The famous historian Mr. Chen Yinke, in the book "Yuanbai Poetry Manuscript", speculated that Cui Yingying, the heroine of "Xixian Ji", was a Sogdian immigrant "restaurant Hu" woman, and he referred to Hu's surname, Hu name and Hu custom to verify that Cui Yingying's original Sogdian name may be Cao Jiujiu.
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Coincidentally, the famous calligrapher Mi Fu of the Song Dynasty was also believed by some scholars to be a Sogdian ancestor, because such as rice, An, Kang, etc. are the surnames of the Hu people, and there is no surname of rice in the Central Plains tradition.
The Sogdians, known in Chinese historical texts as the "Zhaowu Nine Surnames", originally lived between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers in Central Asia. They were active in the Han and Tang dynasties, when the Silk Road was the most developed, and played an important role in promoting trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.
Many of the Sogdians who traveled along the Silk Road settled in the Central Plains and eventually integrated into the Chinese land. From the tombs, epitaphs and frescoes found in archaeology, people can trace their footprints. A few days ago, the reporter of "Dao Zhonghua" interviewed Mr. Zhang Qingjie, an archaeologist at the Shanxi Institute of Archaeology, who mainly started from the archaeological discovery of Yu Hong's tomb, which is considered to be "an earthquake in the academic world", and took us from an individual Sogdian to understand how the Sogdians who settled in the Central Plains integrated into the Chinese land.
Reporter: Mr. Chen Yinke speculated that Cui Yingying was a Sogdian woman, and the place where the story of "Xixian Ji" took place, according to your research, is in the area where the Sogdians are active?
Zhang Qingjie: The story of the Tang Dynasty's "Tale of the West Wing" takes place in Yongji City, Shanxi. At the site of Pujindu of the Yellow River in the Tang Dynasty, there are 4 groups of iron bulls and iron people that are impressive, some of which wear lapel clothes, and this style of clothing has only been seen on the Northern Dynasty and Sui and Tang Hu figurines, which are more typical Sogdian clothes.
The reason for this is that at that time, the Middle Yellow River Road and Prefecture (now all of Shanxi and parts of Hebei and Inner Mongolia) were inhabited by many Sogdians, at least with a large floating population, so the image of such a multi-ethnic group was created in the form of art on the Yellow River crossing.
The Sogdians were good at business, and the history records that the Sogdians of the country of Kang were "good merchants, good profits, and the husband went to the neighboring country in his twenties, and the benefits were everywhere", so many Sogdian settlements were formed on the Silk Road. Shanxi's connection with the Silk Road has a long history, and Hu figurines have been unearthed in the Pingshuo Han Tomb and the Guanglinghan Tomb. According to inscriptions and documentary materials, since the Northern Dynasty, Pingcheng (now Datong) and Jinyang (now Taiyuan), Shanxi, as important cities in the eastern section of the Silk Road, settled many Sogdians, and the discovery of Yuhong Tomb in Taiyuan is the most powerful evidence, providing a very valuable basis for studying the development of the Silk Road.
▲The excavation site of Yu Hong's tomb.
Reporter: In 1999, why was the excavation of Yu Hong's tomb considered "an earthquake in the academic world"? You participated in the excavation of Yu Hong's tomb, could you please introduce some of the major discoveries, and what are the important cultural, historical and archaeological values of the excavation of Yuhong's tomb?
Zhang Qingjie: Mr. Qi Dongfang, a well-known professor of archaeology at Peking University, called the discovery of Yu Hong's tomb "an earthquake in the academic world" and considered it an extraordinary discovery.
In 1958, the American art historian Staglia wrote an article entitled "Central Asians in the Northern Qi Que Shrine", which described the image of the Central Asian Sogdians on a sarcophagus bed unearthed in Anyang, Henan, China, but did not attract attention. In the 90s, the portrait on a sarcophagus in the collection of a Japanese museum showed Sogdian culture and teaching, which once again attracted academic attention, but there is still controversy about the authenticity of the sarcophagus. The discovery of Yu Hong's tomb made the gradually calm history noisy again, so that this archaeological discovery was known as the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries" of that year, and later rated as one of the "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries of the 20th Century".
