Myths of China and Japan by Donald A. Mackenzie - HTML preview

CHAPTER XV
MYTHICAL AND LEGENDARY KINGS

Pʼan Ku as the Divine Ancestor—The Mythical Age—Gods as Kings—The Prometheus of China—Fu Hi as Adam—Doctrine of World’s Ages in China—Links with Babylonia and India—Legendary Kings—The Chinese Osiris—Reign of the “Yellow God”—Empress and Silk-worm Culture—Royal Sons of Star-gods—Yaou, Son of the Red Dragon—Shun, Son of the Rainbow—The Hea Dynasty—The Emperor Yu—Star Myths—Yu and the River God—Yu as Pʼan Ku—The Flood Myth in Legends of Yu—The Dynasty of Shang—Moon and Egg Myths—The Wicked Wu—A Hated Queen—The Dynasty of Chou—A Chinese Gilgamesh—The Pious King Wen—Divination by Tortoise and Grass—The Chous as Invaders—Historical Dynasties—Ancient Iranian Traders—Trade and Civilization promoted by the Dread of Death.

Pʼan Ku, the first “man” or “god”, was the ancestor of three families—the rulers of Heaven, Earth, and Mankind. In Tibet, as we have seen, the first man had three sons, who divided his body between them, and they were the ancestors of the three human races. Like the Babylonians, the Chinese had dynastic lists of antediluvian kings. Pʼan Ku’s descendants ruled the nine divisions of the prehistoric empire or world. There were ten dynastic periods, the first being that of the “Nine Heads” (kings), the second that of the “Five Dragons”, and so on. The five dragon kings were connected with the five planets: Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn, and therefore with the five elements, for Venus was the Star of Metal, Jupiter that of Wood, Mercury that of Water, Mars the Star of Fire, and Saturn the Star of Earth. Thus every part of the terrestrial surface, when identified with one or more elements on account of its shape, is under the influence of the corresponding metals, and also under that of the constellations through which these planets move.1 As we have seen, the spirits of dragon swords appeared in the sky as stars. The star-gods, like the dragons, were fathers of some of the famous kings of China.

Towards the end came the period “Having Nests”, which indicates that houses were built. Then came the period of Sui-zan, “the Fire-producer”, who has been referred to as the “Prometheus of China”.

A new age was ushered in by Fu Hsia or Fu Hi, the so-called “Adam of China”. He is the first monarch of China’s legendary history, and was supposed to reign from 2953 till 2838 B.C. Some regard him as the leader of a colony which settled in Shensi. But he is more like a mythical culture hero. He was the offspring of a miraculous conception, and had dealings with dragons. Like the Babylonian Ea he instructed the people how to live civilized lives. Before Fu-hi came, they lived like animals; they knew their mothers but not their fathers, and they ate raw flesh. They kept records by means of knotted cords, and he instructed them in the mysteries of lineal figures, which had a mystic significance. These were eight in number—the eight kwâ or trigrams, which represented: (1) the sky; (2) water of lakes and marshes; (3) fire, lightning, and the sun; (4) thunder; (5) wind and wood; (6) water as in rain, springs, streams, clouds, and the moon; (7) a hill; (8) the earth.

Fu-hi also instructed the people to worship spirits, and he instituted sacrifices. He kept in a park six kinds of animals, and sacrificed twice a year at the two solstices, causing the days to be regarded as sacred, so that the people might show gratitude to heaven.

According to the Taoists, Fu-hi disturbed the primal unity, and caused the people to begin to deteriorate.

Here we touch on the doctrine of the World’s Ages. Like the Indians of the Brahmanic period, the Chinese Taoists believed that the first age was a perfect one, and that mankind gradually deteriorated. In the Indian Krita Age “all men were saintly, and therefore they were not required to perform religious ceremonies.… There were no gods in the Krita Age, and there were no demons.”2

Lao Tze, who will be dealt with more fully in the next chapter, exclaims: “I would make people return to the use of knotted cords”. His disciple, Kwang Tze, lamented that the paradisaical state of the early ages had been disturbed by law-makers. Decadence set in with the “Prometheus” and the “Adam”, and continued until the people became “perplexed and disordered, and had no way by which they might return to their true nature, and bring back their original condition”.3

