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Confucius in Yenisei inscriptions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2025
Abstract
This article presents additional data to better understand the history of intercultural communication between the Yenisei people and the Han Chinese. Although the mysterious history and isolated culture of the ancient Kirghiz (Chinese Xiajiasi 黠戛斯) tribes at the Yenisei River Basin are little known to the world, ancient Chinese books and the artefacts with Chinese characters, unearthed in the Yenisei region, present a vivid picture of the Yenisei people’s foreign exchange history. This article approaches the Yenisei–Chinese cultural interaction from the perspective of the Yenisei Turk-Runic language and the date of the E77 inscription. The research material for this study is the E77 Yenisei inscription that is engraved on a Tang Dynasty bronze mirror called the Sanlejing 三樂鏡 (Lobed Mirror of Three Delights). The authors’ interpretations of the local Runic language on the E77 Yenisei inscription reveal Yenisei people’s knowledge about the Chinese iconic figure of Confucius, which blends into the Tibetan Bon religion as Kong tse or Kong tshe. Therefore, this article confirms the culture contact between the Yenisei and Han Chinese people during the Tang Dynasty.
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References
1 See mainly P. B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East (Wiesbaden, 1992), pp. 176–183; M. R. Drompp, ‘The Yenisei Kyrgyz from early times to the Mongol conquest’, in The Turks 1: Early Ages, (eds.) Hasan Celâl Güzel et al. (Ankara, 2002), pp. 480–488; M. R. Drompp, ‘Breaking the Orkhon tradition: Kirghiz adherence to the Yenisei region after A. D. 840ʹ, Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3 (1999), pp. 390–403; M. R. Drompp, ‘Five notes on the Yenisei Kirghiz in the Early Middle Ages’, in Language, Society, and Religion in the World of the Turks: Festschrift for Larry Clark at Seventy-Five, (ed.) Zsuzsanna Gulácsi (Turnhout, 2018), pp. 140–163.
2 Drompp, ‘Five notes on the Yenisei Kirghiz’, pp. 140–147; for correspondence of the government of Tang Dynasty to the Khaghan of Kirghiz, see M. R. Drompp, The Writings of Li Te-Yu as Sources for the History of T’ang Inner Asian Relations (Ann Arbor, 1986), pp. 275–296, 301–309, 319–326.
3 There are too many related studies to list here; see mainly Masumoto Tetsu 枡本哲, ‘Minami siberia abakan kinkō hakken no gyokusakuhen ni tsuite’ 南シベリアアバカン近郊発見の玉冊片について [On jade book fragments found near Abakan, South Siberia], in Ōsakafu maisō bunkazai kyōkai kenkyū kiyō: Setsuritsu jyū syūnen kinen ronsyū 大阪府埋葬文化財協会研究紀要—设立 10 周年記念論集— [Osaka Prefectural Burial Culture Heritage Association Research Minutes: Festschrift for Tenth Anniversary], (ed.) Ōsakafu maisō bunkazai kyōkai 大阪府埋葬文化財協会 (Osaka, 1995), vol. 3, pp. 343–362; Tetsu Masumoto 枡本哲 [Tэцy Macyмoтo], ‘O fragmentah mramornyh tablichk s ieroglifami, naidennyh v okrestnostyah goroda Abakana v Yuzhnoi Sibiri’, О фрагментах мраморных табличек с иероглифами, найденных в окрестностях города Абакана в Южной Сибири [Fragments of a marble inscription with hieroglyphics found near the Abakan in southern Siberia], in antropologiya i etnografiya Sibiri(Sbornik posvyascennyi pamyati antropologa A. R. Kima) антропология и этнография Сибири(Сборник посвященный памяти антрополога A. P. Kимa) [Siberian Anthropology and Ethnography (Anthropologist A.P. Kima Memorial Anthology)], (ed.) Archaeology Apxeoлoгия (Barnaul, 1996), pp. 207–220; Sun Hao 孫昊, ‘Zongfan yuce: jiu shiji Tang yu Xiajiasi jiaotong de yige cemian’ 宗蕃玉冊: 9 世紀唐與黠戛斯交通的一個側面 [The jade book of Zongfan: an aspect of the ninth century traffic between Tang and Kirghiz], in Chunshan Kewang-Lishi Kaogu Qingnian Lunji 春山可望—歷史考古青年論集 [The Spring Mountains Can Be Expected: The Conference Proceeding of Historical Archaeology Young People], (ed.) Zhao Junjie趙俊杰 (Shanghai, 2021), vol. 3, pp. 185–198.
