History of China
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Chinese-Dragon
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Nice to know that they place such an emphasis on history in Hong Kong. I read, much to my shock, that some post 90 youths in the mainland didn't even know about the Long March.
Since you like ancient history so much I think it is only appropriate that we keep up with the theme of ancient Chinese weapons. Here is a interesting video clip about the Triple-bow siegecrossbow (yes my name sake). It is in Chinese, unfortunately, but you can guess what the content is fairly easily.
Thanks for the video.
My Mandarin must be improving (but I still had to use the Chinese subtitles for some parts).
Do some Chinese students in the mainland really not know about the Long March? I can't believe that Hong Kong teaches more about that than the mainland does.
As before, I would like to see History lessons moving away from putting too much emphasis on 百年国耻, because I want to learn more about China in our glory days, i.e. Ancient China. I hate the constant victim mentality that comes with bai nian guo chi (although it is important to remember it).
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Battle of Talas
Abbasid Caliphate vs Tang Dynasty
The Battle of Talas (怛羅斯會戰
(معركة نهر طلاس in 751 AD was a conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of the Syr Darya. On July 751, The Abbasids started a massive attack against the Chinese on the banks of the Talas river; 200,000 Muslim troops (according to Chinese estimates) met the combined army of 10,000 Tang Chinese and 20,000 Karluks mercenary. Out of 10,000 Tang troops, only 2000 managed to return from Talas to their territory in Central Asia.
The defeat was due to the defection of Karluk mercenaries and the retreat of Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese. The Karluks forces, which composed two thirds of the Tang army, deserted the Chinese coalition and changed to the Muslim side while the battle was ongoing. With the Karluk troops attacking the Tang army from the rear and the Arab attacking from the front, the Tang troops were unable to hold their positions. The commander of the Tang forces, Gao Xianzhi, recognized that defeat was imminent and managed to escape with some of his Tang regulars with the help of Li Siye. Despite losing the battle, Li did inflict heavy losses on the pursuing Arab army after being reproached by Duan Xiushi. After the battle, Gao was prepared to organize another Tang army against the Arabs when the devastating An Shi Rebellion broke out in 755. When the Tang capital was taken by rebels, all Chinese armies stationed in Central Asia were ordered back to China proper to crush the rebellion.
The Chinese name Daluosi (怛罗斯, Talas) was first seen in the account of Xuanzang. Du Huan located the city near the western drain of the Chui River. The exact location of the battle has not been confirmed but is believed to be near Talas in present day Kyrgyzstan.
Abbasid Caliphate vs Tang Dynasty
The Battle of Talas (怛羅斯會戰
(معركة نهر طلاس in 751 AD was a conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of the Syr Darya. On July 751, The Abbasids started a massive attack against the Chinese on the banks of the Talas river; 200,000 Muslim troops (according to Chinese estimates) met the combined army of 10,000 Tang Chinese and 20,000 Karluks mercenary. Out of 10,000 Tang troops, only 2000 managed to return from Talas to their territory in Central Asia.The defeat was due to the defection of Karluk mercenaries and the retreat of Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese. The Karluks forces, which composed two thirds of the Tang army, deserted the Chinese coalition and changed to the Muslim side while the battle was ongoing. With the Karluk troops attacking the Tang army from the rear and the Arab attacking from the front, the Tang troops were unable to hold their positions. The commander of the Tang forces, Gao Xianzhi, recognized that defeat was imminent and managed to escape with some of his Tang regulars with the help of Li Siye. Despite losing the battle, Li did inflict heavy losses on the pursuing Arab army after being reproached by Duan Xiushi. After the battle, Gao was prepared to organize another Tang army against the Arabs when the devastating An Shi Rebellion broke out in 755. When the Tang capital was taken by rebels, all Chinese armies stationed in Central Asia were ordered back to China proper to crush the rebellion.
The Chinese name Daluosi (怛罗斯, Talas) was first seen in the account of Xuanzang. Du Huan located the city near the western drain of the Chui River. The exact location of the battle has not been confirmed but is believed to be near Talas in present day Kyrgyzstan.
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China from Mongol rule to the Ming
Rebellion against Mongol Rule
The Mongols in China were ruling with a great variety of administrators, military personnel and hangers on -- Turks, Arabs, a few Europeans, Jurchen and Persians. The Mongols were following their tradition of supporting a variety of faiths -- not only Buddhism but Islam, Taoism and the Christianity that was practiced by some of the Mongols in China. And under Mongol rule Confucian influence at the royal court declined.
China's Mongol emperor, Kubilai Khan, died in 1294 at the age of seventy-nine. His grandson, Temur Oljeitu, succeeded him, made peace with Japan and maintained reasonable prosperity. Temur Oljeitu was a conscientious and energetic emperor, but the emperors who followed him after his early death in 1307 were of lesser quality than he or Kubilai Khan. In the twenty-six years between 1307 and 1333 seven emperors ruled.
Temur Oljeitu's nephew, Khaishan, ruled from 1308. He appointed people without talent to positions of government, including Buddhist and Taoist clergy, and he spent money lavishly on palaces and temples and tripled the supply of paper money. Following his death in 1311 his brother, Ayrubarwada, took power at age twenty-six. However competent Ayrubarwada was as a ruler, opposition rose against him at court by those who saw him as too sympathetic with the Chinese. He died in 1320, and his eldest son, Shidebala, succeeded him at the age of eighteen. Shidebala initiated anti-corruption reforms, sided with Tibetan Buddhists against Muslims and was assassinated in 1323. He was succeeded by Yesun Temur, who was most oriented toward Mongol traditions. His supporters had been involved in the assassination of Shidebala, and he distanced himself from them and returned to the Mongol tradition of treating religions impartially. Yesun Temur died in 1328 and the youngest son of Khaishan, Tugh Temur, 24-years-old, ruled for a month before he abdicated in favor of an elder brother, Khoshila, and returned to power within a year after Koshila's death -- possibly a murder. Tugh Temur was skilled in Chinese. He was a painter, supported education, lived modestly and dismissed over 10,000 from the imperial staff. Tugh Temur died in 1332.
Following Tugh Temur as emperor in 1333 was the thirteen-year-old, Toghun Temur, reputed to be the son of Koshila. From the beginning of his reign Toghan Temur's ministers ran state affairs. His first minister was concerned with what he saw as Mongol weakness in China. He re-imposed segregation between the Mongols and Chinese; decreed that Chinese were not to learn Mongolian; confiscated weapons and iron tools from the Chinese; outlawed Chinese opera and storytelling; and he considered extermination.
Rebellion and the Ming
Chinese opposition to Mongol rule increased. The Mongols were different from the Chinese not only in speech but in dress and other habits, and the Chinese looked upon the Mongols as barbarians. They disliked Mongol table manners, and they thought the Mongols smelled. [note]
Mongols culture excluded frequent bathing -- the result of their living with a scarcity of water. They saw lake water as holy and washing clothes in it as pollution.
The Mongol military machine had declined. Common Mongol troops had been put to work farming to support themselves using slaves. Across decades of peace, the ability at warfare of the Mongol warriors had deteriorated. Some of these Mongol warriors had also failed as farmers and had lost their farms. Some had become vagrants, while Mongol army officers remained as a salaried aristocracy segregated from the common Mongol soldier.
Plague had broken out among Mongols in the Crimea in 1347, and plague ravaged Mongols in China. Floods disrupted the country. Mongol military garrisons continued to rule at strategic points in China, but the Mongols were greatly outnumbered and were not prepared to contend with a great rebellion.
Mongol military commanders began running the government, and Toghun Temur passed into semi-retirement. He is reported to have taken pleasure only in boy catamites and in prayer with Buddhist monks from Tibet. Toghun Temur's debauchery and his devotion to Tibetan Buddhism added to Confucianist grievances. And opposition to Toghun Temur arose also among Buddhists. A secret Buddhist sect, the White Lotus, began organizing for revolution and prophesied the coming of a Buddhist messiah. [note]
Described by René Grousset in The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire, University of California press, 1964, p. 258, 1964.
Mongol rule in China was about 76 years-old when, in 1352, a rebellion took shape around Guangzhou. A Buddhist monk and former boy beggar, Zhu Yuanzhang, threw off his vestments, joined the rebellion, and his exceptional intelligence took him to the head of a rebel army. By 1355 the rebellion had spread through much of China, accompanied by anarchy. Zhu Yuanzhang won people to his side by forbidding his soldiers to pillage. In 1356, Zhu Yuanzhang captured Nanjing and made it his capital, and there he won the help of Confucian scholars who issued pronouncements for him and performed rituals in his claim of the Mandate of Heaven. And he defeated other rebel armies.
Meanwhile the Mongols were fighting among themselves, inhibiting their ability to quell the rebellion. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang extended his rule to Guangzhou -- the same year that the Mongol ruler, Toghan Temur, fled to Karakorum. Zhu Yuanzhang and his army entered the former Mongol capital, Beijing. In 1371 his army moved through Sichuan. By 1387 -- after more than thirty years of war -- Zhu Yuanzhang had liberated all of China. And as China's emperor he had taken the title Hong-wu and founded a new dynasty -- the Ming.
China from Mongol rule to the Ming, 1294 to 1420
Rebellion against Mongol Rule
The Mongols in China were ruling with a great variety of administrators, military personnel and hangers on -- Turks, Arabs, a few Europeans, Jurchen and Persians. The Mongols were following their tradition of supporting a variety of faiths -- not only Buddhism but Islam, Taoism and the Christianity that was practiced by some of the Mongols in China. And under Mongol rule Confucian influence at the royal court declined.
