Pre-Mongolian Origins
The Tuyuhun were a Xianbei people who followed Tuyuhun, a son of the Murong chief Shegui, west from Liaodong in the late 3rd century and settled around Qinghai Lake. Ruling Xianbei, Qiang and other peoples, they controlled a southern branch of the Silk Road. Their rulers first took the title qaghan (kehan) in the early 5th century and used it steadily from the 540s. The Tibetan Empire conquered the kingdom in 663, and its last qaghan led his people into Tang China. The founder Tuyuhun appears on the Xianbei page; this page lists the rulers who held the qaghan title.
6 Rulers
Shuluogan was the first Tuyuhun ruler to call himself qaghan; from Kualü in the 540s every ruler held the title. The kingdom balanced between the northern and southern Chinese dynasties, then between the Sui, the Tang and Tibet, until the Tibetans conquered it in 663.
First Tuyuhun ruler recorded with the title qaghan (Wuyin Kehan); his reign ended in 417 after defeats by the Western Qin.
Read the profileRuled the Tuyuhun for half a century and took the qaghan title permanently; built the capital Fuqi near Qinghai Lake and played the rival northern Chinese states against each other.
Read the profileSon of Kualü who made peace with the Sui and married the Sui princess Guanghua; killed in a revolt in 597.
Read the profileBrother of Shifu who ruled for nearly forty years; driven out by Emperor Yang of Sui in 608–609, he returned and raided the Tang until Li Jing's campaign of 635, during which he died.
Read the profileSon of Fuyun, raised at the Sui court, installed as qaghan by the Tang in 635; killed by his own people the same year as too Chinese in his ways.
Read the profileLast Tuyuhun qaghan; ruled as a Tang ally and married the Tang princess Honghua, but fled into China when Tibet conquered his kingdom in 663; his people were resettled at Lingzhou in 672.
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