Non-Elite Sogdians in China

In terms of non-elite Sogdians in China, we are perhaps on firmest ground in trade, where sources in a variety of languages make it clear that Sogdians were very active on several paths of the Silk Roads, controlling much of the trade between Central Asia and China. Their business savvy was so well known in China that various sayings accrued around it. For example, as one Tang history put it,

When they [Sogdians] give birth to a son, they put honey on his mouth and place glue in his palms so that when he grows up, he will speak sweet words and grasp gems in his hand as if they were glued there… They are good at trading, love profit, and go abroad at the age of twelve. They are everywhere profit is to be found.

Still other Sogdians came as artisans and craftsmen—among them, no doubt, metalworkersSogdian Metalworking Learn more about Sogdian metalwork who brought new shapes and techniques to their Chinese counterparts. Almost all of these emigrés were anonymous, but we do know something of the 6th-century Sogdian artist Cao Zhongda 曹仲達, who was said to be “good at clay sculpture and in painting images of the Buddha” as well as of the “famous people of his time.” Unfortunately, it seems that none of his art has survived. Cao was particularly well known for rendering drapery so that it looked as if the clothes were “thin and transparent as if emerging from water.”

Elite Sogdians in China

If the references to non-elite Sogdian traders, translators, and craftsmen in China remain highly fragmentary, we are more fortunate when it comes to members of the Sogdian elite. For here we are able to make use of a remarkably rich form of evidence: the tombstones and epitaph stones of several elite Sogdians found there over the last several decades. These elites were interred—sometimes with a wife, sometimes alone—in underground Chinese-style tombs, either on a stone Chinese-style bed or on a stone platform placed within a stone sarcophagus in the shape of a Chinese house; Figs. 4 and 5.  Both beds and sarcophagi were elaborately decorated with carved, painted, and gilded scenes, typically depicting incidents from the life of the deceased as well as of the deceased (with family) feasting in paradise. Such scenes are atypical of Chinese tomb decoration but reflect the narrative quality of Sogdian art, as known from the 7th- and early 8th-century wall paintings found in Sogdiana itself, specifically at Panjikent .

Of the several beds and sarcophagi that we have from these Sogdians, two of the most revealing were excavated in Chang’an 長安 (modern-day Xi’an) , the imperial capital and major terminus of the trade routes to China from the West. They belonged to An Qie 安伽 (b. 518 CE) and Shi Jun 史君 (b. 493 CE). Both men served in the bureaucracy of the ruling Northern Zhou dynasty (557–581 CE) as sabao 薩保, or leaders of their respective Sogdian communities. Both died in the same year, 579. The bed and sarcophagus offer a window onto the lives, values, and religious views of these elite Sogdians. Let us take these in turn; Fig. 8.

Both An Qie’s bed and Shi Jun’s sarcophagus testify to the way Sogdian elites in China mediated and moved between the world of Central Asian merchants and Chinese bureaucracy. An Qie was born in Chansong 昌松 , near Guzang 姑藏  (modern-day Wuwei 武威, Gansu Province). Although his epitaph does not name grandparents, his surnameThe Nine Sogdian Surnames Learn more about the Chinese names for Sogdian families in China, An 安, points to ancestry from the Sogdian city of Bukhara , in present-day Uzbekistan. His father, Tujian 突建, was a military general (guanjun 冠軍) and prefectural governor of Meizhou 眉洲 (modern-day Meishan 眉山), in Sichuan Province. Shi Jun’s surname, Shi 史, tells us that his family was originally from Kesh  (present-day Shahr-i Sabz, south of Samarkand, Uzbekistan). Actually, “Shi Jun” translates as “Master Shi” and we do not know his full Chinese name. His bilingual epitaph, however, tells us that his Sogdian name was Wirkak. At age twenty-six, Shi Jun married a woman from a similar background with the surname Kang 康, suggesting ancestry from the Sogdian city of Samarkand . From the Sogdian version of Shi Jun’s epitaph, we know that her Sogdian given name was Wiyusi. Together they had three sons, who built a lavish tomb for their parents after they both died only a month apart.

Shi Jun’s epitaph tells us that his grandfather was a sabao in their hometown of Kesh, serving as a kind of caravan leader for some of the many caravans that plied their way back and forth along the Silk Roads. The term sabao was most likely a translation of the Sogdian term s’rtp’w, itself derived from the Sanskrit sarthavaha, but similar words in several languages of South and West Asia make it difficult to pinpoint its origin. In Central Asia, it denoted the leader of a group of merchants and other individuals, such as entertainers, artisans, and pilgrims. It is likely that some aspects of this meaning carried over to Sogdian or Central Asian émigré communities in China. The role of sabao was to represent these local Central Asian communities by liaising with various levels of Chinese government. It is unclear whether communities nominated their own sabao and then the Chinese authorities confirmed them or the government directly dictated the appointments.

