Under the Sui 隋 and Tang 唐 Dynasties, most of the Sogdian people living in China assumed one of the following nine surnames in accordance with the land or city of their origin: Kang 康, An 安, Cao 曹, He 何, Shi 史, Shi 石, Mu 穆, Bi 畢, and Mi 米. The place of origin of a family can actually be easily identified because of the regular correspondence between the surname and the toponym associated with the respective region. For instance, the surname 'Kang' 康 was given to those Sogdian families coming from the Land of Kang 康國, i.e. Samarkand. One finds only very few references to the history and reasons lying behind the diversification of the Sogdian surnames on Chinese soil. The present paper attempts to explore some of the basic aspects of this subject. Chapter One looks into the relation between Sogdian surnames and the names of their land of origin mainly by examining the linguistic facet of the problem. Chapter Two investigates relevant historical documents which allow us to trace the formation of each Sogdian surname. I examine the historical evidence for possible clues as to the background and reasons for choosing a certain surname. In both Chapters One and Two, I actually re-visit the most commonly accepted theory concerning the correspondence between Sogdian surnames and their place of origin, i.e. toponyms serving as surnames originate from rough phonetic transcriptions, or rather abridgements, in Chinese characters of actual Sogdian place names. These abbreviated toponyms were then given to the Sogdians depending on the region of origin. My investigation, however, reveals an opposite picture. Most of the Sogdian surnames were actually adopted for reasons not directly related to phonetic transcriptions. There is a consistent tendency of one group coming from a specific region to adopt one particular surname. Between ca. 560 and 600, we start seeing compounds as the 'Land of Shi' 史國 or 'Land of He' 何國. It is at this stage that the word 'land' 國 is used in conjunction with the surnames, and not the other way round. Chronologically speaking, in the early phase of Sogdian presence on Chinese soil, which starts with the Later Han 後漢 dynasty, Kang 康 was the only surname generally used for all members of this ethnic group regardless of their region of origin. Later, however, we witness a diversification. Probably as early as the latter half of the 5^<th> century, the surname An 安 may have also been used by people of Sogdian origin. Sometime between the end of the 5^<th> century and middle of the 6^<th> century, the Sogdians seem to have started adopting surnames like Cao 曹, He 何, Shi 史, and Mu 穆. Slightly later, three other names, i.e. Shi 石, Bi 畢, and Mi 米, also came to be employed. In Chapter Three, I try to explain the reasons and social background behind this diversification, and turn my attention to the relation between marriage customs and surnames. This chapter is based on a collation of relevant data extracted from funeral inscriptions between the 6^<th> century and 10^<th> century. My survey reveals the existence of a total of 83 cases in which at least one of the partners had one of the following surnames indicating Sogdian origin: Kang 康, An 安, and Mi 米. Amongst these, only three seem to have been couples in which both husband and wife bore the same surname. This fact suggests that for the most part, the marriage between Sogdian couples followed the Chinese custom of surname exogamy 同姓不婚. This fact leads me to believe that the diversification of the Sogdian surnames from one to nine served an obvious social function. This process made it possible for people coming from the same ethnic stock to get married while still respecting the Chinese taboo of surname exogamy. Actually, in 483 the Northern Wei dynasty 北魏 decreed that surname exogamy should be strictly observed. This might have been one of the
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