I know of tributary princesses. When I say interracial though, I mean something more like... between East Asians and middle easterners. During the Tang times, I think I had heard something like a Persian princess being married to an Imperial prince. Maybe I'm muddling things up, but are there such accounts?
With the common people, I'm sure it happened if one was a merchant or garrison soldier. Examples of that would be nice, but I'm interested in finding out political marriages mostly.

Well it isn't actually China, but in Korea there was this little state called Geumgwan Gaya, which existed during the Korean 3 kingdoms period. Legend says that an Indian princess sailed to Geumgwan Gaya from the kingdom of "Ayuta", which was in India, and became the king's queen. The King's name is "Suro"...BTW outside of this legend there are no reccords of a kingdom called Ayuta. Supposedly King's Suro's tomb has a lot of Indian influence in it...

Nope, as far as I know Middle Eastern or Indian states never sent princesses to marry Chinese princes. It was only Chinese princesses (more often 'fake princeses' who were not of the direct imperial line) who could be sent to Central Asian states to form marriage alliances. The last Sassanid Persian crown prince Firoz did flee to Tang China after the destruction of his empire by the Muslim Arabs, but I have not heard of any of his daughters marrying Chinese princes.

The Chinese has always considered it a degrading by marrying a prince to a "Barbarian" princess. The only time that happened was when Mocho Khagan demanded a prince, Wu Ze Tien brought one of her own family to the north, Mocho thought it was not good enough for his family and wanted Tang princes. And in turn invaded Tang with his entire horde.



Surprisingly the only real princess that were married off was with the Uighurs, is there a reason for this?

I seemed to recall that though no foreign princesses ever became empresses, foreign tributes to the Imperial Court included high-born ladies. Some of these women supposedly got enlisted into the Imperial harem. Anyone knows about these?

(And I am not referring to the folklore Princess Xiang during the reign of Qian Long of Qing dynasty).

Er, actually, I think it is Tang princesses marrying Tangut princes? I did read something like that once. Think it was Lin Yutang. And I know that a Tang princess married Tibetan prince Songzan Gambo. But what some of you guys say is true that Chinese considered it below them to marry pure-blooded imperials to foreigners, so I can hazard a guess that most of the "princesses" were either minor royals or from the ranks of the nobility. Just a guess, I'm not a scholar.

Btw, two questions:

1) Could the emperor arrange for the marriages of members of his court or their family members?

2) Was Northern Song ever on good enough terms with Xixia for there to be an exchange of princes or princesses in marriage?

Yes, it was quite funny. Wu Zhao had founded her own Zhou dynasty, but the Turkut refused to take it seriously. When she sent one of her relatives to marry Mocho's daughter, he said: "I asked for a Li, so what's this Wu fellow doing here?" He then threw the poor guy into prison and started attacking the Zhou.



In 756, the An Lushan Rebellion had broken out and the Tang court desperately needed to get the Uyghurs on their side to fight An Lushan. So when they sent the Prince of Dunhuang, Li Chengcai to get Uyghur support, and the Uyghur kaghan married his daughter to Li Chengcai, not only did Tang Xuanzong accept this but he also gave the Uyghur girl the title of Princess of Pijia.

As for real Chinese princesses being sent to the Uyghurs, I have not heard much of this. Could you give some details?

OK, I went to check this up in my reference book. When the Uyghur kaghan married his 'daughter' to Li Chengcai in 756, this 'daughter' was actually a sister of his queen whom he had taken as an adopted daughter for the purpose of the marriage alliance with the Tang. The Pijia (Bilge) in the title given by the Tang to this 'princess' was a traditional title among the Uyghur.

In 758, after the Uyghur had helped the Tang to retake Luoyang and Chang'an, Emperor Suzong (Li Heng) married his youngest daughter, Princess Ningguo, to the Uyghur kaghan (Yingwu Kaghan). The princess was given the title of kedun (Queen) by the kaghan. This was the first time in history that a Chinese emperor gave his own daughter as a bride to a ruler of a foreign ethnicity. In fact, the daughter of Prince Rong (a member of the imperial house) also went along as a concubine for the Yingwu Kaghan.

