Persia's Link to Japan, Korea and China - The Last Sassanid Prince of Persia in China

Iran, or Persia, had long been part of the Western historical narrative. From the Bible to the Battle of Thermopylae and the war between the Byzantine and the Sassanid Empires, the link between Persia and the West was firmly established in the Western imagination. So this time, we are going to turn the other way and look at Persia's link with East Asia. where the last prince of Sassanid Persia found refuge after the fall of his once-great empire. Located along the ancient trading network called the Silk Road, Persia had long been connected to East Asia, since at least two millennia ago. While China, the largest producer of silk, is often seen as the terminus of this lucrative trading route, Persian presence did not end there. All the way to the east, in the island of Japan, a wooden tablet that dated all the way to 765 CE was discovered in the 60s. It mentioned a Persian man who worked as an educator or a trainer at the Japanese Imperial Court, which was located at Heizokyo, Nara at the time. Japan wasn't very well known in ancient Persia. It only appeared in Iranian literature in the 10th century, in a book compiled by a Persian sea captain, Bozor B. Shariar A. Ramorosi, called Kitab Ajaib Al-Hind. In it, Japan was called Wakwak. Some scholars believe that the name came from the Middle Chinese pronunciation of Wo Guo, the Chinese name for Japan. Korea also appeared in an Iranian literature called Khushnameh. Khushnameh is an ancient Persian epic poem written by Hakim Iranshah in the 12th century. It was part history and part myth. In certain part of the poem, Abtin, a descendant of Jamshid, the fourth and greatest shah of the mythological Pestadian dynasty of Iran, went eastward to Basila, a place that had been identified as Shilla Korea by scholars. Over there, he married a princess named Fararang, and she gave birth to the Iranian hero Fereydun. Even though this story was mostly mythical, scholars believe that the description of Shilla Korea was pretty accurate, and the writer might have known someone who had actually went there. This link can be partially confirmed by the archaeological findings in the Gyeongju Tombs, located in the ancient capital of Shilla. Over there, they have uncovered Persian glassware manufactured in the typical Sassanid Persian style. Nowadays, the link between Iran and South Korea came in the form of Korean historical drama that got crazy popular over there, Chumong. It became such cultural phenomenon, they even made a documentary about it called Chumongname. Next, I will talk about Persia's connection with China, and how the last Sassanian prince and his descendants ended up staying there. But before we get into it, let me just tell you about our sponsor, NordVPN. Yep, we are hitting the big league, boys! More funding for the channel. If you take internet security seriously, then NordVPN is your thing. You can browse the internet more securely and protect your privacy by using NordVPN to send your online traffic through a remote server located in over 50 countries. I use NordVPN personally, to be honest, mostly to get better Netflix contents from other countries. If you are hankering for some cool history on YouTube, and you are on a trip to China, you can also use NordVPN to access YouTube. Otherwise, YouTube is usually blocked over there. You just need to sign up and download the app before going to China, because the NordVPN website itself is blocked, but the app still functions normally. If you use the URL and the promo code on screen, then you will get a massive 70% discount. You can also find this info in the description section and pinned comments, so you can just copy and paste them. Using NordVPN is really easy too. All you need to do is 1. Sign up to the plan on the website using the links below, 2. Download the app, 3. Log into the app, and 4. Pick your server. As part of NordVPN's birthday promotion, every purchase of a two-year plan will also get you an extra month free and a special gift. Anyway, back to history. First thing first, let me clarify the difference between the term Persia and Iran. These two terms are almost used interchangeably. Iranians have always called their land Iran, which means the land of the Aryans. Persia is the word the Greeks use to refer to them. It comes from Persis, or Fars, the region where the Achaemenid dynasty royalty came from. The Achaemenids were the first historical Persian dynasty. In China, they used a similar name to Persia for Iran, Bors. Oh, side note, if you are interested in the history of the Achaemenid dynasty, then check out History with Si's video on it after watching this one. The name Bors was first mentioned during the short-lived Northern Zhou dynasty in the 6th century, during the chaotic period when China was divided into the Northern and Southern dynasties. Chinese envoys who were seeking an alliance against the Turks reported that the surname of the Sassanid king was Bo, and his name was Si. Eh, there might be some translation error there, since it doesn't seem to match the name of the Sasanian Shahanshahs, or king of kings at the time. Nevertheless, the name kinda stuck for a long time. China was actually aware of the land of Persia during the Han dynasty, when the 2nd century BCE traveller Zhang Qian travelled to Central Asia and received a second-hand account of the Parthian empire. At the time, it was called Anxi. There were also records of Chinese envoys visiting Parthia, and Parthian Buddhists travelled to China to translate