Peroz of China - Epic Chinese Iranian Music

This is me having some fun mixing together the modern Iranian and Chinese musical traditions as a thematic way to represent Peroz III, the son of the last Sasanian Emperor who went to exile in China. Promoted as a high ranking military officer of the Tang-era Chinese realm, he would, alongside his son Narsieh, try to reconquer Iran with the military aid of China from the hands of the Arab Muslims, but would ultimately fail to do so. Despite this, a Zoroastrian, Iranian diaspora would continue to exist in China for many centuries afterwards as refugees from the Islamic invasion of Iran.

The main melody at the beginning was created from first writing a typical Iranian melody in the mode of Shur, and then subtracting notes from it in order to create a pentatonic effect; the principal melodic form of Chinese music. I also added my Sasanian leitmotif, played in the manner of modern Persian Classical music using the setar, tar and oud, with the tombak as the drum accompaniment. The Iranian daf provides the main percussions throughout most of the piece, and they're accompanied by the guzheng, erhu, yangqin, a Chinese dulcimer, the santour, a closely related Iranian dulcimer, and the Iranian ney flute.

More interestingly, the melody that starts at 02:48 is a historical melody from circa the period of Peroz III, played on modern Chinese instruments. Called Jiu Huzi, or the Wine Puppet, this melody comes to us from Tang-era China, and was transcribed in the 70's by Laurence Picken, who found it surviving in 12th century Japanese manuscripts, where it was called Shukoshi. The reason I featured this melody goes beyond its era-appropriate nature, as it's a piece of music that is inherently linked to the Iranian world. The piece of music seems to be in reference to a tradition of puppetry that portrayed Sogdians, an Iranic people related to the Persians, whose wine seemed to have been prized by the local Chinese. An important Sogdian diaspora seemed to exist there, and these puppets would portray the exotically dressed, red-haired and blue eyed Sogdian character getting drunk and falling over. In The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (1963), Edward H. Schafer, paraphrasing the Japanese scholar Ishida Mikinosuke, writes: "The same young poets who languished over the pretty Iranian waitresses in the metropolitan wineshops laughed at the little puppets representing drunken Sogdians, with their peaked caps, blue eyes, and high noses, with which they played in houses of prostitution--when the ridiculous puppet fell over, the guest at whom it pointed had to empty his cup... These puppets were called chiu hu-tzu [i.e., jiu huzi, 酒胡子] or pu tsui hsien [i.e., bu zui xian, 捕醉仙]."

The lyrics come from the Ballad of King Vahram, part of which I sang in my song of the same name from 2021. A piece of Middle-Persian Zoroastrian text from after the Islamic invasion (some scholars argue very soon after the invasion), it represent the hopes of the Zoroastrian Iranians for the return of a messianic figure from India who will drive away the Muslims and restore the native religion to the land.

Middle-Persian lyrics:
Be niger ka čand wad abgand ān druz pad ēn gēhān ka nēst wattar az ōy andar gēhān.

Mazgitīhā frōd hilēm, be nišānēm ātaxšān uzdēszārīhā be kanēm ud pāk kunēm az gēhān, tā wany šawēnd druz-wišūdagān az ēn gēhān.

Frazaft pad drōd šādīh

English translation:
Behold how much evil that demon has cast upon the world,
There is no more evil than they in the world,

We will destroy the mosques, establish fires,
We will raze the idol temples and blot them from the world,

Til' evil gets destroyed, the daevic creature from the world,
Finished with salutations and happiness.

[faryafaraji]

This is me having some fun mixing together the modern Iranian and Chinese musical traditions as a thematic way to represent Peroz III, the son of the last Sasanian Emperor who went to exile in China. Promoted as a high ranking military officer of the Tang-era Chinese realm, he would, alongside his son Narsieh, try to reconquer Iran with the military aid of China from the hands of the Arab Muslims, but would ultimately fail to do so. Despite this, a Zoroastrian, Iranian diaspora would continue to exist in China for many centuries afterwards as refugees from the Islamic invasion of Iran.

The main melody at the beginning was created from first writing a typical Iranian melody in the mode of Shur, and then subtracting notes from it in order to create a pentatonic effect; the principal melodic form of Chinese music. I also added my Sasanian leitmotif, played in the manner of modern Persian Classical music using the setar, tar and oud, with the tombak as the drum accompaniment. The Iranian daf provides the main percussions throughout most of the piece, and they're accompanied by the guzheng, erhu, yangqin, a Chinese dulcimer, the santour, a closely related Iranian dulcimer, and the Iranian ney flute.

More interestingly, the melody that starts at 02:48 is a historical melody from circa the period of Peroz III, played on modern Chinese instruments. Called Jiu Huzi, or the Wine Puppet, this melody comes to us from Tang-era China, and was transcribed in the 70's by Laurence Picken, who found it surviving in 12th century Japanese manuscripts, where it was called Shukoshi. The reason I featured this melody goes beyond its era-appropriate nature, as it's a piece of music that is inherently linked to the Iranian world. The piece of music seems to be in reference to a tradition of puppetry that portrayed Sogdians, an Iranic people related to the Persians, whose wine seemed to have been prized by the local Chinese. An important Sogdian diaspora seemed to exist there, and these puppets would portray the exotically dressed, red-haired and blue eyed Sogdian character getting drunk and falling over. In The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (1963), Edward H. Schafer, paraphrasing the Japanese scholar Ishida Mikinosuke, writes: "The same young poets who languished over the pretty Iranian waitresses in the metropolitan wineshops laughed at the little puppets representing drunken Sogdians, with their peaked caps, blue eyes, and high noses, with which they played in houses of prostitution--when the ridiculous puppet fell over, the guest at whom it pointed had to empty his cup... These puppets were called chiu hu-tzu [i.e., jiu huzi, 酒胡子] or pu tsui hsien [i.e., bu zui xian, 捕醉仙]."