“It is remarkable”, says Legge, “that at the commencement of Chinese history, Chinese tradition placed a period of innocence, a season when order and virtue ruled in men’s affairs.” This comment is made in connection with the following passage in the Shu King (Book XXVII, “The Marquis of Lu on Punishments”): “The King said, ‘According to the teachings of ancient times, Khih Yu was the first to produce disorder, which spread among the quiet, orderly people, till all became robbers and murderers, owl-like and yet self-complacent in their conduct, traitors and villains, snatching and filching, dissemblers and oppressors’”.4

In some accounts of the early period, Fu Hi is succeeded by his sister, the Empress Nu Kwa, the heroine of the Deluge.

Fu Hi’s usual successor, however, is Shen-nung (2838–2698 B.C.), the Chinese Osiris, who introduced the agricultural mode of life and instructed the people how to make use of curative herbs. He was worshipped as the god of agriculture. Thus an Ode sets forth:

That my fields are in such good condition,

Is matter of joy to my husbandmen.

With lutes, and with drums beating,

We will invoke the Father of Husbandry,

And pray for sweet rain,

To increase the produce of our millet fields,

And to bless my men and their wives.5

Shen-nung was not content with two annual sacrifices, and fixed two others at the equinoxes, “that in spring to implore a blessing on the fruit of the earth, and that in autumn, after the harvest was over, to offer the first fruits to the ruler of heaven”.

After Shen-nung died the emperor Hwang-Ti (“The Yellow God”) ascended the throne. He was in the literal sense the “Son of Heaven”, for his real father was the thunder-god, and he had therefore “a dragon-like countenance”. As in the case of Osiris, who was reputed to have reigned over Egypt, it is difficult to conclude whether he was a deified monarch or a humanized deity. He belongs, of course, to the mythical period of the “five Tis” in Chinese legendary history.

The account of his origin sets forth that one night his mother witnessed a brilliant flash of lightning which darted from the vicinity of the star chʼoo in the Great Bushel (the “Great Bear”) and lit up the whole country. Her Majesty became pregnant, but did not give birth to her son until twenty-five months later. Hwang Ti was able to speak as soon as he was born. When he ascended the throne, he possessed the power of summoning spirits to attend at the royal palace, and his allies in battle included tigers, panthers, and bears, as those of Rama, the hero of the Indian epic, the Rámáyana, included bears and gigantic monkeys. Hwang Ti was a lover of peace, and because he caused peaceful conditions to prevail, phœnixes nested in his garden, or, like swallows, perched on the palace roof and terraces and sang in the courtyard. Other spirit-birds haunted the residence of the “Yellow God”.

He built a large temple so that he might not be prevented by bad weather from offering up sacrifices and performing other religious ceremonies at any season of the year, and he instructed the people in their duties towards the spirits, their ancestors, and himself. He fixed the holy days and introduced music in temple worship. His wife undertook the duty of nourishing silk-worms and producing silk. An enclosure on the north side of the temple was planted with mulberry trees, and in this grove the Empress and the ladies of her court attended to the silk-worms specially kept for the silk required for religious ceremonies. Her Majesty was the goddess as her husband was the god, and had therefore to promote reproduction and growth. She therefore visited also the enclosure on the southern side of the temple in which grew the cereals and fruits offered to the deities.

Hwang Ti was specially favoured by the goddess known as “the heavenly lady Pao”, who on one occasion stopped the heavy and destructive rains that had been caused by the enemy.

When the Emperor was in his seventy-seventh year, he retired from the world, like an Indian ascetic, to practise austerities beside the Jo water. He died in his one hundredth year. Some tell that when he was ascending to heaven an earthquake occurred; others hold that he never died but was transformed into a dragon. After he passed away, either as a soul or dragon, to associate with the immortals, a wooden image of him was made and worshipped by princes.

His successor is said to have been the Emperor Che, whose dynastic title was Shao-Hao. This monarch was the son of a star god. One night his mother beheld a star, which resembled a rainbow, floating on a stream in the direction of a small island. After retiring to rest she dreamed that she received the star, and, in due course, she gave birth to her son. Phœnixes visited the royal palace on the day that he ascended the throne. This monarch had some mysterious association with the west—probably with the goddess of the west—and is said to have commanded an army of birds.

