7

on the plains of north China and in the lower part of the
Huai river valley. These records also tell of earlier in-
habitants of those areas called "barbarians" by the writers
who were gradually being pushed back into less favorable
regions by the more powerful history writers.

Archeological evidence has been found, however,
which proves the existence of man in China longe before
historical times. There are remains of a chalcolithic
culture as well as remains of a neolithic and paleolithic
culture. The comparatively recent discovery of the "Peking
Man" gives us a record of an even earlier group of inhab-
itants, one of the earliest known to archeology. ¹

Reconstructing from archeological records, from
ancient inscriptions such as the oracle bones, ² from the
development of Chinese written characters, ³ and from
historical records, the scholars now generally agree that
the earliest inhabitants of China were representatives
of quite different ethnical groups, that these early groups
of different origins were pushed into constantly less fav-
orable lands to the south and west by successive population
impulses originating somewhere back in Central Asia and that
contemporary Chinese stock is the result of amalgamative
and assimilative processes which began not later than the
chalcolithic period.

9

SECTION A

THE PEOPLE OF CHINA'S FAR NORTH

The three northeastern provinces of Heilungkiang, Kirin and Liaoning form one of China's distinct natural areas. The core of this region is a vast undulating plain of great fertility. Hot summers averaging 70-75 degrees F. are succeeded by winters averaging about 1 to 0 degrees F. It is a land of rich virgin forests, good pastures, excellent farm lands, rivers well stocked with fish, mineral resources in great abundance and great potential water-power.

These provinces now maintain a population of more than 15,000,000, and 80% of these are Chinese who have immigrated from north China into the more attractive area to the far north. The remaining 20% of the population are Mongolian, Turkic and Tungusic. Since the Tungusic people are concentrated in this particular region, the following chapter will be devoted to them. The Mongolian, Turkic and Chinese people will be discussed in subsequent chapters.

10

CHAPTER I

THE TUNCUSIC FAMILY

The whole group of Tungusic people number less than
50,000 individuals. Deniker has classified them roughly
as "Northern" Tungus, "Southern" Tungus and "Maritime"
Tungus. ¹ They inhabit a territory extending from the
Arctic Ocean down to the 40th degree N. and from the Yen-
isei to the Pacific. This spreads them thinly along both
sides of the Chinese-Russian border. The Amur River serves
as the principal boundary between the northern and southern
groups. We are particularly interested in those who live
in Chinese territory, namely the southern group along the
Chinese side of the Amur. This section of the people is
divided into four main tribes, the Goldi, the Orochi, the
Solon-Daur and the Manchu.

The <u>Tungusic physical type</u> is given by Lattimore ²
from notes made in 1930.

"The bones are small but the body well proportioned, with little tendency to fat, so that the general appearance is light and lithe. They vary a great deal in stature, perhaps averaging less than the northern Chinese in general, ...but men of over 5 feet 8 are not uncommon. The hands and feet are delicate, rather small, and so fine that they

1. J. Deniker, *The Races of Man*, P. 373

2. "The Gold Tribe of the Lower Sungari", Published in the *Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association*, No. 40, 1933, P. 23

11

appear to be smaller; but strong nevertheless. The face tends to be long; distinctly longer than the Mongol. The cheek-bones are very high....The eye sockets are not very deep; the eyebrows are decidedly not protuberant, the bridge of the nose between the eyes tends to be very low; which makes the eyes look to be set very shallow in the face.... The lower ridge of the nose is distinctly sharper than the average Mongol nose, and the nostrils are apt to be well-cut and delicate. The eyes are most commonly brown, but with a strong tendency to hazel, true hazel color being not at all unusual. I have seen blue and grey eyes. The hair, though black, has almost always an unmistakable rusty brownish tinge."

The actual ethnological position of the Tungusic people has not yet been clearly established. Buxton states, 1 as do most other anthropologists who have studied these people, 2 that they are very much mixed and that it is very difficult to trace all these mixtures. They are probably developed from an early stock of the Yellow Man with later mixtures of both Mongols and Palaeo-Siberians.

Although the Manchu belong to the same ethnical group and are a physical type similar to that described above, they have become so much assimilated with Chinese culture that from this point on we will be speaking only of the Tungusic tribes exclusive of the Manchu. Of the three remaining groups now residing in China: the Goldi, the Orochi and the Solon-Daur, we will take the Goldi as the group type.

1. *The Peoples of Asia*, P. 203

2. Czaplicka, Marie A. *Aboriginal Siberia: Deniker, J., The Races of Man in Jochelson, Vladimir, Peoples of Asiatic Russia*

12

Although other tribes may deviate slightly from the Goldi
in minor details, the significant factors will be similar.

The geographic environment of the Tungusic people
is that of virgin forests, river systems, marshes and rich
plains or meadows which make a good land for those who are
agriculturally inclined. These areas are subject to long,
cold winters with short days and short, intensely humid
summers with long days. In such a country as this insects
such as mosquitoes and flies are the greatest pests. Being
sparsely settled, it is a country rich in wild animal and
vegetable life wupon which the people depend for a living.

The culture complex of the Tungusic tribes, ex-
cluding the Manchus who have become almost entirely assim-
ilated into Chinese culture, is hunting and fishing.
Because of this they are a semi-nomadic people, whole
villages moving from one location to another according
to the movement of the game and fish which they hunt.
Salmon and sturgeon are the chief objects of their fish
spears and nets. Fat fish are used for the oils essential
to the human diet. Lean fish and other wild game provides

13

the protein section of their diet. These animal foods
are supplemented by wild vegetables, berries and fruit
in season. Fish and meat is dried for winter use.

Wild animals provide goods for trade with the
Russians and the Chinese as well as meat for themselves.
Sable, otter, ermine, marmot and fox provide furs.
Deer provide musk which is exported by the Chinese and
Russians to the international perfume markets. Deer
and elk provide "velvet antlers" which are greatly
valued by the Chinese as sexual stimulants. The wild
herb, ginseng, is also an object of hunt and trade.
It is sold to the Chinese market where it has value
as a sexual stimulant.

Transportation is almost entirely by dugout
canoe since the Tungusic people live in a land of
rivers, lakes, swamps and forests where a small population
cannot manage the construction and maintenance
of overland communication s on any large scale.
In areas where contacts are maintained

14

fairly closely with Mongols and Chinese the horse is used
both for pleasure and for transportation.

Dwellings are sheds or tents covered with the bark of deciduous trees such as those of the birch family. Since building material is plentiful, and because it is awkward to transport it in canoes, each village will have several village sites, each site having its own set of buildings. In areas under the influence of the Chinese, Koreans and the Manchus; the Tungusic tribes live a more settled life, build more permanent dwellings and engage in small amounts of agriculture.

The social organization of the Tungusic peoples
is based upon a patriarchal family in which the wife is
property of the husband. The wife loses both her sur-
name and her personal name at the time of her marriage.
Her chief functions are those of child bearing, caring for
the home and family, cleaning game and preparing it for
consumption and for winteruse, and helping in all menial
tasks except the actual exertion of the hunt. Only the
first wife is legal, all subsequent unions being purely
for convenience.

The determination of kinship is chiefly by clan
name. Those bearing the same clan name may not marry.
This means that children of brothers may not marry while
children of sisters may marry although the blood relation-
ship is the same. A woman may not marry the son of one
of her mother's brothers, but a man may do so. A man may
not marry the daughter of one of his father's brothers,
but he may marry the daughter of his mother's brother.
It is reported by the Chinese that girls are first offered
in marriage to their maternal uncles; only after refusal

15

on his part are they free for other matches.

The clan is the most important unit of their social organization. It consists of all bearing the same surname. Clans do not necessarily live in contiguous territory, although some clans seems to be related to specific localities. Lattimore records the names of nine clans among the Goldi of the lower Sungari. ¹

Clan authority is loosely vested in the hands of an older, able man; and the leadership usually passes to the next in the same family line with seniority in age and ability. Elders are "elected" by consensus every four or five years to form a council for the clan leader. Clans are responsible to a tribal chief for the behavior of its families, families are responsible to the clan leader for the behavior of its members.

Tribal organization is loose and comparatively weak. The clan leaders make up the tribal chieftan's council. Responsibility to the Chinese government is channeled through this tribe, clan, family social organization.

**_The religion of the Tungusic Tribes_** is shamanism.

The beliefs of their religion are held by all the people, but these beliefs find their symbolic expression in the rituals performed by the shaman. The shaman is selected by his own responses to social and psychological circumstances. "The spirit" "enters" or "takes possession" of him usually during adolescence but often later. He learns the techniques from older shamans in the community.

1. "The Gold Tribe of the Lower Sungari" Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 40, 1933, P. 47

16

Women sometimes become shamans, although it is rare. When the shaman is married there is a tendency for the art to be passed on from father to son. The shaman is often celibate. Although shamanism is outlawed by the Chinese government, it is still practiced. Lattimore claims that shamanism is the purest survival of the old spirit and thought of the Tungusic people.¹

Shamanism seems to be based on beliefs concerning spirits. There are good, bad, and neutral spirits which are the prime causers of all physical and human actions. Shamanism, at its root, is an attempt to live in harmony with the world of spirit. As it is now practiced it is largely an attempt to keep good spirits friendly and to appease evil spirits. Lattimore has divided the shamanistic activity of the Tungusic people into four groups: "(a) religious shamanism, chiefly connected with seasonal festivals (spring and autumn); (b) family shamanism, which keeps the present generation in touch with its roots in the past, and asserts the continuity between ancestors and descendants; (c) shamanism which attempts to control the forces of nature and the course of future events—for instance, shamanism before hunting; (d) shamanism for the healing of sickness, which also attempts to control nature."²

Belief in a soul is common to the Tungusic people. They believe that a soul is the essential spiritual part of a person. As such it is: (1) invisible; (2) it may leave the body, and does during sleep, dreams being the experience of the soul as it roams the world while the body lies asleep; (3) if the soul leaves the body during waking hours the person becomes ill or insane; (4) the

1. *Ibid.* P. 52

2. *Ibid.* P. 53

17

soul can leave the body and assume some material form;
(5) the soul can be kidnapped by an evil spirit who usurps
the soul's place in the body of the unfortunate person.

Death is the final and complete desertion of the
body by the soul, although the soul may linger about the
premises of the corpse for several days. The human
corpse is feared and various devices are used to so put
the corpse away that not even the deserting spirit can
find its way back into the family circle. The corpses
of children are placed in coffins and put in trees while
those of adults are buried.

Funeral ceremonies are elaborate and may be
extended over several months, according to the wealth
of the relatives. Their primary purpose seems to be
to help the deserting spirit or soul make the long and
difficult journey into the land of the dead. This "heaven"
is far away to the west in the land of the setting sun.
Although the route to heaven is long and dangerous life
there is one of eternal bliss and happiness. Bliss and
happiness are determined by one factor however, complete
erasure of the memory of the departed from the minds of
the relatives. External means to help forget are the
complete destruction by fire of all the departed one's
possessions. His name is never again mentioned after
the funeral ceremonies are completed, for to even think
of his name will disturb his bliss in heaven.

