突厥 初期史의 再構成 ― 建國 神話 硏究의 再檢討를 중심으로 ―

Abstract

In this article, how the currently known myth regarding the foundation of the Turks was written, and what are the characteristics inside the story and the composition of the text, will be examined, as these issues are important in understanding how the Turks were formed and how things unfolded during the early days of their history. By conducting examination over such details and systematically reexamination of previous studies, it is my intention to reconstruct the early history of Turks. The royal clan of Turks, Ashinashi(阿史那氏), had lived in the Boghd Mts. in northwest of Turfan as a forest peoples composed ten small groups, and moved to Jungaria, the south part of Altai Mts. Living in the Jungarian steppes, they had to subdued the empire of Rou-ran(柔然) and worked as a smith. On the beginning of 550, the leader of Ashina made a power and defeated the other Turks in the steppe and collapsed the empire of Rou-ran. And then, Ashina leader as a new qaghan of steppe had to invent their national foundation myth to legitimate his building of the new nation. Composing and enriching the contents of Turk myth, Ashina took the motif of wolf as the main icon of Turks. Examining the writings on the complicated Turk myth, I can know the wolf motif was not their own and which was come from the myth of Xiong-Nu(匈奴), Wu-sun(烏孫), and Gao-cha(高車). In addition, the emblem of Ashina clan was the goat which was found in the inscriptions of Kül tegin and Ongin, It showed that Ashinashi unified the steppe world and prolonged their legitimacy by the adaption of myth based on the wolf motif.