Princess Taihe
Princess Taihe, later, in 843, known as Princess Ding'an or Princess Anding, was a princess of the Chinese Tang dynasty and a khatun of the Uyghur Khaganate. She was married to the Uyghur Chongde Qaghan as part of the Heqin system of marriages between Tang princesses and Uyghur qaghan, and she was later subject to the Uyghur levirate marriage system. She suffered through the Uyghur Khaganate's subsequent collapse before being welcomed back to the Tang court. As the last Tang princess to be part of the Heqin system, Taihe marked the end of the marriage alliances between the Tang dynasty and Uyghurs.
Background and entry into marriage
It is not known when Princess Taihe was born, although it is known that she was a daughter of Emperor Xianzong and Emperor Xianzong's wife Consort Guo, and that she was younger than her full brother Li Heng, who was born in 795. She was Xianzong's 10th daughter over all.Late in Emperor Xianzong's reign, the Uyghur Khaganate, ruled by Baoyi Qaghan, made repeated overtures to request a Tang princess to be married to Baoyi under the Heqin system. Eventually, after a mission headed by the Uyghur diplomat Hedagan, Emperor Muzong agreed to have Princess Taihe's older sister Princess Yong'an married to Baoyi, but as Baoyi died in 821, the marriage never took place. Soon after, Princess Yong'an requested to be ordained as a Daoist priestess, thus avoiding future marriage alliances. Baoyi was succeeded by Chongde Qaghan, who continued to seek marriage with a Tang princess, and he sent a delegation including a number of officials and two Uyghur princesses, along with a bride price of horses and camels. Later in 821, Muzong, agreed to marry Taihe to Chongde. When the Tibetan Empire, became aware of the Tang-Uyghur marriage, it attacked Fort Qingsai, but was repelled.
Journey to Ordu-Balik
On August 28, Princess Taihe departed Chang'an, the Tang capital, escorted by the general Hu Zheng, assisted by the other officials Li Xian and Yin You. Anticipating a possible attempt by Tibetan forces to intercept Taihe's train, Uyghur forces were dispatched to escort them as well as to attack Tibet's borders. Emperor Muzong issued an edict permitting Taihe to maintain a staff on the same level of staffing as an imperial prince.According to Susan Whitfield, an author and Silk Road scholar, Taihe's staff travelled northward, crossed the Hexi Corridor, and made a long sweep north before turning east and south. They were back at the capital then went to Hezhong and rested there for a bit. They then headed north along the eastern side of the Yellow River.
Princess Taihe's train did not arrive at the Uyghur court until late 822. When they approached the Uyghur court, Chongde Qaghan sent a group of several hundred soldiers to welcome her and escort her to the court, but Hu Zheng declined on the basis that his mission was to escort the princess to Chongde Qaghan and therefore he had to complete that final leg of the mission. After she arrived at the Uyghur court and an appropriate date was set, Chongde gave her the title khatun—the qaghan's wife. Such weddings, as described by the Old Book of Tang, went in this manner:
Before Hu Zheng and his staff were ready to depart, Princess Taihe held a feast for them, and it was said that she wept for over a day and kept them for that duration, before they actually departed. Chongde Qaghan awarded them with great treasure.
As Khatun
Chongde Qaghan died in 824 and was succeeded by his brother Zhaoli Qaghan. Princess Taihe remained in the Uyghur Khaganate, and under the Uyghurs' levirate marriage custom, she remarried to Zhaoli and eventually each of his successors. In 832, Zhaoli was assassinated by his subordinates, and his nephew Yaoluge Hu succeeded him as Zhangxin Qaghan.In 839, after a rebellion by the officials Anyunhe and Chaile, Zhangxin Qaghan was able to defeat and kill them, but a subsequent attack by another official, Jueluowu, along with the Shatuo chief Zhuye Chixin, defeated Zhangxin, and he committed suicide. The nobles supported another member of the royal family, as Qasar Qaghan. That year, it was said that in addition to these wars, there was a major plague and major snow storm, causing many deaths of the Uyghur's livestock and leading to the Khaganate's sudden decline.
