Turkic is a nation that has arisen in the history of China, which once unified the desert and the western region, and established the Turkic Khaganate, the Eastern Turk Khaganate, the Western Turk Khaganate, the Post-Turkic Khaganate, the Turkic Khanate and other powerful steppe states. However, after the fall of the Post-Turkic Khaganate and the Turkic Khanate, the Turkic peoples seemed to have disappeared from Chinese history. Where did such a huge Turkic people go?
First, it was integrated into the new conquering peoples
To find out where the Turks went, we need to figure out where the Turks came from. The Turks, which originated in the Altai Mountains, are the product of the fusion of the Tiele people and the Serbs, with the wolf as a totem. Because a large number of Turks came from the Tiele tribe, the Turks were very similar in culture to the Tiele, for example, the two languages were common, and are now called "Turkic languages".
Distribution of Turkic languages
However, the Tiele and the Turks do not belong to the same people, and the Turks may be a branch of the Tiele, but the Tiele is by no means a branch of the Turks. The Uyghurs in China are descendants of the Tiele and Uighurs, not of Turkic descent. In ancient times, the Turks called themselves "Blue Turks" and Tiele "Black Turks", and there was a clear difference in the color of the eyes of the two. In simple terms, the Turks have more Europa ethnic characteristics, and Tiele is a yellow ethnic characteristic.
The Turkic royal family was the Ashina clan, and the descendants were the Ashid clan. In addition to the two noble tribes, there were also tribes such as Huluju, Resheti, Tuqishi, Ratnishu, Ashie, Goshu, Basaigan, Ashejie, Gelulu, Chumukun, and Shuli. It should be noted that the nomadic tribes that have been assimilated by the Turks in history, which we call Turkic peoples or Turkic languages, are not the scope of our discussion.
After the fall of the Turkic regime, a large number of Turkic tribes continued to remain in the desert and the western region, and they eventually integrated into the nomadic peoples that later emerged. In the desert, after the fall of the Later Turks, the Uighur Khaganate arose, so a large number of Turkic tribes merged with the Uighurs, and eventually it was difficult to distinguish between the Turks and the Uighurs, which we called the Turkic tribes. After the collapse of the Uighur Khaganate, there were still a large number of Turkic tribes on the Mongolian steppe, namely the Wangu tribe, the Kelie tribe, the Naiman tribe, the Hui Yi la tribe, the Qi'er beggar tribe, etc., and later they were conquered by the Mongol tribe and became mongols.
The Mongol conquest of these Turkic tribes led to the gradual loss of their own language and the fact that they all spoke Mongolian. However, there are still a large number of Turkic words in Mongolian today, which is the influence of Turkic culture on Mongolian culture. In Siberia, where the Mongols had not yet conquered, there were still some relatively primitive Turkic tribes, which were sent to this area during the Liao Dynasty, and they claimed to be descendants of Jieli Khan, which is now the Yakuts.
The core area of the Western Turks is along the Ili River. After the fall of the Turkishi Khanate, they merged with the Uighurs who had migrated west to establish the Qarakhanid Dynasty and the Gaochang Uighurs. The Mongols referred to the fusion of the two as the "Uighurs," now the Uyghurs.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, when China conducted a survey of ethnic minority languages, it found some ethnic groups in Xinjiang that called themselves "Turks", with only 31 households and more than 200 people, basically distributed in some villages in Ili. After identification by linguists, their language still retains many of the characteristics of The Old Turkic language. By now, they may have disappeared.
Second, it moved south to the Central Plains and integrated into the Han nationality
The second place to go for the Turks is Sinicization. After the Turks were defeated by the Tang Dynasty, their royal families basically migrated to the Central Plains and accepted the surnames of the Central Plains. After years of edification and intermarriage, their economy changed from nomadic to agricultural, and they also accepted Han culture culturally, and eventually became part of the Han nationality.
In 630, The Tang destroyed the Eastern Turks and captured Jieli Khan. Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty placed the Eastern Turkic subordinates in the south of the desert and the Central Plains, and awarded high-ranking officials Houlu, such as Jieli Khan was awarded the Right Guard General, Tuli Khan was awarded the King of Beiping County, and Ashina Sima was awarded the Right Wu Marquis General. The political situation in the Western Turks was even more chaotic, and some Turkic nobles who lost the struggle often defected to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and they were also awarded high-ranking officials. In 657, the Western Turk Khaganate collapsed, and more Turkic nobles were placed in the Central Plains.
