102 chapter two
daughters of China’s sovereigns. All those three women became indeed
hostages of the Uighur–Chinese military alliance.
The three marriages of Uighur khagans with daughters of different
T’ang emperors put an end to the ‘senior–junior’ relationship and are
therefore a sign of T’ang political weakness in the years after 758 A.D.
and before 830s. So the T’ang emperors of that time, seeing themselves
quite threatened by different enemies, both internal and external, had
to change the usual tactics and to adapt themselves to the new condi-
tions, i.e. to send three times (!) to Ordubaliq imperial daughters. Till
this moment, i.e. the mid-eighth century, no Turkic ruler could boast
such a successful dynastic alliance with China.^59 The Uighur khagans
interpreted the situation as a sign of equality between the khaganate
and China, an interpretation confirmed by the latter.^60 That such an
understanding existed among the Uighur elite is also clear from the
wedding ceremonies held in the Uighur khagan’s court in 758, 788,
and 821 A.D., respectively.^61 In the year 758 A.D., during the insur-
rection of An Lu-shan and especially after the decisive support by the
Uighurs, thanks to whom the rebels were victorious and the authority
of the T’ang dynasty over the Eastern Chinese capital was restored, the
khagan demanded a marriage being held and was given the princess of
Ning-kuo,^62 the second daughter of emperor Su-tsung, as a wife. The
khagan died a year later and according to the Chinese chronicles, the
Uighur dignitaries requested his wife to accompany him in his last
“travel”. She declined with the explanation that the rites in the Chinese
empire, in such particular cases, are rather different than the Uighur
ones. The aristocrats, however, managed at least to force her to bruise
her face in order to show her grief. Afterwards she was sent back to
China as she has not given birth to male inheritants,^63 a fact expressing
the male domination in societies of this kind.
(^59) The Cambridge History of China 1979, 678. Details for these marriages see in,
Jagchid and Symons 1989, 157–162. 60
Jagchid and Symons 1989, 157–158.
(^61) One of these princesses lived in the Uighur capital approximately 21 years, from
787/8 A.D. until 808 A.D., when she died in the court thus being wife of four dif-
ferent khagans; so she was not only wife of Tun Bagha-tarkhan but also of Tun’s
successors—for this see, Bichurin 1950, 331; Sinor 1998, 196.
(^62) Bichurin 1950, 313; Mackerras 1990, 325; Jagchid and Symons 1989, 157–158.
(^63) Bichurin 1950, 315–316; Mackerras 1990, 327; Sinor 1998, 192; Jagchid and
Symons 1989, 158–159.