Ashina Helu

Biography

Yabghu of the Western Turks

Ashina Helu was a fifth-generation descendant of Istemi Qaghan and a son of Yebuli She Shekui Teqin Jieyue. After Ashina Buzhen submitted to the Tang, Yipi Duolu Qaghan appointed Helu yabghu. Helu lived near the Duoluosi River and led the Chuyue, Chumi, Gusu, Karluk, and Nushibi groups. Following a power struggle among the Western Turks, Yipi Duolu was driven to Tokharistan and Yipi Shekui became qaghan, putting pressure on Helu and scattering some of his followers.

Submission to the Tang and Official Service

After Helu submitted to the Tang with his followers, Emperor Taizong treated them favorably. The Tang court appointed Helu commander of the Kunqiu Circuit expedition and used his forces as guides in the campaign against Kucha. He was later promoted to Left Agile Guard General and Governor of the Yaochi Protectorate, and his people were settled at Mohe City in Tingzhou. Helu gradually gathered scattered followers and recovered strength.

Self-Proclaimed Qaghan and Tang Campaigns

After Taizong's death, Helu left Tang control and expanded westward. He established his headquarters near Qianquan, proclaimed himself Shaboluo Qaghan, and led the Duolu and Nushibi tribes. His forces raided Tingzhou and other areas, prompting several Tang campaigns. In 657, the Tang court appointed Su Dingfang commander-in-chief of the Yili Circuit expedition and sent him with Ashina Misha, Ashina Buzhen, and other forces. Su defeated Helu near the Yedie River and pursued him through Shuanghe toward the Suiye River, taking control of his followers.

Capture, Pardon, and Death

After his defeat, Helu and his son Dieyun fled west. They were detained by local authorities at Sudu in Shiguo and later taken by Tang forces. In 658, Helu was brought to Chang'an and presented to the court. The Tang court pardoned him rather than executing him. Helu died in 659 and was buried beside Illig Qaghan's tomb; the event was commemorated on a stone inscription.

Ashina Helu was a fifth-generation descendant of the Western Turkic khagan Ishtemi and son of Yebuli She Shekui Tegin Jieyue. After Ashina Buzhen submitted to the Tang, the khagan Bilge Dulu made Helu yabghu in Buzhen's place, settled at the Talas river some fifteen hundred li north of what is now Xinjiang, governing the five tribes of the Chuyue, Chumi, Gusu, Qarluq and Nushibi. When the Western Turkic tribes later moved to depose Bilge Dulu and he fled after defeat, Bilge Shekui sent troops after Helu, who had no fixed abode and whose followers were scattered. The three clans of the Zhishedi, Chumukun and Bopi held Helu guiltless and asked Bilge Shekui not to attack him; he was angered and would have killed the Zhishedi leaders, whereupon the three clans brought all their several thousand tents over with Helu to submit to the Tang. Emperor Taizong received them kindly, the Tang being then at war with Kucha.

After his submission Helu campaigned with the Tang armies and received office for it. After Taizong's death, however, he slipped from Tang control, styled himself Shaboluo Khagan, united the ten tribes of the Western Turks and raided the Tang western frontier repeatedly, becoming the chief Tang rival in the western regions. In 657 the Tang sent Su Dingfang as grand commander of the Ili route, who shattered the Western Turkic army and drove Helu west; the next year he was seized by men of Shi, present-day Tashkent, and handed over to the Tang. Pardoned from death, he was settled at Chang'an and died about 659. The Tang then set up the Kunling and Mengchi protectorates over the old Western Turkic lands with Ashina Mishe and Ashina Buzhen as protectors, bringing those tribes into the Tang system of loose control.

Helu's life reflects the internal feuds of the Western Turks in the early Tang and the alternation of their relations with the dynasty: at once a subject chief and a khagan in revolt, his submission and rebellion run with the course of Tang expansion in the west. After his reduction the western situation steadied and the Anxi protectorate extended its authority westward.

Helu's revolt came at a crucial stage of Tang expansion in the west. In Taizong's last years the Tang reduced Gaochang, Karasahr and Kucha and established the Anxi protectorate; under Gaozong it continued westward, coming into contact with the Western Turks, Tokharistan and the Arabs. After Helu united the ten tribes, several large campaigns were fought between Tang and the Western Turks, Su Dingfang's expedition being the decisive one; afterward Tang's position in the west was consolidated and the Silk Road ran more freely.

Tang treatment of the Western Turks after Helu's capture took institutional form: the Kunling protectorate governed the five Dulu tribes east of Suyab and the Mengchi protectorate the five Nushibi tribes west of it, both protectorates under members of the Ashina clan. The arrangement continued the Tang preference for dividing the Western Turks while preserving the standing of their nobility, its effects lasting until the Later Turkic revival under Wu Zetian.

The turn in Helu's relations with the Tang is closely bound up with conditions among the Western Turks. After Shekui they were long divided into two wings with incessant feuding among their chiefs, and it was in that situation that Helu gradually attained leadership. Styling himself Shaboluo Khagan, he controlled for a time a wide region from the Ili valley to Suyab, gathering forces north of the Tianshan and threatening the Tang's four garrisons of Anxi.

