The Shatuo ethnic group is an ethnic minority in the north of China, formerly known as Chuyue, a branch of the Western Turks. It is distributed in the southern part of the Kinsha Mountains and the eastern part of the Pushi Sea, along the great desert named "Shatuo". Therefore, it is called Shatuo Turk, referred to as Shatuo for short, and is also written as "Shatuo". Later, the Shatuo established a feudal dynasty. Legend has it that by cracking a couplet in front of a temple, you can get a large amount of treasure.
Historically, Chu Yue helped the Central Plains Dynasty quell several rebellions. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, Chuyue was scattered in the southeast of the present-day Junggar Basin in Xinjiang and in the area of Balikun in the eastern part of the Tianshan Mountains. Around 653 AD, in the course of the Tang Dynasty's conquest of the Western Turk Ashina Helu rebellion, the Tang Dynasty placed Jinman and Shatuo Erzhu Prefecture in the chuyue land. In 702, due to the merits of the Chieftain Shatuo Jinshan from Zheng Tiele, he was awarded the post of Governor of Jinmanzhou by the Tang Dynasty.
Due to Tubo persecution, Jinshan's son Fuguo had to lead the tribe to relocate to Beiting. After the Anshi Rebellion, beiting was isolated from the interior, and the Shatuo people suffered from hui tyranny. In 789, Shatuo's seven thousand tents were attached to Tubo and fell into the Northern Garden. Soon, Tubo moved Shatuo to present-day Zhangye, Gansu. When Tubo invaded the Tang Dynasty's borders, it often ordered the Shatuo people to take the front.
At the beginning of the ninth century, the Uighurs, who had changed their name to Uighurs, attacked and occupied present-day Wuwei, Gansu. Tubo suspected that Shatuo and uighurs were colluding with each other, so they wanted to move Shatuo to the west of the Yellow River. As a result, the Shatuo chiefTain Quanzhong surrendered to the Tang Dynasty with 30,000 tribesmen, and on the way, Duzhong was killed by Tubo pursuers. The Tang Dynasty placed the Shatuo people in Yanzhou, and the Scattered Shatuo people returned one after another, and their power increased rapidly.
Later, when Tang Wuzong dealt with Tubo, Dangxiang, and Uighurs, Shatuo provided a lot of help. During the reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang, Shatuo also helped the imperial court suppress Pang Xun's rebellion, so its leader Chi Xin was awarded the title of Envoy of the Datong Army and given the name Li Guochang. In 876, Li Guochang's son Li Ke attacked Yunzhou in an attempt to rebel. The Tang Dynasty sent troops to fight, and in 880 Li Guochang's father and son fled to the Tatars after their defeat.
Huang Chao launched an uprising and attacked Chang'an City all the way, and the Tang Dynasty recruited soldiers and horses from all over the world to help. At this time, Li Ke supported the Tang army with the Shatuo and Tatar armies and defeated Huang Chao's army at Liangtianpo. Huang Chao withdrew from Chang'an, and Li Keyong was appointed as the emissary of Hedong Jiedushi.
In 923, Li Keyong's son Li Cunxun destroyed Later Liang and established Later Tang. Later, Shi Jingyao, who established the Later Jin Dynasty, and Liu Zhiyuan, who was later in the Han Dynasty, were both Shatuo people. It is said that it was the Northern Song Dynasty that destroyed Shatuo, and some people say that the Shatuo Kingdom was destroyed by the forces of other five generations and ten kingdoms. Although the kingdom of Shatuo is a small kingdom, it has many treasures.
In the ruins of shatuoguo, there is a temple called "Buddha's Temple", and it is said that as long as you can untie the link next to the temple gate, you can get the treasure. It reads: Seven steps up and seven steps down, seven steps to pick up gold and silver. Countless people have come here to look for treasure, but they have not found it.
Later, a monk came to the Buddha's Temple, took a look at the Yang Lian, and knew its meaning. In fact, the Buddha statues enshrined in the temple are made of pure gold, but the outside has been painted with other colors. The "seven" in the couplet is the harmonic sound of the word "lacquer". That is, this Buddha statue is a treasure. Local villagers firmly believe that the Golden Buddha is only the tip of the iceberg of a huge treasure, and there are more Shatuo treasures buried in the ground, waiting to be discovered.