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, 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, amid military retaliation from the Xue Yantuo 薛延陀 and strategic underpinnings by the Western Turks. In the first lunar month of the tenth ZhengGuan year, 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 strategic underpinnings for the dynasty’s subsequent systematic governance of the region.