China's Mongol emperor, Kubilai Khan, died in 1294 at the age of seventy-nine. His grandson, Temur Oljeitu, succeeded him, made peace with Japan and maintained reasonable prosperity. Temur Oljeitu was a conscientious and energetic emperor, but the emperors who followed him after his early death in 1307 were of lesser quality than he or Kubilai Khan. In the twenty-six years between 1307 and 1333 seven emperors ruled.
Temur Oljeitu's nephew, Khaishan, ruled from 1308. He appointed people without talent to positions of government, including Buddhist and Taoist clergy, and he spent money lavishly on palaces and temples and tripled the supply of paper money. Following his death in 1311 his brother, Ayrubarwada, took power at age twenty-six. However competent Ayrubarwada was as a ruler, opposition rose against him at court by those who saw him as too sympathetic with the Chinese. He died in 1320, and his eldest son, Shidebala, succeeded him at the age of eighteen. Shidebala initiated anti-corruption reforms, sided with Tibetan Buddhists against Muslims and was assassinated in 1323. He was succeeded by Yesun Temur, who was most oriented toward Mongol traditions. His supporters had been involved in the assassination of Shidebala, and he distanced himself from them and returned to the Mongol tradition of treating religions impartially. Yesun Temur died in 1328 and the youngest son of Khaishan, Tugh Temur, 24-years-old, ruled for a month before he abdicated in favor of an elder brother, Khoshila, and returned to power within a year after Koshila's death -- possibly a murder. Tugh Temur was skilled in Chinese. He was a painter, supported education, lived modestly and dismissed over 10,000 from the imperial staff. Tugh Temur died in 1332.
Following Tugh Temur as emperor in 1333 was the thirteen-year-old, Toghun Temur, reputed to be the son of Koshila. From the beginning of his reign Toghan Temur's ministers ran state affairs. His first minister was concerned with what he saw as Mongol weakness in China. He re-imposed segregation between the Mongols and Chinese; decreed that Chinese were not to learn Mongolian; confiscated weapons and iron tools from the Chinese; outlawed Chinese opera and storytelling; and he considered extermination.
Rebellion and the Ming
Chinese opposition to Mongol rule increased. The Mongols were different from the Chinese not only in speech but in dress and other habits, and the Chinese looked upon the Mongols as barbarians. They disliked Mongol table manners, and they thought the Mongols smelled. [note]
Mongols culture excluded frequent bathing -- the result of their living with a scarcity of water. They saw lake water as holy and washing clothes in it as pollution.
The Mongol military machine had declined. Common Mongol troops had been put to work farming to support themselves using slaves. Across decades of peace, the ability at warfare of the Mongol warriors had deteriorated. Some of these Mongol warriors had also failed as farmers and had lost their farms. Some had become vagrants, while Mongol army officers remained as a salaried aristocracy segregated from the common Mongol soldier.
Plague had broken out among Mongols in the Crimea in 1347, and plague ravaged Mongols in China. Floods disrupted the country. Mongol military garrisons continued to rule at strategic points in China, but the Mongols were greatly outnumbered and were not prepared to contend with a great rebellion.
Mongol military commanders began running the government, and Toghun Temur passed into semi-retirement. He is reported to have taken pleasure only in boy catamites and in prayer with Buddhist monks from Tibet. Toghun Temur's debauchery and his devotion to Tibetan Buddhism added to Confucianist grievances. And opposition to Toghun Temur arose also among Buddhists. A secret Buddhist sect, the White Lotus, began organizing for revolution and prophesied the coming of a Buddhist messiah. [note]
Described by René Grousset in The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire, University of California press, 1964, p. 258, 1964.
Mongol rule in China was about 76 years-old when, in 1352, a rebellion took shape around Guangzhou. A Buddhist monk and former boy beggar, Zhu Yuanzhang, threw off his vestments, joined the rebellion, and his exceptional intelligence took him to the head of a rebel army. By 1355 the rebellion had spread through much of China, accompanied by anarchy. Zhu Yuanzhang won people to his side by forbidding his soldiers to pillage. In 1356, Zhu Yuanzhang captured Nanjing and made it his capital, and there he won the help of Confucian scholars who issued pronouncements for him and performed rituals in his claim of the Mandate of Heaven. And he defeated other rebel armies.
Meanwhile the Mongols were fighting among themselves, inhibiting their ability to quell the rebellion. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang extended his rule to Guangzhou -- the same year that the Mongol ruler, Toghan Temur, fled to Karakorum. Zhu Yuanzhang and his army entered the former Mongol capital, Beijing. In 1371 his army moved through Sichuan. By 1387 -- after more than thirty years of war -- Zhu Yuanzhang had liberated all of China. And as China's emperor he had taken the title Hong-wu and founded a new dynasty -- the Ming.
China from Mongol rule to the Ming, 1294 to 1420
Chinese history is also a mixture of glory and shame, brilliance and darkness – it is nevertheless very unique and distinct in this world.
To give a systematic view of Chinese history, I believe the following timeline table is useful. Details see Timeline of Chinese history - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Many of you may be interested in correlating dynasties in West or Mideast or Arabic or anywhere with those in China...
---- Dynasty --------------------------- Years
Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors 三皇五帝 sān huáng wǔ dì before 2070 BC 628+
Xia Dynasty 夏 xià 2070–1600 BC 470
Shang Dynasty 商 shāng 1600–1046 BC 554
Western Zhou Dynasty 西周 xī zhōu 1046–771 BC 275
Eastern Zhou Dynasty 東周 / 东周 dōng zhōu 770–256 BC 514
Traditionally divided into
Spring and Autumn Period 春秋 chūn qiū 722–476 BC 246
Warring States Period 戰國 / 战国 zhàn guó 475–221 BC 254
Qin Dynasty 秦 qín 221–206 BC 15
Western Han Dynasty 西漢 / 西汉 xī hàn 206 BC–9 AD 215
Xin Dynasty 新 xīn 9–23 14
Eastern Han Dynasty 東漢 / 东汉 dōng hàn 25–220 195
Three Kingdoms 三國 / 三国 sān guó 220–265 45
Western Jin Dynasty 西晉 / 西晋 xī jìn 265–317 52
Eastern Jin Dynasty 東晉 / 东晋 dōng jìn 317–420 103
Southern and Northern Dynasties 南北朝 nán běi cháo 420–589 169
Sui Dynasty 隋 suí 581–618 37
Tang Dynasty 唐 táng 618–907 289
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 五代十國 / 五代十国 wǔ dài shí guó 907–960 53
Northern Song Dynasty 北宋 běi sòng 960–1127 167
Southern Song Dynasty 南宋 nán sòng 1127–1279 152
Liao Dynasty 遼 / 辽 liáo 916–1125 209
Jin Dynasty 金 jīn 1115–1234 119
Yuan Dynasty 元 yuán 1271–1368 97
Ming Dynasty 明 míng 1368–1644 276
Shun Dynasty 順 shùn 1644 <1
Qing Dynasty 清 qīng 1644–1911 268
Empire of China 中华帝国 Zhōnghuá Dìguó (Yuan Shikai) 1915–1916 <1
-----------------------
Following diagram is very rough: even in one dynasty, the torritory was always changing.
To give a systematic view of Chinese history, I believe the following timeline table is useful. Details see Timeline of Chinese history - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Many of you may be interested in correlating dynasties in West or Mideast or Arabic or anywhere with those in China...
---- Dynasty --------------------------- Years
Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors 三皇五帝 sān huáng wǔ dì before 2070 BC 628+
Xia Dynasty 夏 xià 2070–1600 BC 470
Shang Dynasty 商 shāng 1600–1046 BC 554
Western Zhou Dynasty 西周 xī zhōu 1046–771 BC 275
Eastern Zhou Dynasty 東周 / 东周 dōng zhōu 770–256 BC 514
Traditionally divided into
Spring and Autumn Period 春秋 chūn qiū 722–476 BC 246
Warring States Period 戰國 / 战国 zhàn guó 475–221 BC 254
Qin Dynasty 秦 qín 221–206 BC 15
Western Han Dynasty 西漢 / 西汉 xī hàn 206 BC–9 AD 215
Xin Dynasty 新 xīn 9–23 14
Eastern Han Dynasty 東漢 / 东汉 dōng hàn 25–220 195
Three Kingdoms 三國 / 三国 sān guó 220–265 45
Western Jin Dynasty 西晉 / 西晋 xī jìn 265–317 52
Eastern Jin Dynasty 東晉 / 东晋 dōng jìn 317–420 103
Southern and Northern Dynasties 南北朝 nán běi cháo 420–589 169
Sui Dynasty 隋 suí 581–618 37
Tang Dynasty 唐 táng 618–907 289
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 五代十國 / 五代十国 wǔ dài shí guó 907–960 53
Northern Song Dynasty 北宋 běi sòng 960–1127 167
Southern Song Dynasty 南宋 nán sòng 1127–1279 152
Liao Dynasty 遼 / 辽 liáo 916–1125 209
Jin Dynasty 金 jīn 1115–1234 119
Yuan Dynasty 元 yuán 1271–1368 97
Ming Dynasty 明 míng 1368–1644 276
Shun Dynasty 順 shùn 1644 <1
Qing Dynasty 清 qīng 1644–1911 268
Empire of China 中华帝国 Zhōnghuá Dìguó (Yuan Shikai) 1915–1916 <1
-----------------------
Following diagram is very rough: even in one dynasty, the torritory was always changing.