The language of the Tungusic people is the one
factor by which they have been most easily distinguished
from other ethnical groups. This language has been

18

retained in its written form by the Manchus and in its
spoken form the purest type is found among the Goldi.
Since the Manchu have become assimilated into Chinese
culture they have given up their spoken language for
Chinese, although they retain their own language in
written records. Since the Goldi have not been so
quickly assimilated, they retain their spoken language
but cannot use the written language.

The *future* of the *Tungusic* people has had its
pattern already set in history; assimilation of culture
and amalgamation of people into dominant Chinese patterns
and strains.

19

SECTION B

THE PEOPLE OF CHINA'S WEST AND NORTHWEST

The population of China's west and northwest is predominantly Mongolian and Turkic if we exclude the red basin of Szechuan from our estimates. These Mongolian and Turkic people are homogeneous with the populations of Mongolia, parts of Tibet and large areas of Asiatic Russia. The areas which they inhabit in China correspond roughly to the provinces of Kirin, Jehol, Chahar, Suiyuan, Ningxia, Chinghai, the northwestern part of Kansu and Sinkiang.

Two thirds of this area is rolling upland plain and one third is highland plateau and mountains. This whole area is without drainage to the sea and the dominant note is aridity. The average rainfall for the whole region is less than ten inches, there is no irrigation except along the short course of a few mountain streams which soon lose themselves in deserts and salt marshes. It is a steppe and desert country with a decided influence over the life and culture of the people who live there.

20

The Chinese represent a very negligible part of
the population, it being roughly estimated that there
are not more than 1 Chinese to 10 Turkic and Mongolian.
The Turkic-Iranian group are also not large, being
centered in the areas of west Sinkiang and on the Chinese
side of the Pamirs. By far the largest group is the
Mongolian who are widely spread over even more of the
areas mentioned.

21

CHAPTER II

THE IRANIAN AND TURKIC FAMILY

The Iranian and Turkic people inhabiting parts of China are but a small section of a large group of closely related people inhabiting the area which lies roughly between the Caspian Sea in Russia and the Kunlun Mountains in western China. The groups with which we are primarily concerned live mainly in the Chinese province of Sinkiang, 500,000 square miles of steppe and desert country bounded by the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic on the north, by Outer Mongolia on the northeast, China on the southwest, Tibet on the south and India on the west.

The grouping of the Iranian and Turkic people of Central Asia still presents difficult problems for the ethnologist since "ethnological islands" appear in the mountains, on the steppes and around oases which seem to have confused historical backgrounds and mixed contemporary relationships. Buxton suggests a method of approach which seems to be well founded, that in Central Asia we have both the undifferentiated stock from which other groups sprang and the later differentiated groups themselves. ¹

According to this we then have in Central Asia remnants of the original Iranian type; represented by the Tajiks: and the Turkic type; represented by the Uighur, Taranchi, Kirghiz and Kazakh being Turkic mixtures with ¹. *The Peoples of Asia*, Pp. 113 ff.

22

the original Iranian population.

The Tadjiks represent a very small group in-
habiting agricultural districts of the Pamirs, especially
in the vicinity of Sariquol. They are sedentary people
who till the soil, engage in business and are never
nomadic as their Turkic relations. They are physically
distinguished by their moderate stature, chestnut hair and
extreme brachycephaly. They speak the Perisian language
as distinguished from the Uighur, Taranchi, Kirgiz and
Kazakh who speak Turkic dialects. ¹

The Uighurs live mainly in the areas adjacent to
Kashgar, Kucha, Khotan and Hami and are perhaps the most
settled of the Turkic people in China. They follow the
Sunnite sect of Mohammedanism more strictly than their
related groups, the Kirgiz, Kazakhs and Taranchi.

The Kirgiz probably had an ancestry common with
that of the Uighurs. They are horsemen who inhabit the
high mountain areas of the Pamirs rather than the steppe
country. Because of the terrain in which they live they
are split up into many small groups isolated in mountain
valleys where they find it difficult to keep in touch with
one another. They are Mohammedans of the Sunnite sect.

The Taranchi are believed to be descendants of
the early Uighurs. ² They are no isolated in "ethnological
islands in various parts of Central Asia. In China they

1. The term "Uzbeg" is not included since it has reference to a ruling class rather than an ethnological group.
See Buxton, *Ibid*. P. 114

2. *Ibid*. 174

23

are found in the Ili valley where they live a settled life.

The Kazakhs are the most numerous of these four groups and will be used as the basic type representatives. We base this selection of the Kazakhs as representative of the Turkic people upon the fact that "basic Kazakh culture is closely related in nearly every respect with that of the Kirgiz, Turcoman, Kalmyk and Mongols." ¹

The *physical type* varies from some examples of tall, blue-eyed, white skinned, high nosed, wavy-haired Uighur on the one hand to the short, dark-eyed, yellow skinned, low nosed, straight-haired Taranchi on the other. The most common type falls somewhere in between, and these people are quite obviously a mixture of an early Iranian type with the Mongol type bringing into existence what Ivanovski has called ² a Central Asiatic type: dark hair and eyes, medium stature, brachycephalic crania, leptorrhine nose and long trunk.

Their position in an *ethnological classification* thus falls somewhere between the original Iranians and the present Mongols.

The *geographical environment* of the Turkic people living in China is a plateau-basin of 3,000 to 4,000 feet altitude lying between the 36th and 48th degrees of latitude north. Because of its distance from the moderating influences of any ocean this area is one of great temperature extremes, ranging from well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 40 degrees below zero in winter.

1. Hudson, A.E. *Kazakh Social Structure*, P. 7

2. Buxton, *Ibid*. P. 174

24

This area has two seasons rather than four, with a winter of eight months and a summer of four. Strong winds are common throughout the year. ¹

Rainfall is slight, averaging 8 inches over the whole area, but spotted, erratic and not dependable. Streams flow inward from the mountain slopes toward the heart of the country where they disappear into the soil or in salty marches. The area is a mixture of desert, steppe land, oases, salt marshes and rocky wastes.

The cultural complex of the people of this area is thus defined by their geographical environment in terms of semi-nomadic herding. No other form of life, without irrigation, is feasible on the steppe. Life is completely dependent upon grass; cattle, sheep, horses and camels are the only domestic animals which can live easily upon nothing but grass; and the human beings whose livelihood depends upon such animals must organize their ways of life to fit the ways of the Steppe.

The Kazakhs live almost entirely upon the products of their herds. Milk, butter, cheese and meat forms the principal part of their diet. Cereals, fruits and vegetables are rarely used. Intoxicants are made from milk.

Wealth is entirely in terms of herds. The animals themselves, animal hides and wool are exchanged for essential commodities which they cannot produce. The only supply of fuel is the dried dung of their animals.

1. Cressey, China's Geographic Foundations, Pp. 252-253.

25

Transportation is entirely by horse and camel.

Since their life depends upon following herds
from one pasture to another, their dwelling places and
utensils are moveable, simple and non-breakable. During
the summer they live in structures of felt stretched over
a light framework of wood. These are called "yurts" and
can be erected or dismantled in half an hour. During
the long winters they live in permanent sites where the
houses are low sod structures with single doorways and
one or two small windows covered with bladder skins.
Each family occupies its own group of buildings in winter
quarters. There are rude shelters for animals and the
whole set of buildings is sometimes surrounded by a low
sod wall.

The social organization of the Kazakhs is based
upon the patriarchal family. This is nicely summarized
by Murdock:

"The patriarchal family forms the basis of the elaborate hierarchical social and political organization of the Kazakhs. Not only wives and children but even adult sons, at least until they are well advanced in years, acknowledge the authority of the father. Inheritance, as well as descent, follows the male line, and a form of ultimo-gentiture prevails. As a man's herds increase beyond the limits of his winter quarters and his eldest son attains his majority and marries, he buys for the latter another winter site and makes a division of his animals either orally or in writing in the presence of reliable witnesses. From time to time he provides for succeeding sons in similar fashion. If he dies, his property descends to the younger sons still living with him; those already provided for have no claims to inheritance. The youngest son, even though married, continues to live with the father, and becomes his sole heir if all the rest have left. In any event he inherits the winter quarters. In default of sons, brothers in herit. Widows recieve, in addition to their dowries, a portion of the estate or the right to enjoy it in common with the heirs. A woman's property goes to her children." ¹

1. *Our Primitive Contemporaries*, Pp. 148-149

26

Marriage is exogamous. A man is not supposed to
marry relatives of his father's line for seven generations
back.

Families related by blood form an "aul", the unit
of summer nomadic life. A number of these auls related by
blood usually have a series of closely contiguous winter
sites. They form a loose sub-clan organization under a
common totemic symbol which is used as a property and as a
grave marker. The authority of such a group rests with the
"beg", a judge of disputes who owes his position to a gen-
eral recognition of his personality, ability, power and
friends.

Several of these related sub-clans make up clans
with historical backgrounds going back for centuries. They
are held together by a strong sense of group loyalty which
involves joint responsibility for the crimes of its members
and of avenging injuries upon any one of its group. The
authority of the clan resides in the begs of the sub-clans.

Clans are grouped into tribes and tribes into "hordes",
but neither of these groups now have any significance. There
is some significance, however, in the descendants of the
"khans" who at one time in history were powerful elected
chiefs. These descendants have come to be a wealthy
aristocracy who call themselves "hite bones" in contrast

27

to the servile class whom they call "black bones." This
is an interesting connection with the Lolos far to the
south who have a similar terminology for class distinctions.

Official relationships with the Chinese government
and with other non-Turkic groups are channeled through the
begs of the sub-clans.

The religion of the Turkic people is Sunnite Mohammedanism superimposed upon an original shamanism. Shamanistic survivals are seen in wandering practitioners, beliefs in spirits and in certain superstitions. As Mohammedans they practice circumcision, head shaving, daily prayers, ablutions and almsgiving as methods of preparing the road to paradise.

"They celebrate Abraham's offering of Isaac by a sacrifice of their best male horses, thought to enable the souls of dead sinners to ride through hell. They fast during the month of Ramadan in commemoration of the fast of the Prophet. Their faith prescribes strict abstinence at this time from all food and drink between the hours from early dawn to sunset, but they adapt themselves readily enough to this rule by spending the nights in eating and drinking and the days in sleeping." 1

The above suggests that they do not take their religion very seriously, having only a few mullahs and neither priests nor mosques. They very seldom make pilgrimages and do not display the usual Mohammedan fanaticism. Since they take their adopted religion so lightly and have no priests they are apt to think more in terms of local superstitions and beliefs than in orthodox Mohammedan inter-
1. Murdock, *Our Primitive Contemporaries*, Pp. 159-160

28

pretations.

