The Chinese Princess Ch’en-chin and her Sojourn among the Turks (580–593)
(45th Meeting of the PIAC, Budapest 2002)
After Princess Ch’en-chin of the Chinese Northern Chou dynasty (557–581 CE) was given in diplomatic marriage to She-t’u Khaghan (Ishbara), she was displeased to see the Northern Chou overthrown by the Sui (581/589–618). She successfully urged She-fu to attack the Sui in 581, but in 584 she was also instrumental in securing a peace agreement between her husband and Emperor Wen (r. 581–605) of the Sui. Later in her life she incurred the wrath of T’u-li Khaghan (Tölish) by making secretly communicating with the Western Türks, and he had her killed in her tent for this in 593. She had managed to offend both sides of the Sui-Turk alliance because she was ultimately loyal to neither; her heart was with her native dynasty, the defunct Northern Chou.