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Are Chinese descendants of an African Eve?
Professor Jin Li of the Research Center of Contemporary Anthropology at Shanghai Fudan University (RCCASFU) says he has proved modern Chinese people originated in Africa. His research, based on DNA testing techniques that have transformed the study of human evolution, supports the global scientific consensus that all modern humans are descended from people who migrated from Africa tens of thousands of years ago. The so-called "out-of-Africa" theory is the current scientific consensus and seems to be based on convincing genetic data.
But archeologists have spent decades studying the fossil remains of ancient populations of hominids that lived in China long before the African migrants arrived. The question arises what happened to these early humans? Were they killed off by the newcomers? Is it possible that the two populations interbred, and would that help explain some puzzling physical differences between modern East Asians and people in Africa and elsewhere? Despite the DNA evidence, some Chinese archeologists continue to defend a multi-regional theory of human evolution in which different populations around the world evolved from local hominids independently.
All modern humans are descended from a 200,000-year-old African woman
Professor Jin published first his research in 2001, but he was not the first to reach essentially the similar conclusions. In 1987 the New Zealander Allan Charles Wilson and Rebecca Cann published a study of mitochondrial DNA that supported the "African Eve" theory that all human beings living today are descendents of a single woman who lived in Africa around 200,000 years ago. According to Wilson and Cann descendents of this "African Eve" migrated around the world and later evolved into the different varieties of modern humans.
Since then more and more genetic evidence has accumulated, all supporting the view that modern humans, including Chinese people, originated from a single population in Africa. In 1998, Chinese scientist Chu Jiayou and his team analyzed the DNA microsatellites (also known as simple sequence repeats) of northern and southern Chinese, both those of Han and ethnic minorities. Chu concluded that the ancestors of the modern Chinese had migrated to China from Africa via South Asia.
As the mutation rate of DNA microsatellites is high, it is not the best method available for researching ancient human migration and the evolution process. Su Bing and other scientists from the Kunming Institute of Zoology proposed an alternative approach using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the Y-chromosome (Y-SNP). This was the approach used by Prof. Jin Li and associate professor Li Hui.
DNA molecules point to a startling conclusion
Jin chose the Y-chromosome because it is relatively pure from a genetic perspective. Human beings have two sets of chromosomes, X and Y, inherited from our mothers and fathers respectively. The Y-chromosome comes from male and has a low mutation rate. It reflects how human genes are passed on from generation to generation more clearly than the X chromosome. As a result, geneticists see it as ideal material for the study of human origins.
Jin and his team focused on three SNPs on the Y-chromosome M89, M130 and YAP. They are mutations of another mutated DNA molecule M168, which originated in Africa between 31,000 and 79,000 years ago.
"M168 originated only in East Africans. All people outside Africa and some Africans still have it. So it is the most direct evidence to prove that modern humans came from Africa." Jin wrote in his paper.
How do scientists work out the age of strand of DNA?
You may ask: How do scientists work out the age of a DNA component? How do scientists know M168 existed in ancient Africa? How do they work out exactly when it originated?
Associate Professor Li Hui said that non-genic DNA sequences are used in molecular anthropology because genes possess many physiological functions. If a gene mutates, a person's health may be greatly affected.
There are two fundamental features of the materials Jin and his team chose: they were non-genic and genetic haploid. Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes belong to this category. Most of the Y-chromosome consists of non-genic sequences. The team analyzed two types of mutation of the non-genic sequence. The first was SNP. This type of mutation is rare and stable. It will not repeat or change back to its original form. The structural relationships of all types of Y-chromosome all over the world are based on this feature. The other type of mutation was short tandem repeats (STR). These lengthen and shorten at a constant speed. Thus the origin of each type of Y chromosome can be dated by dividing the total number of mutations by the rate of mutation.
In other words analysis of SNP and SRT mutations show when the M168 mutation occurred.
DNA from modern Chinese proves their African origins
Jin Li and his team randomly selected 9,988 Chinese males as samples. They found that all samples of M89, M130, and YAP led to only three mutations. 9,329 samples (93.4 percent) mutated into M89T、M130C and YAP-; 370 samples (3.7 percent) mutated into M89C、M130T and YAP-. 290 samples (2.9 percent) mutated into M89C、M130C and YAP+. No new mutation was found. The results coincided with findings in other parts of the world, that is, M168 displayed no new mutations in China. The result proved that Chinese people must have come from Africa, along with all other modern humans. But Jin Li's research also supported the African origin theory from another perspective, which was beyond their original expectations.
Tracing human migration routes using DNA
Besides trying to find evidence to prove one way or another whether Chinese people had an independent origin, Jin and his team wanted to study the genetic differences among people living in different parts of China by investigating the distribution frequency of the three ancient Y-chromosomes.
The molecular genetic structure of each ethnic group has its own particular characteristics. By analyzing the mutation process of M89, M130 and YAP, they figured out the distribution and migration routes of the different ethnic groups in China. For example, most samples that mutated into M89T, M130C and YAP- were from Han Chinese individuals. The other two types of mutation were more common in ethnic minorities.
Li Hui tested his own DNA to see where his ancestors came from. His Y-chromosome is type 01, which originated around Beibu Bay and the west of Hainan Province about 20,000 years ago. Type 01 then traveled to Guangdong, Taiwan and Fujian about 10,000 years ago and moved to the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang 8,000 years ago. So Li's ancestors must have followed the same route.
Scientists use similar methods to tell how the original Africans migrated around the world. Li Shilin, a teacher at RCCASFU, says human ancestors didn't have any specific destination. They roamed wherever was favorable for their survival. Judging by the geographic and environmental conditions at the time, our African ancestors probably traveled along the coast where they could find food both on land and in the sea. As the population increased they moved to other parts of the world, including China. Why did the African migrants survive but not the original Chinese? Though ancient Africans survived the formidable difficulties and managed to travel to China thousands of years ago, why do geneticists claim they are ancestors of Chinese? What happened to the original primitive human inhabitants of China? Is it possible that modern Chinese people are descendents of these early native hominids or the result of interbreeding between them and the African migrants? Jin and his team originally took this possibility into consideration. After all, many ancient human fossils had been discovered in Asia, especially in China. Their shapes and timelines displayed continuity and the inheritance of traits. To allow for this possibility, Jin's team collected their samples from all over China to see if they could find a different mutation of M168. But they found nothing new. Their conclusion remained that the ancestor of all modern Chinese people was a pure-blooded African. How did the original human population of China disappear?
Regarding the question, what happened to the original hominid population of China, Jin Li pointed out that there is a 60,000 year gap in the human fossil record. All ancient human fossils are older than 100,000 years, while modern human fossils are all less than 40,000 years old (and mostly 10,000 to 30,000 years old). That means no human fossils from 50,000 to 100,000 years old, that might support the hypothesis of multi-regional evolution, have yet been found in China. Jin Li believes this gap is not accidental. During that 50,000 year period, the majority of biological species on the East Asian mainland became extinct.
That fossil gap corresponds to the Quaternary ice age, which killed off the majority of species, including indigenous humans, in East Asia, as well as other parts of the world. But in Africa, near the equator, where the temperature remained relatively high, ancient human beings were able to survive and reproduce. Kong Xinggong from the School of Geographical Sciences of Nanjing Normal University, said that during the ice age, the average temperature in the equatorial regions was only 1-2 ℃ lower than now, while closer to the poles, the temperature dropped dramatically.
This explains why equatorial Africans survived, while the ancient human populations from other parts of world disappeared. The Neanderthals became extinct in Europe about 20,000 years ago, at the height of the ice age there. After the ice age, Africans migrated from Southeast Asia into Chinese mainland, replaced ancient pre-glacial man there, and became the ancestors of the modern Chinese.
Professor Jin Li sees the African origin of the Chinese people as a hard fact, but not everyone agrees. Some scientists say it is wrong to rely solely on genetics to establish the origins of modern humans.
Academician Wu Xinzhi from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the ancient human population on the Chinese mainland did not die out, but evolved into modern Chinese. In other words, modern Chinese people have a direct lineal descent from the original hominid inhabitants. On what does Wu base his argument and can it stand up to scrutiny?
The history of modern humans starts with late Homo sapiens.
Dr. Xing Song from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, says we must first define what we mean by the origin of modern man. It is a completely different concept from the origin of mankind. The latter refers to when and where the ancient apes evolved into people; while the origin of modern man refers to when and where people who look like modern humans originated. The academic view is that modern humans, the latest phase in the history of human evolution, i.e. late Homo sapiens, appeared in the period from around 50,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Except for some particular characteristics, late Homo sapiens are basically the same as today's humans. Their fossils are widely distributed not only in Asia, Africa, and Europe but also in Australia and the Americas.
Remains of late Homo sapiens dating back to between 50,000 to 37,000 years ago have been found all over China. The finds include Hetao man in Erdos, Inner Mongolia; Liujiang Man, dating back 50,000 to 30,000 years, in Liujiang County, Guangxi; the Upper cave man, dating back 30,000 years, in Zhoukoudian, near Beijing; and Ziyang man dating back 10,000 years, in Ziyang City, Sichuan.
Professor Jin Li maintains that late Homo sapiens from all over the world, including China, had common ancestors, that is, migrating Africans, who arrived in China 60,000 years ago.