Some of these beliefs are illustrated in funeral customs.

"When a person dies, his body is washed, wrapped in winding sheets and interred according to Moslem rites within thirty-six hours after death. The men alone accompany the corpse to the grave, which is dug three or four feet deep with a niche at the side. The body is deposited without gifts or personal possessions in the niche and covered with a cloth so that no earth may touch it. A stone cairn or monument serves the primary purpose of protecting the grave from beasts of prey. Formerly the favorite horse of the deceased was often interred with him. Today, however, the survivors merely cut off its mane and tail and saddle it backwards, though also they sometimes place the skull of a horse beside the grave. The female relatives of the deceased tear their hair, scratch their face and lament for seven days. The chief mourner--a man's wife, a woman's daughter, a child's mother--observes certain unimportant mourning rites for a year. On the seventh day the clansmen and neighbors for miles around are invited to a great funeral feast. During four days of horseraces, games, eating, and drinking the deceased in never mentioned. Similar feasts follow on the fortieth and hundredth days and on the anniversary."¹

The language of the Turkic people is highly agglutinative. Murdock claims that it belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic division of the Ural-Altaic linguistic stock.² It is enriched by terms borrowed from Chinese, Mongolian, Arabic and Russian. Most of the Turkic people living in China are unable to read.

1. Murdock, *Ibid*. P. 159

2. *Ibid*. P. 139

29

The future of the Turkic nomads will become more and more sedentary, except in very isolated pockets of unwanted territory. The building of highways, railways, irrigation works and industries by both China and Russia will tend to confine the free movement of these people; and once that free movement is gone very little more than reminiscences of their nomadic culture will exist in song and literature.

30

CHAPTER III
THE MONOLIAN FAMILY

The Mongolian people inhabit a vast part of Central Asia stretching from Tibet in the south to the province of Irkutsk in Russia, from the Pamir mountains in the west into Manchuria and the outer provinces of China in the northeast and east. The Mongolian population of China is estimated to be somewhere between two and four million. ¹ They are generally divided into three branches: (1) the Buriats centered around Lake Baikal in Asiatic Russia, (2) the western Mongols living principally northeast of the Tien Shan range in Sinkiang and along the south border of the Gobi desert in Chinghai, Kansu and Ninghsia, (3) the eastern Mongols occupying Manchuria, Chahar and Jehol.

1. Cressey suggests two million in *Asia's Lands and Peoples*, P. 45

The Encyclopaedia Britannica suggests two to three million.

Lattimore suggests four million in *The Mongols of Manchuria*, Pp. 24 ff. (About one million in Chahar and Jehol, one million in Sinkiang, Ninghsia and Chinghai, two million in Manchuria.)

31

Since almost all the Buriats live in Asiatic Russia they are omitted from the following discussion, although some of the descriptions of the Mongols in general will fit these people as well. The western Mongols are usually called Kalmucks by their neighbors, although they call themselves "Eleuts". ¹ They are both the most numerous and the most widely dispersed of all the Mongolian people, being found in an area extending from Lhasa to the Caspian and from the Yellow river in China to the Manich in Russia. all Since the culture and physical type of the Mongols is very much alike, we will base our descriptions upon the Kalmucks as the type for the whole group.

The Mongolian physical type is described by Deniker as being very strongly marked among the Kalmucks; "nearly average stature (lm. 63-64); sub-brachycephalic (index on living subject 63); black straight hair, pilous system little developed; the skin of a pale yellow or brownish hue, prominent cheek bones, thin straight flattened nose, Mongoloid yes." ²

1. The Races of Man, P. 379

2. Idem.

"The essential characters of the Mongoloid eye consist... in a puffiness of the upper eyelid, which turns down at the inner angle of the narrowed eye, and, instead of being free, as in the ordinary eye, is folded towards the eyeball, forming a fixed fold in front of the movable ciliary edge; this last becomes invisible and the eyelashes are scarcely seen. Moreover, towards the inner angle of the eye, the eyelid forms a fold covering more or less the caruncula, and sometimes extending more or less far below." Ibid. Pp. 77-78

32

The exact and undisputed place of the Mongolian people in ethnological classifications has not yet been determined. Buxton suggests that they may represent an intermediate form as a result of mixing, the main blend being that between the Pareocean Man on the south and the artic and sub-arctic tribes on the north.¹ As such they would be a branch of the Alpine Man mixed with a branch of the Yellow Man; being more closely related to the Alpine or Armenoid branch than to the Yellow. Buxton summarizes as follows:

> "We may say that there seems to be an underlying homogeneous element among the people who claim to be Mongols; this is probably, especially on the borders, mixed with other strains, but is essentially different from Yellow or Mongoloid man. Their territory has been invaded by Yellow man, who has at times mixed much with the population, and today often exists in groups within Mongol territory, but is always physically and culturally distinct. The Mongols are connected by blood with some branch of Alpine or Armenoid man." 2

1. *The Peoples of Asia*, Pp. 183-184

The term "Pareocean Man" is used by Buxton with explanation of exactly what he means. He probably refers to a very early human form in the south of Asia.

2. *Ibid.* P. 186

33

The three principal groups of Mongols: Buriats,
Western and Eastern, represent political and geographic
divisions rather than ethnological divisions. However,
these political and geographical divisions have led to
variations of ethnological type through different amounts
of mixing with other ethnological stocks. For instance,
the cephalic indices for the Mongols in Chahar and Jehol
are closer to northern Chinese indices than are those who
inhabit northeastern Sinkiang. This indicates greater
mixing with the Chinese in the eastern part of their
territory. Buriats, on the other hand, have mixed more with the

34

people of Asiatic Russia.

The geographic environment of the Mongolian people in China is similar to that of the Iranian-Turkic groups except that it covers a wider area and for that reason has a greater variation. We will describe the environment for the major group of people, omitting the minor variations. The average yearly rainfall for the whole area is around eight inches. ¹ The largest part of the country is barren desert, but a slightly higher yearly rainfall (up to 12 inches) around the margins of the desert produces grass upon which grass eating animals can subsist. Areas in Manchuria inhabited by Mongols have more rain and support local forests and forest life. Cases and small river valleys depending upon water from the Tien Shan range support a limited amount of oasis and irrigated agriculture.

Temperatures range from -30 degrees in the winter to 90 degrees in the summer and as high as 150 degrees on exposed rock surfaces.

The culture complex of the main group of Mongols is that of nomadic shepherds basing their whole life upon cattle, camels, sheep and horses which supply them

1. Cressey, Asia's Lands and People, Pp. 144-145

35

with food, the raw material for the manufacture of tents
and garments, the source of fuel (dried dung) and the
means of transportation. Those who live in fixed habitations
are confined to the limited agriculture of the oases, to
lamaseries or to a few small areas where agriculture is
possible. But the main bulk of the people are nomadic.

Food is simple and is derived chiefly from the
herds. The main articles of diet are milk, butter, cheese
and mutton. Barley, millet and wheat flour is purchased
from traders or from agricultural districts, and brick
tea is purchased from the Chinese.

Dwellings are made of felt and a light framework of
poles which can be quickly and easily transported. The usual
yurt is 12 to 15 feet in diameter and about the height of a
man's head. There is one door, a top flap which may be
opened as a smoke outlet, but no windows. Furnishings
consist of a chest or two, a low table, a few rugs or
skins and simple cooking equipment.

Herds and produce of the herds provide goods for
barter or for sale; wool, hides, furs and horses being
of chief value on the Chinese and Russian markets.

Transportation is entirely by horse and camel,
horses being used for riding and camels for commercial

36

goods. The Mongols are superior horsemen and are said to
spend more time in the saddle than on foot.

**Social organization is based upon the patriarchal family.** Property is inherited by the youngest son upon death of the head of the family. The older married sons receive their share of the property at the time they marry and leave the father's yurt.

Marriage is exogamous to nine generations of the male line and polygamy is practiced by those who can afford more than one wife. ¹ There is no distinction between the children of several wives, all being legally legitimate and equal. The position of women among the ruling class is considered to be fairly high where they take an active part in economic and social affairs. At the death of her husband a woman may be taken in marriage by her husband's brother.

The basic unit of Mongol organization is the "tribe" which can best be described as the personal following of a chief who holds his position by virtue of his ability or "influence", or both. ² Upon his death the rule descends

1. Hudson, *Kazakh Social Structure*, P. 99 (Section on Mongols)

2. Lattimore, *China Yearbook, 1934*, Section on "Greater China"

37

to one of his sons--not necessarily the eldest, perhaps even a nephew--who is chosen by a council composed of the males of the father's line of a generation equal or senior to that of the deceased father. When the clan council cannot agree, such questions are settled by war with consequent re-shifting of allegiance of the part of different groups in the tribe. Before the days of Manchu power and the Chinese Republic there was no connection between a chief and a geographic locality. His followers could be widely diffused yet still be a specific tribe under his authority.

For purpose of political control the Manchu rulers set up "Leagues"¹ of Mongols intended to break down the traditional tribal strength by breaking up allegiances and stabilizing different "Leagues" in specific geographic localities. The authority over such divisions was an officer appointed by government to who tribal chiefs were responsible for the behavior of their tribes. This system has been continued under present Chinese government which has a Mongolian-Tibetan Affairs Commission responsible for all relationships with the Mongols.

The religion of the Mongols of China is principally Lama-Buddhism, and that is claimed to be one of the most important characteristics of Mongol life. It was

1. There is a complete list of Leagues and tribes in the *China Yearbook 1934*.

38

superimposed upon an older shamanism during the period
of Mongol rule in China (1260-1341). Lama-Buddhism
has been, and still is, of great political significance
because of its combination of political and religious
control in one system.

The ethical and metaphysical elements of Lama-
Buddhism are basically similar to those of the Buddhism
of China proper. It is the union of the religious
system of belief with temporal sovereignty into a Church-
State which constitutes what is specifically called
Lamaism or Lama-Buddhism. A summary of the religious
ideology will be given in the chapter dealing with the
Han people of China.

Lama-Buddhism is derived from Indian Buddhism and
is influenced by the same group of religious forces from
which Manichaeism and Nestorianism sprang and to which
Christianity and Mohammedanism are related. There are,
by way of evidence, striking resemblances between some
of the ceremonies of Lama-Buddhism and the mass of the
Roman Catholic Church. ¹

The institution of this religion is an organization
of celibate priests, most of whom are attached to monasteries.

1. Lattimore, *China Yearbook 1934*, p. 70

39

Many of the monasteries are ruled by "reincarnations" of the Buddha, and some are ruled by priests elected to the seat of authority. Many of the monasteries are holders of great wealth in land, cattle, sheep, camels and horses tended by laymen whose allegiance is related to a monastery rather than to a chief. Every tribal area has its own monastery, and often sub-areas with smaller monasteries, supported by the people of that area. It is estimated that from forty to sixty percent of the Mongolian male population lives in monasteries.