There are thousands of ancient tombs found in China, why did Yu Hong's tomb cause a worldwide sensation? Because the owner of the tomb, Yu Hong, is a Sogdian who lives in China. On the white jade rafter unearthed, the relief paintings and gilt paintings that people see are exquisite and extraordinary, and the content is very peculiar. The scenes of shadow moon dance, fire altar sacrifice, and riding and shooting fighting above have a strong exotic style, which is not common in previous archaeological relics. As soon as these discoveries were made public, they immediately triggered an upsurge in academic research on the history of education and art exchanges between China and foreign countries.
▲ Yu Hong's tomb stone hall back middle relief pattern.
China is the country with the clearest historical context in the world, but our understanding of history is sometimes still in the fog. Archaeological discoveries will help us uncover the tip of the iceberg of ancient societies, and the discovery of Yu Hong's tomb is exactly that. It not only recreated a mysterious small country lost in history, the Fish Country, but also verified some unclear historical facts at that time.
The origin of the tomb owner Yu Hong, Yu Hong, is not recorded in the "Twenty-Four History", where is it located? I have consulted many Chinese and foreign experts before, but there is no specific affirmative answer. Obviously, this is a mysterious kingdom unknown to modern people, and its emergence fills a gap in the study of ancient history, but it also raises a series of questions. Judging from the cultural context reflected in the image of the stone hall of Yu Hong's tomb, it should be between Central Asia and West Asia, that is, somewhere along the Silk Road. At the same time, the colorful pictures depicting the atmosphere of the Western Regions inside and outside the stone hall further prove the relationship between the bishop of the Yuanjiao "Sabao" (also known as "Sabao") and the flame of the Yuanjiao. (Editor's note: Jacket religion, also known as fire religion, Zoroastrianism, and Zoroastrianism, is popular in ancient Persia, Central Asia and other places.) It is generally believed that during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sogdian merchants introduced Zoroastrianism to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains and the Central Plains. Some merchant owners of the trade group became the bishops of the Yuanjiao, and "Sabao" means the head of the trade group. ）
Reporter: As a Sogdian who settled in Taiyuan, what kind of legend does Yu Hong's life have? What important role did the interpretation of Yu Hong's tomb play in understanding history for future generations?
Zhang Qingjie: Epitaphs are very important in archaeology. It will tell us not only the identity and resume of the tomb owner, but also the basic context in which these images were produced. According to Yu Hong's epitaph, Yu Hongzi Mo Pan, a native of Yuguo's Wei Lucheng, was ordered by King Ruru to send envoys to Persia, Tuguhun, Anxi, Yuezhi and other countries, and then sent envoys to Northern Qi, and then served as an official in Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui, and "led the three prefecture township regiments of Dai, and Jie" in Northern Zhou, and inspected Sabao Mansion. Kaihuang transferred the ceremony with the three divisions, and the left tent of the edict, and the town was detained and merged." Yu Hong died in 592.
If we repeatedly chew the text in the "Yu Hong's Epitaph", "Elephant End, Zuo Cheng Xiangfu, Annexation, Generation, and Introduction of the Three Prefecture Township Regiments, and Inspection of Sabao Province", we can know that there may have been a large number of Sogdians living in the Central Plains at that time, and Yu Hong served in the two institutions of the township regiment and Sabao Province to manage the fellow villagers who came to the Central Plains like himself. Yu Hong's life went through five regimes: Rouran, Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasties. During this period, with his military talents, he obtained official positions such as the general of light car, the military of Liangzhou and the assassin of Liangzhou, and also participated in many wars of Northern Qi against the Turks, Khitan and Rouran, and gradually rose to the rank of founding general of Yitong through battle merits, and also became the Sogdian leader of Hezhou and Daizhou (present-day Daixian, Shanxi).
Through Yu Hong's job changes, we can see the exchanges and blending between various ethnic groups at that time. The epitaph contains many contents that are rare in history books, and it is of great value for the study of Rouran's officials, diplomacy, and the study of the ethnic policies of the Northern Dynasty.
▲ Yu Hong's epitaph.
Reporter: Some scholars have studied that after the Sogdians came to China, they liked Chinese culture very much and built Chinese-style houses, with gold bottles as gold and silver cups and fine wine as wine as they brought. Is that really the case? What profession did Yu Hong and his compatriots do when they came to China? What unique cultures do they bring to China?
Zhang Qingjie: The prefecture where Yu Hong's tomb is located has always been a frontier area for ethnic integration. From the Northern Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, a large number of Sogdians entered Hezhou, and their occupations mainly included officials (including sabao and military generals), such as Yu Hong's father and son, as well as merchants, musicians and monks, etc., and some were forced to rush cars, train horses, guard gates, join the army, or become attendants and craftsmen.
