A Study on the Chronology of Old Turkic Inscriptions* research-article Hao Chen Central Asiatic Journal, Jahrgang 61 (2018), Ausgabe 2, Seite 313 - 322 With a correct understanding of the usage of the calendar and the way of calculating age, we are able to establish a reliable chronology of the Bilge Kağan and Kül Tégin Old Turkic inscriptions. Through a comparative study of the Old Turkic inscriptions and the relevant Chinese sources, we can conclude that the two kinds of chronological data can only tally with each other in a broad sense. The two exceptions are the battle against General Çaça and the battle in Beş Balık, by which there is one-year-difference between the two kinds of sources. As to the Beş Balık Battle, if we take two crucial factors into consideration, then the one-year-difference will disappear. The first crucial factor is the asynchronous character of mediaeval society. For an event that had happened in the land of Türk, the date recorded in the Turkic inscriptions was usually two months earlier than the date recorded in the Chinese sources, because it took supposedly around two months for the envoys to bring the news from Ötüken to the Tang court. The second crucial factor is that the Türk army might set off in late autumn or winter, as they wanted to take advantage of the frozen Yellow River to cross the border. However, as far as the battle against General Çaça is concerned, even if we take the above two factors into consideration, we can't properly explain the one-year-difference between two different kinds of sources. We are inclined to believe that Bilge Kağan's memory about the events that had happened in the early years of his life became blurred; meanwhile we don't exclude the possibility that the Chinese annalists could have made a mistake. The single exception does not hurt the reliability of our reconstructed chronology.