The Tang campaigns against him lasted some years, the decisive one being Su Dingfang's expedition of 657. Su attacked by several routes in winter and shattered the Western Turkic army about the Ili, Helu fleeing west to the Suyab river; the Tang then pursued, working with the local tribes, until he was taken. After this the Tang garrisons and loose-control offices in the west were strengthened and the Anxi protectorate extended westward to Suyab, the southern, central and northern routes of the Silk Road becoming more open in consequence.

His treatment after capture also shows Tang policy toward submitted Turkic peoples: the leader was spared and provided for while his followers were dispersed among the loose-control prefectures to prevent them gathering strength again. The approach was used repeatedly with the Eastern Turks, the Xueyantuo and others, its effect being to give Turkic nobles a place within the Tang system while making it hard for steppe power to regroup.

The fortunes of the Western Turks in the early Tang are bound up with their tribal structure: the long opposition between the five Dulu and five Nushibi wings meant that a khagan's power depended on the support of the tribal chiefs and that stable centralization was hard to achieve. Helu united the ten tribes for a time, but that union rested on his personal military prestige and dissolved quickly once he was defeated.

In the decades after the Western Turks were reduced, communications and trade in the western regions recovered and grew, the four garrison towns of Suyab, Kucha, Khotan and Kashgar becoming the pivots of Tang administration there, with a comparatively stable political order between them.

Tang accounts of Helu appear chiefly in the Turkic chapters of the old and new histories of the Tang and in the Comprehensive Mirror, their records of Western Turkic tribal structure and of the Tang loose-control system being basic material for the study of Tang enterprise in the west.

Under the Tang loose-control system the old Western Turkic lands kept their tribal organization, their chiefs holding hereditary office while receiving Tang patents and levies, a pattern sustained for decades with the support of the four Anxi garrisons.

After revolting he sought to link the states of the western regions against the Tang, but their interests differed and the alignment did not last.

After Helu the Western Turks produced no further unified khagan, their tribes gradually dividing under the Tang loose-control system, some regrouping later with the Turkic revival.

Communications in the Tang western regions grew steadier after his reduction, records of merchants and monks traveling there increasing with them.

The loose-control prefectures the Tang set up in his lands generally kept the old Turkic tribal and place names, matching the administrative structure to the tribal one.

The foundation of Tang enterprise in the west lay in the stability of the four Anxi garrisons and the working of the loose-control prefectures, and Helu's revolt was a major test of that system.

The Chuyue, Chumi and other tribes he led at his first submission remained among the local forces the Tang relied on in the west.

The Turkic chapter of the New Tang History records that the men of Shi seized and delivered him, an account to be read against that in the Comprehensive Mirror.

The campaign also readjusted Tang relations with the states of the western regions, most of which sent envoys to the Tang thereafter.

The sources say little of his last years at Chang'an beyond the year of his death.

Accounts of him are scattered through the Turkic chapters and western-region materials of the Tang.

Major Activities

Leadership of Western Turkic Groups

Helu first served as yabghu, leading the Chuyue, Chumi, Karluk, and Nushibi groups. After proclaiming himself Shaboluo Qaghan, he united the Duolu and Nushibi tribes and became a central political and military figure among the Western Turks.

Submission to the Tang and Renewed Conflict

Helu submitted to the Tang during a Western Turkic succession crisis and accepted Tang appointments. After Taizong's death, he proclaimed himself qaghan and contested Tang control in the Western Regions, leading to renewed military conflict.

End of the Western Turkic Khaganate

After Su Dingfang defeated Helu in 657, Tang forces pursued him and broke up his following. Helu was captured and pardoned; the Tang court reorganized the region under protectorate and prefectural administrations, ending the independent political order of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

Personal Relations

• Istemi Qaghan: Western Turkic ruler and Helu's ancestor.
• Yipi Duolu Qaghan: Western Turkic ruler who appointed Helu yabghu.
• Yipi Shekui Qaghan: Western Turkic ruler who defeated Yipi Duolu and pursued Helu.
• Dieyun: Helu's son, who took part in his political activity and fled with him.
• Su Dingfang: Tang general who defeated and pursued Helu.
• Ashina Misha and Ashina Buzhen: Tang commanders who took part in the campaign against Helu.
• Emperor Gaozong: Tang ruler who pardoned Helu after his capture.

Historical Assessment

Contemporary and Traditional Records

Tang histories recount Helu's submission to the Tang, his proclamation as qaghan, his conflict with Tang forces, and his treatment after capture. These accounts also show how the Tang court used investiture, military campaigns, and administrative reorganization to manage Western Turkic political power.

Later Assessments

Later histories associate Helu with the final phase of the Western Turkic Khaganate and treat his defeat and the subsequent establishment of Tang protectorates and prefectures as a major shift in the political order of the Western Regions.

Modern Scholarship

Modern research combines Chinese histories, Turkic materials, and archaeological evidence to examine Helu's Ashina genealogy, the composition of the Ten Tribes, and Tang expansion in the Western Regions. The interplay of investiture, opposition, and military integration in Helu's career is an important case for studying seventh-century politics across Central and East Asia.