Sogdians in China: A Short History and Some New Discoveries

Étienne de la Vaissière

École pratique des hautes études Sciences historiques et philologiques, Paris

The Sogdians were the inhabitants of can still be found in many recent books chants and men of low origins. They fertile valleys surrounded by deserts, or articles, makes wish to exchange their goods and con- the most important of which was the the villain of the story. Due to the di- duct trade, under the pretext of pre- Zeravshan valley, in today’s Uzbekistan saster which befell Sogdiana during his senting gifts” [Han shu, Hulsewé 1979, and Tajikistan. This Iranian-speaking campaigns there in 329-328 BCE, the p. 109]. The Sogdians were doing ex- people had a fifteen-centuries-long his- Sogdians would have been forced to actly the same thing at the same time, torical identity between the sixth cen- emigrate as far east as China. The cre- and the first testimonies, in 29 and 11 tury BCE and the tenth century CE ation of the Sogdian trading network BCE, on a Sogdian in China might also when it vanished in the Muslim, Per- between and China thus be found in the Han shu: “If in view of sian-speaking world. Although the was a by-product of the Greek conquest these considerations, we ask why Sogdians constructed such famous of the Achaemenid Empire. Needless [] sends his sons to attend [at towns as Samarkand and Bukhara, to say, there is nothing in the available the Han court], [we find] that, desir- they are quite unknown. Only special- sources to support such idea, which ing to trade, they use a pretence ists on the Silk Road know that they survived only because of its classical couched in fine verbiage” [Han shu, were among the main go-betweens of flavor and its familiar ring to the Hulsewé 1979, p. 128]. Kangju, a no- the exchanges in the steppe, in Cen- historian’s ears. In fact the Chinese, madic state, the center of which was tral Asia, and in China during the first Yuezhi, Bactrians, Indians and in what is now the southern part of the millennium CE, and especially between Sogdians who created the historical Silk Tashkent oasis, included Sogdiana dur- the fifth and the eighth centuries CE. Road did not need Greek help. Trade is ing the first century BCE. This desire During this period, the “inland silk road” yet another item that should be re- to trade was a Sogdian one. and the “Sogdian trading network” are moved (after irrigation, town-planning almost synonymous. The contemporary and state-formation) from the long list It is difficult to understand the next step Sogdian, Chinese, Arabic, Byzantine, of supposed Greek influences in the his- in the establishment of Sogdian com- and Armenian sources describe the tory of Central Asia. The list of real in- munities in China. It seems that some Sogdians as the great traders of Inner fluences is already full enough with of the ambassadors and their families Asia. They managed to sell their prod- coinage, iconography and the alpha- settled in China, especially in . ucts - musk, slaves, silverware, silk and bet (in Bactria)! Some late genealogies of Sogdian fami- many other goods - to all the surround- lies in China seem at least to imply such ing peoples. A Greek text describes It has long been known that Chinese a reconstruction. We know on a firm their trading embassies to Byzantium, diplomacy towards the nomads in the textual basis that as early as 227 CE, some caravaneers’ graffiti prove that second century BCE was instrumental in Liangzhou (Gansu), when a conquer- they were in India, Turkish vocabulary in creating in Central Asia and further ing army was approaching from the is a testimony to their cultural and eco- west, in Parthia, a market for Han prod- South, “The various kings in Liangzhou nomic power in the Turkish steppe... ucts, especially silk. Chinese embas- dispatched twenty men including Zhi sies traveled with thousands of bolts Fu and Kang Zhi, the ennobled leaders But their main market was always of silk but at very irregular intervals. of the Yuezhi and Kangju Hu, to re- China. The Chinese branch of their net- The merchants in northwestern India ceive the military commander, and work is by far the best known, and in and eastern Iran were quick to appre- when the large army advanced north China the number of new discoveries ciate the potential for this exchange they competed to be the first to re- on the Sogdians is quickly growing. and followed the steps of the Chinese ceive us” [Sanguo zhi, 4, p. 895]. The ambassadors back to China. As Du Qin, Hu from Kangju are the Sogdians, while When did the first Sogdian arrive in a Chinese statesman, put it in 25 BCE, the Yuezhi are the traders from Bactria China to trade? Various answers have “There are no members of the royal and Gandhara, the Kushan Empire cre- been given to this quite simple ques- family or noblemen among those who ated by the Yuezhi tribes. The leaders tion, but one of the most popular, which bring the gifts. The latter are all mer- of the biggest trading communities in