He was followed by the Emperor Chuen-Heugh (Kao-Yang). He, too, was the son of a star-god. It chanced that his mother witnessed the Yao-Kwang star passing through the moon like a rainbow. She gave birth to her son in the vicinity of the Jo water. There was a shield and spear on his head at birth, a tradition which recalls that when the Indian princess Pritha gave birth to Karna, son of Surya, the sun-god, he was fully armed.

Chuen-Heugh was a great sage. “He invented calendaric calculations and delineations of the heavenly bodies,” and composed a piece of music called “The Answer to the Clouds”.

Next came the Emperor Kuh (Kao-sin) who, like Richard III, had teeth when he was born. He similarly rose from the rank of a State prince to the Imperial throne. The State of Yew-Kae was conquered by him. His son, named Che, proved to be unworthy, and his younger son, Yao, was selected as his successor.

The Emperor Yao was the son of a red dragon, as well as of the Emperor, and was not born until fourteen months after conception. He is said to have been ten cubits in height when full grown. There were two pupils in each of his eyes. He was a great sage and wonderful happenings occurred during his reign.

A mysterious grass grew on the palace stairs. It bore a pod on each day of the month. He selected as his colleague and successor the sage Shun, who had held an undistinguished position. It is told that this selection was approved by five star-gods whose spirits appeared as five old men and walked about among the islands of the River Ho. On another occasion a bright light came from the river; then beautifully-coloured vapours arose and a dragon-horse appeared, carrying in its mouth a scaly cuirass for Shun, whose appointment was thus definitely approved by Heaven. Thirty years later a tortoise rose from the water and rested on the altar. On its back was an inscribed order instructing Yao to resign in favour of Shun. This divine command was duly obeyed.

Shun’s mother had conceived after seeing a rainbow. As has been stated, a rainbow was believed to emanate from the gigantic oyster that lay in mid ocean. When the child was born his mother and father detested him, because his body was black and his eyes had double pupils, and because he had a dragon face and a large mouth. When he became a youth he reached the height of six cubits, and was thus like the Egyptian Horus and the Norse hero Sigurd, a veritable giant. His parents endeavoured on more than one occasion to cause his death by giving him difficult tasks to perform, and acting treacherously towards him. On one occasion they ordered him to plaster a granary, and when he was engaged at the work they set fire to the building. But Shun was clad in “bird’s work clothing”, which seems to indicate that he had power to assume bird form, and he flew away. He was next ordered to deepen a well. He went to work obediently, and while engaged in his task the well was suddenly filled up with stones. But Shun had “dragon’s work clothing”, or was able to assume a dragon form, and contrived to escape through the side of the well. Like Hercules, he performed all his difficult tasks and escaped without injury.

Although Shun is usually said to have been selected by Yaou as his successor, a vague tradition states that he dethroned Yaou by force and kept him a prisoner. Before long, however, he degraded the young ruler and took his place.

On ascending the throne, Shun publicly worshipped the spirit of Shang Ti (Ruler of Heaven, the personal god). He enacted new laws, so that the government of the Empire might be regulated and strengthened, and he was the first monarch to create Mandarins. Shun is credited with selecting his successor Yu.

The Emperor Yu was the first monarch of the Dynasty of Hea. According to tradition he was the son of a star-god. It is told that one night his mother saw a falling star and became pregnant. She afterwards swallowed a pearl that had been dropped by a spirit. In due course she gave birth to Yu.

A similar myth is attached to the memory of the Irish Christian saint Ciaran of Saigir, which was probably taken over from some ancient Celtic hero, the son or grandson of Sirona (the aged one or star-goddess). A Gaelic poem, believed to have been composed in the ninth century, sets forth: [28]

Liadaine (his mother) was asleep

On her bed (a saying not wrong).

When she turned her face to heaven

A star fell into her mouth.

