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 Bäcklund 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 σ-model is discussed.