Original Magic: The Rituals and Initiations of the Persian Magi - Stephen E. Flowers Ph.D. 2017
Chinese Record
Iranian Magic as the Ancients Saw It
For the ancient Iranians the realm of China was not a distant or exoticplace. The Iranian world extended right up to the borders of China, and it was only through Iranian territory that Chinese goods could reach the West over the famed Silk Road.
The Iranians and Chinese were already in close proximity from an earlier period, however, because the geographical region where the Iranians originated as a people distinct from the general Indo-European substrate was on the western edge of China, in the area between the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash. It was among the Eastern Iranians that Zarathustra was born, and it was in that area that the first Magians, or maguš, were known. Eventually, there would be small Zoroastrian enclaves and temples in China itself. For the most part, these temples served the Iranian communities in China connected to commercial interests.
An Old Chinese word for “magician” or “shaman,” *myag, is apparently derived from Iranian maguš. This connection is further verified by the discovery of an eighth-century figurine bearing Caucasian features that has the symbol 
inscribed on its head. This is a stylized version of the Chinese character for wu, “shaman,” which was derived from the Old Chinese *myag.
The Chinese goddess of Longevity, Magu, also bears a name that is perhaps related to Iranian maguš. The goddess Magu is associated with the cultic use of hemp, a practice that was much in vogue especially among Eastern and Northern Iranians.
Zoroastrianism continued to thrive in China until the middle of the ninth-century CE, when edicts forbidding foreign religions in China were issued during the latter part of the Tang Dynasty. Only Buddhism survived this period. It is likely, however, that the Mazmaga and Zoroastrianism in general survived in one form or another in the mountains of Central Asia.