Thence was born the marvellous child,

Ciaran of Saigir who is proclaimed to thee

And thence (a saying without pride)

Luaigne (Liadaine’s husband) said he (Ciaran) was not his son.6

Osiris, as the son of the cow-goddess, was a son of the moon, from which fell a fertilizing ray of light. The Egyptian deities had star forms. As stars, they rose from malachite pools and perched in swallow-shape on the branches of the world-tree of the Great Mother. Hathor and Isis were personified as the star Sirius, from which fell the tear, or drop of dew, that caused the low Nile to have increase and rise in flood. As the morning star, the goddess was the mother of the rising sun. Much star-lore surviving from ancient times remains to be gleaned.

When the star-deity’s son, the Chinese Emperor Yu, was born, he had the mouth of a tiger. “His ears had three orifices; his head bore the resemblance of the star Kow and Kʼeen. On his breast seemed a figure in gem of the Great Bear.” When he grew up he reached the height of 9 cubits, 6 inches.7

The Irish hero, Cuchullin, was likewise a marvellous youngster. He had “seven toes to each foot, and to either hand as many fingers; his eyes were bright, with seven pupils apiece”, and so on.

Yu was probably a historical character, to whose memory many floating myths and legends were attached. He figures as the hero of a deluge. One night, during his youth, he dreamt that while bathing in the Ho (the Yellow River) he drank up the water. He also beheld a white fox with nine tails—a particularly good omen. This was during the reign of Yau. Shun came to know about him and showed him special favour, causing him to be promoted until he became an influential man in the Empire.

The gods were well pleased because he was loved by them. One day, as Yu stood on the banks of the River Ho, gazing at the water, a god appeared as a tall, white-faced man, with the body of a fish, like the Babylonian Ea. He addressed Yu and said: “I am the spirit of the Ho. Wan-ming shall regulate the waters.”

The god then gave Yu a plan of the Ho, which gave full details regarding the regulating of the waters, and sank into the river.

A good deal of controversy has been engaged in as to what Yu was supposed to have done. In the Shu King (“The Tribute of Yu” chapter) it is stated: “Yu divided the land, following the course of the hills, he cut down the trees. He determined the highest hills and largest rivers (in the several regions).… The (waters of the) Hang and Wei were brought to their proper channels.” Other rivers were similarly controlled.8

In another section Yu says: “When the floods were lifted to the heavens, spreading far and wide, surrounding the hills and submerging the mounds, so that the common people were bewildered and dismayed, I availed myself of four vehicles,9 and going up the hills I felled the trees.… After that I drained off the nine channels, directing them into the four seas; I dug out ditches and canals and brought them into rivers.”10

In the fourth book of the Shu King, “The Great Plan”, it is said: “I have heard that in old time Khwan dammed up the inundating waters, and thereby threw into disorder the arrangement of the five elements. God was consequently roused to anger, and did not give him the Great Plan with its nine divisions, and thus the unvarying principles (of Heaven’s method) were allowed to go to ruin.”11

In one of the Odes it is stated that “when the waters of the Deluge spread vast abroad, Yu arranged and divided the regions of the land”.12

It has been suggested by some that Yu constructed a great embankment to prevent the Yellow River changing its course—a task even greater than constructing the Great Wall, and that he formed dams and opened irrigating channels. It may be that he did much work in reclaiming land and regulating the government of the Empire. But there can be little doubt that the traditions surviving from his age were mixed with the older traditions regarding the Babylonian flood. Yu is no mere canal cutter. He hews the rocks and forms chasms between the mountains, like Pʼan Ku, the Chinese Ptah or Indra, he constructs the embankments of lakes, and makes channels for the great rivers, and he drains the marshes. The grounds are made habitable and fit for cultivation. There are even faint echoes of the Osirian legend in the stories regarding his achievements.

After Yu had finished his work, Heaven presented him with a dark-coloured mace.13 He was destined to become Emperor of the nine provinces, we are told, but it is doubtful if the Empire was really so large during his reign. After Shun resigned, Yu ascended the throne. The vegetation then became luxuriant, and green dragons lay on the borders of the Empire. Yellow dragons rose from the rivers when Yu crossed them. His reign lasted for forty-five years.