The "reincarnations" or "Living Buddhas" are in reality the human instruments of imperishable divine attributes which rule the affairs of men. "Reincarnations" are found either by casting lots or by augury. The highest spiritual offices are those of the Dalai Lama and the Panshen Lama in Tibet and the Jebtsun Damba Khotokto or Urga Living Buddha in Outer Mongolia. These incarnations exercise the highest temporal and spiritual authority. Being human, as well as receptacles of divine wisdom, they are influenced by the cliques most able to control their channels of earthly information.

The Mongol language is one of the Ural-Altaic group which also includes the Finno-Ugric, Turkish, Manchu and Samoyede; these all being bound together by the common principle of agglutinative formation, by grammatical

40

structure and a great number of common roots. The script
is derived from the Syriac with borrowings from Sanskrit
and Tibetan. The Kalmuck alphabet, composed in 1648, is
the best yet devised and is the key to Mongolian studies. 1

The future of the Mongolian people in China is
partly determined by changes that will be taking place in
their environment. Population pressures from Europe and Asia,
search for mineral resources, development of communications,
growth of towns and cities, increase of irrigation will
gradually put obstacles in the way of such free moving people
as the Mongols. The diffusion of the beneficial aspects
of western science should make possible an increase of
Mongolian population and a revival of the best in their
own culture. This could be a welcome contribution to the
rest of the world, provided we discontinue the arts of
destruction in time to learn again the art of mutual appreciation.

1. Encyclopedia Britannica

41

SECTION C

THE PEOPLE OF CHINA'S WEST AND SOUTHWEST

It is estimated that more than 20,000,000 non-Chinese live in the mountainous region of southwestern China. ¹ This region includes the provinces of Szechuan, Sikang, Kweichow, Hunan, Kwangtung and Kwangsi. It lies between 96 and 116 degrees N with Tibet, India and Burma on the west, Indo China and the south China sea on the south, Chinghai, Shensi and Honan to the north and Fukien and Chekiang to the east.

This region is tortuously divided by great mountain systems and deep river gorges so that human mobility has been reduced to a minimum. At the same time it is a region rich in agricultural, mineral and power resources. The average annual rainfall for the entire area is from 50 to 60 inches. Average temperatures for the whole area vary from 37 to 45 degrees P. in January and from 45 to 62 P. in July. ² There are, of course, local variations depending upon altitude and air currents.

The contour of this part of the country has contrib-

1. Cressey, *Asia's Lands and Peoples*, P. 45

2. Cressey, *China's Geographic Foundations*, P. 61

42

uted more than any other part of China to the formation of
"cultural pockets" and "ethnological islands" where hidden
mountain valleys and isolated plateaus have become the
homes of people pushed out of other parts of the Asiatic
continent during different stages of history. Since the
cultures of these people, and their physical types, differ
significantly, and since very few of them have written hist-
orical records, the problem of accurate ethnological
classification is difficult. There is a fair degree of
agreement among anthropologists as to the main groupings
of these people, but there is some variation in sub-
groupings. The classification suggested by V.K. Ting of
the Anatomical and Anthropological Association of China ¹
is as follows:

I. Mon-Khmer

A. Miao-Yao Group

1. Miao

2. Yao

B. Wa-Palaung Group

1. Wa or Kawa

2. La or Kala

3. Puman

4. Palaung

5. ?

6. Chihsi

II. Shan

A. Pai-yi

1. Lujen

1. China Yearbook, 1934, published by University of Chicago Press, P. 17

45

CHAPTER IV
THE INDO-CHINESE FAMILY

There are five main groups in this family of people
according to Cheng and Liang; the Tibetan, Hsi-fan,
Ch'iang, Lolo and K'a-ch'in. I have not yet been able
to find source material on the Hsifan group, and my
own conversations with Chinese students of the border
peoples left me with the impression that the Hsifan
are those Tibetan people who have intermarried with
non-Tibetans but who are still predominantly influenced
by Tibetan culture. For instance, I have visited a group
of people in northern Szechuan whose tribal communities
are estimated to have a population of about 300,000 who
are at times called Hsi-fan by the Chinese and at other
times called Chia-jung. They are decidedly related to
the Tibetans both in physical type and in culture. However,
for lack of evidence we shall call the Hsi-fan a part of
the Tibetan group rather than a group in themselves.

46

1. The Tibetan Group

This group of people lives chiefly in northwest
Yunnan, Sikang and northwest Szechuan.

Their physical type is that of the Kham Tibetan.
They are dolichocephalic with southern Chinese admixtures. 1
They are short statured (not more than five feet, five
inches), black-haired--somewhat wavy, clear brown eyes,
high cheek-bones, thick nose--depressed at the root
(sometimes prominent and aquiline), sparse beard and light
brown skin.

Their geographical environment is the Chinese
side of the Tibetan border in northwest Yunnan, Sikang
and Szechuan. They inhabit the higher mountain slopes
and plateaux while the Chinese live in the more fertile
and more convenient lower altitudes all along the main trans-

1. Buxton, The Peoples of Asia, Pp. 170 ff.

47

portation routes and the river bottoms.

The culture is a combination of mountain agriculture
and herding influenced by Chinese culture and by Lama-
Buddhism.

"The staple diet of the ordinary Tibetan is Yak's meat, mutton, barley flour, cheese and tea. The rich, and those who dwell in lower altitudes, also eat fruit and vegetables in small quantities. The climate is so cold that Tibetans are compelled to eat meat, although as Buddhists they should abstain from doing so, and the production of grain, vegetables or fruit at great altitudes is very difficult. Rice cannot be grown in the cold uplands, and is thus a luxury for the wealthy only. The chief Tibetan grain food is barley." 1

The main beverage among the Tibetans is tea, brick
tea from China being used. The chief intoxicant is beer
brewed from barley.

Articles of trade consist of yak hides, gold, silver
and musk; while tea, tobacco, cotton are the chief articles
bought from the Chinese.

Transportation is by horse or by foot, the yak being
used as the chief pack animal.

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 179

48

"The landed proprietors live in houses, solidly built around a rectangular courtyard. On three sides of this courtyard are stables and storehouses; on the fourth, opposite the gate, is the mansion itself, one or two storeys higher than the other three sides, and sometimes as much as five storeys in height. The walls are constructed of flat stones bound together with mud. In the smaller buildings, and especially in the upper layers, the stones are replaced by sun-dried bricks. The roof is flat and is formed like the earth floor...Windows are plentiful but glass is rare. Its place is taken by waxed cloth or other similar material, strong wooden shutters protecting this from rough usage. The houses of the peasants are, as a rule, solid and substantial. Here, too, the walls are of stone or sun-dried brick, though occasionally of clods of earth. Flat roofs of beaten earth are the rule throughout the interior of the country." ¹

The social organization is based upon the patriarchal family. Women, especially of the ruling caste, have a high status. Monogamy is the rule and is in the majority, but there is some polygamy where wealth permits and polyandry is sometimes found among the herdsmen and farmers---the extra husbands always being younger brothers.

Property is divided among all the sons when a father dies. Daughters are given a small share of land when they marry. If, however, one of the ruling caste dies leaving a daughter but no sons, the daughter inherits the property and when she marries she adopts her husband into her family. He changes his surname to hers, and in

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica

49

such cases the wife has the deciding influence in family affairs.

There are two distinct social classes, the ruling caste who trace ancestry to "ennobled forefathers", to the original royalty or to families in which there has been a Dalai Lama. This class of people is very wealthy and powerful compared to the ordinary farmers and workmen who make up the economically and politically less powerful class. There is also a small middle class of merchants.

In the family, authority lies in the male head. The landowner exercises great authority over the working people attached to his land. He, in turn, is under the authority of the hierarchy of the Lama-Buddhist church which culminates in the Dalai Lama. It will thus be seen that the people belonging to Tibetan groups living in China are under a double authority, that of the Chinese government to which they now belong, and that of the Lama-Buddhist system with headquarters in Tibet.

It is estimated, by judging the amount of time and goods devoted to religion, that the people belonging to the Tibetan religious system are the most religious in the

50

world. There is an unwritten rule that one son from each family should enter the monastery. It is estimated that as much as one fourth of the male population are in lamaseries.

The language of these Tibetan groups in China is made up of various sub-dialects of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

51

2. The Ch'iang Group

The Ch'iang people are extensively mentioned in
early Chinese history as a strong and powerful people
extending over wide areas of the northwest. At the
present time they have been assimilated to such an extent
that only a few villages remain in northern Szechuan.
While being physically and culturally related to the
Tibetan people they have not been influenced by Tibetan
Buddhism. Some anthropologists claim a distant relation-
ship between the Ch'iang and the Lolo. There is a slight
similarity in their religions, but otherwise they are
widely separated both in culture and in distance.

The Ch'iang inhabit a region along the T'o and
Min rivers in the mountains above the Chinese cities of
Wen-ch'uan, Wei-chou, Li-fan and Mou-chou in the province
of Szechuan. Their homes are in fortified villages built
on sloping loess deposits between seven and ten thousand
feet above sea level. The more rugged parts of the moun-
tains continue on up to 14,000 and 17,000 feet above them.

The mountain loess is suitable for the cultivation
of corn, oats, beans, white potatoes, walnuts and pears.
They keep pigs, fowl, cattle and goats while yak are
herded in the high grassy slopes above the villages. The

52

yak is used as a beast of burden as well as for meat and
hide.

The principal articles of trade are medicinal
herbs gathered from their wild state in the mountains
and lye made from the ashes of mountain brush. These
are traded with the Chinese for tea, salt, cotton cloth
and vegetable oil.

The Ch'iang dwellings are similar to Tibetan homes
and monasteries; being large and solidly built of logs,
rack and adobe. The outstanding characteristic is the
pounded clay roof which is used as a threshing floor and
general gathering place. The ground floor is a stable and
storehouse for heavy farming equipment such as the plough,
timbers, etc. The second floor serves as living quarters;
the third floor as storage space for grain, vegetables and
cured meat; the roof as threshing floor and as " a spot
in the sun". The different storeys of these dwellings are
connected with stairways of single notched logs.

Their culture may thus be designated as a hunting,
herding, agricultural combination.

Social organization consists of simple family and

53

**village relationships.** The family unit is usually that of parents and unmarried children. Marriage is exogamous, mates from other villages and other surnames being preferred. As among the Tibetan groups, a girl who is the only heir brings a mate into her family at time of marriage by having him drop his family name and adopt hers. Plural marriage is sometimes practiced, but in such cases each wife has a separate household for herself and her children and the husband rotates from one establishment to another.

Each village has a headman whose authority is passed from generation to generation. Village headmen are responsible to the Chinese government officials for the behavior of their own villagers. Local problems are settled in councils of village elders.

**The religion of the Ch'iang** is basically shaman-istic, but it has one unique characteristic in the worship of the "white stone". This is a piece of white quartz found shaped like a pyramid. It is never cut or chipped by man. The Ch'iang place this in an altar on their rooftops or in their sacred groves where it serves as the central object of their worship.

