 Blacks in China
From West Asia to China the land was occupied predominately by Blacks. The Blacks were forced from East and Southeast Asia by the expansion of the Thai, Annamite, Bak and Hua Mongoloid. The Blacks ruled China until around 1000-700 BC.
Names for the Blacks in China
The Blacks of China were known in the historical literature by many names, including Negro, Austroloid, Oceanean, etc by the Europeans. The East Indians and Mongoloid groups had other names for these Blacks such as Dara. Yneh-chih. Yaksha, Suka ,and K'un-lun. Lushana and Seythians.
The original Black population that lived in China was the Negritos and Austroloid groups. After 5000 BC, Africoid people from Kush in Africa, began to enter China and Central Asia from Iran, while another group reached China by sea. This two-route migration of Blacks to China led to the development of southern and northern Chinese branches of Africoids.
The Northern Chino-Africans were called Kui-shuang (Kushana) or Yueh-chih, while the southern tribes were called Yi and li-man Yueh and Man. In addition to the Yueh tribes along the north east coastal region, they also lived in Turkestand, Mongolia, Transoxiana, the Ili region and Xinjiang province.
IN NORTHERN CHINA the Blacks/Africoids founded many Civilizations. The three major empires of China were the Xia, Dynasty (1900-1700 BC), Shang/Yin Dynasty (1700-1050 BC) and the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty was the first dynasty founded by the Mongoloid people in China.
The Xia and Shang dynasties were founded by Black tribes living in ancient China. The key to understanding Chinese civilization is to remember the fact that both Xia and Shang came from similar ancestors.
In Southeast Asia and southern China, ancient skeletal remains represented the earliest inhabitants to be Austroloids and Negrillo/Negrito. By the beginning of the Present (Holocene) period the population in China could be differentiate, and placed into categories designating Mongoloid in the north, and Oceanic on Black races in the south. Both of these groups evolved out of a common Upper Pleistocene substratum as represented by the Tzu-yang and Liuchian skulls. By at least 2500 BC Africoids of the Mediterranean and West African type entered this areas by way of India. The skeletal evidence from the Shantung and Kiangsu China show the modern Africoid type especially at the initial Qinglien King and Machiabang phases.
The archaeology of southern China is related to the Southeast Asian pattern, with numerous finds of chipped stone of the type found in Szechewan Guangxi, Yunan and in the western part of Guanguung as far as the Pear River delta. The Neolithic culture of southern China as the people parallel southeastern Asian developments. There were several major centers of Neolithic culture in China were pottery and agriculture flourished. In southern China the most well known early Chinese culture was called the Dapenkeng culture of the southeastern coast dating to the 5th millenium BC.
The Dapenkeng sites are characterized by cord-marked pottery. The color of the pottery dating to 4450 BC ranges from buff to dark brown. These folk had large jars and bowls. They made dugout canoes to communicate.
Blacks also founded the Yangshao site at Huang Ho basin in North china. In the southeastern section of China the people at Hupeh and Guangxi made use of artificial irrigation and by terracing of the mountain slopes. They were using bronze.
As in other black societies the woman's were highly esteemed. They also participated in the religion which consisted of worship of a mountain and snake cult.
The Neolithic technology of Blacks in south China, as areas further North was typified by hunting with the bow and arrow. The stone inventories of ancient China include shoulder axes, similar to those found at Ya-an in Sikang, and on the island of Hainan.
The ceramics are characterized by corded red ware. There was also painted pottery, black pottery, and tripod pottery which were later duplicated in bronze. The people practiced single burials.
The pottery inscriptions show that the Southern Chinese already had their own writing system. The writing system of the Shang and Xia Dynasties was developed in the Proto-Sahara. This writing later evolved into modern Chinese script.
The Blacks of southern China, according to Dr. Shun-Shang Ling, in A study of the raft, outrigger, double and deck canoes of ancient China, the Pacific and Indian Ocean, spoke Austronesian languages like the aborigines of Hainan and Taiwan. Here many Dapenkeng sites have been discovered.
Mound Culture
There was an extensive mound culture in China stretching from its plateau in the west to the western coast of the Pacific Ocean, it includes Huang-Huai (the Yellow River and the Huai River) plan of north China and the lower valley of the Yangtse River of central China, these mounds lie in the ancient line of Austronesian habitation. The mounds were occupied when these areas were much warmer than they are now.
The Austronesian people descended from the Yuanshan and Lungshan cultures. In accordance with oral traditions and Chinese Proto-history mounds were invented Huangdi Fuxi. The legendary rulers Tai-Hao and Huangdi were buried in chiu (mounds).
The Chinese mound culture had began around 3000 BC, a thousand years after a similar culture had developed in Africa. One of the most important mound cultures of China was that of Hu Shu. The Hu Shu mounds were man-made knolls called 'terraced sites'. The mounds served as 1) burial places, 2) religious centers, and 3) habitation.
From southern China the Oceanic peoples invaded Northern China, which was mainly inhabited by Australoids and a smallish Negroid-Mongoloid group. Although the Australoids had been the first inhabitants of China, by 1000 BC many of them had been exterminated or absorbed by the taller heavier Mongoloid Bak tribes, that were slowly expanding southward from the north.
