Мнение одного синолога
Ван Говэй (王國維, 1877-1927) писал , что цзубу - это искаженное дадань, т.е. татары. Но сейчас эта гипотеза получила очень обоснованную критику.
Одной из последних версий является отождествление цзубу и кереитов (племя Ван-хана):
http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/kereyids.html
Есть и такая версия:
QUOTE
The earliest mention of the Tatars (... called Dada 達靼, 达打, 達達, Dadan 達怛, 達旦, Tatan 塔壇, Tatar 塔塔兒) as Oghuz-Tatar is found on a stone inscription in archaic Turkish from the 8th cenutry. Their language belongs to the western branch of the Turkic languages (Altaic language family). The first mention of the Tatars in Chinese sources occurs around 840 when they migrated south to modern Mongolia where the tribes of the Huihu 回鶻 had lived. Their subtribes were called zubu 阻卜. During the 10th century they sent embassors to the Liao Dynasty 遼 court whose emperor enfeoffed the Tatar chieftain as king and installed military commisioners (jiedushi 節度使) and so-called bandit suppression commissioners (zhaotaoshi 招討使) in the area of the river Orkhon. The whole 11th century faced rebellions of the Tatars against the Chinese government.