Buddhist scriptures. On the other hand, China only started to appear in medieval Persian literature since the Islamic conquest of Persia. The name for China in Persia was Qin. Then it's later known as Majin, which is a contraction of the Indian Sanskrit word Mahajina, or Great China. Chinese goods such as silk was highly sought after. Before the Islamic conquest of Persia by the Rashidun Caliphate, the last Persian ruling dynasty was the Sassanid dynasty. In the early 7th century, the Sassanids fought a devastating war with the Byzantine Empire, and the Sassanid's loss plunged it into a civil war. By the end of the war, the 8-year-old Yazdegerd III was enthroned as the Shahanshah in 632. But he was really just a figurehead, and the heavy Sassanid hanging crown felt a lot like the Sword of Damocles. His waning empire was being attacked from within by feuding factions, and without by the Western Turkic Khaganate, Khazars, and the newly established Islamic Caliphate, the last of which would eventually conquer it. After the defeat of the Sassanian general Rostam Farrukhzad at the Battle of Al-Qadisiyah in 636 against the Caliphate, the Caliphate pressed forward towards the Sassanian capital, Ctesiphon, and took it in 637. So Yazdegerd was forced to flee eastward to Isfahan. After suffering a mutiny, he then moved to Istakhar, which was in the ancient ancestral homeland of the Persians, the Fars province. As he faced multiple defeat by the Caliphate, he eventually sought assistance from Tang Dynasty China, and sent envoy requesting military assistance in 647 and 48. The Sassanids had paid tribute to the Tang Dynasty and previous dynasties, so now they're asking for the Tang Dynasty's emperor to fulfill his end of the relationship, to protect their vassal. But as I've discussed in a previous episode, the Chinese tributary system is more of a theater to boost the Chinese emperor's prestige and show off their generosity rather than a real vassalage system. The tribute the Chinese dynasty received would be repaid with a bigger gift, and the main purpose of this relationship was really just to facilitate trade. So the Chinese weren't really that keen on offering help for nothing. Besides, the reigning emperor of the time, Tang Taizong, had just suffered a major defeat by the Goguryeo Koreans, and he was too busy sending subsequent campaigns against them. Without the assistance, Fars was finally taken by the Caliphate army, and Yazdegerd was killed by a miller during his escape eastward. The mantle of resistance was then taken up by his son, Peros III. In a cruel twist of irony, his name means victorious in Persian. Peros faced the same difficulty his father had, so he continued to send envoys to Tang to try to turn the tide around. He sent another envoy in 654, but the reigning emperor Gaozong was too busy helping Silla, one of the three kingdoms of Korea, to fight their war with their neighbor Goguryeo. In 661, Tang's war with Goguryeo was still ongoing, but they felt that they had the upper hand by this time. So Peros's persistence paid off, and he finally received some assistance when the Tang dynasty helped him set up the Persian military commandery in Tokharistan, and made him the commander. He was also recognized by the Tang court as the king of Persia, despite all that he had lost. Thus, he sent multiple envoys to Tang to maintain good relationship. He sent envoys in 667, 671, and eventually visited the capital, Chang'an himself in 673. He returned in 674, probably because he was defeated by the caliphate, and finally died in Chang'an in 677. It wasn't known where he was buried, but his statue with the inscription, Peros, King of Persia, Grand General of the Right Courageous Guard, and Commander-in-Chief of Persia, still stands among the statue of foreign ambassadors in Qianling Mausoleum, where Emperor Gaozong and the female emperor Wu Zetian was buried. It wasn't known when Peros's son, Narseh, came to Chang'an, but he might have been left as a hostage since as early as 661. The title, King of Persia, was then passed on to him, and the Chinese general, Pei Xingjian, was ordered to escort him to regain the Sasanian throne, and also pacify the conflict in Central Asia. Easy, eh? They only get as far as Tokharistan until they were bogged down in local conflicts against the Western Turkic Khaganate and the Tibetan Empire. So Narseh was stuck there and continued to serve the Tang army after Pei Xingjian's death. He stayed there to fight against the Caliphate army for the next few decades. He finally returned to Chang'an in 708 and was bestowed the title, General of the Left Majestic Guard, before dying of illness. His descendants remained in China. His son, Pusang, continued to fight against the Caliphate, but alas, he was also unable to revive the Sassanid dynasty. The Tang dynasty at the time was a very cosmopolitan empire. Though away from home, Narseh's descendants wouldn't feel so out of place, especially at Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty, where they could easily find another Persian. In fact, they would be easily lost among the sea of traders, envoys, and students of diverse backgrounds from places as far west as India all the way to the eastern island of Japan. On the next episode, we're going to follow the famous Japanese envoy Abe no Nagamaro on his mission to China and take a closer look at the cosmopolitan Tang dynasty. So be sure to subscribe so that you won't miss it. By the way, if you want to support us, then come to Patreon and be our bro. Until next time, stay cool my bros.