Study On The Sogdian Costumes In The Northern Dynasties

In recent years, scholars have made lots of research on Sogidans'history, religion, living conditions in china and Chinesization, but little study on costume. With many tomb images unearthed, project on Sogdian costume is becoming a possibility. This thesis intends to study the costume characteristics of Sogdians who ever lived in China in the Northern Dynasties, composed of three parts.The first part includes chapter one and two. Chapter one made a review on the images excavated in China and Central Asia, and the publishings related to this subject. Chapter two states the history of Sogdian and its relationship with Persia, Hephthalite and Turk, since the latter three appears in the Sogdians'tomb images very frequently. Sogdians'living conditions in the Northern Dynasties of China and their tombs excavated in China are also elaborated in this chapter.Part two consists of chapter three and four. We made a statistic analysis on the images in every Sogdian tomb and classified all the types into nine, which are hairstyle, hats, cloak, shawl, robe, waist belt, skirt, trousers and footwear. I then definite the Sogdians costume characteristics based on all the categories in all three tombs and images in Dunhuang and Kizil murals, in reference of senior scholars' points of view. Finally, I studied their heritage and evolution on costume culture by analyzing the influence of exchanges between nations on costume.Part three refers to chapter five. Here we aims at studying the widespread of typical Sogdian costume in the Northern Dynasties, mainly researched on the body-fitting robe with round or turndown collar. And also this chapter made a special study on the evolution of Sogdian costume.