Source: Visit of a Persian Embassy
Recorded in the History of the Song (Songshi), the official history of the Song dynasty (960-1279), which was completed upon imperial commission in 1345, is an entry involving a tribute visit made to the Chinese imperial court at Kaifeng by emissaries from Persia (modern-day Iran). The occasion of the visit was to commemorate the ascension of emperor to be known as Song Taizong (r. 976-997), who had ascended to the throne in an uncommon succession in 976 upon the death of the dynastic founder, Song Taizu (r. 960-976), who instead of being his father, as was customary, had instead been his elder brother. The History of the Song documents the Persian embassy as having arrived the following year. Yet, via this otherwise prosaic entry, we discover that, from the standpoint of its Chinese recorders, even as much as three-and-a-half-plus centuries after the fact, no feature of the visit was more worthy of comment than that of the physical appearances of the servants who accompanied them.
Translated from the Chinese by Don J. Wyatt. Tuotuo et al., Songshi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 490.14118. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Persian Envoys and Their Retinue of Black Servants
In 977, Envoy Pusina, Vice Commissioner Mohemo[1], and Administrative Assistant Puluo and others made an offering of tribute [to the court] of the goods of their locality. Their servants, having deep-set eyes and black bodies, were called Kunlun slaves. By imperial decree, in return, these envoys were given suits of garments with lining, utensils, and currency; their servants were given variegated silk fabric, with differences [in each case].[2]
[1] Mahmud? Muhammad?
[2] Although implied here is that they were individually contoured, the passage does not explicitly apprise us of exactly how the silks gifted to the servants might have differed, whether their “differences” consisted of variances in quality; in pattern, texture, or color; or in amount or in some combination thereof. Nevertheless, I extend sincere thanks to Xiaofei Tian of Harvard University for her insightful input regarding this specific concluding aspect of the translation, which I regard as a consequential improvement in accuracy over my two previously published versions.
Discussion Questions
- Based on the description provided, from where should we suspect these servants of the Persian visiting delegation were acquired? In other words, in your estimation, where was their likely place of origin, and was it more geographically proximate to China or to Persia?
- Whereas it is clear that their Chinese hosts regarded them as such, what is the likelihood that the Persian leaders of the delegation similarly regarded their Kunlun servants as slaves?
- What does the convention of gifting tell us about the importance of the Chinese tribute system in establishing and maintaining diplomatic relations? Judging from this case, for whom should we regard conformance to the dictates of the system as being more important—the Chinese or the Persians?