They believe in many good and evil spirits, but they also recognize a special deity called "God of the

54

Sky" similar in many of its supreme aspects to the Chinese
"Tien" or "Ti."

The dead are always cremated, each village having
a specific area for this purpose which is housed by a
removable shed when not in use.

The Ch'iang language is unwritten, differs greatly
from village to village, and is rapidly being replaced by
both spoken and written Chinese. There have not been any
serious studies of the Ch'iang language, but it is usually
spoken of as belonging to the Indo-Chinese language family.

55

3. The Lolo Group

This group is composed of the Lolo, the Moso, the Lissu, the Woli, the Lohei and the A-k'a. There is very little material about any of these people, but that which is available is mostly concerning the Lolo. Since this is so, and since the Lolo people are the most numerous of the whole group we will describe them as a type for the whole group of related peoples. The Lolo people resent the term "Lolo" and refer to themselves as "Nosu", "Yi-chia", or "Hei-ku-t'ou". We use the term by which these people are generally known to the rest of the world, "Lolo." They are estimated to number between 500,000 and 1,500,000.

The geographic environment, as well as the fierce nature of the people themselves, may account for the difficulty of making even close estimates to their real population. They live only in the high mountains of west Szechuan, Sikang, Kweichow and Yunnan. While they are scattered in significant numbers over this whole area, the heart of the Lolo country is in the Ta-Liang mountains in the province of Sikang. The regions in which they live are favored with an unusually pleasant climate and some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. During the greatest part of the year the sky is clear as sapphire.

56

Summers are hot with temperatures reaching as high as 104 F. and low humidity in valleys and up to 5, 600 feet in the mountains. Winters are never severe. The temperature may fall below freezing at night but will rise to 59 or 68 F. during the day. ¹

The Lolo physical type summarized by Haddon has been verified by the author of this paper during an expedition into the heart of the Lolo country (Ta-Liang mountains of Sikang) in 1945. Cephalic index about 77, nasal index 85, medium stature for "white bone" Lolos, "black bone" Lolos very tall, oval faces, small cheek-bones, straight and fairly prominent nose, eyes straight without epicanthic fold, fair to swarthy skin (not yellow), hair sometimes decidedly wavy. ²

T'ing, of the Chinese Geological Survey, believes that the Lolos, in association with the Ch'iang, at one time formed an important people in northwest Szechuan, Tsinghai, Ninghsia and south Sinkiang where they mixed with Iranian stocks. ³ In the section dealing with the Turkic

1. Legendre, A.F., The Lolos of Kientchang, 1911

2. Haddon, A.C., The Races of Man and Their Distribution, P. 114

3. Buxton, L.H.D., The Peoples of Asia, Pp. 156-157

57

people of China's west and northwest I have pointed out the
"black bone"-"white bone" terminology distinguishing
social classes among the Kazakhs. So far, this terminology
has only been found among these two people. There is
enough additional physiological evidence to suggest that
there may be a real connection between these two groups.

The ethnological position of the Lolos is summarized
by Buxton:

"Such indications as we have at present, then, suggest
that among the aboriginal tribes of Western China we have
a type which corresponds to the long-headed populations
of Western Asia and to the Mediterranean area.....It appears
to form a link between the west and the Nesiots, who also
possess the same characters. There are some indications
that among a number of these aboriginal tribes the main
influence was from the west, but suggestions are not lack-
ing that at least some of them came from the south. This
is quite possible from the point of view of physique, as
we shall see that a sensible proportion of the inhabitants
of southeastern Asia also belong to this type. They are
all mixed with a greater or lesser degree with the Faroecean
stock...." ¹

The culture of the Lolo people is a combination of
slash and burn agriculture, herding and hunting; the women
and children of the serfs doing the herding, the male
serfs doing the agriculture and the males of the ruling
class engaging in the hunt.

1. *Ibid*. Pp. 156-157

58

The food of the Lolos consists of corn, buckwheat, oats, white potatoes and the flesh of both wild and domesticated animals. Pigs were seen in every Lolo village I visited in 1945 over an area covering approximately 200 miles from north to south. Corn, buckwheat and oats are good nourishment to the Lolos in the form of unleavened lumps of dough baked in the ashes of the fire hole. Flesh of animals is only partially stewed and there are no condiments. Salt is used chiefly as a delicacy, a small lump being sucked for a short time and then passed on to others in the group. Milk is not used, the Lolos claiming it is only good for children and the infirm. Food for the hunt and warpath consists of parched grains ground into a flour. Each individual carries his own provisions in a skin bag slung over his shoulder. It is moistened with cold water from a convenient stream and molded into a stiff dough before eating.

The most typical article of clothing is a felt cape hanging from around the shoulders to just below the knees. These capes are alike for both sexes, being the color of the natural wool from their animals; black where black sheep and goats are most prevalent and grey where white wool is prevalent. The women wear long, voluminously pleated, homespun woolen skirts, while the men wear wide

59

bottomed trousers made of rough cotton materials bartered
from the Chinese. Both men and women wear turbans,
differing in size and shape for different tribes. Women
wear many silver ornaments and men wear long heavy ear
decorations of turquoise and coral.

**Lolo social organization** is based on the patriarchal
family. Each family is an independent unit in its clan,
and clans are organized into tribes. Boys owe allegiance
first to their father and then to the chief of the clan
and the chief of the tribe. Inheritance is through the
male line only, property never going to a female even though
she be mother or wife. Marriage is based upon a formal
union consecrated by the parents, and a part of the
ceremony and ritual is mock capture (which sometimes becomes
very real and bloody). The tradition is that a man will
seek his wife in the maternal grandparent's family.

Related families making up a clan live in a given
area under a clan headman or chief. Clan organization is
feudal in which all property is owned by the member of the
ruling caste represented in that area. The chief has vassals
in subjection to himself and the serfs belong to the
land to be sold at the will of the owner. The serfs are
well treated as long as "they keep their place."

60

There are three social classes or castes; the ruling class and land owners being called "black bones", the vassals and middle class being called "white bones" and the serfs sometimes being called "yellow bones." These distinctions are very rigid. There is almost no inter-marriage across these class lines, although the two lower classes inter-marry with Chinese. There are no written legal codes of any kind, all disputes being settled by council or by revenge, revenge being enjoyed and preferred.

**The Lolo religion is shamanistic.** They believe in a world of good and evil spirits, and they have many shamans, similar in all respects to the shamans of the north and northwest, who are the mediums through which relationships are maintained with the spirit world.

The Lolo believes in an individual soul as a living and active substance, impalpable, invisible and immaterial. If during life an individual has broken no laws his soul rests in peace after the death of the body. His soul will expire with the body if he has done evil.¹

They have no cult for the dead. Corpses are put in a rough box in the foetal position and burned. Some are buried in streams. Once the burial is finished the ¹. Legendre, *The Lolos of Kientchang*, Pp. 560-581

61

whole thing is forgotten.

4. The K'a-ch'in Group

These people live along both sides of the border
between China and Burma in an area roughly between the
20th and 28th degrees N. They inhabit the high mountains
to
in contrast the T'ai and the Chinese who have taken over
more favored spots at lower altitudes. The term " K'a-ch'in"
is a Burmese name, the Chinese calling these same people
"Shan-t'ou" (hill heads).

The culture of the K'a-ch'in, like that of the
Lolos, is a combination of mountain agriculture of the
slash and burn type, hunting and raiding. Their agricul-
ture has been nicely described by Scott.

"The method employed is to select an untouched hill slope, fell the jungle about March, and let it lie on the ground until it is thoroughly dry. This is set fire to in June or July, and the surface of the earth is broken up with a rude hoe, so as to mix in the wood ashes. The sowing is of the roughest description. The worker dribbles away with the hoe in his right hand and throws in a grain or two with his left. The crop is left to take care of itself till it is about a foot high, when it is weeded, and again weeded before the crop gets ripe. The crop is reaped about October....The same field cannot be cropped two years running, Usually it has to lie fallow from seven to ten years where the jungle does not grow rapidly, and from four to seven years where the growth is quicker."

1. *Gazette* of Upper Burma and the Shan States Pt. I, P. 424.

62

Food consists of wild game; domestic animals such as cattle, pigs and fowl; corn, and some fruits and vegetables. Dwelling places are in the form of long ablong buildings made with projecting porches at each end. These houses are constructed of bamboo and thatch and are sometimes over a hundred feet long. They stand on piles two or three feet off the ground with the space below fenced in to make a pen for the pigs, dogs and fowl. They have very simple household utensils, the only durable and permanent part being a large iron cauldron in which all cooking is done. Transportation is entirely by foot.

**Social organization is based upon a patriarchal family system** loosely related to clans and tribes. Marriage is exogamous, alliances being forbidden to all bearing the same surname regardless of what tribe they may belong to.¹ All chiefs, regardless of tribe, are regarded as belonging to the same family and have no surname other than the designation of "chief." There is a general rule that a man should marry a first cousin on his mother's side, or more precisely, the daughter of a mother's brother. A man may not marry his father's sister's child.

1. Ibid. P. 402

63

The authority of each village lies in a headman, and the villages of a given area have a chief whose authority passes down to his youngest son. The exercise of authority by the chiefs depends entirely upon their ability, otherwise affairs are managed by a council of two or three headmen. Quarrels are usually settled by the headmen. If, however, satisfactory solutions are not made; the old law of reprisals is resorted to by individuals, villages or tribes according to circumstances.

The K'a-ch'in chiefs are held responsible by the Chinese government for the behavior of their own people. Punishment for misbehavior or failure to pay taxes is meted out to a whole district for the crime of any one of its parts. This punishment is usually in the form of a military expedition.

The religion of the K'a-ch'in seems to be a crude type of shamanism. They believe their world is populated with a great number of both good and bad spirits, the evil forces being in the majority. Communication with these spirits is usually sought through a spirit possessed medium or through a more formal priest. The shaman is consulted on personal matters such as the best time to attack an enemy while the priest is consulted for such

64

matters as more or less traditional sacrifices. There
is no hereditary priestly class, succession being maintained
by natural selection and apprenticeship.

The K'a-ch'in people believe that the body of each
individual is inhabited by a spirit which leaves the body
at time of death. This spirit has a tendency to hover
near the corpse and has to be driven back to the abode of
its ancestors. Six days after burial in case of a man,
and seven days in case of a woman, the departed spirit
is believed to return for one last look around. At this
time it has to be induced to go away by the presentation
of something edible. Neighbors come in at such times to
feast on what the spirit does not eat. After this eating
and drinking bout there are no further ceremonies.

Burial is underground in the forest except for the
bodies of lunatics, persons dying violent deaths and
women dying in childbirth which are burnt.

The K'a-ch'in language belongs to the Indo-Chinese
family, but no particulars about it have been found.

