2001, Bulletin of the Asia Institute
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12 pages
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This paper discusses the findings from a colloquium held on the Sogdians in China, detailing new archaeological, historical, and linguistic discoveries, particularly concerning two recently excavated Sogdian tombs in Xi'an. The analysis includes insights from the tomb of Shi Jun, highlighting its significant bilingual epitaph, and the excavation of Kang Ye's tomb, which offers deeper understanding into the Sogdian community during the 6th century, their cultural interactions, and commercial activities.
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religions, 2021
The discovery of the Northern Zhou (557–581AD) tomb of Shi Jun (494–579 CE) presents us with spectacular visual information about the Sogdians in medieval China, which was previously available to us only through written sources. The iconography-heavy sarcophagus in the tomb is an important vehicle for understanding the practices of religious (and everyday) life in the Sino-Sogdian community. The imagery on the Shi Jun sarcophagus reveals a mix of religious beliefs that existed among migrants in the premodern Eurasian world. Due to the absence of a dominant religion associated with Sino-Sogdian funerals, the iconography of the sarcophagus cannot be interpreted within an orthodox theological framework. Instead, it is possible that more syncretistic, indigenous, and regionally based folklore, tales, and hymns, in combination with a diversity of religious beliefs, might explain the sarcophagus’s enigmatic imagery, since the social order and religious order are often mutually reinforcing.
2020
Sogdians, a group of Central Asians based between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, played a significant historical role at the crossroads of the Silk Roads. Travelling the world as caravan leaders, organised in trading networks, they were found from Byzantium to the Chinese heartland. The Sogdian language was a candidate for the lingua franca of the Silk Roads for some hundred years and Sogdians acted as polyglot mediators at courts and prominent translators of Buddhist texts. In the Chinese capitals, fire temples were erected for their use and the exotic products they imported were cherished by the people and the court. This socio-historical study by Moritz Huber provides a translation of the transmitted Chinese records on Sogdians in Sogdiana and China and combines them with archaeological evidence to present a differentiated picture of their presence in China from the 3rd to 10th century CE. Besides the transcription and translation of all epitaphs of Sogdians from an archaeological context, used to tell their interconnected biographies, as well as a detailed discussion of their political organisation in China under the sabao 薩保/薩寶, this publication further includes a case-study of the Shi 史 families in Guyuan 固原, Ningxia 寧夏 Province. Asiatische Forschungen 160 Harrassowitz ISBN 978-3-447-11380-9
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2017
Two stone tablets in the Wangye Museum, Shenzhen, contain a bilingual Sogdian and Chinese epitaph for a Sogdian merchant and his wife, who lived in the northern Chinese city of Ye 鄴 in the late sixth century C.E. The two texts are published here for the first time and accompanied by a detailed commentary on philological and historical points of interest.
The History of the Family, 2016
Six tombs attributed to the Shi family were excavated in Guyuan (China) between 1982 and 1996. The seven epitaph inscriptions (representing seven patrilineal generations) make it possible to reconstruct the life histories of the family members buried between AD 609 and AD 678. The comparative analysis of the epitaph inscriptions suggests links between individual biographies of the Shi men and known historical events. It indicates that the family, involved in the political changes taking place throughout the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou to Sui and early Tang dynasties, successfully survived these turbulent and glorious times of Chinese history. The present paper also discusses the biculturalism and Sogdian ancestry of the Guyuan Shi family. All six Shi men were born in northern China. Their immediate forefathers likely originated from oases-states in Xinjiang, but not from Sogdiana directly, though more distant roots may lead to the Shi (Kesh) state (in present-day Uzbekistan). The Shi family case demonstrates that middle-class Sogdians during Sui and early Tang dynasty times served as cavalry officers and civil officials. However, horse acquisition and breeding on imperial ranches north of the capital was perhaps their main business, which contributed to their wealth and to the consolidation and expansion of the Chinese state.
Xibeigang Beijing 0 km 2000 N The Shang Dynasty has attracted much archaeological research, particularly the renowned 'royal tombs' of the Xibeigang cemetery at Anyang Yinxu, the last Shang capital. Understanding of the social strategies informing Shang mortuary practices is, however, very limited. A new reconstruction of the detailed chronology of the cemetery is presented here, allowing social theory to be applied, and reveals the strategic social decisions behind the placement of the tombs in relation to each other. The results of this analysis are important not only for the reconstruction of the social structure and organisation of the late Shang dynasty, but also for understanding the relationship between mortuary practices and the functioning of early states in other regions.