In 759, the Yingwu Kaghan passed away. Princess Ningguo, widowed after just a year of marriage, chose to return to the Tang court. But the daughter of Prince Rong stayed on and married the next kaghan (Yingyi Kaghan, son of Yingwu Kaghan), being raised to the rank of kedun and addressed as the Lesser Princess Ningguo. After the Yingyi Kaghan was killed by his general Tun Bagha Tarkhan in 779, the Lesser Princess lived alone as a widow and died in 791.

The Yingyi Kaghan also married two daughters of the great Tang general Pugu Huai'en (of Tie'le ethnicity): one in 758 when he was still heir to the kaghanate (she was given the kedun title along with the Lesser Princess Ningguo when he became kaghan in 759), and one in 768 after the first daughter passed away. It's interesting that by 768, Pugu Huai'en had died and was considered a rebel. He had been accused of conspiring with the Uyghurs in 763, and in his anger rose in rebellion with the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Tuyuhun and Tanguts but suddenly died of illness in 765. Guo Ziyi then won the Uyghurs back to the side of the Tang. But Pugu Huai'en's youngest daughter was still given the title of Princess Chonghui by the Tang court and married to the Uyghur kaghan in 768 - probably because Huai'en's prestige among the Uyghurs was so high.

Tun Bagha Tarkhan took over as the Uyghur ruler, but did not have official recognition from the Tang court. Hence in 787, he sent an envoy to the Tang court to request a Tang princess in marriage. Emperor Dezong was persuaded by his prime minister Li Mi to agree to this, and sent his eighth daughter Princess Xian'an to be Tun Bargha's kedun in 788, on five conditions including that Tun Bargha declared himself the 'son' and subject of the Tang. Tun Bargha was also given the title of Tianqin Kaghan.

The Tianqin Kaghan died in 790, and Princess Xian'an had to marry three more kaghans in succession: the Zhongzhen Kaghan (790-795), the Fengcheng Kaghan (795-805), and the Huaixin Kaghan (805-808). The Zhongzhen Kaghan was killed and overthrown in 795, so the Princess married a general of the Ediz tribe who became the Fengcheng Kaghan. She lived among the Uyghur 21 years, dying in the same year as the Huaixin Kaghan. It is often forgotten in Chinese histories that princesses like her who were married off to Central Asian rulers often had to observe the custom of the land and marry the son or the successor upon the death of their husband. This happened to Liu Jieyou, the Wusun Princess during the time of Han Wudi, and also the famous Wang Zhaojun.

After Princess Xian'an's death, the Uyghurs requested another princess from the Tang. This was turned down until Emperor Xianzong finally agreed in 820 because the Tibetans were a constant threat and the Tang needed to keep the Uyghurs from allying with the Tibetans. However, Xianzong died before this could take place. His son who succeeded him (Emperor Muzong) then had his tenth sister given the title of Princess Taihe in 822 and sent to be the kedun of the Chongde Kaghan. This was the last Tang-Uyghur royal marriage before the destruction of the Uyghur kaghante by the Khirghiz in 840.

In 835, Princess Taihe actually sent the Tang court a gift of seven female Uyghur horse-archers, and two Shato Turk slave boys! In 841, after the Uyghur Baimei Kaghan was killed by the Khirghiz, the last Uyghur kaghan Wujie Kaghan (who had been nominated to the position by the various chiefs) fled to the Tang, bringing Princess Taihe with him.

You may be interested in this webpage:

http://www.chinapage.com/minority/iran.html

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Narseh recounts in his diary of how his father set foot in China around the 660s A.D. Pirooz was only a little boy when the Arabs beheaded his father. Pirooz, scared and was awaiting the help of Chinese armies. He had written to his sister who was the wife of the Chinese emperor. With the Arab armies in sight, he waited no longer. They decided to cross the Pamirs. Their families along with other noble Persian clans and the soldiers crossed the treacherous snowy mountains.

... ...

The Chinese had intimate relations with Persia since the Ashkanid (Arsacid) Dynasty in Persia. Camel and donkey caravans travel back and forth both directions for almost a thousand year before the coming of Islam to this region. People mixed with each other without regards to race and color. The Chinese have a prevalence of the hereditary thalassemia disease also common throughout the Middle East and India. Other Asians such as Japanese and Koreans don't have much occurence of this blood disease.