CHAPTER V

65

THE T'AI-SHAN FAMILY

The T'ai-Shan family of peoples is the most widely
spread and the most numerous of the different groups
occupying the Indo-Chinese peninsula and its adjacent
areas. ¹ They are found from Assam to the Chinese prov-
ince of Kwangsi and from Bangkok in Siam to the interior
of Yunnan. Some scholars suggest that the Hakkas of
Kwangtung have a strong infusion of T'ai blood and that
the Li, who inhabit the interior of Hainan island, are
pure T'ai. There is some similarity of head-dress, tattoo
and written character leading to this assumption which
needs further study.

The people of this ethnical family are known by
a great v ariety of Chinese, Burmese, English and French
names. For purposes of convenience they have been gen-
eralized into two main divisions called "western" and
"eastern". The eastern group is composed of the Lung-jen
and the Sa-jen of southeast Yunnan, the Ch'ang-jen of south
and central Kwangsi and the Li-jen of north and central
Hainan island. Cheng and Liang suggest that the term
"Pai-yi" is a general term including several of the groups

1. Scott, J.G., *Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States*, Pt. I, P. 187

66

listed above. At any rate, they are the principal representatives of the western group, are the most numerous and important of the T'ai groups in China and they will be used as the type by which we will discuss the whole of the T'ai-Shan people in China.

The *Pai-Yi* physical type has been recorded in some detail by Y.T. Chang of the Department of Geography of the National Southwest Associated University of Kunming.¹ He found them to be a meso-te-brachycephalic type, differing from other mongoloid peoples in having very flat low bridged noses. Nasal indices indicate the platyrrhine type. They are short but well proportioned, the females being shorter than the males. Their hair is straight and black, eyes almost black, skin light ivory and of fine texture.

The geographical environment of the *Pai-yi* and that of most of the T'ai people in China, is sub-tropical hill country. In general, the territory they occupy is a plateau, between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above sea level, broken up into hill country which is well wooded and abundantly watered. It is cut into two parts by the Salween river and is transfixed by many deep ravines.

1. *Some Anthropological Features of the Shans and Their Geographical Environment in Southwest Yunnan, Journal of the West China Border Research Society Vol. 16, Series A,* P. 39

67

The Pai-yi are seldom found away from the lower alluvial basins which easily produce an abundance of bamboo, rice, fruits, vegetables, sugar cane, water buffaloe, cattle, swine and fowl.

The Pai-yi cultural complex is centered around the cultivation of rice and bamboo. Their staple food is glutinous rice, ordinary rice being used for animal food and for trade with other people. The rice diet is supplemented with such fruit as bananas, papaya, peaches and oranges; legumes, root vegetables and leafy vegetables and the flesh of domesticated animals and fowl. Tea, bought from the Chinese, is the most common drink.

Rice, bamboo handiwork and vegetables are the principle articles of trade carried on with the Chinese from whom they buy tea, textiles, salt and miscellaneous goods.

They live in villages among thick groves of bamboo on low hillsides. The houses are built of bamboo with thatched roofs. They are usually of two storeys with three rooms in each. The central compartment is an open hall in which a Buddhist altar is enthroned. The other rooms are living and sleeping quarters. There are two additional rooms, one on the right and one on the left, used for kitchen and stable respectively.

68

The social organization of the Pai-yi is built
around the small patriarchal family, each household con-
sisting only of parents and their children. The sons and
daughters set up their own separate households at time
of marriage. Boys and girls are free to court one another.
After a romance has become ripe a mock form of abduction
is performed. When this is complete the bride money is
settled between the parents by a middleman. The girl then
"escapes" to her own home and the formal ceremonies are
carried through.

Monogamy is the common form of union although
polygamy is practiced among the ruling class. Marriage is
permissible between classes. Marriage of kin is restricted
only to mother, grandmother, aunt or sisters for males;
and conversely for females.

The lives of the Pai-yi are dominated by the tribal
chiefs who own both the land and the tribesmen who work
it. There is no ownership of land outside the ruling class.
The most powerful chiefs may set up smaller chiefs by award-
ing them small estates. The laboring people are obliged
to pay land rent, household taxes, special levies and to
give military service to their chief. Tenancy is easily
transferable, and when a farmer is not satisfied he may
leave his village and seek service under another chief.

69

The religion of the T'ai people in China is Buddhism introduced from Burma. The temples are very ornate, very clean and are presided over by an elder priest. Boys set apart for priestly lives are sent to the temples at an early age where they are taught the Buddhist literature and the Pai-yi written language.

The priests are greatly honored and respected. The people rely upon them to cure illness, to perform ceremonies on formal occasions and to bury the dead.

Cheng and Liang report that the Pai-yi never become rich, "because when they have some savings they spend them to carry out a ritual...for the purpose of redeeming their souls in the future as well as for raising their present status in the community. In this ritual, not only are elaborate ceremonies, prayers and chanting of Buddhist literature performed, but a large amount of food is also prepared for the entertainment of their friends. Those who give the ritual are assigned a special title by the elder priest, so that they become honored. The more they give the ritual the more their honor and the higher their title." ¹

1. An Introduction to the South-Western Peoples of China
   Journal of the West China Border Research Society, Vol. 16, Series A, 1945, P. 32

70

Religious beliefs and practice follow the general lines of Buddhism as practiced in Burma.

The Pai-yi language is written and belongs to the T'ai-Shan family of languages. It uses a script derived from the Burmese but the structure of sentences differs from Burmese in that the noun follows the verb. The alphabet consists of 41 consonants and 15 vowels.

71

CHAPTER VI
THE MIAO-PU FAMILY

This family of peoples is a rather large group
related by basic physical type and by language structure
yet quite widely separated geographically. They are
broken down into two main classifications on the basis of
ethnical and cultural influences. These two classifications
are designated by Cheng and Liang ¹ as the Miao-Yao group
and the Wa-Palaung group. They inhabit parts of an area
extending from south Szechuan around the 28th degree N.
down into upper Burma and the upper part of Indo-China; from
Burma in the west to the southern part of Kiangsi.

The geographical environment of both groups is
is similar to that of the other main ethnical groups of
southeast China; high mountains, small plateaus, deep river
gorges, sub-tropical and well watered.

1. The Miao-Yao Group

This group lives closer to the Chinese in both a
cultural and physical sense than the Wa-Palaung group.
The Miao inhabit areas in Kweichow, west Hunan, east and

1. An Introduction to the South-Western Peoples of China,
   Journal of the West China Border Research Society,
   Vol. 16, Series A, 1 945, P. 24

72

south Yunnan and south Szechuan. The Yao live farther to the east in central, east and north Kwangsi, southwest Hunan, north Kwangtung, southeast Kweichow and south Yunnan. The Miao are the most numerous and the best known of this group and will be described as our principle representative of this group.

The physical type is similar for both the Miao and the Yao. Both resemble the Chinese in having a light, olive brown or light ivory complexion with very little body hair. They are shorter than the Chinese living in the same areas, and they have a less evident epicanthic fold than the Chinese.¹ Scott describes the Miao as "the most interesting and intelligent in the hills and...by far the best looking. Many of the women could pass for natives of northern Europe as far as fairness of skin and apple cheeks go, and in personal attractions they could equally challenge comparison. They have hazel eyes, straight or slightly aquiline noses, oval faces, a pleasant smile, and a very simple and engaging manner. The women are distinctly short. The men are taller without being really tall." ²

1. Ibid. P. 33

2. *Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States*, P. 599

73

The cultural complex of the Miao-Yao group might be called "mountain agriculture" since their food, articles of trade, transportation and dwellings are all based upon what can be produced from the mountains in which they live. This basic culture is being influenced by Chinese forces so that the complexity is increasing.

Food consists of wheat, corn, oats, millet, rice where it can be grown, wild honey and the flesh of swine, goats and a few cattle. Transportation is usually by foot. Cattle are used as pack and draft animals.

They live in villages built on steep slopes high up in the mountains. The houses stand on a raised foundation of stone and sun dried clay or on piles. The walls are either of adobe, logs or roughly hewn planks and the roofs are shingled with hand split "shakes." The interior consists of one long room with cubicles partitioned off along the sides and ends for bedrooms. Above this is a rough cieling which forms the floor of a loft where tools, firewood and provisions are stored. There are skins and bamboo mats on the floor, a few crude benches and stools, wooden water buckets and a clay fireplace. Some groups built log sheds separate from the houses to provide shelter for domestic animals while others keep their animals in a room at the back of the house.

74

**Social organization** is based upon the patriarchal family with the oldest living male as its head. Clans exist but have no political significance. There is no tribal organization and no written law of any kind. Political control is exerted through the usual Chinese government channels.

Among the Yao there are social castes divided according to types of labor. "The people may be grouped in several categories according to profession, type of clothing, habitation, belief, and so on; for example, Pan Yao (occupation of woodcutting), Hung Yao (decorating the hair with red cloth), Nan Ting Yao (wearing blue clothing), P'ing-to Yao (the plainsman), Kuo-shan Yao (wandering from mountain to mountain, Pa-p'ai Yao (building their houses in rows for eight tribes), P'an Yao (believing in the god P'an Wu), etc."¹

The Yao usually marry only within their own ethnic group. Marriage is exogamous, unions between people of the same surname being taboo.

**The religion of the Miao and the Yao** is shamanistic. In addition to shamanism there is a simple form of ancestor worship which may have been borrowed from the Chinese. There are priests of a simple kind to preside over the rites performed for ancestors.

1. Cheng and Liang, *Ibid*. P. 36

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## 2. The Wa-Palaung Group

The peoples in this group seem to be closely related by language analogy and in physical type ¹ yet widely separated in custom and religious practice. The Palaung people universally deny any relationship whatsoever with the Wa, and the Wa deny knowledge of the existence of the Palaung. ² The first two groups listed in the classification by Cheng and Liang are simply designations of group relationships rather than ethnical divisions; the term "K'a-wa" referring to the wilder and more pugnacious Wa who live more or less by themselves while the term "K'a-la" refers to the Wa who are less objectionable to the Chinese. These two people are distinctly one ethnic and cultural group. ³ There is very little material about the Palaung and none at all about the P'umen. Since they all belong to one group we will try to point out the significant facts about them which are more or less universal to the whole group, at the same time mentioning the differences which seem important.

The descriptions of physical type for the Wa and the Palaung bring out more uniformities than differences. Both are described as having a short, sturdy build; men and women both being well developed and well proportioned.

1. Scott, *Ibid*. P. 484

2. *Idem*. P. 493

3. *Idem*. P. 493-495

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The nose of both groups is very broad at the nostril,
the eyes round and their faces are square with heavy jaws.
The Wa are much darker in skin color than any other
people inhabiting that part of China, while the Palaung
are fair skinned with light brown to hazel eyes.