Six tombs attributed to the Shi family were excavated in Guyuan (China) between 1982 and 1996. The seven epitaph inscriptions (representing seven patrilineal generations) make it possible to reconstruct the life histories of the family members buried between AD 609 and AD 678. The comparative analysis of the epitaph inscriptions suggests links between individual biographies of the Shi men and known historical events. It indicates that the family, involved in the political changes taking place throughout the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou to Sui and early Tang dynasties, successfully survived these turbulent and glorious times of Chinese history. The present paper also discusses the biculturalism and Sogdian ancestry of the Guyuan Shi family. All six Shi men were born in northern China. Their immediate forefathers likely originated from oases-states in Xinjiang, but not from Sogdiana directly, though more distant roots may lead to the Shi (Kesh) state (in present-day Uzbekistan). The Shi family case demonstrates that middle-class Sogdians during Sui and early Tang dynasty times served as cavalry officers and civil officials. However, horse acquisition and breeding on imperial ranches north of the capital was perhaps their main business, which contributed to their wealth and to the consolidation and expansion of the Chinese state.
Archaeological Research of Asia, 2021
This paper documents a previously uncharted area of the Han Empire Southwest frontier, where it identifies an overlooked type of burials in artificial caves dating to the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries CE. Until now, this specific funerary tradition located south of the Yangzi river (Changjiang 長 江) has been presented as a local effect of the centralized phenomenon of "Han tombs". As a result, its peculiarities were ascribed to logistical constraints in technology, material and terrain. This research, instead, argues that the man-made caves south of the Yangzi correspond to a distinctive tradition of placing the dead emerging in the last decades of the Eastern Han dynasty. The crucial point made by this research concerns the location of the burial type, which appears to systematically be distribution along secondary fluvial routes. Despite their absence in written history, minor tributaries of the Yangzi river potentially played an important role in interregional communication and trade, in a context of weakened imperial rule. Resting on a field report of two major southern tributaries of the Yangzi-the Chishui and Wu rivers, and a case study of the Qi river, a minor tributary of the Yangzi and an area of concentration of the atypical rock-cut cemeteries, a situational definition for the identity of the cave builders is proposed, in the backstage of imperial presence. Direct field survey conducted by the author in the years 2013-2016 in 63 clusters of burial caves and the compilation of data gathered by other researchers for 562 groups of burial caves and 579 individual burial caves within these groups, shows that, far from being peripheral, the alternative burial type was practiced along a 500km long section of the upper Yangzi river. This paper highlights the typological and iconographical consistency of the alternative funerary tradition south of the Yangzi river, blooming at the end of the Han dynasty, as compared to cemeteries in the Sichuan basin and the Yangzi gorges.
The Burlington Magazine , 2019
The tomb of An Jia, leader of a Sogdian immigrant community in sixth-century Xi’an, northern China, contained a remarkable stone couch. Its form is Chinese but its decoration imitates gilt silverware imported by Sogdian merchants from Sasanian Persia, reflecting An Jia’s dual cultural identity.
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Research indicates that Sogdians were crucial merchants along the Silk Road, facilitating trade from 300-800 CE, with significant interaction with Han and Hu merchants.
Shi Jun's sarcophagus features unique biographical narratives and eschatological themes, contrasting with the more generalized heroic motifs of other Sogdian funerary art.
Kang Ye's tomb exhibits strong Chinese artistic influences, indicating a high level of cultural integration for Sogdians by the late sixth century.
The bilingual stone enhances our understanding of Sogdian identity in China, revealing socio-political structures and personal histories within the community during 579 CE.
Excavations at Xi'an uncovered rich artifacts and tombs, offering new perspectives on Sogdian life and their cultural interactions in China during the Northern Zhou period.
Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology, 2011
The Sogdians were a group of astute and professional traders originally from Sogdiana in Central Asia (present-day Afghanistan). Though relatively few texts about Sogdian immigrants survive, seven major Sogdian tombs have been excavated within the past forty years in China, which tell us a great deal of information about the lives of these Sogdian immigrants. While these tombs are outwardly Chinese in form, the images on the sarcophagi are predominantly Central Asian. Thus, as I will argue here, the Sogdian immigrants in China adopted the Chinese tomb structure and treatment of the corpse in accordance with the burial practices of a strictly Confucian society. At the same time, the tombs included imagery that reflected the Sogdians’ religious and cultural customs, a more subtle way of expressing their own identities.
