Some Aspects of the Relations between the Northern Dynasties and the Chile 敕勒 (Fifth to Seventh Century)

The terms “Gaoju” 高車 and “Chile” 敕勒/“Tiele” 鐵勒 identify a confederacy of tribes that dwelled in the Mongolian steppe belt from the late fifth to the early eighth century. This group of tribes established patron-client relations with both the steppe regimes of the Rouran 柔然 khanate (402–552) and the Türks of the First Türk Empire (552–630), as well as the rulers of the Central Plains, the Tuoba 拓跋 Northern dynasties (386–581), the Sui 隋 (581–618), and the early Tang 唐 court. Over the course of the centuries, tribal units affiliated to this nomadic confederacy moved southwards within the various parts of the northern and northwestern frontier of the empire, voluntarily or not, and became part of its defensive system. This paper is a preliminary survey of the early relations between the confederacy and the rulers of the Central Plains as narrated in the early medieval sources, with a focus on the Weishu 魏書 and the Beishi 北史. From a broader perspective, this article is a preliminary inquiry into the modes of narrating migration patterns of the Turkic groupings that settled at the edge of the empire.