Both An Qie and Shi Jun served as sabao, just as Shi Jun’s grandfather had done. Despite holding the same office, though, the different duties they performed showcase the versatility of these community leaders and the way they could move among commercial, political, and military worlds. Shi Jun seems to have focused on commercial and political affairs. He began his official career at the age of forty-one as the chief of the Supervising Affairs section of the sabao bureau in Chang’an. He was later appointed sabao of Liangzhou 涼州  (modern-day Wuwei, in Gansu Province), an important center of trade due to its location on the Hexi Corridor  (Hexi Zoulang 河西走廊), which funneled the overland traffic between the Tarim Basin  (in Xinjiang ) and China.

An Qie, too, began his career as a sabao focused on trade and local affairs. An Qie’s epitaph states that he was selected by his community to be sabao of Tongzhou 同州, in modern-day Dali 大荔 , Shaanxi 陝西Province. Tongzhou’s strategic location at the western end of the pass called the Han’gu Guan 函谷關, connecting to Henan Province, made it important for the trade routes that extended northeastward from Chang’an. As sabao, An Qie oversaw local and commercial affairs, which included dealings with the Turks, who protected the Sogdian caravans as they traversed the often treacherous portions of the Silk Roads. Due to his success as sabao, An Qie was suddenly appointed Area Commander-in-Chief, or da dudu 大都督, a high military rank. It is likely that his promotion allowed him to command an armed division against the rival Northern Qi dynasty, which was ultimately defeated by the Northern Zhou in 577. Although An Qie died two years later, his epitaph states that his body “awaited a horse’s hide,” a reference to how a corpse was wrapped following death on the battlefield—a tribute to his prowess as a military commander.

Alongside biographical information, the tombs also illuminate the value systems of these elite Sogdians. Both tombs suggest a broadly shared conception of the “good life,” combining the imperatives of public service, the values of family life, and the pleasures of socializing. At the same time, the pictorial representations in their tombs reflect the diverse and individualized ways in which they chose to be portrayed—or in which their descendents chose to memorialize them. In An Qie’s case, his funerary bed resembles a Chinese chuang 床, a platform elevated on legs, enclosed on three sides by a screen and often covered by a canopy; Fig. 9.

A similar construction, with the addition of gateposts, is also found in Anyang 安陽 , in Henan Province; Fig. 10.

For An Qie’s bed, the screen is made up of twelve panels, which are carved in relief with lively scenes from incidents in his life; bright pigments as well as extensive gilding further enliven the scenes; Fig. 11. The pictorial reliefs on Shi Jun’s sarcophagus do not seem as flamboyant as those on An Qie’s funerary bed, but the compositions are highly detailed, and traces of paint and gilding indicate that they were originally similarly embellished.

The remaining panels show other aspects of An Qie’s life, actual and idealized. In four of them we again see him acting as sabao. In one, he visits a Turkic chieftain in his tiger-skin yurt while other officials, each identified by different headgear, sit outside; Fig. 14. This scene takes place “on the road” in a mountainous landscape, as suggested by the men and pack animals (a donkey and a Bactrian camel) in the foreground. Other panels show An Qie or a Turk seated in a yurt, a grape arbor, or a garden pavilion, feasting and being entertained by musicians and a male dancer who performs the Sogdian Whirl; Fig. 15.

Some of these banqueting scenes are combined with those of hunting, while two panels are entirely given over to the hunt; Figs. 16 and 17.

So, too, in the sarcophagus of Shi Jun, we see Shi Jun and his entourage hunting, drinking, and feasting with high-ranking personages in different settings, such as lavish pavilions, in the countryside where a yurt-shaped tent has been erected; Figs. 18–20.

In one bucolic scene, Shi Jun enjoys food and wine in a grape arbor; Fig. 21. The party is being entertained by musicians and attended to by several servants. Shi Jun is most likely one of the two figures in the center, and the person to his left holds up a rhyton to toast them. This quintessentially Iranian hornlike drinking vessel typically ends in an animal-shaped spout; Fig. 22.

Alongside the worldly pursuits of work and leisure, the tombs also testify to elite Sogdians’ religious beliefs. Shi Jun is depicted not only as a successful merchant and sabao, but also as a follower of Zoroastrian/Mazdean doctrine, and we see dimensions of his religious practice depicted in various places. Adjoining the doorway to the houselike sarcophagus stand four-armed, fierce-looking guardians; Figs. 24 and 25. Each is flanked by a single panel carved with a birdman, the lower part of its face covered by a padam, as he tends the sacred fire. Above each birdman is part of a Central Asian orchestra, no doubt alluding to the Zoroastrian paradise, filled with music and song.