him towed to death by a horse. The Fufuluo went into exile several years under the refuge of the Hephthalites. In 520, Chounu was repulsed by his younger brother Yifu who restored the realm. After his defeat, Chounu returned to the east, where he was killed in a coup in which the ruling clan of Yujiulu was split into two factions. In 521, the Fufuluo penetrated into Rouran territory, but were repulsed by 524. Thereafter, the Fufuluo suffered a series of defeats from Anagui before being annihilated in 541. During the final decade, they helped the Eastern Wei fight the Western Wei in a civil war. After defeat, the nobility surrendered to them.
Rulers of Gaoche
Tiele
Emergence of the Tiele
The term Tiele appeared in Chinese literature from the 6th century to 8th century, and most scholars agree that Tiele is simply different Chinese characters used to describe the same Turkic word as Chile, although some scholars disagree on what the specific original Turkic word may be: Tölöš ~ Töliš, Türk, or Tegreg ~ Tägräg. The name "Tiele" was first interpreted as "Tölis" by Édouard Chavannes and Vilhelm Thomsen, but this was pointed out as inaccurate in 1937 by Cen Zhongmian, as Tölis applied to the Turkic title of official in the east that also came to be attached to the Xueyantuo qaghan. Some scholars proposed that Tiele, Dili, Dingling, Chile, Tele, & Tujue all transliterated underlying Türk; however, Golden proposed that Dili, Dingling, Chile, Tele, & Tiele transliterated Tegrek while Tujue transliterated Türküt, plural of Türk. The appellation Türük ~ Türk was initially reserved exclusively for the Göktürks by Chinese, Tibetans, and even the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs. In contrast, medieval Muslim writers, including like Ottoman historians like Mustafa Âlî and explorer Evliya Çelebi as well as Timurid scientist Ulugh Beg, often viewed Inner Asian tribes, "as forming a single entity regardless of their linguistic affiliation" commonly used Turk as a generic name for Inner Asians. Only in modern era do modern historians use term Turks to describe an ethno-cultural collection of various Turkic groups.In 546 the remainder of the Fufuluo, now called Tiele, rebelled and were defeated by Bumin Khan at Dzungaria. Around 250,000 of them were then incorporated into his army. In 552, Bumin Khan sent his army and defeated Anagui just north of the Chinese border. Two years before his death, he eliminated the remnants of the Rouran to the north and subjugated the Tiele.
According to the Book of Sui, the Tiele consisted of over 40 tribes divided into seven locations:
The original manuscript contains no punctuation, so different scholars read and reconstruct the ethonyms differently.
The Tiele were a large tribal group, however it is unlikely they would have been under unified leadership. References of the tribes in the remote areas west of the Pamir Mountains were sparse and mentioned only in passing, some tribes like the Alans were probably erroneously added. By the end of the 6th century nothing more was known about them. Those tribes in the eastern areas, such as the Guligan, Duolange, Xijie and Baixi were being rewarded afterward, though a few like the Fuluo, Mengchen and Turuhe disappeared. Fuluo were possibly linked to the Fuli in the Book of Sui, the Fuli in Tanghuiyao and the Bökli-Çöligil in the Kul Tigin inscription.
According to some researchers, the Göktürks' leading Ashina clan were descended from the Tiele tribe by ancestral lineage. Like the Göktürks, the Tiele were probably one of many nomadic Turkic peoples on the steppe. However, Lee & Kuang state that Chinese histories did not describe the Ashina-led Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or belonging to the Tiele confederation.
The Tiele were ruled by the Göktürks during the mid 6th century and early 7th century. Many of their tribal chiefs were expelled and some were killed during this period. When the Göktürks' power peaked, at least 15 Tiele tribes were named:
The Tiele allied themselves in a rebellion against the Göktürks during the turmoil between 599 and 603. This might have already started as early as in 582, when rumor was spread about a revolt in the north when a raiding campaign led Ishbara Qaghan away from the capital. Among the rivals of Ishbara in the west was Tardu, son of Istämi. He allied with Apa Khan, a kaghan at the northern Dzungaria and Khovd River, and declared himself independent.
In 587 Baga Khan, heir of Ishbara, captured Apa with the help of the Chinese but died the next year on a campaign in the west. Later, Dulan took over his reign and in 599 he, together with Tardu, launched a civil war against his son Qimin, who sided with the Chinese. However, he was unsuccessful and was assassinated during his battles with the Chinese. His partner Tardu took over and launched a revolt against the Khaganate. In 603 he was revolted against by the Tiele tribes, provoked by the Chinese, and fled to the Tuyuhun. Earlier, when Apa was captured, Nili took over from him, but he died after the defeat of Tardu in the east. His son Heshana Khan succeeded him in the Western Khaganate, levying heavy taxes on the Tiele. To prevent a revolt he gathered several hundreds of chiefs and murdered them. In 605 an alliance among the Tiele under the Qibi and Xueyantuo tribes was formed to overthrow him. They captured most of the Dzungaria and defeated his occupying army, taking several important cities, including Kumul, Karashahr and Gaochang, pushing Heshana Khan further west to the lower Ili River by 607.
After victory, the Qibi chief Geleng was proclaimed as the kaghan by the tribes and the Xueyantuo chief Yiedie Khan as subordinate kaghan. At the same year Geleng allied with the Chinese to defeat the Tuyuhun to resolve a conflict at Dunhuang.
In 611, Shekui, a kaghan from Tashkent and grandson of Tardu, attacked Chuluo and forced him to flee to China. The return of Shekui marked the end of the rebellion, although exactly when the rebels were put down is uncertain. One Chinese account indicated that the Gaochang kingdom still remained as their vassal until 612. They were most likely subdued after this year as Shekui restored order in the Western Khaganate.
Failure to put down these uprisings led to a fatal division within the Ashina clan. Under the leadership of Zhenzhu Khan in 628, grandson of Yishibo, the Xueyantuo made their crossing over the Altai, and quickly founded a confederation with the rest of the Tiele in the east.
The Xueyantuo founded a short-lived khaganate over the steppe under Zhenzhu Khan, his son Duomi Khan and nephew Yitewushi Khan, the last of which eventually surrendered to the Chinese.