China has been continuously settled by humans since the earliest times
But despite the seemingly conclusive genetic evidence, Professor Wu Xinzhi insists the debate between "single-region evolution" and "multi-region evolution," is not settled. He maintains that Africa is not the only origin of modern humans, but that modern man evolved separately in several parts of world. He believes there is ample evidence that at least some of the ancestors of modern Chinese were native to the area.
From the 1920s on, archaeologists discovered large numbers of ancient human fossils in China. According to Professor Wu, different populations of ancient humans lived in overlapping periods. Yuanmou Man in Yunnan Province dates back 1,700,000 years, Shaanxi Lantian Man 1,150,000 to 600,000 years, Peking Man 500,000 to 200,000 years, Shandong Yiyuan man 400,000 years, Anhui Hexian 300,000 to 200,000 years and Guangdong Maba Man 100,000 years.
Ancient human fossils found in China
Homo erectus
Yuanmou Man
1,700,000 years ago, in Yuanmou County of Yunnan Province
Lantian Man
1,150,000 to 600,000 years ago, in Lantian County of Shaanxi Province
No. 1 Nanjing Man
600,000 years ago, Tangshan of Nanjing
Peking Man
500,000 to 200,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian of Beijing
Yiyuan Man
400,000 years ago, Yiyuan of Shandong Province
Early Homo sapiens
Dali Man
230,000 to 180,000 years ago, Dali of Shaanxi Province
Maba Man
200,000 to 160,000 years ago, Maba of Guangdong Province
Changyang Man
195,000 years ago, Changyang of Hubei Province
Late Homo sapiens
Upper Cave Man
30,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian of Beijing
Liujiang Man
50,000 to 30,000 years ago, Liujiang County of Guangxi Province
The fossil record shows that in China there have always been different populations of ancient humans. Therefore, it remains possible that today's Chinese people are directly descended from them. But there is a major problem facing the proponents of the multi-regional thesis: in China fossils from different eras are rarely found in the same location. This implies the different populations were unrelated and casts doubt on the thesis of continuity of settlement.
Wu says this is because not all of the ancient human remains were fossilized and became available to later generations. Essentially he is saying there are haphazard gaps in the fossil record.
Is Nanjing Man the ancestor of the modern Chinese?
Xu Hankui, a researcher from the Nanjing Paleontology Institute, who discovered the fossil remains of Nanjing Man, also supports the hypothesis of multi-regional evolution. When fossilized skulls of Nanjing Man were discovered by peasants exploring an ancient lava cave, Nanjing Paleontology Institute sent several experts on a field trip. Xu was among them and participated in the study of the fossils.
Later, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology showed that one of the skulls was of a 21 to 35-year-old women who lived 600,000 years ago and suffered from a bone disease called periostitis. She had many of the characteristics of Beijing Homo erectus, and genetic connections with other ancient Chinese human fossils. Another skull was from a male somewhere in the transitional phase between Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. There was gap of 100,000 years between the two skulls, and the finds showed evidence of continuous evolution of ancient Chinese human populations.
Xu Hankui believes that the Nanjing Man finds are evidence of multi-regional evolution.
The puzzle of Chinese people's shovel-shaped front teeth
One of the puzzles that the out-of-Africa theory needs to account for is the prevalence of shovel-shaped front teeth among the modern Chinese population. Dr. Xing Song says the distinctively-shaped teeth are prevalent in the Mongoloid race in East Asia. Licking their inside front teeth, Chinese people will find that there's a dent in their upper teeth while the surfaces of the lower ones are even. From the inside, the upper teeth look like shovels. According to Xing, these peculiarly shaped teeth were inherited in a continuous line from early Chinese hominids. About 80 percent of Chinese have such upper front teeth in contrast to only 5 percent of Europeans and 10 percent of Africans. Xing says this is strong evidence of the continuity of human evolution in China.
Moreover, hominid fossils in China share the same facial features: comparatively flat faces, a larger angle between the nose and the forehead, a flat nose bridge, rectangular eye sockets and forward-projecting cheekbones. All these features are absent in Africans.
Early Chinese lacked advanced stone technology seen in Africa. The stone artifacts unearthed in China also present difficulties for the out-of-Africa theory. In Palestine, archaeologists discovered stone artifacts from 100,000 years ago. These artifacts, very sophisticated and skillfully made, belong to the third phase of stone artifacts, much more advanced than the first and second phases. Palestine is an obvious route for African hominids to travel to the Eurasian Continent. If the geneticists are right, the African ancestors of the modern Chinese left Africa about 100,000 years ago, and passed through Palestine before reaching China some 60,000 years ago. Logically, the trekking Africans should have had the skills to make third phase stone artifacts when they arrived in China, and we would expect to find such artifacts.
But the fact is that the most basic stone artifacts, dating back 1.7 million years ago, were still in use on the Chinese mainland 30,000 years ago. About 98 percent of stone artifacts used by Chinese hominids belong to the "first phase." If migrating Africans were the ancestors of modern Chinese, why didn't they carry their advanced stone-working skills to China?
Huang Wanbo, a research fellow of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been conducting paleoanthropological research for more than 20 years in the Three Gorges area. He says that just as the physical characteristics of East Asian hominid fossils can be traced back to a single origin, so can the artifacts of ancient East Asian cultures. For example, the "hand-axe" was one of the important African stone artifacts, dating back 1.7 million years. Most were made of obsidian formed by volcanic eruptions. In contrast, the ancient Chinese mostly used choppers and crushers made of quartz.
Gao Xing, another research fellow, echoed his colleague's opinion, saying that Chinese culture had developed continuously without interruption since remote antiquity and there was no sign that it had ever been replaced by foreign cultures.
Chinese may be "hybrid" descendants of "natives" and African migrants
Wu doesn't rule out that Chinese people interbred with African or European migrants but maintains this was relatively rare.
There is evidence of genetic exchanges between ancient Chinese and Europeans and Southeast Asians. Unlike the rectangular eye sockets of most Chinese hominid fossils, the Maba skulls unearthed in south China's Guangdong Province had round orbits, which may have come from interbreeding with Europeans. Another example is the bulging occipital bone in skulls discovered in Guangxi. Similar skulls were also discovered in Sichuan and Yunnan. The characteristics are also typical of Europeans. Moreover, some ancient Chinese skulls also exhibit high nose bridges, which could come from either European or African ancestors.
Xu Hankui says the similarities between the skulls of Nanjing Man and European and African Homo erectus and Homo sapiens prove that hybridization took place during the evolution of the modern Chinese.
Wu says hybridization became more frequent as human travels covered a wider area. Foreign genes gradually changed the original Chinese type. As a result some modern Chinese have rectangular eye sockets and some have round ones.
Can human history be inferred from fossil DNA?
According to Xu, inferring human history from tests on modern human DNA is an uncertain approach. But why can't we use DNA from fossils?
As early as 1974, scientists successfully collected mitochondrial DNA from 60,000-year-old remains in southeast Australia. They concluded the DNA had no connection with other DNA discovered in specimens of early Man known to have originated in Africa. At the time, the result cast doubt on the idea that modern humans originated in Africa.
But Xu said DNA collected from fossils is unreliable because after being buried for millions of years it could be polluted by other materials, especially water. He says only DNA collected from the insects preserved in amber can reliably be used in genetic research.
Wu cites an article by Chinese American, Wen-hsiung Li, who argues that the genetic research done so far is relatively limited in scope and that much more evidence needs to be gathered before final conclusions can be drawn.
So while the genetic evidence points strongly to the African origin of all modern humans, including the Chinese, dissenting archeologists maintain the fossil record supports some version of the multi-regional hypothesis and suggest DNA evidence alone is inconclusive. Obviously, this complex debate is set to continue.
Are Chinese descendants of an African Eve? - China.org.cn
---------------
A very complex story... and this isn't conclusive... perhaps never to be.
Professor Jin Li of the Research Center of Contemporary Anthropology at Shanghai Fudan University (RCCASFU) says he has proved modern Chinese people originated in Africa. His research, based on DNA testing techniques that have transformed the study of human evolution, supports the global scientific consensus that all modern humans are descended from people who migrated from Africa tens of thousands of years ago. The so-called "out-of-Africa" theory is the current scientific consensus and seems to be based on convincing genetic data.
But archeologists have spent decades studying the fossil remains of ancient populations of hominids that lived in China long before the African migrants arrived. The question arises what happened to these early humans? Were they killed off by the newcomers? Is it possible that the two populations interbred, and would that help explain some puzzling physical differences between modern East Asians and people in Africa and elsewhere? Despite the DNA evidence, some Chinese archeologists continue to defend a multi-regional theory of human evolution in which different populations around the world evolved from local hominids independently.
All modern humans are descended from a 200,000-year-old African woman
Professor Jin published first his research in 2001, but he was not the first to reach essentially the similar conclusions. In 1987 the New Zealander Allan Charles Wilson and Rebecca Cann published a study of mitochondrial DNA that supported the "African Eve" theory that all human beings living today are descendents of a single woman who lived in Africa around 200,000 years ago. According to Wilson and Cann descendents of this "African Eve" migrated around the world and later evolved into the different varieties of modern humans.
Since then more and more genetic evidence has accumulated, all supporting the view that modern humans, including Chinese people, originated from a single population in Africa. In 1998, Chinese scientist Chu Jiayou and his team analyzed the DNA microsatellites (also known as simple sequence repeats) of northern and southern Chinese, both those of Han and ethnic minorities. Chu concluded that the ancestors of the modern Chinese had migrated to China from Africa via South Asia.