23 Gansu were sent to the invading army, generation moved into the main Chi- 669), was translator in the Imperial and the Sogdians were already on a nese towns, and some Sogdians man- Secretariat of the Tang. Another son, par with the greatest merchants of An- aged to reach the court. For instance, Shi Daoluo (d. 658) was a soldier. A tiquity, the Kushan ones. the biography of An Tugen in the Bei grandson, Shi Tiebang (d. 666), was shi (chap. 92 p. 3047) describes how in charge of an army horse-breeding The next step in the history of the An Tugen’s great grandfather came farm near Guyuan. Shi Daode (d. 678), Sogdians in China is provided by the from Anxi (western Sogdiana) to the from another branch of the Shi clan, “Sogdian Ancient Letters.” These let- Wei and established himself in Jiuquan and his uncle, Shi Suoyan, who is bur- ters were left in the ruins of a Han (the western end of Gansu). Later on, ied in same graveyard, were also mem- watchtower, 90 kilometers west of An Tugen rose from the position of mer- bers of the military and officialdom. We Dunhuang in 313. Sir Aurel Stein dis- chant to Grand Minister of the North- know also by name many other mem- covered them there in 1907. They were ern Qi in the middle of the sixth cen- bers of the family. Some of these sent by some Sogdian traders from tury. names are simply transcriptions of Gansu to the West. One of them was Sogdian names: Shewu is the honor- sent from Gansu to Samarkand and de- New discoveries from Guyuan in the ific personal name, but the public name scribed the political upheavals in North- Chinese province of (Southern was Pantuo. Shewu was pronounced ern China. The Xiongnu, who were then Ordos) provide a very good example Jia-mut, and Pantuo banda; together sacking the main towns there, were of Sogdian families in China who did they provide Jimatvande, a well-known called for the first time in an Indo-Eu- not achieve such high distinction. Six Sogdian name, “servant of Demeter”, ropean language by the name which graves of one Sogdian family have been which was only divided in two halves would be theirs in Europe a century excavated there [Luo Feng, 1996 and for the need of the interpretatio sinica. later: the Xwn, Huns. The letter de- 2001]. According to its name, the fam- The first names of the next generation scribed also the ruin of the Sogdian ily should have originated from the sound Chinese, except in the elder trading network in these towns: “The Sogdian town of Kesh (Shahr-i Sabz, branch: Shi Hedan and his son Shi last emperor, so they say, fled from in Uzbekistan), and the texts of the Huluo have first names that seem to because of the famine and fire funerary epitaphs describe indeed how be transcriptions. After so many gen- was set to his palace and to the city, the family and the palace was burnt and the city migrated [destroyed]. Luoyang is no more, is from the no more! [...] And, sirs, if I were to western write to you about how China has fared, countries. it would be beyond grief: there is no The archaeo- profit for you to gain from it [...] [in] logical con- Luoyang... the Indians and the tent of these Sogdians there had all died of starva- looted tombs tion” [Sims-Williams, 2001, p. 49]. But confirms the same text describes a Sogdian net- these west- work well established in Gansu which ern links, as was still there a century later. A Chi- some Byzan- nese text explains how “Merchants of tine and that country [Sogdiana] used to come Sasanian in great number to the district Liang coins, a seal [the present Wuwei in Gansu] to trade. stone in- When Guzang [i.e. Wuwei] was con- scribed in quered [by the Wei in 439] all of them Pahlavi, and were captured. In the beginning of the a Zoroastrian reign of Gaozong [452-465] the king symbol were [of Sogdiana] sent embassies to ask found there. for their ransom” [Wei shu, Enoki 1955, The great Ory CNRS/F. © Copyright p. 44]. grandfather, The Sogdian Sabao and ambassador An Jia negotiating with a Miaoni, and Qaghan The fifth and sixth centuries were cer- the grandfa- tainly the high days of Sogdian emi- ther, Boboni, “served their country in erations in China, some of the mem- gration to China. After the disruption the capacity of Sabao.” The father, bers of the families still married in the of the Inner China network in the fourth Renchou, “idled away his life, accom- Sogdian milieu, among them Shi century, a new network of Sogdian plishing nothing in his official career.” Hedan, great-great-grandson of Shi communities was created then. Many A member of the fourth generation, Shi Miaoni, who married a Kang (the Chi- Sui and Tang texts or funerary epitaphs Shewu (d. 610), was the great man of nese of the natives of of Sogdian families describe how the the family, and through him the family Samarkand), and Shi Suoyan, who great grandfather came to China dur- became integrated into Chinese soci- married an An (from Bukhara). ing the Wei as Sabao, i.e. chief ety. He was a military officer of the Sui, caravaneer. These families established and his grave and funerary epitaph are These data are fascinating, because themselves first in Gansu, the next Chinese. His elder son, Shi Hedan (d. with the Shi family we can follow the

