From: woongki@syacus.acus.oz.au (Woong-Ki Chong)
Subject: Re: Gold Medal in Marathon
Organization: ACUS Australian Centre for Unisys Software, Sydney
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 00:17:02 GMT

In article <85880@netnews.upenn.edu> dww@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Grand master tong) writes:


>I have some questions;
>How were the ancestors of Koreans, the tunguistic Mongoloids related to
>the Chinese?

I will write down what I know.

The tungusic people in ancient China are identified as the eastern-Yi
(or Dong-Yi) people who are mentioned in numerous Chinese records.

The Chinese character 'Yi' is an ideograph composed of two separate characters
'Dae' (big) and 'Goong' (bow). 'Dae' is in turn a composite of another
two characters 'Il' (one) and 'In' (man), hence giving 'Yi' the meaning
of a "big man with a bow". So it is understood that the term 'Yi' was
used to refer to a group of people who used archery to hunt game in ancient
China. [REF 1] This signifies that they were the tungusic people of northern
origin.
For some reason or another, this is also the term the Chinese use to call
the Korean people.                           
                          
Anyway, these eastern-Yi people were quite wide spread in China from the
neolithic times through to Shang and Western Chou dynasties, and were living
in the large area spanning from somewhere north of the Yantze river basin to 
Shan-tung peninsula and all the way around the gulf of Parhae to the Korean
peninsula. [REF 2]

According to the combined evidence from archaeological and literary sources
the Lungshan(Yong-San) neolithic culture (1900-1600 BC) of the Yellow river
basin and Shan-tung peninsula, and Ta-wen-k'ou (Dae-mun-gu) culture (?-1900 BC)
which preceded the Lungshan culture, were eastern-Yi cultures. [REF 3]

BTW, Gordon T. Bowles, an American anthropologist, says, "The Koreans probably
approximate quite closely the prehistoric Lungshanoid population of the
lower Yellow River basin.", noting the close physical similarity between
these people and the modern Koreans. [REF 4]
                            
Around 1600 BC the first archaeologically proven Chinese dynasty, the Shang,
characterised by its full-blown bronze age culture, was established by
these Lungshan eastern-Yi people. [REF3] The shangs, btw, invented the
pictographs and ideographs which later developed into the Chinese characters.
Many of the eastern-Yi groups remained separate from the Shangs however.
They were rather equal competitors who were constantly at war with the Shangs,
and some people claim that these eastern-Yi explain the lost history of
Dan-Gun Chosun.

After the Shangs were conquered by the Chou dynasty, however (around 1000 BC),
the predominance of the eastern-Yi in China gradually declined until the
time of Jin-shi-hwang-je who unified China, after which they were absorbed
by the mainstream Chinese people.

This is just about what I know about the tungusic people in China.
As to the "Chinese" people, they cannot be considered as a single race as
someone already pointed out. But I heard that the core of what now is the
Han Chinese people were originally living in the area south of the Yantze
river, slowly move up northward over the years, combining with other races
on the way.

Anyway, let me conclude with another quote from the Bowles book.

".... the close similarity between living Koreans and the older Chinese
and Manchu populations of north China is striking. The peoples of Korea
appear to be relatively the least changed of the three since the neolithic
times - far less so than the present-day peoples of Manchuria, who are
overwhelmingly Chinese."
 
I guess the Chinese, especially of northern China, has be a close blood
relative of the Koreans eventhough linguistically they are very different
from us.


REF 1: pp 107-109, _The Chinese Heritage_ by K.C. Wu, 1982
REF 2: pp 350, _Shang Civilization_ by Kwang-Chih Chang, 1980
REF 3: pp 14, _Western Chou Civilization_ by Cho-yun Hsu and
       Katheryn M. Linduff, 1988
REF 4: pp 352, _The People of Asia_ by Gordon T. Bowles, 1977
REF 5: pp 351, as REF 4


>Why do Koreans have so much pride in themselves and in their countries,
>compared to the chinese or americans?
>If Koreans hate Japanese because of sibling revalry, does that mean they are
>struggling to gain the favor of their mother China?

mother China?
Hmm....   How about "Grandmother Korea", mr. Tong.



- Woong-Ki


I wish I get these bloody articles on time!