As the mutation rate of DNA microsatellites is high, it is not the best method available for researching ancient human migration and the evolution process. Su Bing and other scientists from the Kunming Institute of Zoology proposed an alternative approach using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the Y-chromosome (Y-SNP). This was the approach used by Prof. Jin Li and associate professor Li Hui.
DNA molecules point to a startling conclusion
Jin chose the Y-chromosome because it is relatively pure from a genetic perspective. Human beings have two sets of chromosomes, X and Y, inherited from our mothers and fathers respectively. The Y-chromosome comes from male and has a low mutation rate. It reflects how human genes are passed on from generation to generation more clearly than the X chromosome. As a result, geneticists see it as ideal material for the study of human origins.
Jin and his team focused on three SNPs on the Y-chromosome M89, M130 and YAP. They are mutations of another mutated DNA molecule M168, which originated in Africa between 31,000 and 79,000 years ago.
"M168 originated only in East Africans. All people outside Africa and some Africans still have it. So it is the most direct evidence to prove that modern humans came from Africa." Jin wrote in his paper.
How do scientists work out the age of strand of DNA?
You may ask: How do scientists work out the age of a DNA component? How do scientists know M168 existed in ancient Africa? How do they work out exactly when it originated?
Associate Professor Li Hui said that non-genic DNA sequences are used in molecular anthropology because genes possess many physiological functions. If a gene mutates, a person's health may be greatly affected.
There are two fundamental features of the materials Jin and his team chose: they were non-genic and genetic haploid. Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes belong to this category. Most of the Y-chromosome consists of non-genic sequences. The team analyzed two types of mutation of the non-genic sequence. The first was SNP. This type of mutation is rare and stable. It will not repeat or change back to its original form. The structural relationships of all types of Y-chromosome all over the world are based on this feature. The other type of mutation was short tandem repeats (STR). These lengthen and shorten at a constant speed. Thus the origin of each type of Y chromosome can be dated by dividing the total number of mutations by the rate of mutation.
In other words analysis of SNP and SRT mutations show when the M168 mutation occurred.
DNA from modern Chinese proves their African origins
Jin Li and his team randomly selected 9,988 Chinese males as samples. They found that all samples of M89, M130, and YAP led to only three mutations. 9,329 samples (93.4 percent) mutated into M89T、M130C and YAP-; 370 samples (3.7 percent) mutated into M89C、M130T and YAP-. 290 samples (2.9 percent) mutated into M89C、M130C and YAP+. No new mutation was found. The results coincided with findings in other parts of the world, that is, M168 displayed no new mutations in China. The result proved that Chinese people must have come from Africa, along with all other modern humans. But Jin Li's research also supported the African origin theory from another perspective, which was beyond their original expectations.
Tracing human migration routes using DNA
Besides trying to find evidence to prove one way or another whether Chinese people had an independent origin, Jin and his team wanted to study the genetic differences among people living in different parts of China by investigating the distribution frequency of the three ancient Y-chromosomes.
The molecular genetic structure of each ethnic group has its own particular characteristics. By analyzing the mutation process of M89, M130 and YAP, they figured out the distribution and migration routes of the different ethnic groups in China. For example, most samples that mutated into M89T, M130C and YAP- were from Han Chinese individuals. The other two types of mutation were more common in ethnic minorities.
Li Hui tested his own DNA to see where his ancestors came from. His Y-chromosome is type 01, which originated around Beibu Bay and the west of Hainan Province about 20,000 years ago. Type 01 then traveled to Guangdong, Taiwan and Fujian about 10,000 years ago and moved to the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang 8,000 years ago. So Li's ancestors must have followed the same route.
Scientists use similar methods to tell how the original Africans migrated around the world. Li Shilin, a teacher at RCCASFU, says human ancestors didn't have any specific destination. They roamed wherever was favorable for their survival. Judging by the geographic and environmental conditions at the time, our African ancestors probably traveled along the coast where they could find food both on land and in the sea. As the population increased they moved to other parts of the world, including China. Why did the African migrants survive but not the original Chinese? Though ancient Africans survived the formidable difficulties and managed to travel to China thousands of years ago, why do geneticists claim they are ancestors of Chinese? What happened to the original primitive human inhabitants of China? Is it possible that modern Chinese people are descendents of these early native hominids or the result of interbreeding between them and the African migrants? Jin and his team originally took this possibility into consideration. After all, many ancient human fossils had been discovered in Asia, especially in China. Their shapes and timelines displayed continuity and the inheritance of traits. To allow for this possibility, Jin's team collected their samples from all over China to see if they could find a different mutation of M168. But they found nothing new. Their conclusion remained that the ancestor of all modern Chinese people was a pure-blooded African. How did the original human population of China disappear?
Regarding the question, what happened to the original hominid population of China, Jin Li pointed out that there is a 60,000 year gap in the human fossil record. All ancient human fossils are older than 100,000 years, while modern human fossils are all less than 40,000 years old (and mostly 10,000 to 30,000 years old). That means no human fossils from 50,000 to 100,000 years old, that might support the hypothesis of multi-regional evolution, have yet been found in China. Jin Li believes this gap is not accidental. During that 50,000 year period, the majority of biological species on the East Asian mainland became extinct.
That fossil gap corresponds to the Quaternary ice age, which killed off the majority of species, including indigenous humans, in East Asia, as well as other parts of the world. But in Africa, near the equator, where the temperature remained relatively high, ancient human beings were able to survive and reproduce. Kong Xinggong from the School of Geographical Sciences of Nanjing Normal University, said that during the ice age, the average temperature in the equatorial regions was only 1-2 ℃ lower than now, while closer to the poles, the temperature dropped dramatically.
This explains why equatorial Africans survived, while the ancient human populations from other parts of world disappeared. The Neanderthals became extinct in Europe about 20,000 years ago, at the height of the ice age there. After the ice age, Africans migrated from Southeast Asia into Chinese mainland, replaced ancient pre-glacial man there, and became the ancestors of the modern Chinese.
Professor Jin Li sees the African origin of the Chinese people as a hard fact, but not everyone agrees. Some scientists say it is wrong to rely solely on genetics to establish the origins of modern humans.
Academician Wu Xinzhi from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the ancient human population on the Chinese mainland did not die out, but evolved into modern Chinese. In other words, modern Chinese people have a direct lineal descent from the original hominid inhabitants. On what does Wu base his argument and can it stand up to scrutiny?
The history of modern humans starts with late Homo sapiens.
Dr. Xing Song from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, says we must first define what we mean by the origin of modern man. It is a completely different concept from the origin of mankind. The latter refers to when and where the ancient apes evolved into people; while the origin of modern man refers to when and where people who look like modern humans originated. The academic view is that modern humans, the latest phase in the history of human evolution, i.e. late Homo sapiens, appeared in the period from around 50,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Except for some particular characteristics, late Homo sapiens are basically the same as today's humans. Their fossils are widely distributed not only in Asia, Africa, and Europe but also in Australia and the Americas.
Remains of late Homo sapiens dating back to between 50,000 to 37,000 years ago have been found all over China. The finds include Hetao man in Erdos, Inner Mongolia; Liujiang Man, dating back 50,000 to 30,000 years, in Liujiang County, Guangxi; the Upper cave man, dating back 30,000 years, in Zhoukoudian, near Beijing; and Ziyang man dating back 10,000 years, in Ziyang City, Sichuan.
Professor Jin Li maintains that late Homo sapiens from all over the world, including China, had common ancestors, that is, migrating Africans, who arrived in China 60,000 years ago.
China has been continuously settled by humans since the earliest times
But despite the seemingly conclusive genetic evidence, Professor Wu Xinzhi insists the debate between "single-region evolution" and "multi-region evolution," is not settled. He maintains that Africa is not the only origin of modern humans, but that modern man evolved separately in several parts of world. He believes there is ample evidence that at least some of the ancestors of modern Chinese were native to the area.
From the 1920s on, archaeologists discovered large numbers of ancient human fossils in China. According to Professor Wu, different populations of ancient humans lived in overlapping periods. Yuanmou Man in Yunnan Province dates back 1,700,000 years, Shaanxi Lantian Man 1,150,000 to 600,000 years, Peking Man 500,000 to 200,000 years, Shandong Yiyuan man 400,000 years, Anhui Hexian 300,000 to 200,000 years and Guangdong Maba Man 100,000 years.
Ancient human fossils found in China
Homo erectus
Yuanmou Man
1,700,000 years ago, in Yuanmou County of Yunnan Province
Lantian Man
1,150,000 to 600,000 years ago, in Lantian County of Shaanxi Province
No. 1 Nanjing Man
600,000 years ago, Tangshan of Nanjing
Peking Man
500,000 to 200,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian of Beijing
Yiyuan Man
400,000 years ago, Yiyuan of Shandong Province
Early Homo sapiens
Dali Man
230,000 to 180,000 years ago, Dali of Shaanxi Province
Maba Man
200,000 to 160,000 years ago, Maba of Guangdong Province
Changyang Man
195,000 years ago, Changyang of Hubei Province
Late Homo sapiens
Upper Cave Man
30,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian of Beijing
Liujiang Man
50,000 to 30,000 years ago, Liujiang County of Guangxi Province
The fossil record shows that in China there have always been different populations of ancient humans. Therefore, it remains possible that today's Chinese people are directly descended from them. But there is a major problem facing the proponents of the multi-regional thesis: in China fossils from different eras are rarely found in the same location. This implies the different populations were unrelated and casts doubt on the thesis of continuity of settlement.