Many of the submissive Turkic nobles changed their surnames to Han, for example, ashina basically changed to the shi surname, for example, Shi Siming was a Turkic. Many others who had made meritorious contributions to the Tang Dynasty were given the surname "Li".
In the late Tang Dynasty, there was also a group of Turks who entered the Central Plains, that is, the Shatuo people. Shatuo was originally a branch of the Western Turks, also known as the "ChuyueBu". After the Anshi Rebellion, Tubo gradually occupied the western region, and they migrated the Shatuo people to the Hexi Corridor. Later, Tubo plotted to eradicate Shatuo, so the Shatuo clan surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and was placed in the southern part of the country, giving him the surname "Li". In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the Shatuo tribe helped the Tang Dynasty suppress the Huangchao Rebellion, and its leader Li Keyong was given the title of "King of Jin".
Later, Li Keyong confronted Zhu Wen, which is known in history as the "Liang-Jin Controversy". In 923, Li Ke used his son Li Cunxun to be proclaimed emperor, using the name of "Tang" and the historical name "Later Tang". In the same year, the Later Tang Dynasty destroyed the Later Liang. Hou Liang was one of the most powerful of the five dynasties, not only controlling the entire Central Plains, but also making the southern countries vassals. The Later Jin and Later Khans after the Later Tang Dynasty were all established by the Shatuo people.
The Shatuo people have lived in the Central Plains for a long time and gradually integrated into the Han nationality. At present, the Hehuang Li clan, the Qi clan, the ZhuangLang Lu clan, the Linxia He clan, the Han clan, the Bili Wei Kang clan, the Tao Min Yang clan, the Zhao clan, etc. are all descendants of Shatuo. The Shatuo people were at war with the Khitan for a long time, and many Shatuo people were forced to migrate to the Yangtze River Basin. In Danjiangkou, Hubei Province, there is Shatuoying Village, and Shiyan City, Yunyang has Lijiapo Village, which are all places of Shatuo descendants. The inhabitants of these areas still retain certain Shatuo characteristics, such as slightly red hair, double eyelids, large eyes, long eyelashes, and yellow or blue pupils.
Third, move west and disappear into the long river of history
Historically, East Asian nomads have a tradition of westward migration, and the Turks are no exception. In the 9th century, the Samanid dynasty of Iran reused Turkic mercenaries, which led to the westward migration of a large number of Turks to West Asia. However, these so-called "Turks" are only the names given to them by the peoples of West Asia, they should be Turkic peoples, a people who have been conquered and assimilated by the Turks, and there are very few real Turks.
These Turkic-speaking peoples who migrated west to West Asia established the Seljuk Empire in West Asia and became very powerful. In 1071, the Seljuk Empire defeated the Eastern Romans and began a mass migration to the Asia Minor Peninsula. After the fall of the Seljuk Empire, they established the Sultanate of Roma, which then developed into the Ottoman Empire and continued to dominate Western Asia. After hundreds of years of development, these Turkic-speaking peoples embraced Islam and integrated into the oceans of middle Eastern peoples. However, due to the strength of the Ottoman Empire, they were able to maintain their own language until now.
According to DNA testing, the current Turks are very close in blood to the Greeks, and far from the Turkic languages in Central Asia. This shows that the Turkic languages who migrated to Turkey in those years were only a minority, and they were the rulers. Most turks are indigenous people. This also shows that Turkey is not the same as Turkic.
Another part of the Turkic people migrated to Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe has been a corridor for the migration of Eurasian peoples since ancient times. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, a Turkic tribe migrated to the northern shore of the Caspian Sea, which chinese history books call the "Turkic Khazarian Tribe". In fact, this ethnic group has integrated a large number of local peoples into Eastern Europe, and has become naturally different from the Turks. In the 8th century, the Khazar Khanate became powerful and embraced Judaism.
Khazarian Turks
Eventually, the Khazar Khanate declined under the attacks of Rus', Eastern Rome, and Arabia, and became a mess. In the early 13th century, it was conquered by the Mongols. After the unification of Russia, they actually evolved into Jews and became the main source of the Jewish people in Russia.
In summary, after the fall of the khanate established by the Turkic peoples, their peoples continued to integrate into the new conquering peoples, and some migrated to other places, accepted the beliefs of other civilizations, and eventually disappeared into the long river of history. Although the Turkic peoples disappeared, the languages they created still influenced Asia, and the Turkic languages are still spoken in the Central Asian states and Turkey. The Turks were the first nomadic people in Chinese history to create a script, and the Turks wrote in the Sogdian alphabet, which influenced the later Uighur Mongolian and Manchu languages, which can be described as far-reaching.
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