CHAPTER XXXI

_ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE_

Whence did the Chinese come?--All men of equal age and ancestry--

Records make civilization and nobility--Evidences of antiquity--

China and the West totally unknown to each other in ancient times--

Tartars the connecting link--Though tamed by religion they are

not much changed now--Traders then, as now, but no through

travellers--Chinese probably in China for myriads of years before

their records began--Tonic peculiarities of all tribes near China

except the Tartars--Chinese followed lines of least resistance--

Tartars driven back, but difficult to absorb--So with Coreans and

Japanese-Indo-China not so favourable for Chinese absorption--

Records decided the direction taken by culture--Southern half-

Chinese have equal claims with orthodox Chinese--Traditions of

ancient emperors in north, coast, and south parts--Suggestions as

to how the most ancient Chinese spread themselves--No hint of

immigration from anywhere--The old suggestion of immigration from

the Tarim Valley and Babylonia--Suggested compromise with Western

religious views--Creation and Nature--Compromise with the

supernatural and imaginative--Summing up.

Ancient China Simplified · 第 31 / 51 章