the turkic tribes 391While this mission was travelling to the court of Mo-ch’o, it met a
Turkish envoy moving in the opposite direction. Yen Chih-wei gave
him a purple robe and a silver belt and then memorialized the Empress
Wu that when caitiffs went as envoys to the Chinese capital they should
be properly equipped. T’ien Kuei-tao, who was on bad terms with Yen
Chih-wei, memorialized on his part that now that Chih-wei had given
the envoy a robe and a belt, he had preempted the gifts which would
have been bestowed on him by the imperial court. The envoys of lesser
caitiffs were not worthy to be fully equipped. The Empress Dowager
approved of Kuei-tao’s attitude (Tzu-chih t’ung-chien p.6515).
On Sep.10, 698, the Chinese mission reached Mo-ch’o’s court. The
qaghan informed Yen Chih-wei that his daughter had been offered in
marriage to a son of the Son of Heaven of the Li house, whereas the
envoys had arrived with a son of the Wu house. What use did he have
for a son of the Wu house? How was he a son of the Son of Heaven?
A daughter of his ought to marry a son of the Son of Heaven. The
Wu was a lesser clan. He would now raise troops attack China, and
enthrone one of the two surviving sons of Kao-tsung ( Tzu-chih t’ung-chien
p.6515). Mo-ch’o then arrested Yen Chih-wei and T’ien Kuei-tao and
intended to execute them. A high Turkish official advised the qaghan
that envoys from a great state should not be killed. Mo-ch’o spared
their lives but detained them, as well as Wu Yen-hsiu. Another Chinese
arrested at this time was the Investigating Secretary P’ei Huai-ku. He
had rejected a possition among the Turks which Mo-ch’o had offered
to him and was about to be executed, when he managed to escape
and return to Ch’ang-an. There he was received by the Empress Wu
and made his report (Tzu-chih t’ung-chien pp.6530, 6531).
When Mo-ch’o conducted a raid into the northern part of the Great
Plain, the Empress Wu changed his name from Mo-ch’o to Chan-ch’o
(Decapitated Ch’o) (T’ung-tien 198:42b; Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao 343:9b).
Yen Chih-wei and T’ien Kuei-tao were released before the end of
the year and confronted each other in an audience before the Empress
Wu. Kuei-tao accused his colleague of having licked the boots of Mo-
ch’o whereas he himself had neither bowed to nor saluted the qaghan.
of 697. According to the same source (p.6510), Yen Chih-wei and T’ien Kuei-tao
had previously also been the envoys who in 695 had invested Mo-ch’o as Qaghan
Who Has Reformed and Makes Good, and it claims that Mo-ch’o at that occasion
was made General-in-chief of the Guards of the Left. This section of the Tzu-chih
t’ung-chien, however, is poorly edited, with many contradictory dates, so that I am
inclined to think it in error.