4 Related introduction, according to D. D. Vasilyev Д. Д. Васильев, Korpus tyurkskih runichskih pamyatnikov basseina Eniseya Корпус тюркских рунических памятников бассейна Енисея [Compilation of Turkic Rune Inscriptions in the Yenisei River Basin] (Leningrad, 1983), p. 38; TURK BITIG of Kazakhstan, https://bitig.kz/?mod=1&tid=2&oid=63&lang=e (accessed 18 May 2023); E. I. Lubo-Lesnichenko Е. И. Лубо-Лесниченко, Privoznye zerkala Minusinskoi kotloviny Привозные зеркала Минусинской котловины [Exotic Mirrors Found in the Minusinsk Basin] (Moscow, 1975), pp. 56–57.
5 See a legend of Bai Yudong 白玉冬, Laoshan Jianshui: luniwen Yenisai beiming yizhu 牢山劍水: 魯尼文葉尼塞碑銘譯註 [The Lao-Mountain and the Jian-River: The Runic Inscriptions of Yenisei in a New Translation and Commentary] (Shanghai, 2021), pp. 2–4.
6 Bai Yudong 白玉冬 and Che Juanjuan 車娟娟, ‘Sogdian elements in Yenisei inscriptions’, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 4 (2022), pp. 593–607; Che Juanjuan车娟娟, ‘Tangdai xiajiasi hanguo shi yanjiu’ 唐代黠戛斯汗國史研究——以葉尼塞碑銘為核心 [A Study on the History of the Kirghiz Khanate in the Tang Dynasty—Centring on Yenisei Inscriptions] (unpublished PhD dissertation, Lanzhou University, 2023).
7 See J. R. Aspelin, Inscriptions de l’Iénissei, Récueillies et publiées par la Société Finlandaise d’Archeologie (Helsingfors, 1889), Fig. XXXIX.
8 W. Radloff, ‘Inschriften auf verschiedenen aus Metall gefertigten Altarthümern’, Die alttürkischen Inscriften der Mongolei (St. Petersburg, 1895), vol. 3, p. 346.
9 H. N. Orkun, ‘Iki ayna yaziti’ [Two mirror inscriptions], Eski Türk yazîtlari [Old Turkic Inscriptions] (Istanbul, 1938), vol. 3, p. 171.
10 Vasilyev, Korpus tyurkskih runichskih pamyatnikov basseina Eniseya, pp. 38, 73, 115.
11 E. Aydin et al., Yenisey-Kɪrgɪzistan Yazɪtlarɪ ve Irk Bitig [Yenisei, Kirghizistan Inscriptions and the Irk Bitig] (Ankara, 2013), pp. 165–166.
12 Due to the organisation of this article, the Runic recording has been omitted and replaced by transliteration.
13 https://bitig.kz/?mod=1&tid=2&oid=63&lang=e (accessed 18 May 2023).
14 For täng, see G. Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish (Oxford, 1972), p. 511; For tängäš-, see ibid, p. 526.
15 See mainly T. Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (Bloomington, 1968), pp. 253, 290; Geng Shimin 耿世民, Gudai Tujuewen Beiming Yanjiu 古代突厥文碑銘研究 [Study on Ancient Turkic Inscriptions] (Beijing, 2005), p. 107. The recording is based on the picture of the topographs of the Bilge Toñukuk inscription published by the Osaka University General Academic Museum, and the picture was obtained from the authors’ field trip on 8 August 2018. The translation is based on the authors’ understanding, including the difficult word sir.
16 For közgü, see Clauson, Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, p. 761.
17 For a related introduction, see mainly L. Bazin 巴赞, Tujue Lifa Yanjiu 突厥曆法研究 [Study on the Ancient Calendar], (trans.) Geng Sheng 耿昇 (Beijing, 1997), p. 131; Bai Yudong, Laoshan Jianshui, p. 164.
18 B. Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa: Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 29 (Stockholm, 1957), pp. 301–302, 254.
19 See E. G. Pulleyblank, Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin (Vancouver, 1991), pp. 108, 414.
20 For qunčuy, see Clauson, Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth Century Turkish, p. 635.
21 Lines 3–4 of the 5th Zan; see Masahiro Shōgaito (ed.), ‘The Berlin Chinese Text U 5335 written in Uyghur script: a reconstruction of the inherited Uyghur pronunciation of Chinese’, Berliner Turfantexte 34 (2015), pp. 71–72, the Uyghur text lines 18–19.
22 Cf. Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa, pp. 301–302, 254; B. Karlgren 高本漢, Hanwen Dian 漢文典 [Grammata Serica, Script and Phonetics in Chinese and Sino-Japanese], (trans.) Pan Wuyun 潘悟雲 (Shanghai, 1997), pp. 520, 430.
