A Parallel Comparison Between the Social Status of Sogdian and Chinese Aristocratic Women in Tang Dynasty

Abstract

Sogdians were active in commercial activities on the Silk Road in Tang and Song Dynasty of China. The interaction between Sogdians and Chinese promotes the exchange and development of both cultures, which resulted in some shared similarities between them, including the social status of women. However, further research is required to compare the social status of Sogdian and Chinese aristocratic women. This contributes to better knowledge about the family structure and marital relationships in Tang Dynasty, enabling researchers to reconstruct the life of aristocratic Sogdians and Chinese. In this paper, the term social status is deconstructed into female literacy, marital autonomy, and accessibility to the property. Two Sogdian ancient letters, one Tang epitaph, and several Sogdian and Chinese legal documents are analyzed from the three aspects. In conclusion, both Sogdian and Chinese aristocratic women enjoyed relatively higher social status in Tang Dynasty. Sogdian women were slightly superior to Chinese women, as they had more agency to divorce. Nevertheless, their relatively higher social statuses were not common across the entire gender and were still not comparable to their male counterparts.