Wu says this is because not all of the ancient human remains were fossilized and became available to later generations. Essentially he is saying there are haphazard gaps in the fossil record.
Is Nanjing Man the ancestor of the modern Chinese?
Xu Hankui, a researcher from the Nanjing Paleontology Institute, who discovered the fossil remains of Nanjing Man, also supports the hypothesis of multi-regional evolution. When fossilized skulls of Nanjing Man were discovered by peasants exploring an ancient lava cave, Nanjing Paleontology Institute sent several experts on a field trip. Xu was among them and participated in the study of the fossils.
Later, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology showed that one of the skulls was of a 21 to 35-year-old women who lived 600,000 years ago and suffered from a bone disease called periostitis. She had many of the characteristics of Beijing Homo erectus, and genetic connections with other ancient Chinese human fossils. Another skull was from a male somewhere in the transitional phase between Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. There was gap of 100,000 years between the two skulls, and the finds showed evidence of continuous evolution of ancient Chinese human populations.
Xu Hankui believes that the Nanjing Man finds are evidence of multi-regional evolution.
The puzzle of Chinese people's shovel-shaped front teeth
One of the puzzles that the out-of-Africa theory needs to account for is the prevalence of shovel-shaped front teeth among the modern Chinese population. Dr. Xing Song says the distinctively-shaped teeth are prevalent in the Mongoloid race in East Asia. Licking their inside front teeth, Chinese people will find that there's a dent in their upper teeth while the surfaces of the lower ones are even. From the inside, the upper teeth look like shovels. According to Xing, these peculiarly shaped teeth were inherited in a continuous line from early Chinese hominids. About 80 percent of Chinese have such upper front teeth in contrast to only 5 percent of Europeans and 10 percent of Africans. Xing says this is strong evidence of the continuity of human evolution in China.
Moreover, hominid fossils in China share the same facial features: comparatively flat faces, a larger angle between the nose and the forehead, a flat nose bridge, rectangular eye sockets and forward-projecting cheekbones. All these features are absent in Africans.
Early Chinese lacked advanced stone technology seen in Africa. The stone artifacts unearthed in China also present difficulties for the out-of-Africa theory. In Palestine, archaeologists discovered stone artifacts from 100,000 years ago. These artifacts, very sophisticated and skillfully made, belong to the third phase of stone artifacts, much more advanced than the first and second phases. Palestine is an obvious route for African hominids to travel to the Eurasian Continent. If the geneticists are right, the African ancestors of the modern Chinese left Africa about 100,000 years ago, and passed through Palestine before reaching China some 60,000 years ago. Logically, the trekking Africans should have had the skills to make third phase stone artifacts when they arrived in China, and we would expect to find such artifacts.
But the fact is that the most basic stone artifacts, dating back 1.7 million years ago, were still in use on the Chinese mainland 30,000 years ago. About 98 percent of stone artifacts used by Chinese hominids belong to the "first phase." If migrating Africans were the ancestors of modern Chinese, why didn't they carry their advanced stone-working skills to China?
Huang Wanbo, a research fellow of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been conducting paleoanthropological research for more than 20 years in the Three Gorges area. He says that just as the physical characteristics of East Asian hominid fossils can be traced back to a single origin, so can the artifacts of ancient East Asian cultures. For example, the "hand-axe" was one of the important African stone artifacts, dating back 1.7 million years. Most were made of obsidian formed by volcanic eruptions. In contrast, the ancient Chinese mostly used choppers and crushers made of quartz.
Gao Xing, another research fellow, echoed his colleague's opinion, saying that Chinese culture had developed continuously without interruption since remote antiquity and there was no sign that it had ever been replaced by foreign cultures.
Chinese may be "hybrid" descendants of "natives" and African migrants
Wu doesn't rule out that Chinese people interbred with African or European migrants but maintains this was relatively rare.
There is evidence of genetic exchanges between ancient Chinese and Europeans and Southeast Asians. Unlike the rectangular eye sockets of most Chinese hominid fossils, the Maba skulls unearthed in south China's Guangdong Province had round orbits, which may have come from interbreeding with Europeans. Another example is the bulging occipital bone in skulls discovered in Guangxi. Similar skulls were also discovered in Sichuan and Yunnan. The characteristics are also typical of Europeans. Moreover, some ancient Chinese skulls also exhibit high nose bridges, which could come from either European or African ancestors.
Xu Hankui says the similarities between the skulls of Nanjing Man and European and African Homo erectus and Homo sapiens prove that hybridization took place during the evolution of the modern Chinese.
Wu says hybridization became more frequent as human travels covered a wider area. Foreign genes gradually changed the original Chinese type. As a result some modern Chinese have rectangular eye sockets and some have round ones.
Can human history be inferred from fossil DNA?
According to Xu, inferring human history from tests on modern human DNA is an uncertain approach. But why can't we use DNA from fossils?
As early as 1974, scientists successfully collected mitochondrial DNA from 60,000-year-old remains in southeast Australia. They concluded the DNA had no connection with other DNA discovered in specimens of early Man known to have originated in Africa. At the time, the result cast doubt on the idea that modern humans originated in Africa.
But Xu said DNA collected from fossils is unreliable because after being buried for millions of years it could be polluted by other materials, especially water. He says only DNA collected from the insects preserved in amber can reliably be used in genetic research.
Wu cites an article by Chinese American, Wen-hsiung Li, who argues that the genetic research done so far is relatively limited in scope and that much more evidence needs to be gathered before final conclusions can be drawn.
So while the genetic evidence points strongly to the African origin of all modern humans, including the Chinese, dissenting archeologists maintain the fossil record supports some version of the multi-regional hypothesis and suggest DNA evidence alone is inconclusive. Obviously, this complex debate is set to continue.
Are Chinese descendants of an African Eve? - China.org.cn
---------------
A very complex story... and this isn't conclusive... perhaps never to be.
silent hill
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who invented the chinese alphabets in the first place, very strange language :S
I think most written languages are started with pictograph. Most other languages were gradually turning into alphabetic, but Chinese one is still on pictographic way.
Check out this wiki to see how Cangjie legendarily created the Chinese letters.
Cangjie (simplified Chinese: 仓颉; traditional Chinese: 倉頡; pinyin: cāngjié; Wade–Giles: Ts'ang-chieh) is a very important figure in ancient China (c. 2650 BC), claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters.[1] Legend has it that he had four eyes and four pupils,and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. He is considered a legendary figure rather than a historical figure, or at least, not considered to be sole inventor of Chinese characters.
Cangjie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
no_name
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Story time :
The Yellow Emperor felt that the rope tying method of recording information is inefficient and restrictive and therefore asked Cangjie to develop a new method of recording information. Cangjie sit down and began to think but no ideas came.
After a while he looked up and saw a hoof mark in the ground. Cangjie cannot recogise which animal made the mark so he consulted a hunter, who promply tells him the answer. The hunter states that he can tell various animals from the different marks they made on the ground.
This gives Cangjie a good idea. He thought that if he can find distinctive attributes in different opjects and express them in a visual form then his problem can be solved. Cangjie therefore started to accumulate pictoral expressions for different things, and after a while presented them to the Yellow Emperor, who was delighted and made his officials learn from Cangjie.
Or so the mythology goes.
:The Yellow Emperor felt that the rope tying method of recording information is inefficient and restrictive and therefore asked Cangjie to develop a new method of recording information. Cangjie sit down and began to think but no ideas came.
After a while he looked up and saw a hoof mark in the ground. Cangjie cannot recogise which animal made the mark so he consulted a hunter, who promply tells him the answer. The hunter states that he can tell various animals from the different marks they made on the ground.
This gives Cangjie a good idea. He thought that if he can find distinctive attributes in different opjects and express them in a visual form then his problem can be solved. Cangjie therefore started to accumulate pictoral expressions for different things, and after a while presented them to the Yellow Emperor, who was delighted and made his officials learn from Cangjie.
Or so the mythology goes.
is there a darker shade to chinese history than the japanese occupation. i watched a few vids on youtube about the nanking massacre and unit 731. pretty shocking.
fascism has to be hands down the worst and most inhuman ideology of all time.
fascism has to be hands down the worst and most inhuman ideology of all time.
siegecrossbow
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Here is a joint Chinese-Japanese film on Dunhuang and its buried treasures. The film was made in the 80s and, in my opinion, made an effort to be historically accurate.
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?????? - ?? - ???? - ????
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I guess Mongol and Manchurian invasion too. And the rebellions in the early 1900s and late 1800s too.
Everyone has their ups and downs.
Kambojaric
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Nice info guys, keep it coming. btw Yuan Empire was massive, controlling the mongol tribes must have been one hell of a job!
GodlessBastard
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Between 399 and 414 CE, the Chinese monk Faxian (Fa-Hsien, Fa Hien) undertook a trip via Central Asia to India seeking better copies of Buddhist books than were currently available in China. Although cryptic to the extent that we cannot always be sure where he was, his account does provide interesting information on the conditions of travel and the Buddhist sites and practices he witnessed. For example, he indicates clearly the importance of the seven precious substances for Buddhist worship, the widespread practice of stupa veneration, and his aquaintance with several of the jataka tales about the previous lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni, tales which are illustrated in the paintings at the Dunhuang caves. The extracts below, covering the early part of his journey, are from James Legge, tr. and ed., A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline (Oxford, 1886), pp. 9-36. I have inserted occasional explanations in brackets, rather than attempt to footnote the text.