24 The main (western) wall of the Afrasiab painting in Samarkand: Chinese, Korean, and Copyright © CNRS/F. Ory Iranian ambassadors. destiny of a specific Sogdian family in installed in China. Most of the main clearly displayed: two priests half-bird, China and see how it became inte- towns of Northern China had in the half-human wearing the traditional grated first in the Sogdian milieu and sixth and seventh centuries their padam (a piece of cloth in front of the then how it became sinicized in the Chi- Sogdian community headed by a mouth) and Mithra and his sacrificial nese administration. So far we lack Sabao, who received a mandarinal rank horse facing each other on each side other examples, due mainly to the nov- in the offical hierarchy, at least from of the entry [Marshak 2002, and Riboud elty of the interest towards the Sogdian the to the Tang. These 2003]. families in Chinese archaeology. Some nouveaux riches had some wealthy other Sogdian graveyards have been funerary beds carved for them, where The trade links with Central Asia pro- found but badly published [See de la they displayed both their Sogdian cul- vided the communities from the fifth Vaissière and Trombert 2004, forth- ture and their integration into Chinese to the eighth centuries with waves of coming, for other examples from tex- society, in a way the iconographic coun- new immigrants. One specific example tual sources]. terpart of the epitaphs of the Shi fam- of these links is from a discovery on ily. These funerary beds were an old the main stage of the route, Turfan, in The ancestors of Shi Shewu bore a title, Chinese tradition well suited for Zoro- Xinjiang. Many Chinese documents Sabao, which is very interesting for the astrian purposes because it isolated the were used there to cut paper clothing history of the Sogdians in China. It body from earth and water. Some of for the dead who were buried in the proves that the Sogdian communities them have been known for a long time; Astana cemetery. Among them is a list in China were deeply rooted in the cara- for example, the Anyang (Ye) one, of taxes paid on caravan trade in the van trade. This title is a transcription which shows a Sabao in his garden re- Gaochang kingdom (Turfan) in the of the Sogdian word sartapao, itself a ceiving the members of his community. 620s. The text is not complete but gives Sogdian transcription of the Indian Others have been found recently and a fairly good idea of the identity of the sârthavâha, chief-caravaneer, through have found their way into Chinese or main traders in Turfan: out of 35 com- a Bactrian intermediary [Sims-Will- foreign museums. mercial operations in this text, 29 in- iams, 1996]. In India the sârthavâha volved a Sogdian trader. In 13 in- was not only the chief-caravaneer but One of the most interesting was dis- stances both the seller and the buyer also the head of the traders’ guild. In covered two years ago near by were Sogdians. China the title was imported first as a team of the Archaeological early as the second century CE under Institute. The tomb of Yu Hong, who In Inner China, the seventh century the form sabo directly from India, for died in 593 at age 58, contained a saw an evolution in the official posi- example in Buddhist texts which de- funerary bed in the shape of a Chinese tion of the Sogdian communities. It scribed the Buddha as a chief- house, adorned by 53 carved panels of seems that the Tang transformed quite caravaneer, and then a second time marble, originally painted and gilded. independent and autonomous Sogdian from the Sogdian form with the pre- Yu Hong had traveled extensively, act- communities loosely integrated in the cise administrative meaning “head of ing as an ambassador to the Ruanruan, mandarinal hierarchy into more con- the local Sogdian community.” The in Persia and Bactria or Gandhara trolled “submitted counties” without “river of the sabao” in Chinese geog- (Yuezhi), and to the Tuyuhun tribes Sogdian hierarchy. The Sabaos disap- raphy is the Zeravshan, which flows in near lake . Then he served the peared from the epigraphical and tex- Samarkand and Bukhara. So the heads Northern Qi and Zhou, and the Sui. He tual sources after the middle of the sev- of the Sogdian communities in China became Sabao in 580 and then nomi- enth century. But this period, up to the bore the titles of “chief caravaneer,” and nal governor of a town. We know this middle of the eighth century, was cer- it is on this ambiguity that Shi Shewu because the funerary epitaphs of Yu tainly the climax of Iranian influence played when he wrote that his ances- Hong and his wife were discovered in on Chinese civilization. If the commu- tors “served their country in the ca- the tomb. And the iconography fits very nities were suppressed, the families pacity of Sabao.” For a Chinese ear, well the geography of the texts: we see and individuals who were before in- they were officials, while for a Sogdian on the panels Yu Hong hunting with clined to stay within the Sogdian com- one, they were simply heads of cara- nomads on horses, but also hunting on munities now were integrated more van! We can see in the textual and an Indian elephant or banqueting with thoroughly into Chinese society. We can epigraphical sources many such Sabao his wife. Zoroastrian symbols are see people with typical Sogdian sur-