The geographical environment is very similar to
that of the Miao-Yao people except that the Wa and Palaung
establish their villages higher up in the mountains. The
K'a-wa, being the most pugnacious--and not long ago head-
hunters--live highest up where they can make their defenses
more effective.

The culture complex is also similar to that of the
Miao and Yao, being based upon mountain life in a similar
area. They eat the same types of food and live in much
the same type of dwellings. The Wa, however, are reported
to concume greater quantities of rice wine; Scott reporting
that the rice they grow is used entirely for making wine--
none of it being used as food. ¹ In addition they make
an intoxicant from fermented corn, and they eat the residue
of the fermented mash.

There is a difference between the chief occupations

1. Ibid. P. 507

78

of the Wa and the Palaung, the former spending their energies in producing the immediate necessities of life while the latter spend their energy in the production of tea which they trade for the necessities of life.

The "wild Wa" live in fortified villages situated on a knoll or spine-like spur high in the mountains or in a narrow ravine near the crest of a ridge. From these villages they descend as much as 3,000 feet to work in their small mountainside fields. Each village is surrounded by an earthen wall, six to eight feet high and nearly as thick. The village wall is surrounded by a ditch. The only village entrance is through a long tunnel, wide enough only for the passage of one person at a time and curved so that nothing can be shot from end to end.

**Social organization** of both these peoples is based upon the patriarchal family. Marriage is loosely exogamous and comes about through a lottery system. At a date fixed by the local shaman all marriagable boys go round the village and play about with the marriagable girls. This prepares the girls for wooing. Three days later the young men meet again, names of the boys and girls are marked on bits of paper and lots are drawn in pairs. This is the preliminary to general courtship, and after this stage

79

the girl may select the boy who pleases her most. When a pair become satisfied with each other they go through a mock elopement after which formal relationships for the marriage ceremony take place.

Village authority rests with a headman. Beyond the village lies the clan with authoirty resting with the chief. Clan membership is expressed in the design of the waist-cloth.

The religion of the Wa and the Palaung is a combination of shamanism and the Buddhism of Burma, ranging from almost pure shamanism among the Wa to very formal Buddhism among the Palaung. The Wa, to different degrees in different areas, have associated the collection of human skulls with their religion. The skulls are always the property of the village rather than of an individual or a family and are set on posts along the approach to the village, usually through the sacred grove preserved in the immediate vicinity. They are believed to protect the village from evil spirits and to give vigor to the crops. The practice is generally dying out under the restraint of Chinese law and the objections of their neighbors, but belief in the efficacy of the skull still persists in the substitution of animal skulls for the human variety.

80

The Palaung appear to be the most religious of the two peoples, being such zealous Buddhists that a village of no more than three or four houses will maintain a small temple.¹ At the same time they are exceedingly superstitious, believing that spirits of both sexes inhabit certain unusual natural features near their village such as a large tree, a rock of peculiar formation, etc. Every year during September and October a great feast is held for the spirits. At this time the shaman² priest, assisted by clan heads, entertains the spirits with food and drink. The people of the village are invited to eat and drink all which the spirits leave, so it is a great time of glutony and drunkenness. Other ceremonial feasts are those of the Buddhist calendar derived from the Burmese.

The Wa bury their dead in coffins of hollowed logs at the foot of the steps leading up to the house. Personal ornaments are buried with the corpse. Among the Palaung the bodies of old men and priests are burnt, the other bodies being buried.

The language belongs to the Miao-P'u family. There is no written character of their own, although some has been borrowed from the Burmese for religious purposes.

1. Scott, *Ibid.* P. 487

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SECTION D
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA'S EASTERN ISLANDS

The coast of China is fringed with many islands and groups of islands, the two largest and most important being Hainan island to the extreme south and Taiwan lying off the coast of Fukien. Although Taiwan is the most southern of the islands belonging to the structural system known as Japan, during the major part of recorded history it has been the home of large groups of Chinese people and has been dominated by Chinese culture and political control.

The major part of the population of all the islands along China's coast is Chinese. In addition to the Chinese, however, are two ethnical groups which have had a distinct part in the formation of the "southern Chinese" type. The Li, belonging to the T'ai-Shan family of peoples, have already been discussed; they in-habit central and north Hainan island. A group of Malayan tribes, not yet discussed, inhabit the island of Taiwan.

Although the widely scattered Malayan people have no political influence, nor even union among themselves, they have had a wide ethnical and linguistic influence among the islands of the south Pacific; evidences of such

82

influence being found in the Malay peninsula, Java, Sumatra, the Philippines, the islands of the Malay archipelago, Formosa, Madagascar and the wide spread islands of the south Pacific.

At the same time it should be noted that from very early times the Chinese have been extending into areas under Malayan influence. Today 75% of the population of Taiwan is Chinese, 50% of the population of the Malayan peninsula is Chinese, in Java, Siam, Burma and the other areas of southeast Asia and the south Pacific they form increasingly significant parts of the population.

CHAPTER VII

THE MAYLAYAN PEOPLE OF TAIWAN

The people of Taiwan number roughly 4,650,000
of whom 4,500,000 are Chinese and 150,000 are descendants
of Malayan tribes who inhabited the island long before
the arrival of the Chinese.

The island of Taiwan lies between 20 and 25 degrees
N. and between 120 and 122 degrees E., forming one part
of a long line of islands which lie between the Asiatic
coast and the outer Pacific. The island consists of two
small and fertile plains, a few small but fertile river
valleys; and the remainder is mountainous and covered with
virgin sub-tropical and tropical forests. The climate
is hot and humid and the vegetation of the lower altitudes
is tropically luxurious.

Pineapples, rice, sweet potatoes, taro, millet,
barley, wheat, camphor and bamboo grow in abundance. Deer,
boar, bear, goat, monkey, squirrel, panther, pheasant, duck
and geese are plentiful. Camphor, sugar, tea, indigo,
peanuts, jute, hemp, vegetable oil and rattan are commodities
of export.

The water buffalo serves as saddle, pack and draft
animal.

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The native people have been roughly divided into two groups by the Chinese, those who have adapted themselves to Chinese culture and those who have not. Those who have been willing to live near the Chinese inhabit the lower parts of the mountains near the fertile plains and valleys which have been taken over by the Chinese. Those who have not adapted to Chinese culture have been forced back into the higher and less hospitable high mountains.

Further classification has been suggested by William Kirk ¹ who gives the following nine divisions: Atayal, Bunun, Tsuou, Rukai (Tsarisen), Paiwan, Panapanayan (Puyuma), Pangtsah (Ami), Saisiat and Yami.

**Physical type** is "middle height, broad chested and muscular, with remarkably large hands and feet, the eyes large, the forhead round, and not narrow or receding in many instances, the nose broad, the mouth large and disfigured with betel. The custom of tattooing is universal." ²

**The culture of the Malayan tribes of Taiwan** is a combination of hunting and hoe agriculture. In general,

1. These terms are based upon the work of Japanese scholars, *See Social Organization Among the Primatives of Formosa* Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 25, No. 6, July-August 1941

2. Encyclopaedia Britannica

85

the women provide the tribes with the products of agriculture while the men provide the results of the hunt.
Those who are living near the Chinese in the lowlands have adopted much of Chinese culture.

**Social organization** is based upon a patriarchal family. Each male individual "recognizes the following persons as members of his own family group: his parents, his grandparents, his parents' brothers, his own brothers and their children, his own sons and daughters, and finally his grandchildren." ¹ Marriage between these relatives is prohibited. Such a kinship group is expected to provide care and protection for every one of its members, and each member of the group considers the interests of the group as a whole as his own personal interests.

The above kinship is maintained by a system of personal, family and clan names. There is no marriage between people with the same clan name. Most tribes are patrilineal, but in some of the sub-tribes of the Bunun descent is traced through the mother.

There are no clans among the Paiwan, Atayal or the Yami. Among the Paiwan even family names are not

1. William Kirk, *Ibid*. P. 504

86

permanent but are changed at important periods of a person's life such as at marriage, new business ventures or the meeting of some misfortune.

Most of the tribes have the "bachelor house" custom for unmarried adolescent boys. The "bachelor house" is used as a technique (1) to develope group moral and fighting spirit, (2) to instruct the male youth in family and tribal responsibilities. The instructors are the elder men of the village. Since the "bachelor house" is used as a tribal headquarters at which all sorts of councils are held it has great value in "unconscious" or "unpremeditated" education of the male youth.

Although the women have the main burden of work and responsibility in the Malayan tribes they also have a fairly high status. It may be that their control of the production and distribution of food, the curing of tobacco and the fermentation of wine puts them in a position of control to which high status always becomes attached. In some of the tribes there are women in the position of chief or priest.

Disputes are usually settled by the chief or chieftess, or by the priest or priestess. Very serious cases are settled by a council of elder men and women.

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The religion of the Taiwan natives is a form of nature and ancestor worship. They have no conception of a supreme God nor do they have any shrines. They observe feasts such as the harvest feast which expresses their gratitude to heaven and earth for produce. They propitiate the spirits of their ancestors with small sacrifices of food and with simple ceremonies.

They have distinguishing words for soul and body. They believe that the spirits of their ancestors dwell in the virgin forests, in old trees near villages or in some other unusual formation. These spirits are able to enlist the support of either good or bad forces for the working of either good or evil upon the living. The souls of the dead communicate with the living through dreams.

The priest or priestess exercises shamanistic qualities, entering into trances during which the success or failure of proposed ventures is foretold.

The dead are usually buried beneath the house of the family to which they belong. Coffins are of hollowed logs.

The language of the Malayan people in Taiwan is not written. As a consequence tribes and sub-tribes have

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SECTION E

THE PEOPLE OF CHINA—PROPER

There are about 400,000,000 Chinese people concentrated in the eighteen provinces of Anhwei, Chekiang, Fukien, H onan, Hopei, Hunan, Hupei, Kansu, Kiangsu, Kiangsi, Kwangsi, Kwangtung, Kweichow, Shansi, Shantung, Shensi, Szechuan and Yunnan. There are several tens of additional millions in the outer areas previously described. But the great mass of the population lies in the area east of a line drawn from the tip of southern-most Yunnan to the northern-most tip of Heilungkiang.

This whole area falls into five natural areas:

(1) North China consisting of Hopei, Shantung, Shansi, most of Shensi and Honan, northern Anhwei and northern Kiangsu. The essential characteristics of this area are: light alluvial soil, cold dry winters, strong winds, summers hot with short rainy season, rainfall normally sufficient for agriculture but liable to fail, transport by mule or horse drawn vehicles, essentially treeless, natural vegetation and cultivated products temperate climate types.

(2) Lower Yangtse Basin consisting of Hupeh and adjacent portions of south Shensi and southwest Honan, southern Anhwei, southern Kiangsu and the northern fringe of

90

Chekiang, Kiangsi and Hunan. The essential characteristics of this area are: rich alluvial basins and valleys broken up by hill country still partially forested, winters mildly cool, summers hot and wet, meeting ground for temperate and sub-tropical flora and fauna, good system of natural waterways, cultivation continuous throughout the year.