By 3000 BC the Negritos were being forced into isolated areas of China by Proto-Saharan blacks. Around the same time the Oceanic people were moving northward from the coastal plains area.
THE XIA AND SHANG DYNASTIES
Many Scholars and laymen alike have recognized similarities between ancient China and Africa. For example, the straw hats worn by West African peoples are also worn in China. Moreover, both the ancient Chinese and West Africans had a mound culture that possessed similar burial customs and common symbols.
Numerous theories have been put forward concerning the origins of these similarities but few of them satisfy scientific proof because they neglect to address the possibility that Blacks lived in China before the advent of the East African slave trade. Although this has been true of other authors, the present author will explain and discuss the role of Blacks in China, during the founding of Xia and Shang dynasties.
The first two dynasties of China were founded by people from Africa. These Black people spoke Dravidian and African languages.
The first civilizations were called Xia and Shang. They were ruled by emperors called Xuan Di "Black Emperors".
These Blacks introduced farming and writing to China. Trade cities and travel grew under their leadership.
In addition to writing, the Blacks of Xia and Shang introduced bronze working to China. They also invented the pounded earth architecture associated with early Chinese city-states.
Xia Dynasty
The first civilization of China was the Xia dynasty. It was founded by the Yueh tribes.
It was from Xia that Shang sprung. The Zhou people had an old saying that supported this fact:
"The rituals/or the rules/of the three Dynasties are one...the Yin inherited their rituals/or rules/from the Xia and what they took out or added on is known, and the Zhou inherited their rituals/or rules/from the Yin, and what they took out or added on is known".
The founder of the Xia dynasty was King Yu. He founded Xia in the Second Millenium BC. the father of Yu, was Kun.
Myths about Kun are found through out southwest Shansi. The on n of Yu was the founder of the Pa culture. The pa culture was a megalithic culture.
Chinese traditions claim that the great Yu, was then regulator of the waters and the builder of canals. He also invented wetfield agriculture. The Xia dynasty was founded by Yu.
The Xia culture was centered in southern Shansi and northwestern Ho an. This culture developed out of the Lungshan culture. Lungshan people had black pottery and oracle bones. This culture appeared first in the east ;and then progressively moved northward. Artifacts from Lungshan show affinities to those found in the southern regions of the Pacific coast. This is archaeological evidence make it clear that the ancestors of the Oceanic people in Southern China and the Xia people were closely related.
By the beginning of the Xia dynasty walls were being built around cities to protect them from invading nomadic tribes. The Xia, had writing, inscribed pottery, bronze vessels and household items.
Yin/Shang Dynasty
The most important culture in Chinese history is the Shang or Yin dynasty. The Shang culture was founded by Yi tribes. Both the Yi and Yueh bribes according to Prof. Shun-sheng Ling, were Blacks. Fu Ssu-nien, in the Yi hsi tunghsi shuo, makes is clear that the Shang culture bearers remained allied to the rest of the Yi people who originally lived in southern Chin.
The name Shang refers to a town which was the early capital of the emperor. According to the Shang poem Xuan ciao: "Heaven bade the dark bird/to come down and bear the Shang".
The earliest Shang capital was located at Zhengzhou. There were 30 kings of Shag, the last 14 Shang kings reigned at An-yang, Henan in the Yellow River Valley.
Artifacts discovered at Panlongcheng, Hubei far to the south in the Yangtze River Valley show bronze vessels 'culturally homogeneous' to the Zhengzhou type 'in every respect". At this time China had a different environment. Then this part of China was much wetter and warmer several millenium before the Christian era. Many animals found only in southeast Asia and southern China today, once lived in the north.
In the Anyang area during the Shang period there were two harvest of millet and rice. There were also elephants and rhinoceros in the area according to oracle records. During the Shang period the Chinese wrote much information on bones and turtle shells. This form of writing is called oracle bone writing.
The plants cultivated by the Shang had first been domesticated by the Yi and Yueh people in the south and later taken northward as they colonized northern China.
Shang society was based on totemic clans called tsu. The clan signs are visible in clan emblems in bronze and oracle bone inscriptions, they were based on animal signs.
The symbol of the Shang clan was the bird. Later Shang clans, probably representing the Xia clans and nomadic Chinese were affiliated with cattle.
The eastern coast was a major area of Black Habitation in ancient times. One of the popular symbols of the southern Chinese tribes was the egret bird, according to F. Hirth in The ancient History of China.
In the Kushitic world due to a sedentary economy, such concepts as matriarchy, monotheistic religion and totemism were the major aspects of social organization. In examining the history of blacks in ancient China we find that totemic names denoting blackness refers to first rulers of Shang in ancient China.
Shang was the first recorded dynasty in China, where there is substantial archaeological information to elucidate aspects of its culture and history. In examining the traditional literature of the Chinese, there is much mention of Black totems for the founders of the Shang dynasty. The most important traditional text relating to Yin/Shang is the Yin pen chi, which is located in a chapter of the Shih Chi , by Ssu-ma Chien, the official historian-archivist of Emperor. We Ti (140-87 BC) of the Han dynasty.
