The history of Xinjiang is a story of various tribes and ethnic groups migrating, settling, and coexisting in harmony, reflecting the great theme of multi-ethnic unity within the Chinese nation. Xinjiang is not the exclusive homeland of any single ethnic group, the Uygurs in Xinjiang are not descendants of the Turks, and Xinjiang is not the so-called "East Turkistan." These are the three basic facts for the correct understanding of Xinjiang's history and culture.

Ethnic migration and mobility as the norm in Xinjiang's history

Exchange, integration, and renewal among different ethnic groups have been defining features of Xinjiang's ethnic development throughout history. During the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BC–AD 220), the Wusun tribe, originally nomadic between the Qilian Mountains and Dunhuang, migrated westward to the Ili and Chu rivers basins due to frequent wars in the Hexi Corridor. There, they established local governments. Despite their westward migration, the Wusun people maintained close ties with the Hexi region and the Central Plains dynasties, playing an important role in the Han Dynasty's efforts to unify the Western Regions.

In 119 B.C., the Han envoy Zhang Qian was dispatched on a second mission to the Western Regions to form an alliance with the Wusun against the Xiongnu (Huns) invasions. Upon Zhang Qian's return, the Wusun King Kunmo sent envoys to the Han dynasty to request a marriage alliance. For strategic reasons, the Han Dynasty subsequently married Princess Xijun and Princess Jieyou to the Wusun. During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties (220–589), the Wusun, once active in the Western Regions, migrated south to the Pamirs. However, their historical connection with the Central Plains has been commemorated and celebrated ever since.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties (581–907), the Uighurs (Huihu) were a nomadic tribe living on the Mongolian Plateau. In 744, they established the Uighur Khaganate in the northern deserts and became a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty. During the nearly 100-year existence of the Uighur Khaganate, several Tang princesses were married to Uighur khans. In 821 (the first year of the Changqing era under Emperor Muzong), Princess Taihe, the emperor's sister, was married to Uighur Khan Chongde. After the collapse of the Uighur Khaganate in 840, Princess Taihe endured many hardships and returned to her hometown of Chang'an. Even after migrating westward, the Uighurs continued to regard themselves as the "nephews" of the Tang Dynasty and maintained a spiritual bond between Xinjiang and the Central Plains.

In 2019, a research team from Nanjing University interviewed several elderly Xibe people in the Chabuchar Xibe Autonomous County in Ili Prefecture, Xinjiang. Among them, the renowned Xibe painter and poet He Xingqian mentioned that his family originally belonged to the Plain White Banner in northeast China. Due to their military prowess and remarkable contributions, they were sent to the Ili region in the Qing dynasty (1616–1911) to guard the border. Historical records indicate that in 1764, Emperor Qianlong selected Xibe soldiers from Shenyang and other areas in northeast China and brought them along with their families to garrison the Ili region. These Xibe soldiers and civilians settled in Ili and wrote a glorious epic of guarding the borders 5000 kilometers away from their home.

As can be seen in the history of the Wusun, Uighur, and Xibe people entering Xinjiang, it is clear that Xinjiang has always been a shared homeland for multiple ethnic groups, rather than belonging exclusively to any single group. Throughout history, some ethnic groups once stood out prominently and then gradually faded in obscurity, while others integrated with local residents to form the current ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

The decline of the ancient Turkic people

The Turks were a nomadic tribe that emerged in the Altai Mountains in the mid-6th century and established the Turkic Khaganate in 552. Thirty years later, the Turkic Khaganate split into two major powers, Eastern Turkic Khaganate and Western Turkic Khaganate, with the Altai Mountains as the borderline. In 630, the Tang Dynasty defeated the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, and later, in alliance with the Ouigours (Huihe, ancestors of the Uygurs), destroyed the Western Turkic Khaganate, thereby unifying the Western Regions under the central authority.

In 682, the East Turkic people stationed in the north rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and temporarily established the Second Turkic Khaganate. In 744, the Tang Dynasty, in alliance with the Ouigours in northern Mongolia and Karluk peoples, defeated the Second Turkic Khaganate. The Ouigours' leader Kutlug Bilge was granted the title of Huairen Khan by the Tang court and later established a Khaganate in the northern deserts. As an ancient nomadic tribe in China, the Turks split up with the fall of their Khaganate in the mid-8th century, then merging with local tribes in their westward migration across Central Asia and the Middle East to form several new ethnic groups, which were fundamentally different from the ancient Turks.

