Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T00:56:50.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Last Sasanians in Chinese Literary Sources: Recently Identified Statue Head of a Sasanian Prince at the Qianling Mausoleum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Hamidreza Pasha Zanous  and
Esmaeil Sangari
Hamidreza Pasha Zanous*
Affiliation:
Nankai University and Ancient History of Iran at the University of Isfahan
Esmaeil Sangari*
Affiliation:
Ancient History of Iran at the University of Isfahan
*
h.pasha@ltr.ui.ac.ir, pasha.hamidreza@gmail.com
e.sangari@ltr.ui.ac.ir
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Qianling Mausoleum (乾陵) which is located in the northwest of Xi'an, is the tomb of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (唐高宗, r. 649–83 AD) and his Empress Wu Zetian (武則天, r. 690–705 AD). In this mausoleum, there are two statues of Pērōz, son of Yazdegird III (632–51 AD), and another Persian nobleman who have been recognized by western scholars. However, scholars’ attention has been limited to a general and mistaken description of the statues. This paper reassesses both statues in order to give some new insight into the head of one of the statues found at the Qianling Mausoleum.

Keywords

SasaniansChinaQianlingPērōzNanmei
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , July 2018 , pp. 499 - 515
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This paper is part of a series of studies on the relations between Hellenistic Civilization and peoples of the Silk Road; supported by the National Foundation for Social Science in China, No. 15ZDB059.

The authors would like to express their gratitude to professors Yang Juping of Nankai University, Zhang Ping of Shaanxi Normal University, Minghui Li of the University of Groningen, and Erfaneh Khosravi and Remy Boucharlat of Université Lumière Lyon 2, for their help and scholarly suggestions; and to anonymous peer review comments for providing helpful and valuable clarifications.

