Asena legend

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Asena on the 5 lira note of the first series (from 1927)

The Asena legend is an origin myth of the Turks based on Chinese sources , which was adapted towards the end of the 19th century by the emerging national Turkish and pan-Turkish literature. Asena is a Turkish subsidiary form of Aschina , the progenitor of the ruling clan of the Kök Turks , who are referred to as Tujue (突厥) in Chinese sources . Ashina is also the family name of the Turkish Chagane in Chinese sources .

Various versions of this narrative are common in Central Asia . The oldest written mentions can be found in Chinese literature , especially in the annals of various Chinese ruling houses. The earliest mention is found in the records of the Zhou Dynasty (mid-sixth century). With one exception, a she- wolf plays a special role in all Chinese stories about the ancestry of the Turks . A similar ancestry myth, in which a she-wolf plays a special role, was already mentioned earlier in the Shiji of the first great Chinese historian Sima Qian († 85 BC) with the Wu-sun and later in the Secret History of the Mongols (middle of the 13th century) Century) connected with the Mongols.

The legend

The legend tells of a little boy, the only survivor of his tribe . The tribe falls victim to a massacre, but the boy is found and raised by a she-wolf. The she-wolf escapes with the boy into a cave in the mountains northwest of Kao-ch'ang . In the cave there is a large plain with rich vegetation. In some versions, the boy is still an infant being suckled by the she-wolf. In other versions it is already ten years old and is fed on meat. The boy grows up and unites with the she-wolf. In some versions, the boy lives long enough to get revenge. Ten boys emerge from the union with the she-wolf.

The Wolf ( Turk. Kurt , alttürk. Boeri ) is a pantürkisches icon. He was revered as a sacred totem animal and ancestor. It used to be called kök böri ("blue, heavenly wolf"), although it was taboo in some tribes to pronounce its name Böri in relation to the animal. Scientists linked the number "ten" in legend with the ten tribes ( On Oq = "ten arrows") that made up the western part of the first kingdom of the Gök Turks . The mountain range northwest of Kao-ch'ang has been recognized as the Altai Mountains .

About the origin of the name Asena

The rulers of the first and second kingdoms of the Gök Turks came from the house of Aschina , the noble family that, according to tradition, was closely linked to the myth of descent, as depending on the variant of the myth, one or all of the descendants of the she-wolf in the first generation or a subsequent generation received the name Ashina, which was then used as a family name. The name of the she-wolf Asena was later derived from the name Ashina.

The oldest versions

Variant "Wolf raises abandoned child"

The oldest version of this variant is in the records of the short-lived Zhou dynasty (556-581), in the Zhou shu , which was completed around 629 . A slightly different version of the same legend can be found in Pei shih, which was completed around the year 659 . The records of the Sui dynasty , the Sui Shu written between 629 and 636 , are almost word for word identical to the narrative in Pei shih . This variant was probably the most common variant among the majority of Turks at the time. The Bugut stele, one of the oldest written records of the Turks, is decorated with a she-wolf suckling a child; the flag of the Gökturkische empire showed a golden wolf's head; According to Chinese sources, the bodyguards of the rulers of the Turks were called fu-li (Turkish böri , meaning "wolves"). The Zhou shu also states that every year the Eastern Turks took the stately people to the "ancestral cave" to celebrate an offering. The Sui shu confirms this and states that the Western Turks also sent high dignitaries to the annual ceremony. (The cave where this ritual took place was on Eastern Turkish territory.) Science has doubted that it was the same cave as the legend. The Chinese texts already used two different names for the caves ( hsüeh for the cave in the legend, k'u for the cave in which the annual ceremony took place).

Common to these sources is the conviction that the Turks (chin .: t'u-chüeh ) are a branch that has been separated from the Xiongnu . The following can be read in the Zhou shu :

Without a doubt, the Turks are a separate branch from the Xiongnu. They belong to the A-shih-na clan. They were an independent tribe and were completely annihilated by a neighboring country. There was a boy of ten. The soldiers were unable to kill him because of his young age. They chopped off his feet and threw him into a swamp. There lived a she-wolf who fed him meat. When the boy had grown up, he united with the she-wolf and made her pregnant.
The king (who earlier attacked the tribe) learned that the boy was still alive and sent someone to kill him. The messenger saw the she-wolf with the boy and wanted to kill them too. But the she-wolf fled to a mountain north of Kao-ch'ang .
In this mountain there was a cave and in the cave there was a plain with rich vegetation, which stretched for several hundred li and was surrounded on all sides by mountains. There the she-wolf sought refuge and later gave birth to ten cubs.
The ten boys grew up and took women from outside. Each of the descendants took a family name and called themselves A-shih-na.
The children and the children of the children multiplied. Gradually they formed several hundred families. A few generations later they came out of the cave and submitted to the ju-ju . They lived on the southern side of Chin-shan . They served the Ju-ju as blacksmiths.

The narrative in the Pei shih is similar to this narrative. There are differences or additions in the following points:

  • the ancestors of the Turks, who are also given in this version as a branch separated from the Xiongnu, lived west of the Western Sea ;
  • the boy's feet and arms are cut off;
  • the she-wolf's escape is so sudden that it is believed that she was transported by a ghost to the mountain northwest of Kao-ch'ang;
  • only one of the she-wolf's 10 boys is called A-shih-na;
  • in the cave, A-shih-na is appointed as the leader;
  • In the cave the Turks have a flag with a wolf's head, so as not to forget their descent from the she-wolf;
  • they are led out of the cave by someone whose name the Pei shih gives as A-hsien-shih;
  • the Juan-Juan are called Juan-Juan, while in the Zhou shu they are called Ju-ju.