According to the Yin pen Chi, the founding ancestor of Shang was Xieh a member of the Tzu clan. Kwing-Chih Chang, in Shang Civilization, translates part of the Yin pen chi as follows:
"Yin's Xieh, his was Chien Ti, a daughter of Yu Jung Shih and second consort of Ti K'u. three persons/including Chien Ti/went to take a bath. They saw that black bird dropped an egg. Chien Ti took and devoured it, became impregnated and give birth to Xieh. Xieh grew up. [And] assisted Yu in his work to control the flood with success ".
The use of the term 'black bird', as Yu, the father of Hsieh relates to a totem popular among the Black tribes of ancient China. This passage indicates that the founders of Shang were of mixed origin. The fact that the bird myths such as the one above are mainly centered on the east coast also suggest a Black origin for Shang since this area was the heartland of ancient Black China.
This view is also supported by many archaeologist including K.C. Chang, evidence which indicates that the Neolithic Mongoloid population of north China resembled the Oceanic-Mongoloid type, not the modern Mongoloid group we find living in China and much of southeast Asia today.
But during the last 273 years of the Shang dynasty, Shang was not the capital of the empire, because the people had been conquered by nomadic tribes. This view is supported by the Zhou poem Pi Kung, which talks about the Great King "who lived on the southern slopes of mount Qi/and began to trim Shang".
Once the Yi were conquered they were made into slaves by the Chinese. These folk usually captured in war served as farmers. All their labor was done to benefit the nobles or lords of the land they lived on.
The Shang had extensive trade relations with the Southern Chinese. The sources of Shang copper and tin were in the southern areas of China. Here the southerners mined metals and sold them to Shang.
The monetary system of ancient China included the use of cowry shells. The cowry shells appear to have been introduced into northern china from the eastern seacoast.
For divination the Yi of Shang used turtle shells. The characters written on the shells give us the earliest written records of china's first civilization. As in the case of other elements of Shang culture the source of these shells lied in south China.
Both the ancient Chinese and contemporary Africans had similar naming practices. As in Africa the Shang child had a day name. The Shang child was named according to the days of the Xuh on which he was born. These days are called the ten celestial signs.
Shang was destroyed by Zhou nomads. these people came form central Asia, some of these people many have been Tibetans. Due to nomads invading the Shang empire, the Yin had to constantly move their capitals around until they were finally conquered by the Zhou dynasty.
A large bronze gui or bowl, set on a square base dating to 1000 BC describes the Zhou defeat of the mixed rulers of Shang: "King/Wu/ son of king Wen/conquered Shang, on the morning of /the day/jiazi. Having seized the/Shang/King/King Wu/ overthrew the Shang/on the seventh day/xin wei, king/Wu/, while at Lanshi, rewarded his minister Li with bronze. /Li/used it to make this precious vessel for/making sacrifices to his ancestor/Tangong".
The Negritos
H. Imbert, a French scholar in 1928 in Les Negritos de Chine, observed that "In the first epochs of Chinese history, the Negrito type peopled all the south of this country and even the island of Hainan, as we have attempted to prove in our study on the Negritos, or black men of the land".
There are many references to these Negritos in Chinese literature. According to T. De Lacoperie, the Chinese first met these tribes in 2116 BC, when they advanced eastwards of the great southern bend of the Yellow River. They are spoken of in the Zhou Li, composed under the Zhou dynasty (1122-249 BC), as "black and oily skinned." Tribes of the same race are also spoken of in the fabulous geography of the Shan hai king, written a few centuries before the Christian era. Many of these tribes were called Diaoyao or 'Dark pygmies'.
In 122 BC, Prince Liu-Nan, who died in 122 BC, speaks of references of Negritos in China as late as the Tang dynasty. In the Lin-yi Kuo Chuan, contained in Book 197 of the Chu Tang Shu it is written that "the people living to the south of Lin-yi have wooly hair and black skin". In addition to the above, Chinese folk-lore mentions an empress of China, named Li (373-397 AD) who was the consort of the Emperor Xiao Wu Wen, was a Black.
In addition to fighting the Yi, the Zhou also conquered the Negritos of southern China. They defeated some but not all of the Negrito kingdoms especially in Yunnan. The Chinese called the Negrito Blacks: Man, and K'un-lung . Many of these Blacks presently live in Cochin China, and Yunnan.
The Xia people fir came in contact with these folk in 2116 BC, they are mentioned in the Zhou Li, as living along the Yellow River. The Nam of the Yangtze River basin area were also constantly at war with the Zhou. The Nam, were closely related to the Tibetans of Szechwan. At this time the Man States were ruled by princes.
The Negritos occupied much of Szechwan; Yunnan from Kaehum in the southeast to Vunchang in the southwest. Many of the Negritos, were forced into the Malay Peninsula by the advance of various Chinese tribes toward the coast after the Zhou defeated the Shang.
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