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Abstract
Six tombs attributed to the Shi family were excavated in Guyuan (China) between 1982 and 1996. The seven epitaph inscriptions (representing seven patrilineal generations) make it possible to reconstruct the life histories of the family members buried between AD 609 and AD 678. The comparative analysis of the epitaph inscriptions suggests links between individual biographies of the Shi men and known historical events. It indicates that the family, involved in the political changes taking place throughout the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou to Sui and early Tang dynasties, successfully survived these turbulent and glorious times of Chinese history. The present paper also discusses the biculturalism and Sogdian ancestry of the Guyuan Shi family. All six Shi men were born in northern China. Their immediate forefathers likely originated from oases-states in Xinjiang, but not from Sogdiana directly, though more distant roots may lead to the Shi (Kesh) state (in present-day Uzbekistan). The Shi family case demonstrates that middle-class Sogdians during Sui and early Tang dynasty times served as cavalry officers and civil officials. However, horse acquisition and breeding on imperial ranches north of the capital was perhaps their main business, which contributed to their wealth and to the consolidation and expansion of the Chinese state.
Acknowledgements
Our thanks are due to Chen X.C., D. Durkin-Meisterernst, Li X., Luo F., Chen W., Cheng Y.X., Zhang X.Y. for valuable comments and assistance in making material available for us. Furthermore, we would like to express our thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their thorough review and constructive suggestions, which helped us to improve this manuscript, to C. Leipe for producing a topographic map of the region, and to C. Reichard and M. Berger for drafting Figures 2–10.