The sixth Emperor of the Hea Dynasty was another famous man. This was Shao-Kʼang. His father had been murdered, and his mother took flight and concealed herself. She gave birth to her son during her reign in Shan-tung, when he became a herdsman. Like Horus, he was searched for by the monarch who had usurped the throne, and he had to take to flight and become a cook. In time he was able to collect an army and win a great victory, which enabled him to regain the throne of his father.

The last few Emperors of the Dynasty of Hea were weak and licentious men. It is told of Kʼung-Kea, the fourteenth of his line, that he was the cause of much misfortune, and caused the government to decay. Among the terrible things he did was to eat a female dragon which had been slain and pickled for him. Kwei, the seventeenth Emperor, was the first to introduce men-drawn carriages, but the omens of his reign foretold the approaching doom of the dynasty; the five planets wandered from their courses, and stars fell like rain in his tenth year. He was overthrown by Tʼang, the founder of the Dynasty of Shang.

Tʼang had seven names, one of which was Li. He was descended from the Empress Keen-tieh, who, having prayed for a son, entered a river to bathe. A dark swallow came nigh and dropped a variegated egg from her mouth, which the Empress swallowed. She became pregnant, and gave birth to a son named See, who, when he grew up, was appointed by Yao, Minister of Instruction, and was given the principality of Shang.

Thirteen generations later the wife of one of See’s descendants gave birth to Tʼang, the future Emperor. She had become pregnant after seeing a white vapour passing through the moon. The child had whiskers at birth, and his arms had four joints. He grew to the height of nine cubits.

Wonderful things happened to prove that Tʼang was the chosen by Heaven to reign over the Empire. When he visited the altar of Yao, he dropped a jewel into the water. “Lo! yellow fishes leapt up in pairs; a blackbird followed him, and stood on the altar, where it changed into a black gem.” There also appeared a black tortoise, which had on its back characters intimating that Tʼang was to become the Emperor. A spirit appeared on Mount Pei at the same time. “Another spirit, dragging a white wolf, with a hook in his mouth, entered the court of Shang. The virtue of metal waxed powerful; silver overflowed from the hills.” Tʼang himself dreamed that “he went to the sky and licked it. After this he became possessor of the Empire.”14

When the Dynasty of Shang began to decline, the rulers became weak and profligate. It is told of Wu-Yih, who reigned for only four years (1198–1194 B.C.), he was “without any right principle. He made an image of a man, and called it ‘the Spirit of Heaven’. Then he ‘gamed with it’ (played dice, or at chess), causing someone to play for the image. ‘The Spirit of Heaven’ was unsuccessful, on which he disgraced it, and made a leather bag, which he filled with blood, and then placed aloft and shot at (the image was probably in the bag as well), calling this ‘shooting at Heaven’.… In the fourth year of his reign, while hunting between the Ho and the Wei, Wu-Yih suddenly died. Tsʼeen says that he was struck dead by lightning; and people recognize in that event the just and appropriate vengeance of Heaven which he had insulted.”15

The Kafirs of Africa “play at a game of chance before their idols, and, should chance be against them, kick and box their idols; but if, after this correction, on pursuing their experiments they should continue unsuccessful, they burn the hands and feet off them in the fire; should ill fortune still attend them, they cast the idols on the ground, tread them under foot, dash them about with such force as to break them to pieces. Some, indeed, who show greater veneration for the images, content themselves with fettering and binding them until they have obtained their end; but should this not take place as early as their impatience looks for, they fasten them to a cord and gradually let them down into the water, even to the bottom, thus trusting to force them to be propitious”.16 It may be that Wu-Yih (Wuh-I) was engaged in some such ceremony when he disgraced and tortured his god.

A successor is remembered as the first man who used ivory chop-sticks. The Viscount of Ke admonished him, saying: “Ivory chop-sticks will be followed by cups of gem; and then you will be wanting to eat bears’ paws and leopards’ wombs, and proceed to other extravagances. Your indulgence of your desires may cost you the Empire.” This was Chou-sin, an intemperate and extravagant tyrant. He came under the influence of a beautiful but wicked woman, called Ta-ke, whom he married. “The most licentious songs were composed for her amusement and the vilest dances exhibited.” A park was laid out for her amusement. “There was a pond of wine; the trees were hung with flesh; men and women chased each other about quite naked.” Drinking bouts were common in the palace, and when the princes began to rebel, new and terrible tortures were introduced. The queen had constructed a copper pillar, which was greased all over. It was laid above a charcoal fire, and culprits were ordered to walk on it. When they slipped and fell into the fire, Ta-ke was “greatly delighted”.