In 840, a major Kyrgyz attack on the Uyghur Khaganate destroyed the Uyghur headquarters, and both Qasar Qaghan and Jueluowu were killed in battle. The remaining Uyghur forces scattered. In 841, one of the major generals, Wamosi, submitted to Tang, and Emperor Wuzong issued an edict to Wamosi ordering him to seek out Princess Taihe. Meanwhile, Taihe was taken captive by the Kyrgyz khan Are, and Are, who claimed ancestry from the Han dynasty general Li Ling and thus a common ancestry with Tang emperors, treated her with respect and sent a group of generals to escort Taihe back to Tang territory. On the way, one of the remnant Uyghur leaders, Wujie Qaghan, ambushed the Kyrgyz escort and took Taihe. He had her write to Wuzong requesting that him make him the new qaghan and also lend the border city of Zhenwu to him to allow him to plan the rebuilding of the Uyghur Khaganate. Wuzong responded with an edict that instructed Wujie to remain outside Tang borders and requested Taihe to personally return to Chang'an to report on the Uyghur Khaganate's status.
Wujie Qaghan did not follow Emperor Wuzong's orders, and the Uyghur remnants under him pillaged the Tang's northern territory in earnest. He also made another request to borrow the border city of Tiande, which Wuzong rejected. Wuzong further wrote a rebuking letter to Wujie, warning of consequences, again ordering him to have Princess Taihe personally report and make requests. Wuzong also mobilized the forces of the circuits on the northern border, preparing a major retributive campaign against Wujie. In the winter of 842, he also had the chancellor Li Deyu write a letter in his own name, addressed to Taihe, sending it to the Uyghur remnants along with winter clothes as a gift for Taihe:
In 843, Wujie Qaghan launched an attack on Zhenwu. Tang forces, commanded by the general Shi Xiong, prepared a surprise counter-attack. When he arrived near the Uyghur camp, he noticed that there were some special wagons lined with rugs, and that the servants in those wagons were wearing red- and green-colored robes that appeared to be Chinese. He sent a scout to make contact and found out that these were Princess Taihe's train. He then had the scout again inform Taihe of his plans to attack, and asked her and her servants to remain calm and not move during the attack. At night, he made a surprise attack on Wujie's tent, and Wujie's forces collapsed. Wujie fled, and Shi then escorted Taihe back to Tang territory.
After return to Tang
On April 4, 843, Princess Taihe arrived at Chang'an. Emperor Wuzong ordered the chancellors and the other officials to welcome and honor her. of the includes the , which roughly translates to:She took off her grand clothes and jewels, and she approached the palace, apologizing for the failure of her mission. Emperor Wuzong sent eunuchs to comfort her and put her robes and jewels back on, and then welcomed her into the palace. The next day, she had a reunion with her mother Grand Empress Dowager Guo, and she was made Grand Princess Ding'an or Grand Princess Anding. Seven princesses did not attend the welcoming ceremony, and Wuzong, in anger, took away a portion of their stipend and the silk customarily given to them.
Personal preferences according to Susan Whitfield
In Susan Whitfield's book, Life along the Silk Road: Second Edition, published in 2015, Whitfield recounts the life of 12 individuals who lived during the period of the Silk Road. In Chapter 4, the book follow the life of Princess Taihe. Whitfield uses historical facts and her expertise to craft a narrative that encapsulates Taihe's life and relationships between different nations.Whitfield deems it highly likely that Princess Taihe's dress, ornaments, and aesthetic preferences came from the western, distant Central Asian steppe. In her hair, she would have worn fine pins of translucent white jade from the riverbed in Khotan, ivory decorations from India, and lapis lazuli that was traded in Khotan but originated father west in Badakhshan. Her gold necklace would have had pearls and semi-precious stones representing the seven treasures of Buddhism and was fashioned by western Central Asian craftsmen.
Whitfield also discussed how Taihe's hobbies, such as music and dance, would have been influenced by the West. "Western music" was extremely popular, with several resident foreign orchestras performing at the imperial palace and other functions. Whitfield writes that just before leaving Chang'an, Taihe had started to learn the whirling dance, usually performed by Sogdian girls spinning on a small round rug. Alongside dancing, Taihe would have enjoyed Kuchean music and continued to enjoy it in the qaghan's palace, where she might have played on a gold-inlaid zither. Although she would not have been able to leave the palace often, she would have been able to explore activities outside the domestic sphere. Polo, another import from the western regions, would have allowed Taihe to develop and demonstrate her excellent horsemanship.