Sabao

{{Short description|Chinese title}}

{{for|the Japanese goldfish|Tamasaba}}

{{italic title}}

File:The Sogdian An Jia (contoured).jpgn Sabao An Jia on his horse, as he appears in one of the panels of his tomb. 579 CE]]

Sabao ({{lang-zh|t=薩保|p=sàbǎo|l=Protector, Guardian}}), or sārtpāw in Sogdian,{{cite book |last=Aoki |first=Takeshi |editor-last1=Stausberg |editor-first1=Michael |editor-last2=Vevaina |editor-first2=Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw |editor-last3=Tessmann |editor-first3=Anna |editor-link1=Michael Stausberg |date=2015 |chapter=Zoroastrianism in the Far East |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/13060306 |title=The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism |location=Chichester |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=150 |isbn=978-1-4443-3135-6}} was an official Chinese title in the 5th-7th centuries CE, used for government-appointed leaders of the Sogdian immigrant-merchant community.{{cite journal |last1=Xu |first1=Jin 徐津 |title=The Funerary Couch of An Jia and the Art of Sogdian Immigrants in Sixth-century China |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=1 January 2019 |url=https://www.academia.edu/40962371/The_Funerary_Couch_of_An_Jia_and_the_Art_of_Sogdian_Immigrants_in_Sixth_century_China}} The word sabao is derived from the Sogdian word sārtpāw, "caravan leader". Sabaos also often had titles of "Prefects", with regional responsibilities, in the Chinese administration : An Jia was Sabao and Grand Governor (大都督, Dàdūdū) of Tong Prefecture.

They were in charge of commercial affairs for foreign merchants from Middle Asia doing businesses in China, as well as Zoroastrian affairs. Various Sabaos are known from their epitaphs, such as An Jia, Wirkak or Yu Hong.{{cite web |title=Anjia Tomb |url=http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/fisher/record.html?id=FISHER_n2008011361 |website=dla.library.upenn.edu}}{{cite book |last1=Cosmo |first1=Nicola Di |last2=Maas |first2=Michael |title=Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750 |date=26 April 2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-54810-6 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y01UDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |language=en}}

The tombs of the Sabaos in China are among the most lavish of the period in this country, and are only slightly inferior to Imperial tombs, suggesting that they were among the wealthiest members of the population.{{cite book |last1=GRENET |first1=Frantz |title=Histoire et cultures de l’Asie centrale préislamique |date=2020 |publisher=Collège de France |location=Paris, France |isbn=978-2-7226-0516-9 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/annuaire-cdf/pdf/15896|page=320|quote="Ce sont les décors funéraires les plus riches de cette époque, venant juste après ceux de la famille impériale; il est probable que les sabao étaient parmi les éléments les plus fortunés de la population. "}}