Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-19T08:50:50.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Another Sogdian–Chinese bilingual epitaph*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2017

Bi Bo*
Affiliation:
Renmin University of China, Beijing
Nicholas Sims-Williams*
Affiliation:
SOAS University of London
Yan Yan*
Affiliation:
Wangye Museum, Shenzhen

Abstract

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 ce. The two texts are published here for the first time and accompanied by a detailed commentary on philological and historical points of interest.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2017 

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

*

Bi Bo and Nicholas Sims-Williams would like to thank Professor Rong Xinjiang for drawing their attention to this unpublished inscription in the Wangye Museum, Shenzhen, and putting them in touch with Mr Yan Yan, the Museum's Director. The authors are also grateful to Professor Yutaka Yoshida for his many insightful suggestions cited below. Dr Bi's research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Research Funds of Renmin University of China and the China Scholarship Council.

References

Andreev, Mixail S. and Peščereva, Elena M.. 1957. Jagnobskie teksty s priloženiem jagnobsko-russkogo slovarja. Moscow and Leningrad: Akademija Nauk SSSR.Google Scholar
Bailey, Harold W. 1982. The Culture of the Sakas in Ancient Iranian Khotan. Delmar, NY: Caravan Books.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile. 1940. Textes sogdiens, édités, traduits et commentés. Paris: Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Bi, Bo. 2009. “Lun Beiqi gongting neibu ji ducheng zhoubian de huren yu huhua” (On the Hu People and their influence in the Northern Qi imperial court and surrounding areas), Wen Shi 69, 4758 [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Cheng, Linquan, Xiangyu, Zhang and Yamashita, Shoji. 2008. “Beizhou Kang Ye muzhi kaolue” (A brief study of the epitaph of Kang Ye under the Northern Zhou), Wenwu 2008/6, 82–4 [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Dohi, Yoshikazu. 2015. Complete Collection of Personal Names in Dunhuang from Late Eighth Century to Early Eleventh Century. Tokyo: Kyuko shoin [in Japanese].Google Scholar
Grenet, Frantz, Sims-Williams, Nicholas and de la Vaissière, Étienne. 2001. “The Sogdian Ancient Letter V”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 12, 1998 [2001], 91104.Google Scholar
Hansen, Olaf. 1930. “Zur soghdischen Inschrift auf dem dreisprachigen Denkmal von Karabalgasun”, Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 44/3, 139.Google Scholar
Harrison, Paul and McRae, John. 1998. The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra and the Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sūtra. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.Google Scholar
Henning, Walter B. 1937. “Ein manichäisches Bet- und Beichtbuch”, Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist. Klasse 1936/10 [1937].Google Scholar
Henning, Walter B. 1948. “The date of the Sogdian Ancient Letters”, BSOAS 12/3, 601–15.Google Scholar
Hübschmann, Heinrich. 1895. Persische Studien. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.Google Scholar
Livshits, Vladimir A. 2015. Sogdian Epigraphy of Central Asia and Semirech'e. (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Part II, Vol. III/4.) London: SOAS.Google Scholar
Loewe, Michael. 1993. Early Chinese Texts: a Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China.Google Scholar
Lurje, Pavel B. 2011. Personal Names in Sogdian texts. (Iranisches Personennamenbuch II/8.) Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010 [2011].Google Scholar
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1991. Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2001. “The Sogdian Ancient Letter II”, in Schmidt, Maria Gabriela and Bisang, Walter (eds), Philologica et Linguistica. Historia, Pluralitas, Universitas. Festschrift für Helmut Humbach zum 80. Geburtstag am 4. Dezember 2001. Trier: Wissenschaftliche Verlag Trier, 267–80.Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, Nicholas. 2016. A Dictionary: Christian Sogdian, Syriac and English. (Beiträge zur Iranistik 41.) Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, Nicholas and Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond. 2012. Dictionary of Manichaean Sogdian and Bactrian (Dictionary of Manichaean Texts III/2). Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Sun, Fuxi. 2005. “Investigations on the Chinese version of the Sino-Sogdian bilingual inscription of the tomb of Lord Shi”, in de la Vaissière, Étienne and Trombert, Éric (eds), Les sogdiens en Chine. Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 4755.Google Scholar
Wang, Ding. 2012. “Notes on medieval Chinese inscriptions and manuscripts relating to Sino-Eurasian contacts (III)”, in The History behind the Languages. Essays of Turfan Forum on Old Languages of the Silk Road. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chuban she, 183–7 [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Wang, Shiduo. 1861. Shuijing zhu tu (Illustrated Commentary on the Water Classic). Wuchang [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Yang, Junkai. 2014. Beizhou Shi Jun mu (Shi Jun Tomb of the Northern Zhou Dynasty). Beijing: Cultural Relics Press [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Yoshida, Yutaka. 1988. “On the Sogdian version of the Kara Balgasun inscription”, Bulletin of the Society for Western and Southern Asiatic Studies, Kyoto University, 28, 2452 [in Japanese].Google Scholar
Yoshida, Yutaka. 1999. “Sogdian part of Bugut inscription”, in Takao, Moriyasu and Ayudai, Ochir (eds), Provisional Report of Researches on Historical Sites and Inscriptions in Mongolia from 1996 to 1998. Osaka: The Society of Central Eurasian Studies, 122–4 [in Japanese and English].Google Scholar
Yoshida, Yutaka. 2005. “The Sogdian version of the new Xi'an inscription”, in de la Vaissière, Étienne and Trombert, Éric (eds), Les sogdiens en Chine. Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 5772.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Yutaka. 2009. “Turco-Sogdian features”, in Sundermann, Werner et al. (eds), Exegisti monumenta: Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 571–85.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Yutaka. 2013. “When did Sogdians begin to write vertically?”, Tokyo University Linguistic Papers 33, 375–94.Google Scholar