An Jia died in 579CE. He had placed a stone epitaph, introducing himself to us. The epitaph is written in Chinese. He explains that he had been born in WuWei, in Ganzou Province – itself 1400 kilometers south-East of Xi’an (and even further from his ancestors) and that, at the time of his death, at the age of 62, he was sabao (community leader) in Tongzhou, just north of Xi’an. He had also been an area military commander. The epitaph does not mention his Sogdian heritage, although his Chinese name ‘An’ marks his family origins in Bukhara (kingdom of the An). This omission may have been because two years before his death, there was a revolt against the Tang Emperor led by Sogdian/Turkic general An Lushan. The revolt did not exactly endear the Sogdians to the ruling classes, especially in the capital… which may explain why An Jia chose not to explictly mention his origins in his epitaph. Incidentally, the rebellion lasted eight years and it spelled the beginning of the end of the Sogdian influence in China.
Lintel entrance of Sogdian tomb excavated in 2000CE. Shaanxi History Museum, Shaanxi, China.
It is difficult to decipher the stome. A sketch is shown above.