23 See Pulleyblank, Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation, pp. 174, 420.
24 For a related introduction, see mainly R. A. Stein, ‘Tibetica Antiqua VI: Maximes confucianistes dans deux manuscrits de Touenhouang’, Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 79.1 (1992), pp. 9–17; Zeng Deming 曾德明and Lin Chunyu 林純瑜, ‘Xizang wenhua zhong de Kongzi xingxiang’ 西藏文化中的孔子形象 [The image of Confucius in Tibetan culture], Taiwan Dongya Wenhua Yanjiu Xuekan 臺灣東亞文明研究學刊 4.2 (2007), pp. 172–174.
25 For üzük ∼ üzök, see J. Wilkens, Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen: Altuigurisch–Deutsch–Türkish (Göttingen, 2021), p. 834.
26 For özük-, see R. Dankoff (ed. and trans.), Compendium of the Turkic Dialects, Part II (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 111.
27 Ibid.
28 For üžük, see Wilkens, Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen, p. 835; for užik, see ibid, p. 813.
29 W. Bang and A. von Gabain, ‘Aus buddhistischen Schriften’, in Türkische Turfan-Texte Ⅴ, Sitzungsberichte der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, W. Bang and A. von Gabain (eds.) (Berlin, 1931), pp. 324–332.
30 Ibid, pp. 324, 325.
31 Ibid, p. 332, note A5, už-ak.
32 W. B. Henning, Ein manichäisches Bet- und Beichtbuch, Abhandlungender Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1937), p. 65, note 527.
33 Ibid, p. 65, note 527.
34 S. Tezcan, Das uigurische Insadi-Sūtra, Berliner Turfantexte (Berlin, 1974), p. 26, line 37.
35 Ibid.
36 Bai Yudong and Che Juanjuan, ‘Sogdian elements in Yenisei inscriptions’, pp. 593–607.
37 Zeng Deming and Lin Chunyu, ‘Xizang wenhua zhong de Kongzi xingxiang’, pp. 169–207.
38 ’phrul rgyal is the modifier of Kong tse, the meaning of rgyal is uncertain, and the meaning of ’phrul is ‘with magical powers’ or ‘saint’; see ibid, pp. 173–178.
39 See ibid, pp. 193–198.
40 Yang Guirong 楊桂榮, ‘Guancang tongjing xianji (5)’ 館藏銅鏡選輯 (五)[Selection and compilation of Bronze Mirrors in the Collection (5)], Zhongguo Lishi Bowuguan Guankan 中國歷史博物館館刊 1(1994), pp. 117–118; S. E. Cahill, ‘The Moon stopping in the void: Daoism and the literati ideal in Mirrors of the Tang Dynasty’, Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 9 (2005), pp. 33–34.
41 L. A. Evtyuhova Л. А. Евтюхова, Arheologicheskie pamyatniki Eniseiskih kyrgyzov Археологические памятники Енисейских кыргызов [Archaeological Sites of Yenisei Kyrgyz People] (Аbakan,1948), pp. 107, 108, рlate 197; E. R. Rygdylon Э. Р. Рыгдылон, ‘Kitaiskie znaki i nadpisi na arheologicheskih predmetah s Eniseya’, Китайские знаки и надписи на археологических предметах с Енисея [Chinese characters and Chinese inscriptions on cultural relics unearthed by Yenisei], Epigrafika Vactoka Эпиграфика Востока [Oriental Goldstone] 5 (1951), рlate 7.
42 Lubo-Lesnichenko, Privoznye zerkala Minusinskoi kotloviny, pp. 56–57, рlate 71.
43 Drompp, Writings of Li Te-Yu, pp. 275–296, 301–09, 319–326; Drompp, ‘Five notes on the Yenisei Kirghiz’, pp. 140–147.
44 Bai Yudong 白玉冬, ‘Jyū seiki kara jyūichi seiki ni okeru kyūsei tataru koku 10ʹ 世紀から11世紀における九姓タタル国 [The nomadic kingdom of nine Tatars from the tenth to the eleventh century], Tōyō gakuhō 東洋学報 93.1 (2011), pp. 1–27; Bai Yudong 白玉冬, Jiuxing Dada youmu wangguoshi yanjiu (8-11shiji) 九姓達靼遊牧王國史研究 (8–11世纪) [Study on the History of Nomadic Kingdom of Nine Tatars (from the Eighth to the Eleventh Century)] (Beijing, 2017), pp. 83–84.
45 Golden, Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples, pp. 180–181; Drompp, ‘Yenisei Kyrgyz’, pp. 482–483; Drompp, ‘Five notes on the Yenisei Kirghiz’, pp. 145–146.