This demonstrates that color did not have meaning in the past. There is even a tradition in Armenia, that says one of their lordly families (the Mamikonians) were originally descended from Chinese princes who fled to Persia and sought refuge after an unsuccessful rebellion in China. I am still doing some research on this. In fact, it was common in the past for both Chinese and Persian aristocracy to intermarry. The sister of Pirooz was married to the Chinese emperor as an example. Unfortunately, Ashkanid and Sasanid records are scarce because the rulers of Persia never have the habit of keeping track records. After the Arab invasions and Islam, the trade ceased. It was revived a little bit during the Mongol period, but it was never the same.
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Also, there is a verse from a certain Tang poem which says:

"Gao Di Zi Sun Jie Long Zhun, Long Zhong Zi Yu Chang Ren Shu."

"The sons and grandsons of the Supereme Emperor (i.e. members of the Tang imperial house) all have prominent/high noses, the "dragon seed" (again, referring to the imperial house) is of course different from commoners."

Could this be due to caucasian racial influences from the maternal side? (E.g. Turkic - the early Tang emperors, such as Li Shimin, had some Turkic ancestry on their maternal side, and Persian)

There also appears to be some evidence of ancient Chinese influences as far west as north-western Iran. Actually, the evidence is a stone structure occupying 120,000 square metres.

See this link:

http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_post...p?TID=1351&PN=4

As far as I know ethnically Han nobles never marry non-Han princesses. But in the Qing dynasty the ruling Manchurians very often intermarried with Mongolians. Interetingly, Emperor Kangxi is 1/4 Manchurian (grandfather), 1/4 Mongolian (grandmother) and 1/2 Han (mother).

EDIT: I should say the Han nobles never marry non-Han female after they got to power. Tang Taizong's mother and wife were ethnically Xianbei, but he married before he united the whole nation and these ladies were probably assimilated anyways.

Then you need to refute the link I presented.

yun pls refer to this links i have submitted http://www.iranianvoice.org/article494.html http://www.chinapage.com/minority/iran.html http://www.iranchamber.com/history/article...oz_in_china.php
pls refer to persian inter royal marriage with tang dynasty

Dear Yun, i have capitalized on the sentences many of his grandsons had married sassnain princesses here are excerpts taken from frank wang the author on prince pirooz
the real Tangren history
f
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: fhakka@asiawind.com
Subject: the real Tangren history
From: "Frank Wong" <fmwong99@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 00:42:46 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all the Hakka and non-Hakka Chinese brothers and sisters,

I know that sometimes I bring onto this forum with topics that have little
to do with Hakka issues. But, I found another article from a Korean guy who
really has a grudge against the Chinese. Only this time, he has something
to say about Tang China. As you know, both the Hakkas and Cantonese claim
descent from the Han Chinese during the Tang Era. It is a heritage we
cherish. Every Chinatown in America is named after Tang, whether it is
Tang-town or Tang-village or Tang-street. The Tang was really our greatest
moment in all of Chinese history. Well, anyways here is what the infamous
Korean scholar had to say (not to insult his intelligence). The story goes
like this:

"With the defeat and the flight of the Chinese Sui Emperor and his armies
from Korea, the people of Koguryo rejoiced. We fought a righteous battle
and moral victory to preserve our race and honor. In the 630 A.D.s, we
faced a new threat. After Yangdi's death and murder, his cousin Lee Shimin
rebelled and took over the throne. He was related to Yangdi on his mother's
side. His mom was also a Turkish woman of the Dulgorlar nomadic tribe. His
grandmother was also a Turkish princess. HIS GRANDSONS , many of them also
married Persian SASSANIAN PRINCESSES. This was a common trend among the
Chinese elite at that time. They tend to intermarry with the nobility of
Central Asia and Middle East. Many of the Tang emperors were highly skilled
military men, unlike the later Sung and Ming Dynasties. Tang Emperor Lee
Shimin is perhaps China's best emperor in terms of military conquest as well
as his advances in many fields of Chinese economic and cultural development.
The Tang was China's and perhaps the world's most advanced society for
over 3 centuries.