The lyrics come from the Ballad of King Vahram, part of which I sang in my song of the same name from 2021. A piece of Middle-Persian Zoroastrian text from after the Islamic invasion (some scholars argue very soon after the invasion), it represent the hopes of the Zoroastrian Iranians for the return of a messianic figure from India who will drive away the Muslims and restore the native religion to the land.

Middle-Persian lyrics:
Be niger ka čand wad abgand ān druz pad ēn gēhān ka nēst wattar az ōy andar gēhān.

Mazgitīhā frōd hilēm, be nišānēm ātaxšān uzdēszārīhā be kanēm ud pāk kunēm az gēhān, tā wany šawēnd druz-wišūdagān az ēn gēhān.

Frazaft pad drōd šādīh

English translation:
Behold how much evil that demon has cast upon the world,
There is no more evil than they in the world,

We will destroy the mosques, establish fires,
We will raze the idol temples and blot them from the world,

Til' evil gets destroyed, the daevic creature from the world,
Finished with salutations and happiness.

[SrJomba]

Iranians fleeing to China due to the Arab invasion is definitely one of the greatest crossovers of real life

[xtzznpm]

in my hometown in china, until today you can still find the tomb of the last prince of Sasanian Emperor, it's in xi-an, welcome if any of you wanna pay a visit

[HistorywithCy]

Wow, this is truly amazing! I'm so fascinated with what happened to the Sasanids and other Iranians who fled to parts of eastern central Asia and China after the Arab conquest of Iran. This is truly an EPIC piece! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[ChthonicRemains]

The Chinese yangqin sounding so similar to the Persian santoor that they blend so seamlessly. Farya is a musical genius.

[TakedaK]

Babe wake up, Farya is doing a song with Chinese elements!
Best birthday gift ever!

[XerxesPrinceOfPersia]

Another certified Silk Road classic !!
I remember reading an archived news article about some worshippers in the fire temple in Karachi pre independence trying to stop a “chinaman” from entering and then being surprised when he prayed in Avestan, and then chastised them for smoking, perhaps the fires still burn in China

[Eugene-tmfm]

Chinese and Iranian? Boy oh boy we’re being treated today

[FlaviusBelisarius]

It's pretty incredible how the son of the last sassanid emperor escaped and lived in China after the collapse of the persian empire with it's millenial history. I think i love Iranian history

[OneFlyingTonk]

Sino-Iranian is a blend I would've never expected to be possible musically, yet the funny canadian man proves it a wrong assumption. I had once read of what befell Peroz III, but never I assume something so beautiful could be composed from it. ¡Kudos!

[olcooksy]

I can't express how much this means.

The Wine Puppet has been a sentimental song to me for a long time, and I often wondered what a "sogdian rendition" might sound like. If anyone could figure out how to produce an ancient Chinese melody with an ancient Iranian flair, it would be Farya Faraji. It was a niche dream I never expected you to try.

So thank you, Farya Faraji, Yiang Ling, and Amanda Toh for your work.

[ariadnefatsi]

The moment when you've learned more about world history from Farya's songs than in all of your school curricula.
Huge respect for the amount of research that must've gone into representing yet another culture.

[tylerbrubaker]

Chinese and Iranian, two cultures I hold dear to my heart. Bless you, brother. 🐉 💚🦁❤️🐉

[tianming]

The story of the Sasanians fleeing to China is probably one of my favourite episodes of world history and I'm so happy to see it represented here! Honestly your channel has gotten me more interested in learning about history and on some topics taught me more than I learned in school. Keep up the amazing work!!

[CodyosVladimiros]

Last time I was this early, the Sassanians were still ruling.

[glthemusicenjoyer]

Hearing the sasanian theme played on a Chinese instrument is not what I expected to hear today, but is still amazing

[miguellemir]

Sino-Iranian Ballad really wasnt on my bingo card!

[THE_EMPEROR_HUNTER]

Last year I was watching videos of the prince of Persia series, and out curiosity I searched Persian empire, at first I wasn’t interested in Iranian history, and I heard a lot about Cyrus the great and I thought “meh he was just an ancient king that conquered some land and that’s it” I was dumb as shit until I listened to “I am Cyrus” and it was your first song I listened to, I was blown away by how good it was, and it made me obsessed with Iranian history, and to this day I question myself: “ what would I be obsessed with if I didn’t listen to that song?” I am grateful for it, thank you farya for everything❤

[AorER]

God YES!!! Please Farya, PLEASE do more ancient Chinese songs!

[kaykysoares]

I imagined that sooner or later Farya would arrive in this part of the world, since he has already been to China a few times... We can always expect at least good songs from him, but usually they are more than excellent. Great work, brother Faraji!