Chern-Simons Field Theory and Completely Integrable Systems
  We show that the classical non-abelian pure Chern-Simons action is related in a natural way to completely integrable systems of the Davey-Stewartson hyerarchy, via reductions of the gauge connection in Hermitian spaces and by performing certain gauge choices. The B\"acklund Transformations are interpreted in terms of Chern-Simons equations of motion or, on the other hand, as a consistency condition on the gauge. A mapping with a nonlinear $\sigma$-model is discussed. 
L. Martina, O. K. Pashaev, G. Soliani