| Court art of Sogdian Samarqand in the 7th century AD | |||||||||||||
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Western wall
Lazar Al'baum was the first to identify the right provenience of figures 24-25 on the western wall.
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This image depicts figures no. 24 and 25, the last delegates on the
right half of the western wall. The mural is heavily defaced, but one can
see at least the outlines of the two persons, furnished with long straight
swords and long feathers as headgear. On the paintings, the Korean delegates are separated from the Tang-Chinese. This seems to have been done intentionally: Since AD 645 the Tang empire was engaged in a fierce war against the Korean state of Gaojuli/Koguryo. The fightings stopped at the death of Taizong in AD 649 but were shortly after set forth up to AD 668, when the Chinese came to a certain effort. In search for allies, Korean envoys met the Eastern Turk Qaghan Kimin as early as in AD 607/608. |
| Right: Figures 24-25 as drawn in Al'baum's book. [Read more about figures 21-23] |  |
And below the comparison:
| Wall painting from the tomb of prince Li Xian, posthumous crown prince Zhanghuai (Qian Xian, Tang dynasty, AD 706/711): Courtiers and foreign delegates, the second from right is a person from Korea. [After Tang Li Xian mu bihua (Murals in the tomb of Li Hsien of the Tang dynasty). Beijing 1974, pl. 25] |  |
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Left: Close-up of the Korean delegate from the tomb of Li Xian [After Tang Li Xian mu bihua (Murals in the tomb of Li Hsien of the Tang dynasty). Beijing 1974, pl. 27] |
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