25 names, such as Kang, getting involved there in the markets, became a sol- end of one millennium of a Sogdian in all the fields of Tang social life. dier and climbed from the rank and presence in China. file to the top of the army. His rebel- Obviously many of them were mer- lion in 755 nearly destroyed the Tang chants: around the main markets of dynasty and put an end to one of About the Author the capitals, Chang’an and Luoyang, China’s Golden Ages. The rebellion Sogdian temples, Sogdian taverns, and was quelled only in 763 with the help Étienne de la Vaissière is Assistant Pro- Sogdian shops flourished. They sold to of the Uighur nomads. fessor at the Ecole pratique des hautes the Tang elite the Western goods that études, in Paris, where he teaches Me- were then à la mode [Schafer 1963]. The rebellion has been described as if dieval History of Central Asia. His dis- Many young nobles or drunken poets it was only a military coup by autono- sertation on the Sogdian trade, a com- celebrated the charms of the Sogdian mous and very powerful armies prehensive analysis of the trading net- girls, and the most famous of them, [Pulleyblank, 1955]. The Sogdian iden- work from its creation to its end based Bo, wrote: tity of the rebels has never been in- on all the available sources, archaeo- vestigated as such. Yet many texts de- logical and textual, has been published That Western hour with features like a scribed it as a Sogdian rebellion and (see below; it can be ordered on flower described how many Sogdian traders www.deboccard.com). He is currently She stands by the wine-warmer, and supported . Furthermore, working on Central Asian medieval so- laughs with the breath of spring some new discoveries prove that this ciology, on the Chinese as well as the Laughs with the breath of spring, idea was not due to a xenophobic bias Iranian side. Dances in a dress of gauze! in the Chinese descriptions of the re- Will you be going some where, milord, volt but in a way was something References now, before you are drunk? claimed by the rebels themselves: Shi [transl. Schafer 1963, p. 21] Seming, the second successor of An Lushan, himself a Sogdian, put the Vaissière 2002 It was not just merchants, but soldiers, Sogdian royal title of Jamuk (Jewel, Étienne de la Vaissière. Histoire des monks, and high or low officials who transcribed Zhaowu in Chinese) on par marchands sogdiens. Paris: Collège de were of Sogdian descent. We have seen with Huangdi on his recently discov- France et Institut des Hautes Études that the sons and grandsons of Shi ered ceremonial jades. The troops of chinoises, Bibliothèque de l’I.H.E.C., n° Shewu served in the army. To quote the rebels bore the Sogdian name of XXXII, 2002. another example, the New History of Zhejie, a fair transcription of the the Tang describes the family of An Sogdian Châkar “professional soldier” Vaissière 2004 Chongzhang, Minister of War from 767 [de la Vaissière 2004, forthcoming]. ______. “Châkars et Ghulâms. À to 777. His ancestors were sabao in propos de plusieurs travaux récents.” Wuwei (Gansu) during three genera- The Sogdian milieu was torn apart by Studia Iranica (forthcoming in 2004). tions. At the fourth generation, a mem- the rebellion, many Sogdians in China ber of the family An Xinggui became siding with the Tang. But from then on Vaissière and Trombert 2004 “Wude-era meritous servant” and from the Sogdians in China began to con- then on the family belonged to the ad- ceal their foreign origins. Maybe the Étienne de la Vaissière and Eric ministration: the sixth-generation An clearest example is An Chongzhang, Trombert. “Des Chinois et des Hu. Mi- Zhongjing was military Vice-commis- the Minister of War. In 756 he asked gration et Intégration des des Iraniens sary-in-chief of Hexi, and An Chong- for the authorization to change his fam- orientaux en milieu chinois durant le zhang was the leading member of the ily name, “being ashamed to bear the Haut Moyen-Âge.” Annales. Histoire et seventh generation. same name” as An Lushan. He became Civilisations (forthcoming in 2004). and the exchange was retro- Research on such materials is just be- active: his ancestors’ family name Enoki 1955 ginning. Many funerary epitaphs of the changed also [Forte 1995, pp. 24-7]. Kazuo Enoki. “Sogdiana and the Tang period should be used to under- There are many other examples of this Hsiung-nu.” Central Asiatic Journal, I/ stand the rapid pace of the kind of social hiding. To the degree that 1 (1955), 43-62 of the Sogdians that took place under we can follow the destiny of some the Tang. It is already clear though that Sogdian families in Northern China up Forte 1995 the rebellion of An Lushan is a major to the ninth century, we see that their Antonino Forte. The Hostage An Shigao stage in this process. An Lushan was great days are already by then gone. and his Offspring. An Iranian Family in the main military governor of north- The pace of sinicization grew faster for China. Kyoto, 1995. eastern China on the frontier with Ko- security reasons, while the interna- rea and the Kitans. His father was a tional trade with its new waves of im- Hulsewé 1979 Sogdian installed in the Turk Empire migrants was totally disrupted in the Anthony F. P. Hulsewé. China in Cen- and his mother was Turk; his first name second half of the eighth century and tral Asia : the Early Stage : 125 B.C. - is a straight transcription of the Sogdian reborn only on a very low level, if at A.D. 23. An annotated translation of Rokhshan, “luminous” (the same as all, during the ninth century. The Per- chapters 61 and 96 of the History of Roxane, Alexander’s wife). He estab- sian traders, arriving by sea in the main the Former Han Dynasty, with an in- lished himself as a young boy in north- harbors of Southern China, became the troduction by Michael A.N. Loewe. eastern China, acted as a translator main traders of the age. This was the Leiden: Brill, 1979.