The Yields of Transition: Literature, Art and Philosophy in Early Medieval China, 2011
Journal of Asian Civilizations, 2021
Richly embellished tombs of powerful Sogdian immigrants found in China have greatly increased our knowledge on Central Asians who were active along the so-called Silk Road during medieval times. Sino-Sogdian funerary monuments often display scenes such as banquets, hunts, and funerals with images of Sogdian Zoroastrian deities that offer interesting parallels with Sogdian paintings and ossuaries from pre-Islamic sites in modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The comparative study of the representations of the passage into the Zoroastrian underworld in Sino- Sogdian art and several Sogdian ossuaries could shed new light on the identification of Zoroastrian deities and rituals.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2020
Cette étude a pour but de présenter deux tombes à chambre en brique des périodes Liao et Jin (Xe-XIIIe s.) fouillées récemment dans la region du Ke'erqin (à Dongmengyi dans le district de Shuangliao et à Hamaqin dans le district de Changling), dans l'ouest de la province du Jilin, dans le nord-est de la Chine. La description de ces découvertes, réalisée de la manière la plus détaillée possible, met en relief les éléments architecturaux, ceux du mobilier funéraire, et les restes humains. Dans un deuxième temps, les auteurs proposent de mettre en perspective ces découvertes en les comparant aux sépultures publiées pour cette région. 246 tombes du Ke'erqin et des alentours ont été intégrées à une base de données et permettent de mener des analyses quantitatives sur les coutumes funéraires. Ces informations, visualisées au sein d'un Système d'information géographique (SIG), sont analysées pour connaître les configurations spatiales de la distribution des divers types de tombes, de leurs formes, et même des objets les plus proches de ceux découverts à Dongmengyi et Hamaqin. Chine du Nord-Est ; coutumes funéraires ; période Liao-Jin ; tombes à chambre en brique ; archéologie funéraire.
Unpublished English original of “The discovery and decipherment of Sogdian in the early 20th century” (in Chinese). In, Sute ren zai Zhongguo: kao gu fa xian yu chu tu wen xian de xin yin zheng = Sogdians in China: new evidence in archaeological finds and unearthed texts, eds. Rong Xinjiang and Luo Feng, vol 2 (Beijing: Science Press, 2016): 429-435
Journal of Language and Inscription, 2024
Among the most intriguing funerary monuments that belong to powerful Sogdians or other foreign immigrants in China during the Northern Dynasties, there are two unexcavated stone bases recently repatriated from the Shelby White & Leon Levi Collection in New York, and Qu Qing funerary couch (590) newly excavated in Anyang (Henan Province). The first two stone bases present an identical decorative scheme constituted by a “guardian” killing a dwarfish demon on each end and a central “altar” in the lower part. In the upper portion, there is a sequence of so-called “pearl roundel” patterns including beribboned animals or animal heads. Carvings on the frontal side of the base of Qu Qing funerary couch also depict a fire altar in the centre, “divine guardians” on both ends, auspicious animals and musicians inside consecutive square frames embellished with pearls. Despite some differences in techniques and other minor details, all these three stone bases present several common elements that reveal also a common cultural background. It could enable experts to categorize them into the group of “Sino-Sogian funerary monuments” although Qu Qing was not exactly an ethnic Sogdian. The two unexcavated samples could be contextualized around late sixth century North China where many Sogdians lived and definitely had a strong impact on the local cultural life.
This study investigates a rare type of Han dynasty tomb that is distinguished by a structural component known as ticou, or “gathered heads.” The ticou can be described as a stout, frame-like barrier composed of stacks of thousands of high-grade timbers (often cypress) hewn to the same size (about a meter long) and facing in the same direction (inwards, towards the coffins at the center of the tomb). After analyzing the surviving corpus of textual and archaeological sources on ticou tombs, I argue that the ticou functioned to communicate the wealth and status of the deceased. This study situates ticou tombs within broader discussions on the materiality of wood versus stone in tomb construction and the shift from chambered coffin tombs to subterranean palace tombs within Chinese architectural history.
Judith A. Lerner