The Sogdian envoy Maniach and his namesakes in China
The Sogdian envoy Maniach and his namesakes in China

Summary/Abstract: Chinese sources document foreign names with phonetic transcriptions and render them in Chinese characters with close, or at least approximate, sound value. Among the Sogdians who were active at the Chinese court of the 6th century there were two persons named He Zhuruo and An Weiruo respectively. The etymology of both names can now be tentatively identified with Maniach, the name which was recorded in a Byzantine source, being that of a Sogdian envoy to Constantinople. Hence the original written form of Zhuruo and Weiruo can be restored with the spelling Moruo. The reason for these misspellings goes back to the graphic similarity of the concerned characters. Some further emendations of similar kinds are also proposed.

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