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Fa-hien had been living in Ch'ang-gan. Deploring the mutilated and imperfect state of the collection of the Books of Discipline....he entered into an engagement with Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, Hwuy-ying and Hwuy-wei that they should go to India and seek for the disciplinary Rules.
After starting from Ch'ang-gan, they passed through Lung [in eastern Gansu]...and reached the emporium of Chang-yih [north and west of Lanzhou, near the Great Wall]. There they found the country so much disturbed that travelling on the roads was impossible for them. Its king, however, was very attentive to them [and] kept them (in his capital)...
Here they met with Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, Sang-shao, Pao-yun, and Sang-king; and in pleasant association with them, as bound on the same journey with themselves, they passed the summer retreat (of that year [i.e., 400 CE])together, resuming after it their traveling, and going on to T'un-hwang, (the chief town) in the frontier territory of defence extending for about 8o li from east to west, and about 40 from north to south. Their company, increased as it had been, halted there for some days more than a month, after which Fa-hien and his four friends started first in the suite of an envoy, having separated (for a time) from Pao~yun and his associates.
Le Hao, the prefect of T'un-hwang, had supplied them with the means of crossing the desert (before them), in which there are many evil demons and hot winds. (Travellers) who encounter them perish all to a man. There is not a bird to be seen in the air above, nor an animal on the ground below. Though you look all round most earnestly to find where you can cross, you know not where to make your choice, the only mark and indication being the dry bones of the dead (left upon the sand).
After travelling for seventeen days, a distance we may calculate of about 1500 li, (the pilgrims) reached the kingdom of Shen-shen [=?Lou-lan, near Lop Nor], a country rugged and hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes of the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land of Han, some wearing felt and others coarse serge or cloth of hair;--this was the only difference seen among them. The king professed (our) Law, and there might be in the country more than four thousand monks, who were all students of the Hinayana [Thereavada]. The common people of this and other kingdoms (in that region), as well as the sramans [monks], all practise the rules of India, only that the latter do so more exactly, and the former more loosely. So (the travellers) found it in all the kingdoms through which they went on their way from this to the west, only that each had its own peculiar barbarous speech. (The monks), however, who had (given up the worldly life) and quitted their families, were all students of Indian books and the Indian language. Here they stayed for about a month, and then proceeded on their journey, fifteen days walking to tho north-west bringing them to the country of Woo-e [near Kucha or Karashahr on the northern edge of the Tarim?]. In this also there were more than four thousand monks, all students of the Hinayana. They were very strict in their rules, so that sramans from the territory of Ts-in [i.e., northern China] were all unprepared for their regulations. Fa-hien, through the management of Foo Kung-sun, overseer, was able to remain (with his company in the monastery where they were received) for more than two months, and here they were rejoined by Pao-yun and his friends. (At the end of that time) the people of Woo-e neglected the duties of propriety and righteousness, and treated the strangers in so niggardly a manner that Che-yen, Hwuy-keen, and Hwuy-wei went back towards Kao-ch'ang [Khocho, near Turfan], hoping to obtain there the means of continuing their journey. Fa-hien and the rest, however, through the liberality of Foo Kung-sun, managed to go straight forward in a south-west direction. They found the country uninhabited as they went along. The difficulties which they encountered in crossing the streams and on their route, and the sufferings which they endured, were unparalleled in human experience, but in the course of a month and five days they succeeded in reaching Yu-teen [Khotan].
Yu-teen is a pleasant and prosperous kingdom, with a numerous and flourishing population. The inhabitants all profess our Law, and join together in its religious music for their enjoyment. The monks amount to several myriads, most of whom are students of the Mahyana. They all receive their food from the common store. Throughout the country the houses of the people stand apart like (separate) stars, and each family has a small tope [stupa]reared in front of its door. The smallest of these may be twenty cubits high, or rather more. They make (in the monasteries) rooms for monks from all quarters, the use of which is given to travelling monks who may arrive, and who are provided with whatever else they require.
The lord of the country lodged Fa-hien and the others comfortably, and supplied their wants, in a monastery called Gomati, of the Mahayana school. Attached to it there are three thousand monks, who are called to their meals by the sound of a bell. When they enter the refectory, their demeanour is marked,by a reverent gravity, and they take their seats in regular order, all maintaining a perfect silence. No sound is heard from their alms-bowls and other utensils. When any of these pure men require food, they are not allowed to call out (to the attendants) for it, but only make signs with their hands.
Hwuy-king, Tao-ching, and Hwuy-tah set out in advance towards the country of K'eeh-ch'a; but Fa-hien and the others, wishing to see the procession of images, remained behind for three months. There are in this country four great monasteries, not counting the smaller ones. Beginning on the first day of the fourth month, they sweep and water the streets inside the city, making a grand display in the lanes and byways. Over the city gate they pitch a large tent, grandly adorned in all possible ways, in which the king and queen, with their ladies brilliantly arrayed, take up their residence (for the time).
The monks of the Gomati monastery, being Mahayana students, and held in greatest reverence by the king, took precedence of all the others in the procession. At a distance of three or four li from the city, they made a four-wheeled image car, more than thirty cubits, high, which looked like the great hall (of a monastery) moving along. The seven precious substances [i.e., gold, silver, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, rubies, diamonds or emeralds, and agate] were grandly displayed about it, with silken streamers and canopies harging all around. The (chief) image [presumably Sakyamuni] stood in the middle of the car, with two Bodhisattvas in attendance on it, while devas were made to follow in waiting, all brilliantly carved in gold and silver, and hanging in the air. When (the car) was a hundred paces from the gate, the king put off his crown of state, changed his dress for a fresh suit, and with bare feet, carrying in his hands flowers and incense, and with two rows of attending followers, went out at the gate to meet the image; and, with his head and face (bowed to the ground), he did homage at its feet, and then scattered the flowers and burnt the incense. When the image was entering the gate, the queen and the brilliant ladies with her in the gallery above scattered far and wide all kinds of flowers, which floated about and fell promiscuously to the ground. In this way everything was done to promote the dignity of the occasion. The carriages of the monasteries were all different, and each one had its own day for the procession. (The ceremony) began on the first day of the fourth month, and ended on the fourteenth, after which the king and queen returned to the palace.
Seven or eight li to the west of the city there is what is called the King's New monastery, the building of which took eighty years, and extended over three reigns. It may be 250 cubits in height, rich in elegant carving and inlaid work, covered above with gold and silver, and finished throughout with a combination of all the precious substances. Behind the tope there has been built a Hall of Buddha of the utmost magalficence and beauty, the beams, pillars, venetianed doors, and windows being all overlaid with goldleaf. Besides this, the apartments for the monks are imposingly and elegantly decorated, beyond the power of words to express. Of whatever things of highest value and preciousness the kings in the six countries on the east of the (Ts'ung) range of mountains [probably this means southwestern Xinjiang] are possessed, they contribute the greater portion (to this monastery), using but a small portion of them themselves.
When the processions of images in the fourth month were over, Sang-shao, by himself alone, followed a Tartar who was an earnest follower of the Law, and proceeded towards Kophene [Kabul region?], Fa-hien and the others went forward to the kingdom of Tsze-hoh [?Tashkurgan, ?Baltistan in northern Pakistan], which it took them twenty-five days to reach. Its king was a strenuous follower of our Law, and had (around him) more than a thousand monks, mostly students of the Mahayana. Here (the travellers) abode fifteen days, and then went south for four days, when they found themselves among the Ts'ung-ling mountains, and reached the country of Yu-hwuy, where they halted and kept their retreat. When this was over, they went on among the hills for twenty-five days, and got to K'eeh-ch'a [?Skardu, or a town to the east in Ladak], there rejoining Hwuy-king and his two companions.
It happened that the king of the country was then holding the pancha parishad, that is, in Chinese, the great quinquennial assembly. When this is to be held, the king requests the presence of the sramans from all quarters (of his kingdom). They come (as if) in clouds; and when they are all assembled, their place of session is grandly decorated. Silken streamers and canopies are hung out in it, and waterlilies in gold and silver are made and fixed up behind the places where (the chief of them) are to sit. When clean mats have been spread, and they are all seated, the king and his ministers present their offerings according to rule and law. (The assembly takes place) in the first, second, or third month, for the most part in the spring.
After the king has held the assembly, he further exhorts the ministers to make other and special offerings. The doing of this extends over one, two, three, five, or even seven days; and when all is finished, he takes his own riding-horse, saddles, bridles, and waits on him himself, while he makes the noblest and most important minister of the kingdom mount him. Then, taking fine white woollen cloth, all sorts of precious things, and articles which the sramans require, he distributes them among them, uttering vows at the same time along with all his ministers; and when this distribution has taken place, he again redeems (whatever he wishes) from the monks.
The country, being among the hills and cold, does not produce the other cereals, and only the wheat gets ripe. After the monks have received their annual (portion of this), the mornings suddenly show the hoar-frost, and on this account the king always begs the monks to make the wheat ripen before they receive their portion. There is in the country a spittoon which belonged to Buddha, made of stone, and in colour like his alms-bowl. There is also a tooth of Buddha, for the people have reared a tope, connected with which there are more than a thousand monks and their disciples, all students of the Hinayana. To the east of these hills the dress of the common people is of coarse materials, as in our country of Ts-in, but here also there were among them the differences of fine woollen cloth and of serge or haircloth. The rules observed by the sramans are remarkable, and too numerous to be mentioned in detail. The country is in the midst of the Onion range.