Lee Shimin had been a soldier and fighter since a very young age. He, his
father and brothers were highly influential in helping the Sui emperors
reunify all of China since the Han Dynasty. After becoming emperor (he too
killed his own father), Lee Shimin successfully defeated or contained the
various Turkish and Mongol tribes beyond the Great Wall. He was so
successful, that he drove out the Seljuk Turks from China and hence they
moved on to the Middle East. He took areas that now constitute Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. His armies once even reached the
northern Iranian city of Hamadan. They placed a military trading post there
to safeguard the Chinese caravans traveling along the Silk Road. He, then
turned his attention to Korea.

In the 630 A.D.s, new Chinese forces under a new banner appeared before the
borders of Korea. This time, the Tang Chinese armies were just as numerous
but much more hardy and better-trained compared to the Sui armies. They
marched and galloped through the Manchurian forests. As a sign of goodwill
and gesture, Emperor Lee Shimin ordered all corpses of Chinese soldiers
found along the trail to be given a proper burial. For these were the young
men who had died during the earlier Sui campaigns. As they reached the Yalu
River, the Tang armies fought a battle against the Kitan tribe and nearly
decimated them. The captured Manchurians were buried alive by the Chinese.
Legends in north Korea still speak of the Chinese Tang armies' drum beats
and cymbal clashes. There were even some Turkish allied tribes (kin to Lee
Shimin's mom) joining the Chinese in this battle. By this time, General
Ulchi Mundok was already dead. Koguryo embraced for the worst.

The Chinese Tang armies drove deep into Korea. They sacked numerous towns
and villages. They circled past the Koguryo fortified capital and raided
deep into territories of the Paekche state too. After many months, they
were pushed back to the edges of Koguryo's capital. They encamped and
immediately laid plans for an all-out siege of the capital. Once again,
many bloody battles were fought. The Koguryo capital was badly battered and
burned. It didn't look good. So, the Korean armies relied on wit again.
Faking retreat for hundreds of miles, the Koreans lured the Tang Chinese
army into a trap. At the Ansi Fortress, the Tang armies were trapped and
mauled. Emperor Lee Shimin was humiliated by his first major defeat.
Infuriated, he decided to personally lead a new army from Chang'an capital
in northwestern China. He encamped near modern-day Beijing. He also
summoned his best General Du Din

Excerpts of contents taken from frank wong

On September 3, 2000, I received another email from Frank, which appears below in full.

Dear Dr. Bedrosian,

How have you been? This is Frank Wong and I just came back from a 2 month trip to China and Tajikistan. You know, I asked some of the leading Chinese scholars at Gansu-Ningxia University about our topic of interest (Chinese-Armenian relations and Mamigonian story). They came up with many information pertaining to ancient Chinese-Iranian interactions and relations. I was able to visit 3 villages near Xian (ancient Chang'an capital) and Louyang (capital of latter Han Dynasty 100-220s A.D.). At Xian, they found the possible castle of the son of the last Sasani Iranian king, Yazdgerd III. I wrote an article for an Iranian website regarding this:

Pirooz in China, by Frank Wong

At Louyang, we saw the tattered and decomposing remains of the once glorious Han Imperial Palaces. They found corpses buried around the castle and that their remains showed violent struggles, showing us the turmoil that did occur around the last 4 decades prior to the fall of that dynasty. I told the local scholars of your story and article, and they took me on a train to visit the Xinjiang Uigur minority region. One Uigur local student, Apguz showed me around the ruins of an abandoned Han Dynasty garrison ruins. He said the local people in Kashgar city have tales of ancient Chinese and Iranian interaction, esp. during Han Dynasty. I visited some of the cave murals in that region, and saw that the hybridity and co-existence between Chinese, Iranian, and Indian cultures did take place. I really felt sorry for what the current Chinese government policies have been doing to these Uigur people, even though they speak a Turkish language. They are not really Turks. On their faces, I see also Chinese, Persian and Indian.