26 © Copyright CNRS/F. Ory. From the website of The Association for the Preservation of the of Preservation the for Association The of website the From Ory. CNRS/F. Copyright (www.afrasiab.org) Paintings Afrasiab A segment of the procession depicted on the south wall of the palace at Afrasiab

Feng 1996 seconde moitié du VIe siècle.” Edward H. Schafer. The Golden Peaches Luo Feng, Guyuan nan jiao Sui Tang Comptes rendus des séances de of Samarkand. A Study of T’ang Exot- mudi [Graveyard of Sui and Tang dy- l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles- ics. Berkeley: University of California nasties in the south suburbs of Lettre, séances de l’année 2001. Paris, Press, 1963. Guyuan] : Wenwu chubanshe, 2002, 227-264. 1996. Sims-Williams 1996 Pulleyblank 1955 Nicholas Sims-Williams. “The Sogdian Feng 2001 Edwin G. Pulleyblank. The Background Merchants in China and India.” In _____. “Sogdians in Northwest China,” of the Rebellion of An Lu-shan. Oxford: Alfredo Cadonna et Lionello Lanciotti, in Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. University Press, 1955. eds., Cina e Iran da Alessandro Magno Lerner, eds., Monks and Merchants. alla Dinastia Tang. Firenze: Olschki, Silk Road Treasures from Northern Riboud 2003 1996, 45-67. China. Gansu and Ningxia 4th-7th Pénélope Riboud. “Le cheval sans cava- Century. New York: H.N. Abrams & lier dans l’art funéraire sogdien en Sims-Williams 2001 Asia Society, 2001, 239-245. Chine: à la recherche des sources d’un _____. “Sogdian Ancient Letter II.” In thème composite.” Arts Asiatiques, 58 Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner, Marshak 2002 (2003) (in press). eds., Monks and Merchants. Silk Road Boris Marshak. “La thématique Treasures from Northern China. Gansu sogdienne dans l’art de la Chine de la Schafer 1963 and Ningxia 4th-7th Century. New York: Abrams & Asia Society, 2001, 47-9.

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