As a tribal name, "Turk" appears in Han historical records as late as in the Liao Dynasty (907–1125), in references such as "Kuiyan Turk" and "Aoyan Turk," but the History of Liao contains only brief mentions of the name, making it difficult to determine their relationship with the Turks. Since then, no ethnic group in China or abroad has been specifically called "Turk." In other words, since the disintegration of the Turkic Khaganate in the 8th century, the ancient Turks have completely disappeared from the historical stage.

Are the Uygurs descendants of the Turks?

The Turks are an ancient people that has disappeared in the course of history. Referring to all ethnic groups speaking languages of the Altaic-Turkic language family as Turks is an invention of some "Pan-Turkism" advocates in modern times.

Language family and ethnicity are two different concepts with essential differences. In China, ethnic groups speaking Turkic languages include the Uygurs, Kazaks, Kirgiz, Uzbeks, Tatars, Yugurs, and Salars. Each of these groups has its own unique history and cultural characteristics and should not be regarded as components of a so-called "Turkic race."

According to historical records and related research, the ancestors of the Uygurs in China were actually the Uighurs (previously Ouigours) of the Sui and Tang dynasties (581–907), who lived on the Mongolian Plateau.

In the mid-8th century, the Ouigours replaced the Turks and established a khaganate on the Mongolian Plateau. In 788, the then Ouigour rulers petitioned the Tang Dynasty to change their name to "Uighur," a name that has since appeared in the Chinese historical records. At the same time, the Uighurs in the northern deserts referred to their group as the "Ten-Surname Uighur" and their regime as the "Ten-Surname Uighur State." Uighur documents from the 9th century onwards also frequently used this term for self-designation. In Persian and Arabic historical materials after the post-9th century, the term "Tokuz-Oguz" was often used to refer to the Uighurs in the northern deserts and their successors in the Western Regions. Many Uighur documents also show that they referred to their own language as the "Uighur language."

Evidence can be found in 11th-century Uighur translations of A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty and Maitrisimit mom bitig, where the term "Turk" clearly referred to the Turkic tribes in history, often with a pejorative connotation similar to "barbarian," suggesting that the Uighurs of that time did not culturally identify with the Turks.

Thus, whether from the perspective of language, script, or cultural identity, the Uighurs and the Turks were not of the same ethnic group, and the ancestors of the Uygurs did not identify with the Turks.

Was Xinjiang "East Turkistan"?

In historical Chinese records, from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the region that is now Xinjiang has always been referred to as the "Western Regions." In 1884, when the region was established as a province, it was named "Xinjiang," which literally means "old territory recovered" in Chinese. Since then, "Xinjiang" has been the only proper name for the region. However, in modern times, some people use the term "East Turkistan" instead of "Western Regions" or "Xinjiang." Is there any historical or factual basis for this?

Historically, the concept of "Turkistan" did exist, but as a geographical concept with a very vague scope of reference. The so-called "East Turkistan," however, is a political pseudo-concept that derived entirely from the modern "Pan-Turkic" and "Pan-Islamic" ideologies. In the mid-6th century, as the Turks expanded westward, they occupied the Sogdiana region (in present Uzbekistan) bordering the Sassanian Persia. The Persians then used the term "Turkistan" to refer to the region north of the Amu River. In the early 8th century, after the Arabs conquered the region south of the river, they used "Turkistan" to refer to the area north of the Syr River. On an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon map, "Turks" were marked west of the Caspian Sea. In 13th-century Persian sources, "Turkistan" still referred to the region northeast of the Syr River. Later, in The Travels of Marco Polo, "Turkoman" was still used to refer to Anatolia. As all these evidences show, "Turkistan" was a completely different place for the Europeans of that time than the area inhabited by the Uygurs.

In the Western writings and maps from the 15th to the 19th centuries, the geographical boundaries of "Turkestan" were also vague and uncertain. On world maps drawn by cartographers such as Ortelius, de Jode, and Hondius, "Turkestan" was located north of the Caspian Sea. On the 1602 map Kunyu Wanguotu (Map of All Countries in the World) made by Italian cartographers, the area north of the Yin Mountains was also marked as part of "Turkestan." This demonstrates that as a historical-geographical concept, the scope of "Turkestan" was extremely ambiguous.

As a linguistic concept, in the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries, with the classification of various Turkic languages within the Altaic language family, some Western scholars and writers mistakenly used the term "Turkestan" to refer to the region between the south of the Tianshan Mountains and northern Afghanistan. They further divided this geographical region into Western Turkestan and Eastern Turkestan, with the Pamir Plateau as the boundary. Under the influence of the ideologies of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism, the term "Turk" gradually evolved from a geographical and linguistic concept to a political one.

The authors are Mahemuti Jiang Kadir and Madina Jumalifu, Institute of History, Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

Liu Xian /Editor    Hu Min /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Liu Xian /Coordination Editor

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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