46 Drompp, ‘Yenisei Kyrgyz’, p. 483.
47 Drompp, ‘Five notes on the Yenisei Kirghiz’, p. 149; Drompp, Writings of Li Te-Yu, pp. 305–306; for historical data, see Li Deyu’s ‘Yu Xiajiasi Kehan shu’ 與黠戛斯可汗書 [Letter to Kirghiz khan], written in the summer of the fourth year of Huichang 會昌 (844); quoted from Fu Xuancong 傅璇琮 and Zhou Jianguo 周建國 (eds. and comm.), Li Deyu Wenji Jiaojian 李徳裕文集校笺 [The Proofreading and Commentary of the Corpus of Li Deyu] (Beijing, 2018), pp. 100–102.
48 Zizhi Tongjian 資治通鑒 [Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance] (Beijing, 1956), 250, p. 8107; for personal names Alp Inančï and Ičränki, see V. V. Tishin В. В. Тишин, ‘Lichnaya onomastika eniseiskih kyrkyzov IX v. (po kitaiskim istochnikam i pamyatnikam drevnetyurkskoi runicheskoi pismennosti eniseiskogo basseina)’, Личная ономастика енисейских кыркызов IX в. (по китайским источникам и памятникам древнетюркской рунической письменности енисейского бассейна) [Personal onomastics of the Yenisei Qïrqïz of the 9th Century A.D. (based on Chinese sources and Old Turkic Runic writing monuments of the Yenisei River Basin)], Vaprosy onomastiki Вопросы ономастики [The Problem of Onomastics] 15.3 (2018), pp. 180–181.
49 Zizhi Tongjian, p. 8117.
50 For the most up-to-date and detailed research on the artefact, see Sun Hao, ‘Zongfan yuce’, pp. 185–198.
51 Masumoto Tetsu, ‘Minami siberia abakan kinkō hakken no gyokusakuhen ni tsuite’, pp. 347–348, 359.
52 V. YA. Butanaev and YU. S. Hudyakov B. Я. Бyтaнaeв и Ю. C. Xyдяков, Istoriya eniseiskih kyrgyzov, Иcтopия eниceйckиx кыpгызoв [History of the Yenisei Kyrgyz People] (Abakan, 2000), p. 90; Liu Fengzhu 劉鳳翥 ‘Eguo Abakan Bowuguan Suocun De Tangdai Yuce Canjian’ 俄國阿巴坎博物館所存的唐代玉册殘簡 [Remains of a jade book from the Tang Dynasty in the Abakan Museum in Russia], in Sui Tang Liao Song Jin Yuan shi luncong 隋唐遼宋金元史論叢 [Status and Features of the History of Sui, Tang, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasty], (ed.) Huang Zhengjian 黃正建 (Beijing, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 11–12; Wang Jie 王洁, ‘Tang xiantong nianjian shoufeng Xiajiasi kao’ 唐咸通年間授封黠戛斯考 [Study on the Kirghiz enthroned by Tang during the Xianfeng period], Neimenggu Shehui Kexue 內蒙古社會科學 2(2014), pp. 57–59; Bai Yudong, Jiuxing Dada Youmu Wangguoshi Yanjiu, p. 217; Sun Hao, ‘Zongfan yuce’, pp. 185–189.
53 Bai Yudong 白玉冬, ‘Shi Zhi Shiyi Shiji Mobei Youmu Zhengquan De Chuxian-Yenisai Beiming Jilu De Jiuxing Dada Wangguo’ 十至十一世紀漠北游牧政權的出現—葉尼塞碑銘記錄的九姓達靼王國 [The emergence of nomadic regimes in the desert north in the 10th and 11th centuries-the kingdom of nine Tatars as recorded in Yenisei inscriptions], Minzu Yanjiu 民族研究 1 (2013), p. 77; Bai Yudong, Laoshan Jianshui, p. 39. In the latter, all punctuation marks were lost in the original transcription and are hereby added.
54 Vasilyev, Korpus tyurkskih runichskih pamyatnikov basseina Eniseya, pp. 20, 61, 92.
55 D. D. Vasilyev, ‘New finds of Old Turkic inscriptions in Southern Siberia’, in Rulers from the Steppe: State Formation on the Eurasian Periphery, (eds.) G. Seaman and D. Marks (Los Angeles, 1989), p. 124.
56 For research on the date, see Bai Yudong, ‘Shi Zhi Shiyi Shiji Mobei Youmu Zhengquan De Chuxian-Yenisai Beiming Jilu De Jiuxing Dada Wangguo’, pp. 79–80.
57 Li Jinxiu 李錦绣, ‘Tang yu xiajiasi de juanma maoyi’ 唐與黠戛斯的絹馬貿易 [The trade in silk and horses of Kirghiz and Tang], Jinyang Xuekan 晉陽學刊 1 (2022), pp. 72–80.