The Dynasty of Shang was overthrown by King Wu, the founder of the Dynasty of Chou. Wu was descended from the famous lady Kian Yuan, already referred to. After treading in the toe-print (or foot-print) made by God, she gave birth to her son, Hau Ki, suffering no pain. Like Gilgamesh, Sargon, Romulus and Remus, Karna, and other famous heroes, the child was exposed after birth, the lady’s husband, according to one Chinese commentator, having been displeased with what had taken place. In the Shih King the ode, which relates the legend of Hau Ki, says:

He was placed in a narrow lane,

But the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care.

He was placed in a wide forest,

Where he was met by the wood-cutters.

He was placed on the cold ice,

And a bird screened and supported him with its wings.

When the bird went away,

Hau Ki began to wail.

His cry was long and loud,

So that his voice filled the whole way.17

The ode goes on to tell that when Hau Ki grew up he promoted husbandry and founded the sacrifices of his house. Some of the Osirian-Tammuz traditions were attached to his memory, but, as Legge says, “he has not displaced the older Shan-nung, with whom, on his father’s side, he had a connection as ‘the Father of Husbandry’ ”.18

Before Wu became Emperor, a red man came out of the river to secure the support of allies, and phœnixes brought messages to the effect that the reigning dynasty was doomed. The empire could not be enjoyed by the Shang King; “the powerful spirits of the earth have left it; all the spirits are whisked away; the conjunction of the five planets in Fang brightens all within the four seas”.19 King Wen, the father of Wu, to whom this revelation had been made, was a ruler in the west, and knew that his son’s mission in life was the regeneration of the empire.

The dynasties of Hsia (Hea) and Shang

Had not satisfied God with their government;

So throughout the various States

He sought and considered

For a State on which he might confer the rule.

God said to King Wen:

I am pleased with your conspicuous virtue,

Without noise and without display,

Without heat and without change,

Without consciousness of effort,

Following the pattern of God.

God said to King Wen:

Take measures against hostile States,

Along with your brethren,

Get ready your engines of assault,

To attack the walls of Tsʼung.20

After Wu became the Emperor the worship of ancestors was promoted, and dragons, tortoises, and phœnixes made regular appearances, while vegetation flourished, and the mugwort grew so plentifully that a palace could be erected from it.

After Wu died spirit-birds appeared, and a mysterious bean, which was an elixir, grew up. The Crown Prince was still a minor, and for seven years the Duke of Chou acted as regent. Accompanied by the young king the duke visited the Ho and the Lo. The king dropped a gem into the water, and after day declined “rays of glory came out and shrouded all the Ho (Yellow River), and green clouds came floating in the sky. A green dragon came to the altar, and went away. They did the same at the Lo, and the same thing happened.” A tortoise appeared, and on its shell were writings that told of the fortunes of the empire till the dynasties of Tsʼin and Han.21

The tortoise-shell and stalks of a variety of grass were long used in China for purposes of divination. What the tortoise and the grass revealed was supposed to be the will of the spirits. Nowadays lots are drawn, spirit-writing is believed in, and revelations are supposed to be made when a bean symbol is tossed in the air, as is a coin in the West; when the flat side is uppermost the tosser is supposed to receive a refusal to his prayer.

The Chou Dynasty was founded, according to Chinese dating, in 1122 B.C., and lasted until 249 B.C. It has been suggested that although the Chous claimed to be descended from one of Shun’s ministers, they were really foreigners partly or wholly of Tartar origin. King Wu introduced the sacrifice of human beings to the spirits of ancestors, and favoured the magicians, whom he appointed to high positions in his court. His empire consisted of a confederacy of feudal states, and its strength endured so long as the central state remained sufficiently powerful to exact tribute.