This variant seems to reflect the actual dependence of the Turks on the Juan-Juan until their revolt in 552 .

Variant "The Lord of the Rain and the Wind"

This variant is also found in the Zhou shu , the records of the Zhou dynasty. In this version, too, the Turks descend from a wolf. There is a few overlaps with the most popular version.

The most important information in this version are:

The ancestors of the Turks come from the land of So, north of the Xiongnu. The leader of this tribe was called A-pang-pu and had 70 younger brothers. He was born of a wolf. The land of the Turks was soon destroyed due to the incompetence of A-pang-pu and his brothers. Ni-shih-tu (another son of the wolf) had the supernatural power to generate rain and wind. He married the daughters of the Spirit of Summer and the Spirit of Winter. One of the women gave birth to four sons, one of whom was transformed into a white swan and another established the state of Ch'i-ku between the A-fu and Chien rivers . The third ruled around the Ch'u-chih river, the fourth (the oldest) lived on the Chien-hsi-ch'u-chih-shih mountain. A part of the A-pang-pus tribe also lived on this mountain. They suffered greatly from the cold. The elder made a fire and kept her alive. Now they submitted to the elder, made him their ruler and called him Turk. His name was Na-tu-liu-shih.
Na-tu-liu-shih had ten wives, and the sons took their mother's nickname. One was called A-shih-na. Na-tu-liu died. The sons of the ten mothers now wanted to appoint a new leader. The one who could jump the highest on a tree should become the leader. A-shih-na could jump the highest. He became the new leader and was called A-hsien-shih.

Here, too, the historical core remains minimal. The So kingdom, the mountain Chien-hsi-ch'u-chih-shih and A-pang-pu, which is only mentioned in the Zhou shu , cannot be identified. A-hsien-shih is mentioned in this variant in Zhou shu and in the first variant in Pei shih . Na-tu-liu-shih, on the other hand, is a little better known. The records of the Tang Dynasty (618–930) - the T'ang-shu  - mention him as the great-grandfather of T'u-mens ( i.e. Bumins ), the founder of the Göktürk Empire .

A-fu is the Abakan river , Chien is the upper Yenisei , the Ch'u-chih probably corresponds to the central part of the Yenisei. The Ch'i-ku are the Kyrgyz , so that in this variant the Turks and the Kyrgyz are represented as brothers or half-brothers and both came from the same father Ni-shih-tu.

Variant "The spirit of the lake"

A third legend of the ancestry of the Turks is not found in official documents of Chinese dynasties this time, but in the Chinese collection of anecdotes Yu-yang tsa-tu , which was probably written in 860.

In this version, the ancestor of the Turks is not a wolf, but a sea spirit called She-mo-she-li, who lives west of the A-shih-te cave and unites with a white doe. Since the wolf is not involved in this version, it is of marginal interest here.

The names She-mo-she-li contained in this version as well as the name of a tribe A-erh are not known from any other source. She-li is probably the name of a prefecture built in 649 for the Turks, so that if dotted after She-mo She-mo-she-li could mean "the sea spirit of She-li". The name A-shih-te , on the other hand, is historically documented. The powerful minister of the second Gök-Turk empire Tonyuquq did not belong to the A-shih-na clan, but to the A-shih-te clan.

Others

Jean-Paul Roux writes in his contribution to the ancient Turkish mythology of the wolf:

The wolf is the animal that seems to play the most important role in ancient Turkish mythology. Probably the original legend of the ancestral wolf among the Hsiung-nu developed at an unknown but undoubtedly very early period. Shiratori writes that in pre-Christian times she appeared well educated among the Wu sun of the Išíq Qul and the Ili , who are Indo-European or Proto-Turks. Two stories introduce us to her. Both told of a she-wolf suckling a foundling and a raven circling over her.

See also

literature

  • Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis: Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. Indiana 1982, ISBN 0-933070-09-8 , pp. 223-257.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Wolfgang-Ekkehard Scharlipp: The early Turks in Central Asia . P. 18.
  2. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks . In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis (eds.): Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas . Pp. 237-240.
  3. ↑ Sören Stark: On Oq Bodun. The Western Türk Qaghanate and the Ashina Clan . In Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 15 (2006/2007), pp. 159–172.
  4. ^ Wolfgang-Ekkehard Scharlipp: The early Turks in Central Asia . Pp. 30, 33.
  5. ↑ a b Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks . In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis (eds.): Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 223 f.
  6. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks . In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis (eds.): Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 233.
  7. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks . In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis (eds.): Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 235.
  8. ↑ a b Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis: Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 224 ff.
  9. ↑ Jean-Paul Roux: The old Turkish mythology, tribal myths. In: Käthe Uray-Kőhalmi, Jean-Paul Roux, Pertev N. Boratav, Edith Vertes: Gods and Myths in Central Asia and Northern Eurasia. ISBN 3-12-909870-4 , p. 251.
  10. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis (eds.): Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 226.
  11. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis: Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 226 f.
  12. ↑ for details on the T'ang-shu see Édouard Chavannes: Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. St. Petersburg 1903, p. 47.
  13. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis: Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 227.
  14. ↑ Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis: Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 228.
  15. ↑ a b Denis Sinor: The legendary Origin of the Türks. In: Egle Victoria Zygas, Peter Voorheis: Folklorica: Festschrift for Felix J. Oinas. P. 230 f.
  16. ^ Jean-Paul Roux: The old Turkish mythology. The wolf. In: Käthe Uray-Kőhalmi, Jean-Paul Roux, Pertev N. Boratav, Edith Vertes: Gods and Myths in Central Asia and Northern Eurasia. ISBN 3-12-909870-4 , p. 204.