The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-13
ORIGIN OF CHINESE.
They Were Immigrants From
the Plains Of Babylon.
THEIR ANCIENT CIVILIZATION.


Study OF the Celestial Language in Com
parison with the Babylonian Tongue
Furnishes Conclusive Proof.
Robert Kennaway Douglas in Lppincott's Mag
azine.
The existence of Chinese civilization in
the east of Asia. separated as it is by the
whole width of the continent from the
early centers OF culture with which we are
familiar, was until lately an unsolved prob
lem among ethnologists. We were sccus-
toned to hear of the wisdom OF the Egypt
fans and of the learning of the Babylon
ians, and to recognise in the owners OF
these pearls of great price the legitimate
founders of all knowledge. But what was
to be said of the sporadic growth OF a
highly advanced civilization in China? Had
those wonderful people, who are COM
monty credited with the invention of many
of the arts which at later periods filtered
through Asia into Europe, developed for
themselves culture and civilization which
had placed them very nearly on level
with Western nations? Or had some out
side influence been exercised to raise them
30 much beyond the condition OF their
neighbors?
The trackless deserts and immense dis
tances which separated them from the
great focus of culture in Western Asia in
clined students to accept the bold and Oft
repeated assertion of Chinese writers that
the civilization which they enjoyed was
natural product of the Fiowery Land. If
these authorities were to be trusted, the
dawn of creation saw the earliest Chinese
on the sacred soil of China; and at dates
reaching back to the time of the flood we
are told of divine Legislators who taught
the people all the arts which are essential
to the comforts and well-being of man.
This one instructed the people to till the
soil, that one to build houses, another to
construct canals, and yet another laid
down the eternal laws which have guided
the nation through all succeeding periods.
Nothing was beyond the scope of the intel
ligence of these god-like beings. in whose
utferances are TO be discovered the
germs of all futures discoveries. Even
Confucius, according to the Marquis Tseng,
the late minister at the court of ST. James,
must have understood the principles of the
electric telegraph or he would never have
penned certain obscure passage in one of
the early classics.
Nations, like individuals, are commonly
accepted ut their own estimate of them
selves; and it was customary, therefore, to
credit the Chinese with much that they
claimed to possess. But it was, after all,
noticeable that there were no traces in
China of the beginning of the arts and
sciences. In the earlier chapters of the ma
tion's accepted history we find the people
in the enjoyment of full-blown civiliza-
ton, and the emperor and statesmen utter
ing long discourses on the whole duty of
man, in a moral tone of the very highest
count Of how Ts'ang- Hiah (about 200 B.
CO. designed the first written characters by
initiating the objects before him. If, how
ever, we were called upon to accept this
as q matter of fact, we should expect the
country to yield inscriptions in the HERO
glyphic form of writing. But none have
ever been discovered. And so with all the
other arts. The Emperor Yao (B. q. about
2000) is introduced to us in the Book of
History as possessing very considerable
knowledge OF astronomy; but we hear
nothing of the first groupings after that
science. The probable assumption from
these and similar facts Is that this knowl-
edge was imported into the country, and
not arrived at within its borders. But how?
The answer which an increased acquaint-
ance both with Chinese and with the lang
uages of Western Asia enables us to give
TO this question is from the region to the
south of the Caspian sea.
A careful study of history has proved be-
yond the possibility of doubt that the
Chinese were not aboriginal in China, but
were immigrants into that country from
Babylonia. A comparison of the languages,
the culture, and the civilization of the TWO
countries accumulates mass of evidence
in support of this which it is impossible to
gainsay. Even the artificial features of the
two lands present such strong resemb-
lance that the most casual observer must
be struck by it. Speaking of the aspect of
Babylonia as revealed by its ruins. George
Smith says: 1.-The greatest feature of the
country was its agriculture. which was
mainly carried on by artificial irrigation,
the whole country being intersected with
canals, some of them navigable and of
places being from twenty to thirty
feet high. The long-deserted
lines or mounds which even now exist in
hundreds, marking the lines of these arti-
fetal rivers, form far more remarkable OBJ
jects than the ruined cities and palaces.
Once these channels teemed with life and
industry, aud were lined with cities con-
tanning thousands of people" No more
accurate description could be given of the
aspect which China. were she to reach the
same state of ruin as Babylonia has done,
which heaven forbid would present than
this. The very name, alas, by which Baby
lonia was, and China is, known to their
inhabitants is the same. THE Middle
Kingdom" was the appelation which the
early Turanian inhabitants of Babylonia
applied to their land, and il is that by
which China has been called by the Chin
csc from the time of their first arrival on
the banks of the Yellow river.
But the resemblances between the two
countries are no more striking than are
those which characterize the people be-
longing TO them. Welearn from the monu-
ments that the early Turanian inhabitants
of Babylonia were an industrious law-abid-
ing people, to whom peace was a delight,
and in whose opinion the art of war was an
uncultured accomplishment; who were
skilled in the mechanical arts, and, so far
rs those on the plain country were con-
cerned, were ingenious and industrious az
riculturists. In stature they were short and
thick-set, with black hair and the very
marked characteristic of the slanting eve.
But these Turanian people were the Accadi-
ans; and that name signifies Highlanders.
Those. therefore. whom we find on the allu-
vial delta OF the Euphrates and Tigris were
emigrants from the parent stock, who still
followed their original calling of nomadic
shepherds In the mountainous coun-
try on the east. This fact
helps TO explain an apparent
anomaly in the history of the Chinese as
described by certain of their more ancient
written characters. We have known the
Chinese. both from history and from actual
experience, as being q purely agricultural
people. such as those Accadians were who
peopied the plains OF Babylonia- Whence
come, then. the ideas contained in those
written characters which point TO q no.
msdic origin of racer These characters
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