In the history of China, there have been countless mysterious ethnic minorities, these ethnic groups have also had their own glory, for example, there are many periods in ancient history, all dominated by foreign tribes, like the Xianbei people's influence of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Western Xia, the Khitan influence of the Song and Liaoxia period, these ethnic groups have also left their own names in history, then there is a mysterious nation, it played a very big role at the end of the Tang Dynasty, after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the land of China entered the famous Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the biggest feature of this period is chaos Emperors changed one after another, various countries continued to emerge, and wars continued.
The rise of the Shatuo people
During this period, the rise of a mysterious nation changed the trend of the world, that is, the Shatuo people. Among the five most important dynasties at that time, in addition to the Liang Dynasty established by Zhu Wen, the Tang, Jin, Han, and Zhou dynasties behind them all had very close ties with the Shatuo people. The three dynasties, such as the Tang, Jin, and Han dynasties, were directly established by the Shatuo people, and the Later Zhou Dynasty was also separated from the Shatuo military clique.
It can be said that the Shatuo people directly dominated the history of this period, then the reason why this nation can have such achievements, or has a lot to do with the Tang Dynasty, the openness and tolerance of the Tang Dynasty, so that a large number of foreign nationalities have been absorbed, the Shatuo people are also like this, they themselves are the vassals of the Tang Dynasty, and later they entered the Central Plains as mercenaries, in order to deal with the enemies of the Khitan and Huangchao rebels.
For a people like them living outside the Country, they did not want to go out when they entered the Central Plains, and Li Ke used the rise of his father and son to represent the beginning of the Shatuo military clique to establish its own political power, and with the demise of the Tang Dynasty, they could also let go to compete for the world. But this nation, like a shooting star, suddenly appeared, shone for a while, and then suddenly disappeared, short-lived. Before the end of the Tang Dynasty, shatuo had not heard much of it, compared to the Khitan in the Sui and Tang dynasties, Shatuo was indeed not famous before, after the establishment of the Later Zhou, the Shatuo tribe suddenly disappeared, and there was no record of them in Song Ming after that.
The Shatuo are a branch of the Turks, and it is recorded in the New Book of Tang that Shatuo, the Western Turks, are also in the moon species.
Many historical books of the same period also confirm this point, the Turks themselves are a gathering of foreign tribes, and they have a large number of ethnic groups within them, and Shatuo is one of them. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, there were records of Shatuo, when Xue Rengui conquered the Tiele tribes, and the ancestors of the Shatuo people also assisted the Tang army, so they were rewarded, and their tribes survived in the Guazhou area.
The early Shatuo people are actually the Zhu evil tribe, which is a unique tribe under the Moon Department, Xue Rengui's conquest process, there are records about the Zhu evil tribe, they are also living in Shatuo Prefecture and other places, it is estimated that it has been too long, people have forgotten their original name, in ancient times, it is also very normal to call a nation the place of residence, which is the origin of Shatuo.
According to the "Old History", Emperor Taizuwu, Zhen Keyong, whose original surname was Zhu Evil, and whose ancestor Long right Jincheng people also. The ancestor Ofe Baye, Tang Zhenguanzhong was an envoy to the Mo Dynasty, and he had meritorious service from Emperor Taizong to Goryeo and Xue Yantuo, and was the deputy capital of Jinfang Province, because his family was in Guazhou.
This can also confirm that they are the descendants of the Zhu evil tribe, with this tribe as the core, gradually appeared the Shatuo nation, the Shatuo people are brave and good at war, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, their cavalry combat effectiveness is very strong, with the success of Li Ke's father and son, the Shatuo tribe moved inland in large numbers, and began to live in the Central Plains and other places, especially in the Jinyang region, here is the Longxing land of the Shatuo regime, basically the regime established by Shatuo, are based on here as the core, and most of these Shatuo people who influence the world are li ke with their father and son. However, the regime established by force alone could not be maintained for a long time, and with the rise of Guo Wei, the great cause of the Shatuo clan also came to an end, and it is curious that it was obvious that from the destruction of the Later Han Dynasty to the establishment of the Later Song Dynasty, it did not take many years in total, but the Shatuo clan disappeared so quickly.
