Iranian people, such as Persians and Sogdians, have lived in China throughout various periods in history.
History
The Parthian Iranian An Shigao introduced Hinayana Buddhism to China, while the Kushan Lokaksema introduced Mahayana Buddhism.
Chorasmians Shams al-Din was an Iranian of Khwarezmian origin from Bukhara, and was appointed by the Mongols to serve as the first provincial governor of Yunnan, in southwestern China. He was allegedly descended from 'Alī bin Abī Tālib and the Prophet, Sayyid Ajall's father was Kamāl al-Dīn and his grandfather was Shams al-Dīn 'Umar al-Bukhārī. He served the court of the Yuan dynasty at Yanjing (modern day Beijing). Later, he was in charge of Imperial finances in 1259, sent to Yunnan by Kublai Khan after conquering the Kingdom of Dali in 1274. After his death, Sayyid was given the posthumous name Zhongyi (忠懿). Later, the imperial court conferred the title "Prince of Xianyang" (咸陽王) and the posthumous name Zhonghui (忠惠) to him.
Nasr al-Din (Persian: نصرالدین; Chinese: 納速剌丁, pinyin: Nàsùládīng;) (died 1292) was a provincial governor of Yunnan during the Yuan dynasty succeeded by his brother 忽先 Hu-sien (Hussein).
Persians
Tang dynasty
Sassanian royals like Peroz III and his son Narsieh fled the Arab Islamic invasion of Sassanid Persia for safety in Tang dynasty China where they were granted asylum.
The Chinese pirate Feng Ruofang stored Persian slaves on Hainan whom he captured when raiding ships in the 8th century. Hainan was filled with Persian slaves by Feng from his raids on their shipping.MAIR, VICTOR H. "Persian Scribes (Munshi) and Chinese Literati (Ru).: The Power and Prestige of Fine Writing (Adab/Wenzhang)." Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order, edited by Brian Spooner and William L. Hanaway, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, pp. 388–414. . Persians sought a hardwood grown in Guangdong province. In 758 there was a raid on Canton by Persians and Arabs and then there was an attack in 760 in Yangzhou upon Persians and Arabs. On Hainan 100 katis of incense were burned in a single go by Feng.
Five dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (Wudai) (907–960), there are examples of Chinese emperors marrying Persian women. "In the times of Wudai (907–960) the emperors preferred to marry Persian women, and the Song dynasty official families liked to marry women from Dashi [Arabia]" was written by Chen Yuan.
Former Shu
Many Iranians took the Chinese name Li to use as their last name when they moved to China. One prominent Iranian family included Li Xuan () and . Sources say that either one of them was responsible for writing the (), translating to "Overseas Pharmacopoeia". Li Xun was interested in foreign drugs and his book, The Haiyao Bencao, was all about foreign drugs. His family sold drugs for a living.
Li Xuan had an older sister Li Shunxian, who was known for being beautiful and was a concubine of the Former Shu Emperor Wang Zongyan, and a brother older than both of them named Li Xun. They lived at the court of the royal family of Former Shu in Chengdu (modern-day Sichuan). Li Shunxian also was a poet. Their family had come to China in 880 and were a wealthy merchant family. Li Xuan dealt with Taoist alchemy, perfumes and drugs.
The Huang Chao rebellion had earlier made their family flee. Li Susha, an Iranian who dealt in the incense trade, is speculated to be the grandfather of the three siblings.
Lo Hsiang-lin wrote a biography of the three siblings. The family were Nestorian Christians. The two brothers then became Taoist. Li Xun was also a poet who wrote in the manner of Chinese Song poetry. Li Xuan used urine to concoct "steroid sex hormones".
Iranians dominated the drug trade in China. In 824, Li Susha presented to Emperor Jingzong, the , a type of drug.
Li Xun wrote poems in the tz'u style and was one of its masters. He and his brother Li Xuan traded in the drug business. The family lived in Sichuan.
Li Xun was known for his poetry and being the author of Overseas Pharmacopoeia (). He and his brother Li Xuan were also well known perfume merchants who lived in the 900s AD. They lived at the court of the Former Shu. Original from the University of California Li Xuan also, in addition to being an "alchemist", "naturalist" and "chess master", composed poetry like his brother.
Southern Han From the tenth to twelfth century, Persian women were to be found in Guangzhou (Canton), some of them in the tenth century like Mei Zhu in the harem of the Emperor Liu Chang, and in the twelfth century large numbers of Persian women lived there, noted for wearing multiple earrings and "quarrelsome dispositions". It was recorded that "The Po- ssu-fu at Kuang-chou make holes all round their ears. There are some who wear more than twenty ear-rings." Original from the University of Michigan. Descriptions of the sexual activities between Liu Chang and the Persian woman in the Song dynasty book the "Ch'ing-i-lu" by T'ao Ku were so graphic that the "Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko (the Oriental Library), Issue 2" refused to provide any quotes from it while discussing the subject. Original from the University of Michigan. Liu had free time with the Persian women by delegating the task of governing to others. Multiple women originating from the Persian Gulf lived in Guangzhou's foreign quarter, they were all called "Persian women" (波斯婦 Po-ssu-fu or Bosifu). Original from the University of Michigan
Some scholars did not differentiate between Persian and Arab, and some say that the Chinese called all women coming from the Persian Gulf "Persian Women".
The young Chinese Emperor Liu Chang of the Southern Han dynasty had a harem, including one Persian girl he nicknamed Mei Zhu, which means "Beautiful Pearl". Liu liked the Persian girl (Mei Zhu) because of her tan skin color, described in French as "peau mate" (olive or light brown skinned). He and the Persian girl also liked to force young couples to go naked and play with them in the palace. Original from the University of Michigan and he favored her by "doting" on her. During the first year of his reign, he was not over sixteen years old when he had a taste for intercourse with Persian girls.文人誤會：宋真宗寫錯了一個字（5） The Persian girl was called a "princess".
