Zoroastrianism in Sichuan
He believed that Zoroastrianism was popular in the region during the Tang dynasty (618–907), after learning of the festival songs of the magi[a] present in the yuefu folk music of Kuizhou, and reading an entry titled "The Princess [of Shu]" from the 16th-century encyclopedia Extended Investigations of the Mountain Hall [zh], in 1928.
[4] Sogdian immigrants reached Yizhou as early as the Shu Han period (221–263), and flourished during the Liang dynasty (502–557).
[5] Apart from Sogdia, the original homelands of the Yizhou Sogdians may also include several kingdoms in the Western Regions, namely, Chalmadana [zh], Charklik, Khotan, Kroraïna, Qocho, and the nearby de facto independent state of Guiyi Dunhuang.
Their journey probably began in the Western Regions, passed through Tuyuhun, Songzhou [zh],[c] and went down further south to reach Chengdu.
[8] He had amassed a sizeable fortune from his expertise in weaving silk with gold thread, a technique said to have come from the Byzantine Empire.
This toponym is attested near Merv, but not far from Chengdu are found the large salt water wells of the Yangtze basin.
8th century), an officer with the rank of General of the Standard [zh] from western Yizhou, was a famed military figure of his time.
[13][14] Shi Shenhui,[h] originally from Chach, became one of the representatives of the Baotang School of Chan Buddhism in Chengdu during the Tang dynasty.
According to the epitaph of the Zoroastrian sārtpāw, An Jia (518–579), his father An Tujian[i] served as a governor of Mei Prefecture in western Yizhou.
[20] A certain Su Yin[o] from Jia Prefecture composed some festival songs of the magi in the style of the music for Bayu dance [zh].
Li Shunxian, their younger sister, was a painter, poet and a concubine of Wang Zongyan, emperor of Former Shu.
Their religious background has been suggested as Zoroastrian or East Syriac Christian by Li Guotao and Lo Hsiang-lin, respectively.
[22] According to the epitaph of the Zoroastrian sārtpāw, An Jia (518–579), his father An Tujian[r] served as a governor of Mei Prefecture in western Yizhou.
According to Rong Xinjiang, Mei Prefecture might be one of the Sogdian colonies in Yizhou, where Zoroastrian presence was likely to last until well into the Tang dynasty, but limited within the Iranian communities.
'bizarre'), Yao Chongxin believed this "bizarre temple" Lai Zhide visited in the 16th century was actually the remains of a medieval Zoroastrian place of worship.
It states that during the ritual, Yang Xiu invoked a "supernatural army composed of nine hundred million horsemen".
This entry caught Kiichirō Kanda [ja]'s attention in 1928, which made him the first scholar to notice the Zoroastrian presence in medieval Sichuan.
[27] Li Guotao's supposition was rejected by Yao Chongxin due to the lack of solid evidence to support his theory.
A fragmentary mural from Kalai Kahkaha I (ruins of a palace of the Principality of Ushrusana) in the archaeological site of Bunjikat shows an archery Weshparkar wearing armor and a helmet (figure f).
His depiction in one of the Penjikent murals shows the deity with three heads, wearing armor and a helmet, and holding a trident (figure g).
Sixteen years later on the festival day of the bathing of the Buddha, people gathered in the temple to attend the celebration.
Fortunately, gods and buddhas revealed the inappropriateness of your lifestyle as a monk, otherwise, would not the sacred fire of Wushan Zoroastrian Temple spread here to destroy us all?'"
[34] According to the American art historian Wu Hung, house-shaped sarcophagus originated in Sichuan during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), and this type of sarcophagus symbolizes some sort of ethnic connection, since it was not used by the indigenous Chinese who had lived in central and southern China, but was preferred by the Sogdians, Xianbei, and other people of Chinese or non-Chinese ancestry who had immigrated to northern China from the West.
Based on this information, the archaeologists speculated that the house-shaped sarcophagus discovered in Laowuchang is likely to belong to one of the descendants of the above-mentioned Uyghurs.