The Northern Han dynasty, a branch of the Later Han Dynasty, was also a regime established by the Shatuo people, which was also their last struggle.
So where did the Shatuo clan go, and why did it fall so quickly? Which peoples are they today?
Unlike other ethnic minorities, the reason why the Shatuo people have a very low sense of existence is because their ethnic group has no documentation at all, and it is very difficult to sort out the history of Shatuo, and the customs and habits of this nation are not very well understood by later people.
Shatuo people are full of mystery, in fact, they are such a nomadic people, do not have their own writing, nor the concept of writing books, so they are not very likely to leave any literature, and the period of their activities, due to frequent wars, resulting in a large number of documents and books were burned, not only the Shatuo people, the entire history of the five generations and ten kingdoms has no sense of existence, now people understand this period, can refer to the literature is too few.
I think, then, that the Shatuo did not perish quickly, but that the regime that sustained their nation was destroyed, and they disintegrated completely. The Shatuo themselves were a mixed-race people, they had been attached to the Uighurs in the early days, and they had fused with the Lite, so the Shatuo was also a tribal congregation. Because of the area where They operate in Shatuo, I think that in today's Xinjiang and other places, there are many people who are descendants of Shatuo, the Shatuo people have a high nose and deep eyes, and their ethnic origin is the Guazhou region, so they must have a great connection with Xinjiang. Some of the ethnic minorities in this area may have Shatuo ancestry.
In addition, the Han nationality also has a part of Shatuo's blood, with the establishment of the Later Tang regime, the Shatuo people have mastered the Central Plains and other places, since ancient times these foreign regimes have to face the problem of Sinicization, Shatuo people are no exception, like the Later Tang imperial family is very much respect for intermarriage with Han, and then the Jin, Han regime also vigorously promote Sinicization, and constantly encourage domestic Shatuo nobles to intermarry with Han, so they gradually integrated into the Han people, due to the five generations period, the northern continuous war, to the Song Dynasty has not much population.
When the world was first decided, naturally there was no effort to find out whose ancestors were Shatuo people, so their nation was completely integrated into the Han nationality. With the continuous progress of Sinicization and intermarriage, the Shatuo people who migrated inland were obviously different from the Shatuo people who remained in the west, and the history of their nation also became part of the Chinese civilization. Of course, the Shatuo people also have a destination, that is, Mongolia in the north, and now in the Mongolian steppe, like the Mongolian people and many other ethnic groups, they should have the blood of Shatuo.
Because the Shatuo people are from the Turks, they are very close to some of the ethnic groups from the Turks, such as the Tatars, which are still very active in the Ming Dynasty, and are also a major group of the Mongols, and the Shatuo people are closely related to them, such as when Li Keyong was defeated, he took people to defect to the Tatars, and then he led the army south, in addition to the Shatuo cavalry led by himself, there was also a considerable part of the Tatar army going south.
The two sides should have intermarriage, so that they can be in step with each other, and later although the Shatuo died, the Tatars continued, and some of the Shatuo people should have been integrated into the Tatars, and with their development, they gradually became the later Mongol peoples. In addition to China, the Shatuo people should also have a destination, that is, in the west, in the early literature, it is often the Shatuo and The Lite people are called the three tribes of Shatuo.
Later, in the Tang Dynasty, the activities of the Shatuo people were often carried out together with the Lit people, so in the Northern Daibei region, the two ethnic groups continued to integrate, and with the migration of the Lite people, the blood of the Shatuo also went to Central Asia and other places, and it is estimated that some ethnic groups like Iran may be descendants of the Shatuo people. Although their own nation perished, the blood of the Shatuo people is still very widely distributed, which is also related to the strength of the previous Turks, and many foreign tribes in the west and north are derived from the Turks, which also allows shatuo to continue to integrate with many ethnic groups in the same lineage in the process of development, and the bloodline is distributed to many places.
References: Old History, New Book of Tang