After holding sway for about eight hundred years, the Chou Dynasty, and with it the Feudal Age, came to an end. The State of Chin or Tsʼin, which had been absorbing rival states, became so powerful that, in 221 B.C., its king, Shih-huang-ti, became the first Emperor of China. He resolved that the future history of China should begin with himself, and issued a decree commanding that all existing literature should be burned, except medical and agricultural books, and those dealing with divination. Those who disobeyed his order and attempted to conceal the forbidden books were put to death. Fortunately, however, some devoted scholars succeeded in preserving for posterity a number of the classics which would otherwise have perished. This extraordinary decree has cast a shadow over the fame of the first emperor, who was undoubtedly a great man.

During the early years of the Chin or Tsʼin Dynasty the Great Wall to the west and north of China was constructed, so as to protect the empire against the barbarians who were wont to raid and pillage the rich pastoral and agricultural lands, and impose their sway on the industrious Chinese. “The building of the Great Wall”, says Kropotkin, “was an event fraught with the greatest consequences, and one may say without exaggeration that it contributed powerfully to the premature downfall of the Roman Empire.” The Mongolian and Turki peoples who had been attempting to subdue China were forced westward, and tribal and racial movements were set in motion that ultimately led to the invasions of Europe by nomadic fighting pastoralists from Asia.22

The Great Wall is said to have been built in ten years in a straight line of about 1200 miles, the average width at the base being 25 feet, and the average height 30 feet. Strong “block-house” towers were constructed in the wall for the accommodation of bodies of troops.

It was during this Dynasty that China and related forms of that name, based on “Tsʼin” or “Chin”, came into use in the west. The dynasties that followed the Chin or Tsʼin (221–200 B.C.) are as follows:

The evidence afforded by Chinese archæology, and Chinese religious beliefs, symbols, and customs tends to emphasize that the early inhabitants of Shensi province were strongly influenced by culture-drifts from the mid-Asian colonies of the ancient civilizations. Hunting and pastoral peoples adopted the agricultural mode of life, and with it the elements of a complex civilization which had its origin in those areas where grew wild the cereals first cultivated by man.

The Chinese are a mixed race. In the north the oblique-eyed, yellow-skinned element predominates. Like the Semites, who overran Sumeria and adopted Sumerian modes of thought and life, so did the Mongoloid tribes overrun northern China and became a sedentary people. Petty kingdoms grew up, and in time found it necessary to unite against the hordes who invaded and plundered their lands. The invaders included Siberian nomads, Manchus, Mongolo-Turki peoples, the Sacæ (western Scythians), and the blue-eyed Usuns or Wusuns who are believed to have been congeners of the kurgan-builders of southern Siberia and southern Russia. It was against Manchus and Mongols that the Great Wall was erected, after northern China had been united as a result of those conquests which made petty kings over-lords of ever-widening areas. During the Han Dynasty southern China was subdued. There the brownish-skinned Man-tze stock is most in prominence. Ancient Indonesian intrusions have left their impress on the racial blend.

Along the sea-coasts of China the sea-traders exercised their influence, and in time their mode of life was adopted by the conquerors from the inland parts of the growing empire. The types of vessels used by the ancient Egyptians, the Phœnicians, the peoples of the Persian Gulf, the Indians, Burmese, Indonesians, and Polynesians became common on the Chinese coast and rivers. Maritime enterprise was stimulated, as we have seen, by the Far Eastern Columbuses who searched for the elixir of life and the fabled “Islands of the Blest”. “The Chinese,” writes Mr. Kebel Chatterton, “in their own independent way went on developing from the early Egyptian models (of ships), and have been not inaptly called the Dutchmen of the east in their nautical tendencies.”23 It is believed that they were the inventors of the rudder, which took the place of the ancient steering-oar.

Along their coastal sea-routes the Chinese were brought into touch with southern peoples, with whom they traded. Chinese records throw light on the articles that were in demand at markets. “In Nan-čao”,24 an ancient text reveals, “there are people from Pʼo-lo-men (Burma), Pose (Malay), Še-po (Java), Pʼo-ni (Borneo), Kʼun-lun (a Malayan country), and of many other heretic tribes, meeting at one trading-mart, where pearls and precious stones in great number are exchanged for gold and musk.”25 The early traders by sea and land attached great importance to medicines and elixirs, and precious stones and metals, and pearls.