References

Agostini, Domenico, and Stark, Sören. “Zāwulistān, Kāwulistan and the Land Bosi 波斯: on the Question of a Sasanian Court-in-Exile in the Southern Hindukush.” Studia Iranica, no. 45 (2016): 17–38.Google Scholar
Anklesaria, B. T. Zand-Î Vohûman Yasn and Two Pahlavi Fragments. Bombay: 1957.Google Scholar
Aston, W. G. Nihongi. Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697. London: 1924; repr. Rutland, VT and Tokyo, 1972.Google Scholar
Canepa, Matthew P. “Distant Displays of Power: Understanding Cross-Cultural Interaction among the Elites of Rome, Sasanian Iran, and Sui-Tang China.” In Theorizing Cross-cultural Interaction among the Ancient and Early Medieval Mediterranean, Near East and Asia, edited by Canepa, Matthew P., 121–154. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, 2010.Google Scholar
Cereti, C. “Again on Wahram i Warzawand.” La Persia e l’Asia Centrale da Alessandro al X secolo (1996): 629–639.Google Scholar
Chavannes, É. Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. Paris: 1903.Google Scholar
Chen, Guocan. Tang Qianling shirenxiang jiqi xianming de yanjiu [Research on the stone statues and their official titles at Qianling Mausoleum of Tang Dynasty]. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Compareti, M. “Chinese‒Iranian Relations, xv. The Last Sasanians in China.” Encyclopædia Iranica, 2009. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/china-xv-the-last-sasanians-in-chinaGoogle Scholar
Compareti, M. “The Last Sasanians in China.” Eurasian Studies, no. 2 (2003): 197–213.Google Scholar
Daffinà, P. “La Persia Sasaniane secondo le fonti cinesi.” Rivista degli Studi Orientali 57 (1983): 121–170.Google Scholar
Daryaee, T. “The Sons and Grandsons of Yazdgird in China.” Iranshenasi: A Journal of Iranian Studies, no. 3 (2003): 540–548.Google Scholar
Daryaee, T. “Yazdegerd’s Last Year: Coinage and History of Sīstān at the End of Late Antiquity.” In Iranistik: Deutschsprachige Zeitschrift fur iranistische Studien. Festschrift fur Erich Kettenhofen, edited by Daryaee, T. and Tabibzadeh, O., 21–30. Tehran: 2009.Google Scholar
Drake, F. S. “Mohammedanism in the Tang Dynasty.” Monumenta Serica 8 (1943): 1–40. doi: 10.1080/02549948.1943.11745171CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dulby, M. T. “Court Politics in Late Tang Times.” In The Cambridge History of China, III. Sui and Tang China, edited by Twitchett, D., Part 1, 589–906. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Fan, Yingfeng, Changan, Luo, and Yongxiang, Zhang. Qianling. Shaanxi: Shaanxi Tourism Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Forte, A. “Iranians in China: Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Bureaus of Commerce.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 11 (1999): 277–290. doi: 10.3406/asie.1999.1157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forte, A. “The Edict of 638 Allowing the Diffusion of Christianity in China.” In L’inscription nestorienne de Si-Ngan-Fou, edited by Pelliot, P., 349–374. Kyoto: 1996.Google Scholar
Forte, A. “On the Identity of Aluohan (616‒710). A Persian Aristocrat at the Chinese Court.” In La Persia e l’Asia Centrale da Alessandro al X secolo, 187–197. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1996.Google Scholar
Forte, A. “On the So-Called Abraham from Persia. A Case of Mistaken Identity.” In L’inscription nestorienne de Si-Ngan-Fou, edited by Pelliot, P., 349–374. Kyoto: 1996.Google Scholar
Harmatta, J. “Sino-Iranica.” Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 19 (1971): 113–143.Google Scholar
Hinz, W. Alt-iranische Funde und Forschungen. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1969.Google Scholar
Göbl, R. Sasanian Numismatics. Braunshweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1971.Google Scholar
Imoto, E. “Asuka no Perushiajin” [Persians in Asuka]. Higashi Ajia no kodai bunka, no. 113 (2002): 58–68.Google Scholar
Itō, G. Perushia bunka toraikō. Shiruku rōdo kara Asuka e [A thought about the arrival of Persian culture in Japan—from the Silk Road to Asuka]. Tokyo: 1980.Google Scholar
Leslie, D. D. “Persian Temples in Tang China.” Monumenta Serica 35 (1981‒1983): 275–303. doi: 10.1080/02549948.1981.11731155CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Haowen. Chang’an Zhitu. Vol. 2. Beijing, China: Sikuqunshu Version.Google Scholar
Lin, Meicun. “The Unearthed Luoyang Tomb Epigraph Epilogue of Persian Immigrant Aluohan.” Academic Forest Journal 4 (1995): 294–299.Google Scholar
Liu, Xu. “Western Barbarians.” Old Books of the History of Tang Dynasty. Vol. 198. Biographieslifes 148. Beijing: 1975. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
Marquart, J. Eranshahr. Berlin: 1901.Google Scholar
Marshak, B. I. Silberschätze des Orients: Metallkunst des 3.‒13. Jahrhunderts und ihre Kontinuität. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann Verlag, 1986.Google Scholar
Morita, T. “Japan iv. Iranians in Japan.” Encyclopædia Iranica, 2012. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/japan-iv-iranians-in-japan-1Google Scholar
Ou Yangxiu, S. “Western Regions.” New Books of the History of Tang Dynasty. Vol. 221(II). Biographieslifes 146(II). Beijing: 1975.Google Scholar
Pashazanous, Hamidreza, and Afkandeh, Ehsan. “The Last Sasanians in Eastern Iran.” Anabasis: Studia Classica et Orientalia, no. 5 (2014): 139–154.Google Scholar
Saeki, P. Y. The Nestorian Monument in China. London: 1916.Google Scholar
Scarcia, G. “La ‘sposa bizantina’ di Khosrow Parviz.” La Persia e Bisanzio (2004): 115–135.Google Scholar
Shahmardān, R. The History of Zoroastrians after the Sasanian Dynasty. Tehran: 1360.Google Scholar
Skaff, J. K. Sui-Tang China and its Turko-Mongol Neighbors. Culture, Power and Connections. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Sprengling, M. “From Persian to Arabic.” AJSLL 56 (1939): 175–213.Google Scholar
Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr ibn Yazīd al-. Annales. Lugduni Batavorum: 1879.Google Scholar
Tajadod, N. À l’est du Christ: vie et mort des chrétiens dans la Chine des Tang, VIIe‒IXe siècle. Paris: Plon, 2000.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. Cefu yuangui. 12 vols. Beijing: Zhong Hua Shu Ju Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Zhang, X. Tārīkh-i Ravābit-i Chīn va Īrān [The materials for a history of Sino-foreign relations]. Translated by Hongnien, Zhang. Tehran: Department of Language and Dialects of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, 1386/2006.Google Scholar
Zhou, Xiuqin. The Mausoleum of Emperor Tang Taizong, Sino-Platonic Papers, no. 187. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2009.Google Scholar