Iranians in China
[1] Shams al-Din was an Iranian of Khwarezmian origin from Bukhara, and was appointed by the Mongols to serve as the first provincial governor of Yunnan, in southwestern China.
Later, the imperial court conferred the title "Prince of Xianyang" (咸陽王) and the posthumous name Zhonghui (忠惠) to him.
[2] Nasr al-Din (Persian: نصرالدین; Chinese: 納速剌丁, pinyin: Nàsùládīng;) (died 1292) was a provincial governor of Yunnan during the Yuan dynasty succeeded by his brother 忽先 Hu-sien (Hussein).
[3] Sassanian royals like Peroz III and his son Narsieh fled the Arab Islamic invasion of Sassanid Persia for safety in Tang dynasty China where they were granted asylum.
[4] The Chinese pirate Feng Ruofang stored Persian slaves on Hainan whom he captured when raiding ships in the 8th century.
[14][15] During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (Wudai) (907–960), there are examples of Chinese emperors marrying Persian women.
In 824, Li Susha presented to Emperor Jingzong, the chen xiang ting zi, a type of drug.
"[29] Descriptions of the sexual activities between Liu Chang and the Persian woman in the Song dynasty book the "Ch'ing-i-lu" by T'ao Ku were so graphic that the "Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko (the Oriental Library), Issue 2" refused to provide any quotes from it while discussing the subject.
[33] The young Chinese Emperor Liu Chang of the Southern Han dynasty had a harem, including one Persian girl he nicknamed Mei Zhu, which means "Beautiful Pearl".
[37] The Wu Tai Shï says that Liu Ch'ang [劉鋹], Emperor of the Southern Han dynasty reigning at Canton, about A.D. 970.
"was dallying with his palace girls and Persian [波斯] women in the inner apartments, and left the government of his state to the ministers.
"[38] The History of the Five Dynasties (Wu Tai Shih) stated that- "Liu Chang then with his court- ladies and Po-ssu woman, indulged in amorous affiurs in the harem".
[55][56] Lin Nu and his descendants were erased from the family genealogy by his relatives who were angry at him for converting to Islam and marrying a Persian girl because xenophobic feeling against foreigners was strong at that time due to Persian Semu atrocities in the Ispah Rebellion in which the Yuan defeated the Ispah and the Semu were massacred.
[63] A record from the Astana Cemetery dating to 639 preserves the transaction where a Sogdian slave girl was being sold in Xizhou.
The seller of the slave was from Samarqand called Wakhushuvirt and his father was Tudhakk The contract said they could they do anything they wanted to Upach, give her away, sell her, abuse her, beat her and she belonged to Yansyan's family forever.
[75] Zhang Yanxiang 張延相, whose name is found in Chinese language documents in Turfan, is believed to be Chan Yansyan.
They provided services like sex, dancing, singing, and served wine to their customers in Chang'an as ordered their masters who ran the wineshops.
A Sogdian merchant, Kang Weiyi had Indian, Central Asian, and Bactrians among the 15 slave girls he was bringing to sell in the Chinese capital of Chang'an.
The poet Li Bai in his poem Shao Nian Xing wrote about a young man who entered one of these Huji Jiusi shops.
[95][96] Lady Caoyena 曹野那 was a concubine of the Chinese Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and gave birth to the Princess of Shou'an Li Chongniang 李蟲娘.
[104][105] Li Bai wrote a poem about a boy riding a white horse "gently walking in the spring breeze.
[106] The northeastern Iranian Sogdians in Khumdeh, Maimargh, Samarkand, and Kesh in 718, 719, 727, and 729 sent dancing whirling girls as tribute to the Chinese Imperial court.
[107][108][109][110][111] The poem by Bo Juyi says the Iranian girl from Sogdia whirled while drums and strings were played and bowed to the Emperor when it was over.
The twirling girls from Sogdia danced on rolling balls and wore boots made of deerskin which were colored red, green pants, and crimson robes and they were sent to the Emperor Xuanzong.
[121][122][123] Samarkand and Tashkent dancing girls who came to China were called "hu" which was used by Chinese to refer to Iranian countries.
[127][128][129][130] Central Asian Iranian girls who performed as acrobats, dancers, musicians, and waitresses were referred to by Chinese poets as Hu ji 胡姬.
[131] The Shi kingdom (Tashkent) brought the Huteng dance to China which involved back flips, leaps and spinning.
[136] Huxuan dance was introduced to China through long journeys over thousands of kilometers by girls from Kang in Sogdia.
[137][138][139][140][141] In the T'ang Annals we read that in the beginning of the period K'ai-yuan (a.d. 713–741) the country of K'an (Sogdiana), an Iranian region, sent as tribute to the Chinese Court coats-of-mail, cups of rock-crystal, bottles of agate, ostrich-eggs, textiles styled yüe no, dwarfs, and dancing-girls of Hu-suan 胡旋 (Xwārism).1 In the Ts'e fu yüan kwei the date of this event is more accurately fixed in the year 718.2[142][143] The Dunhuang ruler received from the Ganzhou Kaghan 40 Sogdian slaves as tribute.
The Tang dynasty Chinese Xuanzang (Hsüan Tsung) emperor's court received Sogdian girls who danced on rolling balls and dressed in boots of red deerskin, pantoloons made of green damask and crimson robes as tribute from Samarkand, Maimargh, Kish and Kumadh in the beginning of the 8th century.