The overland trade-routes through Iran brought the Chinese into direct touch with Lesser Fu-lin (Syria), and ultimately with Greater Fu-lin (the Byzantine Empire). The vine and other plants with ancient religious associations were imported into China, and the Chinese peach tree reached Europe. With the peach went silk. “It is not impossible,” says Laufer, “that these two gifts were transmitted by the silk-dealers, first to Iran (in the second or first century B.C.), and thence to Armenia, Greece, and Rome (in the first century A.D.).”26

As the cuckoos hatched in the nests of hedge-sparrows, meadow-pipits, and wagtails overcome and eject the offspring of their foster-parents, so did the vigorous nomadic peoples who absorbed the elements of ancient civilizations overcome and eject the offspring of their “foster-parents”. The Babylonian Empire perished, and Irania, which had been stimulated by it to adopt civilized conditions of life, became, in turn, the nursery of vigorous states. Recent discoveries have brought to light evidence which shows that the Iranian peoples “once covered an immense territory, extending all over Chinese Turkestan, migrating into China, coming into contact with the Chinese, and exerting a profound influence on nations of other stock, notably Turks and Chinese. The Iranians were the great mediators between the West and the East, conveying the heritage of Hellenistic ideas to central and eastern Asia, and transmitting valuable plants and goods of China to the Mediterranean area.”27

The laws of supply and demand operated then as now on the trade-routes, which brought communities of regular traders into touch after they had cultivated plants or manufactured articles to offer in exchange for what they received. Before these routes could, however, have hummed with commerce, a considerable advance in civilization had to be achieved. States had to be organized and laws enforced for the protection of property and property owners.

The Iranians, who obtained silk from China, were not the originators of the culture represented by this commodity; they simply stimulated the demand for silk. Chinese civilization dates back to the time when the early prospectors and explorers came into touch with backward peoples, and introduced new modes and conditions of life. These pioneers did not necessarily move along the routes that were ultimately favoured by merchants, nor even those followed by migrating tribes in quest of green pastures. They wandered hither and thither searching for gold and gems and herbs, sowing as they went the seeds of civilization, which did not, however, always fall on good ground. But in those places where the seed took root and the prospects of development were favourable, organized communities gradually grew up with an assured food-supply. This was the case in Shensi province, in which was settled the “little leaven” that ultimately “leavened the whole lump” of northern China. It was after the empire became united under the Tsʼin Dynasty that organized trade with the west assumed great dimensions, and was regularly maintained under assured protection.

Myths as well as herbs and gems and garments were exchanged by traders. With the glittering jewel was carried the religious lore associated with it; with the curative [29]herb went many a fable of antiquity. Laufer has shown in his The Diamond how Hellenistic lore connected with that gem crept into Chinese writings. It is consequently possible to trace in the mosaic of Chinese beliefs and mythology certain of the cultural elements that met and blended and were developed on the banks of the Yellow River.

Elixirs and charms were in great demand in all centres of ancient civilizations. It can be held, therefore, that behind the commerce of early times, as behind the early religious systems, lay the haunting dread of death. Gems warded off evil, and imparted vitality to those who possessed them, and curative herbs renewed youth by restoring health. Even the dead were benefited by them. Progress was thus, in a sense, increasing efficiency in the quest of longevity in this world and the next.

In China, as elsewhere, the dread of death, as expressed in the religious system, promoted the arts and crafts; artists, engravers, architects, builders, jewellers, and scribes, as well as priests and traders, were engaged in the unceasing conflict against the all-dreaded enemy of mankind, the God of Death. The incentive that caused men to undertake perilous journeys by land and sea in quest of elixirs, to live laborious lives in workshops and temples, and to grasp at the mythical straws of hope drifted along trade-routes from other lands, was the same as that which sent the Babylonian Gilgamesh to explore the dark tunnel of the Mountain of Mashu and cross the Sea of Death, and it is found on the ninth tablet of the most ancient epic in the world:

Gilgamesh wept bitterly, and he lay stretched out upon the ground.

He cried: “Let me not die like Ea-bani!

Grief hath entered into my body, and

I fear death.…”28