Reinvestigation of the Turkic Dabu Regime in the Early Tang Dynasty: Based on the Inscriptions on the Pedestals of the Alien Chieftains’ Stone Statues at the Zhao Mausoleum of the Tang Dynasty
Luo Xiaohui.Reinvestigation of the Turkic Dabu Regime in the Early Tang Dynasty: Based on the Inscriptions on the Pedestals of the Alien Chieftains’ Stone Statues at the Zhao Mausoleum of the Tang Dynasty[J].Journal of Sun Yat-sen University(Social Science Edition),2026,66(03):89-102.
Luo Xiaohui.Reinvestigation of the Turkic Dabu Regime in the Early Tang Dynasty: Based on the Inscriptions on the Pedestals of the Alien Chieftains’ Stone Statues at the Zhao Mausoleum of the Tang Dynasty[J].Journal of Sun Yat-sen University(Social Science Edition),2026,66(03):89-102. DOI: 10.11714/jsysu.sse.202603011.
The Dabu答布 Regime of the Turkic突厥 confederation, rarely documented in mainstream transmitted historical records, is uniquely preserved in the pedestal inscriptions of the alien chieftains’ stone statues at the Zhao Mausoleum of the Tang Dynasty. A cross-verification between these epigraphic materials and relevant textual sources indicates that the Dabu Regime was established by Ashina She’er阿史那社尔 in the eighth year of the Zhenguan贞观 reign (634 D), with Futu Khanate City可汗浮图城 as its royal capital. Functioning as a frontier separatist power, it exercised dominion over the eastern Tianshan region. The regime collapsed in the ninth year of the Zhenguan reign (635 AD), amid military retaliation from the Xue Yantuo薛延陀 and geopolitical suppression by the Western Turks. In the first lunar month of the tenth ZhengGuan year (636 AD), She’er社尔, the reigning khan, surrendered to the Tang court along with his tribal followers, marking an overall regime lifespan of less than two years. During its terminal phase, the Tang court strategically accelerated the regime’s collapse by conferring official titles upon the khan of the Western Turks and elevating the administrative hierarchy of Yizhou伊州. This maneuver substantially expanded the Tang’s political influence across the Western Regions, laying a solid institutional and geopolitical foundation for the dynasty’s subsequent systematic governance of the region.