| Show Chinese Culture Not So Ancient as People Suppose Babylonia and Egypt Are Arc Ahead of It in Time Ann Some Arbor people have claimed that the famed and ancient civilization of China grew and flourished in inthe inthe the isolation that occidental travelers knew when they first went there in comparatively comparatively recent times Others hold that Chinas China's civilization and its arts were lifted ready made from the Near East civilization of Babylonia and Egypt NeIther theory has any basis ot of tact fact declared Carl Whiting Bishop ot of the Freer Gallery ot of Art Art Wash Wash- Washington ington D C In an address before belore the University ot of Michigan Institute of Far Eastern Studies here New knowledge of the last few te years Is upsetting some long ta fa conceptions ot of ChIna and Its cultural rise For one thing Chinese civilization Is not one ot of the oldest in the world as popularly supposed That China truly can claim said Mr Bishop Is a longer continuous history than most nations have which helps lend an air ot of antiquity really Actually Babylonia and Egypt were flourishing thousands of years before belore China But China has changed so slowly that it has re- re retained retained almost into present times some characteristics which have disappeared from other nations long ago This again lends It an air of antiquity to probing modern men A Valley River Civilization The early orIgins ot of Chinas China's said Mr BIshop appear to have arisen in the basin ot of the great Yellow river making It another one ot of the well known valley river civilizations like those along the Nile the thc Indus and Euphrates When Babylonia and Egypt had advanced well on the way to or or- or organized civIlization the Chinese dwelt In a state ot of barbarIsm only a little mUe more advanced than that ot of I the American Indians on the Atlan Atlan- Atlantic tic seaboard at the time of the land land- landing ing ot of Columbus declared Mr Bishop I One tact fact indicating that Chinese civilization was probably not of In In- In Independent dependent isolated origin is that few tew It If any ot of the domestic ani an- mau mals or food tood plants ot of either the modem or ancIent Chinese were of native origin Not only did these forms torms appear In the Near East long before they appeared In China but also there appear to be no wild forms torms native In China from which they could have come However the migration ot of these foods and plants was accomplished before the beginning ot of Chinas China's historical pe- pe period and hence again their pres pres- pres presence ence seems to lend another bit of evidence to great antiquity antiquity really not possessed Changes Came Very Slowly i I At the earliest known historical time in China about the middle of the second millennium B C soci ety was divided there Into two great classes landholdIng feudal lords and a great mass ot of serf population i tion The former class can be said to have been In the Bronze age of I civilization while while- the latter were still In effect dwelling in the New Stone age ot of their ancestors I II IThen Then about the Eleventh century B C came the invasion of China 1 by the peoples ot of unknown but probably 1 ably obly related origin the Chou WIth this invasion came significant cant I changes that occurred slowly but surely By B C China was finally coming Into her Iron age said Mr Bishop Autocratic government In ChIna centered in a single emperor did not arrive untIl the Third century B C Mr Bishop added With this Important change Chinese ton tion took on those characteristics that marked It for tor the next two thousand years or until the Impact of sea trade routes led to Its col col- col collapse lapse apse |