The Wu Tai Shï says that Liu Ch'ang [劉鋹], Emperor of the Southern Han dynasty reigning at Canton, about A.D. 970. "was dallying with his palace girls and Persian [波斯] women in the inner apartments, and left the government of his state to the ministers." The History of the Five Dynasties (Wu Tai Shih) stated that- "Liu Chang then with his court- ladies and Po-ssu woman, indulged in amorous affiurs in the harem". Original from the University of Michigan
Song dynasty
Guangzhou (Canton) had a community which included Persian women in the 10th-12th centuries, found in Liu Chang's harem in the 10th century and in Song dynasty era Guangzhou in the 12th century the Persian women (波斯婦) there were observed wearing many earrings.
The Muslim women in Guangzhou were called either Persian women 波斯婦 or Pusaman 菩薩蠻 菩萨蛮 according to Zhu Yu's book "Pingzhou ke tan" 萍洲可談 which may be from "Mussulman" or "Bussulman" which means Muslim in Persian. Pusaman was also the name of a tune 樂府 about female dancers sent as tribute to China.唐唐蘇鄂《杜陽雜編》：大中初，女蠻國入貢，危髻金冠，纓絡被體，號菩薩蠻隊，當時倡優遂制《菩薩蠻》曲，文士亦往往聲其詞。
Ming dynasty
Of the Han Chinese Li family in Quanzhou, Lin Nu, the son of Li Lu, visited Hormuz in Persia in 1376, married a Persian or an Arab girl, and brought her back to Quanzhou. Li Nu was the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty reformer Li Chih. Lin Nu and his descendants were erased from the family genealogy by his relatives who were angry at him for converting to Islam and marrying a Persian girl because xenophobic feeling against foreigners was strong at that time due to Persian Semu atrocities in the Ispah Rebellion in which the Yuan defeated the Ispah and the Semu were massacred. The branch of the family who held to their Chinese customs felt ashamed so they changed their surname from Lin to Li to avoid associating with their relatives, Lin Nu's descendants with his Persian wife who practiced Islam.Kühner, Hans. "'The Barbarians' Writing Is like Worms, and Their Speech Is like the Screeching of Owls' - Exclusion and Acculturation in the Early Ming Period." Zeitschrift Der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. 151, no. 2, 2001, pp. 407–429. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43380301.
Sogdians
Tang dynasty Sogdians in China used 9 Chinese surnames after the Chinese name of the states they came from.
Xizhou had a Han and Sogdian population. A record from the Astana Cemetery dating to 639 preserves the transaction where a Sogdian slave girl was being sold in Xizhou. The Han Zhang family also owned Chunxiang, a Turk slave woman in Xizhou. He Deli, a Sogdian who knew how to speak Turkic, Chinese and translated.Hansen, V., Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China. How Ordinary People Used Contracts 600–1400, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, 285 p. 120 coins of silver were paid for the slave girl from Samarkand. The contract was written in Sogdian. Translated by Yoshida Yutaka. The slave girl was from the Chuyakk family and born in Central Asia. Upach was her name and the buyer's name was written as Yansyan in Sogdian from the Chan family. The seller of the slave was from Samarqand called Wakhushuvirt and his father was Tudhakk The contract said they could they do anything they wanted to Upach, give her away, sell her, abuse her, beat her and she belonged to Yansyan's family forever. Zhang Yanxiang 張延相, whose name is found in Chinese language documents in Turfan, is believed to be Chan Yansyan.Wu Zhen ~ 吳震 "Tangdai Sichou zhilu yu hu nubi maimai" 唐代絲綢之路與胡奴婢買賣吐魯番. (The Silk Road of the Tang dynasty and the sale and purchase of non-Chinese slaves). In 1994 nian Dunhuangxue guoji yantaohui wenji 1994 年敦煌學國際研討會文集 ed. Dunhuang yanjiuyuan 敦煌研究院 (Lanzhou: Gansu minzu chubanshe, 2000) pp. 128-154. Kuchean girls were sold as slaves in the Jin and Wei dynasties.
On the Silk Road, slave girls were a major item and much more expensive than silk. Silk was up to five times less than the value of a slave girl. Central Asian slave girls were exported from Central Asia Iranian areas to China. It is believed wealthy merchants and noblemen of the Chinese capital of Chang'an, were the consumers for the huge number of Central Asian slave women brought by the Sogdians, to sell to the Chinese. The Central Asian foreign women in the Sogdian owned wineshops in the Chinese capital are believed to have been slaves, as Chinese poets depicted then as homesick, sad and melancholy and they would service travelers by keeping them company overnight. Merchants and literati would frequent the wineshops. The Sogdians reaped massive profits from selling slave girls and so did the Chinese government by taxing the sale of the slaves. Slave girls were one of the major products Chinese bought from Sogdians. Persian poets often wrote about wine and women since the wineservers were often girls and this wine culture with girl servers seems to have spread to China. There were many Sogdian wineshops and Persian shops in Chang'an along with a large slave market. The wineshops were staffed with young girls who served wine to customers and danced for them. Most of the slave girls were 14 or 15 years old. They provided services like sex, dancing, singing, and served wine to their customers in Chang'an as ordered their masters who ran the wineshops. A Sogdian merchant, Kang Weiyi had Indian, Central Asian, and Bactrians among the 15 slave girls he was bringing to sell in the Chinese capital of Chang'an.林梅村《粟特文买婢契与丝绸之路上的女奴贸易》，《文物》1992 年9 期，49—54 页；收入 Khotan and Kucha both sold women for sexual services.