Using the twelve-year animal cycle, this paper uncovers and examines the dual phenomena of “age inflation” and “age deflation” in medieval China. While the first part raises serious doubt on the accuracy of the conventional method for calculating birth year in premodern China, the second section examining the deflation phenomenon provides yet another proof of the omnipotent law of economic rationality.

This essay is a case study of the inherent gentry bias of traditional Chinese sources, which tends to condition modern readers to view ancient East Asia through a “literati prism.” Using medieval onomastic data, the essay demonstrates the distorting effects caused by this prism, as well as the enigmas it engenders. In addition, the essay highlights a long-ignored legacy of early medieval nomadic conquests of northern China—the vulgarization of Chinese high culture.

In early medieval China, the word hu 胡, at the time referring primarily to Iranian-speaking Central Asians, came to be used in a large group of personal names whose bearers ranged from ordinary people to a member of the Tang royal family. This paper examines the true meaning of these personal names, which has neither been recorded in known primary sources nor been explained in any dictionary, ancient or modern. Using both Sinitic and Iranian onomastic data, these names are shown (...) to be part of the Iranization of Chinese nomenclature. They showcase the breadth and depth of the pre-Islamic Iranian cultural influence in medieval China. (shrink)

Extending the author’s previous studies of Chinese onomastics, this paper examines the true meaning of a large group of medieval Chinese personal names containing the character chou, “ugly.” Contrary to conventional interpretation, it is found, based on contemporary inscriptional data, that these names actually marked the birth-year of the name-bearers. Further, they represented a special case of theophoric names newly introduced from Iranian-speaking Central Asia, and reflected the deification and anthropomorphization of the twelve-animal cycle. The paper also provides a succinct (...) description of the general genre of Chinese opprobrious names, which are found to be closely related to similar names in Central Asia. Both findings help illustrate pre-Islamic Iranian-Sogdian cultural influence in China. (shrink)