the turkic tribes 409tsung countered by diplomacy. On Jan.14, 723, he enfeoffed a Turkish
lady of the A-shih-na clan as Princess of Chin-ho^40 and gave her to
Su-lu as a wife. This princess sent a Turgesh officer with 1000 horses
to the joint market in Kucha, which since 649 was the headquarters
of the Chinese An-hsi Protectorate. The Military Governor resented
a message of the princess and undiplomatically detained her envoy.
Su-lu retaliated by invading the Tarim Basin (Chiu T’ang shu 194B:7b;
T’ung-tien 199:46b; Tzu-chih t’ung-chien p.6754; Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao 344:
13b). But he also moved into West Turkestan where he contested the
presence of the Arabs and defeated them in 724.
In the 1st month (Feb./Mar.) of 726, an envoy of Su-lu presented
horses, and in the 12th month (Dec./Jan., 727) of the same Chinese
years other envoys offered regional objects (T’ung-tien 199:46b; Ts’e-fu
yüan-kuei p.5028; Tzu-chih t’ung-chien p.6776; Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao 344:
13b).
In 730, envoys from Su-lu arrived in Ch’ang-an, and Emperor
Hsüan-tsung invited them to a banquet. At this time, Eastern Turk-
ish envoys were also at the court and had been asked to the same
banquet. The Turgesh were to occupy the seats of honour, which
caused a confrontation. The Eastern Turks insisted that the state of
the Turgesh was small and that it originally had been a dependency
of the [Western] Turks. Its envoys should not be placed above them.
The Turgesh argued that, since the banquet had been arranged for
them, they would not occupy a lower place. The Chinese court officials
solved this problem of protocol by seating the Eastern Turks in the
east and the Turgesh in the west (Chiu T’ang shu 194B:8a; T’ung-tien
199:46b;Tzu-chih t’ung-chien p.6792; Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao 344:13b).
The formidable Su-lu was not only engaged with the Chinese and
the Arabs but also negotiated with the Tibetans. In addition to his
“Chinese” princess, he married a Tibetan and an Eastern Turkish
lady, so that he had three qatuns (T’ung-tien 199:46b; Wen-hsien t’ung-
k’ao 344:13b). But his long string of victories was coming to an end.
In 731 he failed to take Samarkand, and in 737 he was decisively
defeated by the Arabs. In 738, he was killed and replaced by his son
T’u-huo-hsien. The latter and the Princess of Chin-ho were captured
by the Military Governor of the An-hsi Protectorate and brought to
Ch’ang-an. Emperor Hsüan-tsung gave T’u-huo-hsien a banquet and
(^40) Tzu-chih t’ung-chien mistakenly writes Chiao-ho.