Po Qin (d. 218) was a skilled writer and poet who served the Han warlord-turned chancellor Cao Cao as a staff officer. The excerpts below are fragments (preserved in the Taiping yulan encyclopedia) from a lost rhapsody about the “Hu” people of three Central Asian countries. It shows that Han literati were interested in describing, comparing, and even humorously caricaturing the distinctive facial features of Central Asian peoples, although it is unclear how Po Qin had the opportunity to observe these features. Possibly he was at the imperial court when tribute embassies from these states arrived.

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The Hu of Suoche (Yarkand) 莎車之胡
Have yellow irises and deep eyes, 黃目深睛
Round ears and narrow cheeks. 員耳狹頤
The Hu of Kangju (Sogdiana) 康居之胡
Have scorched heads and bent nose bridges, 焦頭折頞
High cheekbones and broken noses. 高輔陷鼻
The pupils of their eyes are devoid of black; 眼無黑眸
Their cheeks have no excess flesh. 頰無餘肉
The Hu of Jibin (Gandhara) 罽賓之胡
Have faces like porcupines 面象炙猬
And look as if carrying bags on top of their heads. 頂如持囊
They have deep red eyes 隈目赤眥
And high nose bridges. 洞頞卬鼻

...
Their foreheads are like a weasel's pelt 額似鼬皮
And their skin color is like an over-ripe mandarin orange. 色象萎橘

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1. The meaning of this phrase is unclear. It may refer to light brown or yellow hair, resembling scorched grass. ↩︎
2. Broken in the sense of being curved or bent. ↩︎
3. Presumably because of their bushy beards. ↩︎
4. Probably a reference to turbans. ↩︎
5. This must be a reference to dark brown hair. ↩︎