Among these professions, officials were the first choice of the Sogdians, and of course some were merchants first, and then became officials when they had the opportunity, such as An Tong of Northern Wei recorded in the Book of Wei. The musicians brought the Huteng dance and the Huxuan dance to Hezhou, spread to the Central Plains, and became popular for a while.
There are many Sogdians who can be found in epitaphs in Hezhou, Pingcheng, Jinyang and other places, and have left many valuable relics in Shanxi, including glass production technology, gold and silver ware, and various daily necessities, such as Hu beds, Yin fu, Hufu, etc., which are very popular.
Such a large number of Sogdians became a major scenery in the state at that time. Their arrival has promoted cultural exchanges in Union State, one of which is to promote the winemaking industry in Union State. There is the Tang generation, and the wine of Hezhou has always been a famous tribute wine, and only Liangzhou wine can compare with it. Shanxi's viticulture industry is a relic of the Sogdians, and until the Yuan Dynasty, Shanxi was the largest wine producer in the country.
Many of the grape leaf vines and bunches of grapes in the image of Yuhong's tomb are not only the favorite motifs of the Sogdians, but also a reflection of the cultivation of grapes in Northern Qi and Northern Zhou. The image of Yu Hong's tomb stone hall and the image of the stone bed collapse excavated in Tianshui, Gansu Province, can be said to be a true portrayal of the life of the Sogdians in Hezhou and Liangzhou at that time.
Wang Ji, a great poet who lived in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, praised Hezhou wine in his "Five Songs of Inscribed Wines": "The bamboo leaf curtain is emerald, and the grape is red with curved red." The meeting is not endless, and the other is empty for anyone. "It is said that both Emperor Taizong of Tang and Wei Zheng were good at making grape wine. According to Liu Zongyuan, Wei Zheng's master who learned to make wine was a Sogdian man.
In 2002, I hosted Professor Gramnay and Dr. Li Peilan, famous French archaeologists from Central Asia, to visit the Yuhong Tomb Stone Hall in Taiyuan. For lunch, I specially prepared soft lilac wine from Qingxu County for French guests. Professor Grenay praised it after drinking, saying that although the wine was mixed with the taste of lilacs, it still maintained the standard taste of the ancient Sogdians, and this taste of wine is no longer found in Central Asia and Europe due to changes in the production method.
Reporter: How did the Sogdians integrate into Chinese culture when they settled in the Central Plains for a long time? Can you get a glimpse of Yu Hong's tomb?
Zhang Qingjie: When it comes to the integration of Sogdians into Chinese culture, we can first see it from their burial utensils. The traditional tombs of the Sogdians used bone burial tools, but in the Sogdian tombs found by archaeology, they used the stone halls and stone beds inherent in the Central Plains, and did not use their own traditional burial tools.
▲ Sogdian bone vessel.
Yu Hong's tomb is a joint burial tomb of the couple, the bones of the two are there, there are no traces of burning, the stone hall is large, enough to accommodate the bodies of two people, it cannot but make people speculate that Yu Hong and his wife are likely to be buried directly without the "heavenly burial" procedure. If the speculation is true, it is enough to prove that the degree of sinicization of the Yuhong family in terms of burial customs is relatively high.
▲ Yu Hong's tomb stone bed Sogdian funerary relief drawing.
Even in the area of present-day Yanbei, there were many Sogdian habitations at that time. The Long Run Epitaph unearthed in the Tang tomb in Taiyuan, who served as the long history of Sabao Fu (the institution that administered the Sogdians in the imperial court), should be a descendant of Yanqi Hu. His wife He Shi should be from He Guo in the "Zhaowu Nine Surname". Other descendants have wheat records, indicating that they gradually intermarried with Han Chinese. In addition, other Sogdian epitaphs found in Shanxi, such as "Cao Cemetery Epitaph", "Kang Cemetery Epitaph", "He Cemetery Epitaph", and the Tang Dynasty "Shifujun Epitaph" found in Datong all show that the Sogdians in Hezhou were quite active. The identification and integration of Chinese culture is the reason why they were born in Sri Lanka for generations, grew up in Sri Lanka, grew up in Sri Lanka, and were finally buried in Sri Lanka. From another aspect, this also reflects the unparalleled inclusiveness and absorption of Chinese civilization. (End)
Author/Zhang Qingjie