The Khagans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz claim…

The Khagans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz claim descent from the Chinese general Li Ling, grandson of the famous Han Dynasty general Li Guang.

Li Ling had been captured by the Xiongnu and defected in the first century BCE, and since the Tang royal Li family also claims descent from Li Guang, the Kyrgyz Khagan is therefore recognized as a member of the Tang Imperial family.

Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had said to them that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners." (Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Brill's Inner Asian library. 13. Brill.)