(3) The Red Basin of Szechuan consisting of the whole of Szechuan with the exception of the high mountain fringes. Essential characteristics are: red sandstone loam in basins and hills, foggy and cloudy most of the year, rainfall plentiful, agriculture throughout the year. Flora and fauna similar to Yangtse basin plus Him alayan forms.

(4) Southeast China consisting of Chekiang, Fukien and Kwangtung with lower Kwangsi. Essential characteristics: wild sea of mountains, valleys and small basins, long faulted coastline with many independent rivers, rainfall high, sub-tropical to tropical forms of flora and fauna, communications mostly by sea.

(5) South-west China consisting of Kweichow, central and eastern Yunnan and the western borders of Kwangsi. Essential characteristics: high tableland deeply entrenched by mountain rivers, great temperature and

91

climatic variations from temperate in high plateaux
to tropical in valleys with similar variations in flora
and fauna.

These five regions can be roughly divided into
north and south for the purposes of this study, for the
most distinctive differences in Climate, Flora and Fauna
and People lie in that twofold division. For that reason
we use the Yangtse Basin where the temperate zone and the
sub-tropical zone come together as the dividing line.
Since there are far more uniformities than differences
between these two groups the uniform type will predominate
with differences that are significant pointed out as we
proceed.

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CHAPTER VIII

THE CHINESE

**The Chinese physical type** seems to have developed
from a common ethnical stock plus the contributions of
all those people with whom they have had contact. It is
this mixing with different types in the north and in the
south which has led to a differentiation in stature and
in feature. Hair texture is approximately the same, skin
color tends to be darker in the south, scarcity of skin
hair is slightly more pronounced in the south. The northern
Chinese are an average of 5 cms. taller than those in the
south. The northern people tend toward dolicocephaly while
those in the south tend toward brachycephaly. The nasal
index increases as one moves from north to south.

**The geographic environment and diet** of the north
and the south has probably had a tendency to facilitate
physical differences initiated in the original stock through
ethnical mixing. The north is a dry and dusty land of
wheat, millet and beef while the south is a green and
humid land of rice, corn and fish. There is an increasing
amount of evidence suggesting that climate and diet
are strong influences in the formation of somatological
characteristics.

93

**The culture of the Chinese** as a whole is agricultural, 80% of the people living directly on and from the land. One might go even further and designate Chinese culture as that of settled agriculture, the tendency being to work the land intensively rather than to spread out into the unused areas of the interior. Again, the difference in the climate, soil and topography of different areas leads to different ways of cultivation, different ways of building and different ways of processing materials; yet the basic culture is more similar than different.

**The social organization of the Chinese** is one of the outstanding characteristics of their civilization. The basis of this organization is the patriarchal family in which the male individual considers his parents, grandparents, great grandparents, his father's brothers and their children, his own children and his grandchildren as immediate members. Such a family lives in one large structure built around an open courtyard. Each small family unit has its own sleeping and living apartment but they all share in kitchens and utility quarters. The best room in the whole building is the guest room which faces the main gate away. This room usually contains portraits of the two immediate ancestors of the family and often also has some sort of an altar upon which incense

94

is burned.

The authority in such a family resides in the oldest able male and is usually passed on to the eldest son or, by common consent, to the most able son. The head of the family may exercise autocratic power if he is able enough to maintain it. The elders, both male and female, often exercise great influence because of the veneration given to the aged in Chinese society.

Many of the villages of China are made up of families such as described above, all claiming descent from a single male ancestor. Such villages bear the family surname as the village name and act as a clan unit. In such a circumstance community organization is merely an extension of family organization, the oldest able man in the village being the chairman of the council made up of family heads.

In many areas, especially those where contact with occidental cultures has been greatest, the small family system is taking the place of the traditional family system. Authority and responsibility once in the family is being taken over by public institutions and by government. This transition is accompanied by social tensions and problems which can neither be easily nor quickly solved.

95

Confucianism and the cult of ancestor worship are closely associated with the social life of China, especially in family relationships. While not claiming to be a religion Confucianism did set up some ethical ideals usually associated with religion.

"Of the five relations emphasized by traditional moral standards and reenforced by Confucianism--those between prince and minister, father and son, older brother and younger brother, husband and wife, friend and friend--three are in the family. Hsiao, usually translated as "filial piety," is exalted by Confucianism as one of the cardinal virtues. While it includes much more than the family, loyalty to one's parents is part of its essence. Older brothers have obligations to younger brothers, and younger brothers owe deference to older brothers. That official Confucian tract of the Ch'ing dynasty, the so-called Sacred Edict, was true to tradition when it made family duties primary and urged as a motive toward self-control and a righteous life not allegiance to God but to one's parents." I

Marriage is most important in such a society. Sons are so necessary to carry on the family line and to pay honor to ancestors that failure to have them is a major offense against society. Marriage has therefore become universal except for religious celibates. Because of its importance the mating of couples has been regarded as the concern of the elders and the family even more than the two individuals concerned. Unions are arranged by the heads of families through a third party, such betrothals

1. K.S. Latourette, *The Chinese, Their History and Culture*, Part II, P. 187

35

often being made while the children are still very young.
Marriage arrangements usually include contracts regarding
property or money to be paid for the bride.

Through marriage the bride becomes a member of
her husband's family and loses her identity in the work of
the large family under the supervision of her mother-in-law.
Polygamy is illegal and is being practiced less and less.

The religion of the Chinese is a mixture of many,
and that eclecticism has been nicely summarized by Latourette:

"Religiously the Chinese are very eclectic. In proportion
to the total population the number of simon pure Buddhists,
Confucianists, or Taoists has been and is comparatively
small. The average Chinese has long been and still is an
animist, a Buddhist, a Confucianist, and a Taoist with no
sense of incongruity or inconsistency. For example, in the
cult of the dead ceremonies which have come down through
the Confucian traditions and others of Buddhist origin
have their place, and in domestic rites animism, Confucian-
ism, Buddhism and Taoism are almost inextricably mixed.
Other streams have not been so potent in China have
sometimes mingled their waters in the common current. In
this eclecticism the Chinese are by no means always
critical. The masses particularly often hold at one and
the same time reciprocally contradictory views." ¹

Buddhism, although in a slow decline, has a prominent
place in the religious life of the Chinese. Its
monasteries and shrines number by the tens of thousands,
its monks number nearly a million, its nuns a few thousand,

1. Ibid. Pt. II, P. 125

07

and its volumes of sacred literature are very extensive.

Priests come mostly from among the poorer people, many of the boys being sent to the monastery at an early age to assure them a livelihood and an education. Some enter as adults on their own volition as they search for escape from the world or for knowledge of the mystery of life.

Most monasteries are supported by offerings of Buddhists, from fees for ceremonies and from endowments or gifts from the wealthy. Those located in the cities are almost always surrounded by some kind of a park or garden. Those located in the country are always situated in spots of unusual beauty. Many homes have their own Buddhist shrines.

The source of hold over the minds of people is similar to that found in all religion, the belief that through the offices and forms of religious life present evils are to be avoided and the desirable is to be obtained. Another determining influence is that exerted through Buddhism upon the soul's lot after death. The incentive to the conduct which Buddhism lauds is found in the effects of good and bad deeds upon one's state in a future existence.

98

Assurance of a happy state in the life beyond the grave
is obtained by repeating prayers and observing vegetarian-
ism. Certificates--passports to heaven--may be purchased
from Buddhist clergy by those who have performed these acts
of devotion. Souls of the dead may be assisted by the
living." ¹

For the Buddhist monks their religion is a quest
for salvation. This search leads them through at least
three distinct stages of religious learning and experience.
The first is a preliminary stage of negative vows; not to
take life, not to steal, not to be unchaste, not to tell
lies, not to use intoxicants, etc. The second stage in
Hinayana Buddhism is known as **Arhat**, or seeking salvation
for self. Last is the Nanayana conception of **bodhisattva**,
or seeking salvation for others as well as for self.

While Taoism must be mentioned as one of the contemp-
orary religions of the Chinese it has become overlaid with
Buddhism and filled with superstition so that it is diff-
icult to be seen as something unique in itself. Like
Buddhism, it has marked out a road to immortality. The
plan consists of meditation on Taoist truths, cultivation

1. Latourette, *Ibid*. Pt. II, P. 157-158

99

of inactive attitudes, carefully regulated eating, drinking and breathing, etc.

The religion of the majority, according to Lattourete, is not exclusively Confucian, Buddhist or Taoist.

"They have been influenced by all these systems--in ethical standards, in conceptions of the universe and of divine beings, and in beliefs about the future life. Moreover, there has been much more than Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in the religious ideas and practices which have prevailed among the majority: the religion of the masses has not been just a composite of these three faiths. The additional elements have had in them a great deal of animism. Indeed, more than one foreign observer has declared animism the basic and characteristic religion of the Chinese. They have also contained much of polytheism--a polytheism augmented by the state cult and by Buddhism and Taoism, but which in its list of deities is much larger than the sum of all three of the other pantheons. There has been not a little of divination and of the observance of lucky and unlucky days. It may also be proper to classify with popular religion the pseudo-science, feng shui, although the correctness of this can be challenged."

The Chinese language is spoken by more people than any other language. It is without inflections of case or tense, it has no derivative affixes such as *teach-on*, *cowardice*, etc. It is monosyllabic. The vocables are greatly limited and there are no consonant groups. It is a language employing different tones for the same vocables, varying from four tones in the north to nine tones in the south. Sentences have a fixed word order; subject, verb and object.

1. Ibid. Pp. 162,166,167

100

The written Chinese character is even more widely
used than spoken Chinese for it has been borrowed as the
basis of both Korean and Japanese. It is said that in
1700 to 1800 there were more pages of written and printed
Chinese than in all other languages of the world put together.
The Chinese written character is a conventionalized picture
with pictographs of concrete objects combined to depict
abstract concepts. Although there are a large number of
spoken dialects resulting from gradual changes in speech-
ways, the written character has remained constant and is
used in all dialect areas, so that regardless of the
spoken dialect he can always understand what is written.
Thus the written character has been one of the main unifying
forces in Chinese culture down through the ages.

101

CONCLUSION

This study has revealed the complete lack of any
well organized material on the ethnography of China in
the English language. The study has also suggested steps
which might be taken to make such material available.

I. All existing material, in whatever language it happens
to be written, needs to be gathered together and
organized as a basis for further study.

II. From such material an outline of the content of this
field of study should be made. This should be be
flexible so that further findings may be fitted into
the original pattern.

III. The techniques of field study which will most effectively
bring out the information desired need to be studied
and tried out.

IV. Large scale field research needs to be done:

1. To verify existing material--much of which is very old.

2. To add light to the understanding of human culture.

3. To provide a foundation of information essential
to any worthwhile program of ethical and regional
improvement.

102

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