436 the turkic tribes
In the 5th month (May/June) of 808, it became known at the
T’ang court that the Uighur qaghan had died. Hsien-tsung com-
menced mourning. On June 22, he sent the Junior Director of the
Imperial Clan to recognize the new ruler as the Ai-teng-li-lo-ku-mi-
shih-ho-p’i-chia, Who Maintains Righteousness, Qaghan (Chiu T’ang
shu 14:13b; Hsin T’ang shu 217A:10b; T’ang hui-yao 98:7b-8a; Wen-hsien
t’ung-k’ao 347:29b).
In 809, Uighur envoys were received at the T’ang court (Chiu T’ang
shu 195:11a; Chiu Wu-tai shih 138:3b).^84
On June 24, 810, a Uighur envoy was received at the T’ang court
(Hsin T’ang shu 217A:10b).
In 813, a Uighur envoy proposed a marriage alliance on behalf of
the qaghan. When he was about to leave in the 4th month (May/June),
he was given a banquet and presented with silver vessels and silken
fabrics. Before his actual departure, the qaghan appeared with horse-
men at the Chinese border north of the Ordos bend of the Yellow
River (Chiu T’ang shu 195:11a; Hsin T’ang shu 217A:10b).
Hsien-tsung ordered the high officials to estimate the expense of the
proposed marriage, and they calculated that it would cost 5,000,000
strings of cash. This was more than the emperor thought he could
afford. He sent the Director of the Imperial Clan and an Erudit as his
envoys to the Uighurs to announce his decision (Chiu T’ang shu 195:
11a;Tzu-chih t’ung-chien p.7730).
In the 5th month (May/June) of 814, the Master of Writing of the
Ministry of Rites, Li Chiang, noted in a memorial that the Uighurs
would probably launch an attack in the autumn and that a marriage
alliance would prevent it. Opposing those who claimed that the cost
of sending a princess was too high, he argued that it could be done
for 200,000 strings of cash. That was no more than the annual tax
revenue from one large prefecture (hsien) in the southeast, cheap when
compared to that of the upkeep of the border defences which required
one third of the entire annual tax revenue. A marriage alliance between
the Uighurs and the Chinese would also set the Tibetans and Uighurs
against each other. The emperor rejected this advice (Hsin T’ang shu
217A:10b-11b).
(^84) They supposedly requested their name to be written differently in Chinese.
While the Chinese did, in fact, substitute one character in the Uighur name by
another, the date of the change is very much in doubt. See Mackerras, Uighur Empire,
pp.158-159 note 173.