Apguz said that the cave murals also existed in neighboring Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. I asked the Chinese guide if travel to Tajikistan was permitted? Not many foreigners are permitted to that region because of all the violence and mess going around. But, China is occasionally allowed because of a sizeable Tajiki population also lives in China. They are allowed to visit relatives across the border under close supervision. Two years ago, the Afghanistan government allowed Chinese to retrieve some parts of the Patriot missiles dropped on that country by the U.S. I went along with the Gansu-Urumqi University exchange visit. We were only allowed to stay at the Tajik Hurriyat Univ. In Panjikant city, we were directed to some caves abandoned a very long time ago by Chinese travellers and refugees. Local Tajiks are camera-shy, but my Chinese colleagues were permitted to take some pictures. In one fresco, we found a Chinese nobleman clutching a sword.

The ancient Chinese inscriptions were quite hard to decipher, but some terms we instantly recognized. The term "western barbarians," appeared throughout the murals in many of the caves. We felt the chilling and anguish spirits within these caves. These ancient Chinese exiles knew that they probably could never return to their homeland. They were exiled to foreign lands and living in caves, so so sad. The fact that many in pictures were shown wielding swords gave me the impression that their warfare lifestyle lived with them forever. They fought nomadic Turkish Huns all their lives, and then they later had to fight fellow Chinese because of inept and corrupt emperors.

I asked the local Tajiks (through an Uigur interpretor) if they have heard any ancient legends or stories? They said they were well aware of the close Sogdian-Tang Dynasty past, but that 2,000 years ago the Chinese-Ashkani (Parthian) relation was even more close. They claimed that the Parthian originated from their territory and that many Parthian kings had summer palaces in Tajikistan. They told the story of how one local king was married to a Han Dynasty princess. They claimed that intermarriage between the two ruling families were occasional. Royal princes and princesses were exchanged and that their first place of stoppage was always in Tajikistan. Here is one of the few pictures they got of a Tajiki extended family. Some of them I can detect Chinese features. Some, esp. the isolated tribes (Yagnobi) living on the Pamir mountains look more Armenian than Persian. I heard some of them still secretly practice Zoroastrianism. Many Tajiks look like a beautiful blend of Asian and Persian features, but less so compared to Uzbeks.

There was so much more I wanted to find out about, but the stay was so short. Dr. Bedrosian, I think this country is worth studying and visiting but I advise to not go through American or Russian agency because the locals are not favored to either of them. Next fall, I got a new job and I don't think I have time for more research. Hope you continue the good work. I already experienced that chilling and incomplete feeling of what they felt and went through. I hope more Chinese and Armenians can learn and experience it as well! Best wishes to Armenians and Armenia. The spirit lives forever. God bless.

Best Regards,

Li ShiMin's non-Han ancestry was Mongolic Xianbei, not Turkic, and certainly not Persian. The Xianbei were of a Northeast Asian race.

As far as I can see, the frequent intermarriage of Sassanian royals and Tang aristocrats is just a pet theory of Frank Wong. Every bit of "evidence" cited is from his work, which seems to be encouraged by the Iranian government and also based on some rather questionable sources in Tajikstan and northwest China. Another Gavin Menzies type, I'm afraid.

For your info, the Tang emperor in the 660s was Li Zhi (Gaozong). His wife was the formidable Empress Wu, who eliminated all possible rivals for Gaozong's affections and would later make herself Emperor after his death. There is no way Pirooz's sister would have been married to him. Indeed, when Pirooz supposedly died (700 AD), Empress Wu was still the reigning emperor. Thus when Wong says that, on Pirooz's deathbed:



He seems to be unaware that the Chinese emperor at that time was a woman and would not have held a man's hand!

The debate over Frank Wong's theory continues here: http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php...c=3914&st=0

Please bring your own pinches of salt.

[Edit: That thread has now been deleted by the Administrators.]

Whether the Toba Xianbei were Mongolic or Turkic is debatable.

By the way, do you have more information on the ancient Chinese structure in north-western Iran?

I think you do have a point about Frank Wong, my mistake for jumping into an idea too fast.

have anyone contacted frank wong for his article about pirooz? his article seems to contain lots of inconclusive explanations. who was the persian emperess whom the tang emperor married? who was the tang emperor during the time of young pirooz met? there was a settlement given to the persians called "village of the western kings", where are they now? his article is not based on a solid evidence, merely a theory without a proper research. seriously.

from wiki
ayodhya


NB Ayutthaya in Siam was not established until the 13th century CE