As you go forward from these mountains, the plants, trees, and fruits are all different from those of the land of Han, excepting only the bamboo, pomegranate, and sugar-cane.
From this (the travellers) went westwards towards North India, and after being on the way for a month, they succeeded in getting across and through the range of the Onion mountains. The snow rests on them both winter and summer. There are also among them venomous dragons, which, when provoked, spit forth poisonous winds, and cause showers of snow and storms of sand and gravel. Not one in ten thousand of those who encounter these dangers escapes with his life. The people of the country call the range by the name of 'The Snow mountains.' When (the travellers) had got through them, they were in North India, and immediately on entering its borders, found themselves in a small kingdom called T'o-leih, where also there were many monks, all students of the Hinayana.
In this kingdom there was formerly an Arhat [a disciple of the Buddha who has attained nirvana], who by his supernatural power took a clever artificer up to the Tushita heaven [where bodhisattvas are reborn before appearing on earth as buddhas], to see the height, complexion, and appearance of Maitreya Bodhisattva [the "Buddha of the Future"], and then return and make an image of him in wood. First and last, this was done three times, and then the image was completed, eighty cubits in height, and eight cubits at the base from knee to knee of the crossed legs. On fast-days it emits an effulgent light. The kings of the (surrounding) countries vie with one another in presenting offerings to it. Here it is--to be seen now as of old.
The travellers went on to the south-west for fifteen days (at the foot of the mountains, and) following the course of their range. The way was difficult and rugged, (running along) a bank exceedingly precipitous which rose up there, a hill-like wall of rock, 10,000 cubits from the base. When one approached the edge of it, his eyes became unsteady; and if he wished to go forward in the same direction, there was no place on which he could place his foot; and beneath were the waters of the river called the Indus. In former times men had chiselled paths along the rocks, and distributed ladders on the face of them, to the number altogether of 700, at the bottom of which there was a suspension bridge of ropes, by which the river was crossed, its banks being there eighty paces apart. The (place and arrangements) are to be found in the Records of the Nine Interpreters, but neither Chang K'een [Chang Ch'ien, the Han emissary to the Western Regions] nor Kan Ying [sent west in 88 CE] had reached the spot.
The monks asked Fa-hien if it could be known when the Law of Buddha first went to the east. He replied, 'When I asked the people of those countries about it, they all said that it had been handed down by their fathers from of old that, after the setting up of the image of Maitreya Bodhisattva, there were sramans of India who crossed this river, carrying with them sutras and Books of Discipline. Now the image was set up rather more than 300 years after the nirvana of Buddha, which may be referred to the reign of king P'ing of the Chow dynasty. According to this account we may say that the diffusion of our great doctrines (in the east) began from (the setting up of) this image. If it had not been through that Maitreya, the great spiritual master (who is to be) the successor of the Sakya, who could have caused the "Three Precious Ones" [the precious Buddha, the precious Law, and the precious Monkhood] to be proclaimed so far, and the people of those border lands to know our Law? We know of a truth that the opening of (the way for such) a mystertous propagation is not the work of man; and so the dream of the emperor Ming of Han had its proper cause. [This refers to the belief that a dream of this Han emperor in 61 CE led him to seek out Buddhism and establish it in China.]
After crossing the river, (the travellers) immediately came to the kingdom of Woo-chang [Udyana, north of the Punjab--i.e., Swat in northern Pakistan], which is indeed (a part) of North India. The people all use the language of Central India, 'Central India' being what we should call the 'Middle Kingdom.' The food and clothes of the common people are the same as in that Central Kingdom. The Law of Buddha is very (flourishing in Woo-chang). They call the places where the monks stay (for a time) or reside permanently sangharamas; and of these there are in all 500, the monks being all students of the Hinayana. When stranger bhikshus [i.e., mendicant monks] arrive at one of them, their wants are supplied for three days, after which they are told to find a resting-place for themselves.
There is a tradition that when Buddha came to North India, he came at once to this country, and that here he left a print of his foot, which is long or short according to the ideas of the beholder (on the subject). It exists, and the same thing is true about it, at the present day. Here also are still to be seen the rock on which he dried his clothes, and the place where he converted the wicked dragon. The rock is fourteen cubits high, and more than twenty broad, with one side of it smooth.
Hwuy-king, Hwuy-tah, and Tao-ching went on ahead towards (the place of) Buddha's shadow in the country of Nagara; but Fa-hien and the others remained in Woo-chang, and kept the summer retreat. That over, they descended south, and arrived in the country of Soo-ho-to.
In that country also Buddhism is flourishing. There is in it the place where Sakra [Indra], Ruler of Devas, in a former ages, tried the Bodhisattva, by producing a hawk (in pursuit of a) dove, when (the Bodhisattva) cut off a piece of his own flesh, and (with it) ransomed the dove. [This is the well-known Sibi Jataka, a jataka being a tale relating to an incident involving the Buddha in one of his previous incarnations. The Sibi Jataka is depicted on one of the petroglyphs at Shatial in the Hunza Valley and in several of the caves at Dunhuang.] After Buddha had attained to perfect wisdom , and in travelling about with his disciples (arrived at this spot), he informed them that this was the place where he ransomed the dove with a piece of his own flesh. In this way the people of the country became aware of the fact, and on the spot reared a stupa, adorned with layers of gold and silver plates.
The travellers, going downwards from this towards the east, in five days came to the country of Gandhara, the place where Dharma-vivardhana, the son of Asoka [the Mauryan emperor known as a great patron of Buddhism in the third century BCE], ruled. When Buddha was a Bodhisattva. he gave his eyes also for another man here [another jataka tale]; and at the spot they have also reared a large stupa, adorned with, layers of gold and silver plate The people of the country were mostly students of the Hinayana.
Seven days journey from this to the east brought the travellers to the kingdom of Taxila, which means 'the severed head ' in the language of China. Here, when Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he gave away his head to a man [another jataka tale], and from this circumstance the kingdom got its name.
Going on further for two days to the east, they came to the place where the Bodhisattva threw down his body to feed a starving tigress [the Mahasattva Jataka]. In these two places also large stupas have been built, both adorned with layers of all the precious substances. The kings, ministers, and people. of the kingdoms around vie with one another in making offerings a them. The trains of those who come to scatter flowers and light lamps at them never cease. The nations of those quarters call those (and the other two mentioned before) 'the four great stupas.'
Going southwards from Gandhara, (the travellers) in four days arrived at the kingdom of Purushapura [Peshawar]. Formerly, when Buddha was travelling in this country with his disciples, he said to Ananda, 'After my pari-nirvana, there will be a king named Kanishka [the famous Kushan emperor], who shall on this spot build a stupa. This Kanishka was afterwards born into the world; and (once), when he had gone forth to look about him, S,akra, Ruler of Devas, wishing to excite the idea in his mind, assumed the appearance of a little herd-boy, and was making a stupa right in the way (of the king), who asked what sort of a thing he was making. The boy said, 'I am making a stupa for Buddha. The king said, 'Very good;' and immediately, right over the boy's stupa, he (proceeded to) rear another, which was more than four hundred cubits high, and adorned with layers of all the precious substances. Of all the stupas and temples which (the travellers) saw in their journeyings, there was not one comparable to this in solemn beauty and majestic grandeur. There is a current saying, that this 'is the finest stupa in Jambudvipa'. When the king's stupa was completed, the little stupa (of the boy) came out from its side on the south, rather more than three cubits in height.
Buddha's alms-bowl is in this country. Formerly, a king of Yüeh-shih raised a large force and invaded this country, wishing to carry the bowl away. Having subdued the kingdom, as he and his captains were sincere believers in the Law of Buddha, and wished to carry off the bowl, they proceeded to present their offerings on a great scale. When they had done so to the Three Precious Ones, he made a large elephant be grandly caparisoned, and placed the bowl upon it. But the elephant knelt down on the ground, and was unable, to go forward. Again he caused a four-wheeled waggon to be prepared in which the bowl was put to be conveyed away. Eight elephantd were then yoked to it, and dragged it with their united strength' but neither were they able to go forward. The king knew that the time for an association between himself and the bowl had not yet arrived, and was sad and deeply ashamed of himself. Forthwith he built a stupa at the place and a monastery, and left a guard to watch (the bowl), making all sorts of contributions.
There may be there more than seven hundred monks. When it is near midday, they bring out the bowl, and, along with the common people, make their various offerings to it, after which they take their midday meal. In the evening, at the time of incense, they bring the bowl out again. It may contain rather more than two pecks, and is of various colours, black predominating, with the seams that show its fourfold composition distinctly marked. Its thickness is about the fifth of an inch, and it has a bright and glossy lustre. When poor people throw into it a few flowers, it becomes immediately full, while some very rich people, wishing to make offering of many flowers, might not stop till they had thrown in hundreds, thousands, and myriads of bushels, and yet would not be able to fill it.
Pao-yun and Sang-king here merely made their offerings to the alms-bowl, and (then resolved to) go back. Hwuy-king, Hwuy-'tah, and Tao-ching had gone on before, the rest to Nagara, to make their offerings at (the places of) Buddha's shadow, tooth, and the flat-bone of his skull. (There) Hwuy-king fell ill, and Tao-ching remained to look after him while Hwuy-tah came alone to Purushapura, and saw the others, and (then) he with Pao-yun and Sang-king took their way back to the land of Ts'in. Hwuy-king came to his end in the monastery of Buddha's alms-bowl, and on this Fa-hien went forward alone toward the place of the flat-bone of Buddha's skull.
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