The
Shatuo (??) (also
Seyanto,
Xueyantuo,
Sha-t'o) were a
Turkic tribe that heavily influenced northern Chinese politics from the late ninth century through the tenth century. They are noted for founding three of the Five Dynasties in the
Five Dynasties and
Ten Kingdoms period.
In Chinese, the Shatuo means Sand Beast of Burden. These Turkic peoples originated outside of Tang dynasty's borders. They emerged from the Tujue tribe of the western Turkic peoples, of Tiele descent, and after a split among the tribe in the seventh century, the remaining Tujue Turks (see Chiglis) began referring to themselves as Shatuo or the Beast of Burden Turks. Some argue that the early Chinese sources identify this people with the ethnonym Seyanto, quoting them as one of the nomadic Turkic tribes among the non-indigenous Turkic descendants of the Xiongnu. Others even claim they emerged as part of the Üç-Oguz confederation of Oghuz Turks [1].
To the Tang Dynasty, the Shatuo Turks served a purpose. Some sources point that the ethnic Turks were a part of Tang dynasty's Chinese foreign policy to control and manage other 'border' peoples identified as a threat. The Tang Chinese refer to such peoples as Western Oriental barbarians. Some argue that a divide and conquer policy was applied against those identified as a threat, specifically, the Tibetans and other Turkic tribes in their colonies and territories in Midwestern Asia. The Tang Chinese continued this long policy and in other epochs this became an institutionalised tradition. The Shatuo may have even provided service to their host country in military aspect such as filling in the number of military conscripts and national defense assistance to the Tang Empire in the 630s against Turkic Tartars. When emperor Taizong remove from the Midwestern of Asia the threats of the Göktürks around 630, the Shatuo/Seyantos were allowed to gain some recognition and even their status. They built a vast state spanning from the Altai to the Gobi desert. In a few years they proved too handful to their hosts, and were quickly and ruthlessly crushed as in 641, under their Zhenzhu Khan, they threatened to attack other Chinese-aligned Turk or ethnic tribes. Five years later their short-lived claim was all but destroyed by a Tang-Uyghur (Turkic) alliance; the remnants of the Shatuo Turks fled west to Dzungaria and the Semirechye area.
At the beginning of the 8th century, they were completely subject to the Tang China (Empire). The Shatuo provided significant aid to Emperor Suzong of Tang alongside the Huihe (Uyghurs) during the Anshi Rebellion in the 750s. Consequently their chieftain Zhuye Guduozhi was conferred the title of tejin (governor) and xiaowei shang-jiangjun (colonel high general). the Tang China and Empire compounded its predicament under great threat from resident Turkic tribes by not preventing the establishment of Uyghur Empire, who claimed to be rising to great power.
