Show chinese culture not so ancient as people suppose babylonia babelonia Baby lonia and eg egypt ay pt arc ahead of it in time ann arbor some people have claimed that the famed and ancient civilization of china grew and flourished in the isolation that occidental travelers knew when they first went there in comparatively recent times others hold that chinas cainas civilization and its arts were lifted ready made from the near east civilization of babylonia babelonia Baby lonia and egypt neither theory has any basis ot of fact declared carl whiting bishop of the freer gallery ot of art washington D C in an address before the university of michigan institute of par far eastern studies here new knowledge ot of the last few years is upsetting some long favored conceptions of china and its cultural rise for one thing chinese civilization is not one of ahe the oldest in the world as popularly supposed what china truly can claim said mr bishop is a longer continuous continuo u s history than most nations have hav e which helps lend an air of antiquity really actually babylonia babelonia Baby lonia and egypt were flourishing thousands of years before china but china has changed so slowly that it has retained almost into present times some characteristics which have di disappeared appeared from other nations long ago this again lends it an air of antiquity to probing modern men A river valley civilization the early origins of chinas cainas civilization said mr bishop appear to have arisen in the basin of the great yellow river making it another one of the well known river valley civilizations like those along the nile the indus and euphrates when babylonia babelonia Baby lonia and egypt had advanced well on the way to organized civilization the chinese dwelt in a state ol of barbarism only a little more advanced than that of the american indians on the atlantic seaboard at the time of the landing of columbus declared mr bishop one fact indicating that chinese civilization was probably not of independent isolated origin is that few it if any of the domestic animals or food plants of either the modern or ancient chinese were of native aright 1 not only did these forms appear in th eNear east long before they appeared in china but also there appear to be no wild forms native in china from which they could have come however the migration of these foods and plants was accomplished before the beginning of chinas cainas historical period and hence again their presence seems to lend another bit of evidence to great antiquity antiquity really not possessed changes came very slowly at the earliest known historical time in china about the middle of the second millennium B C society was divided there into two great classes landholding land holding feudal lords and a great mass of serf population the former class can be said to have been in the bronze age of civilization while the latter were s till still in effect dwelling in the new stone age of their ancestors then about the eleventh century B C came the invasion of china by the peoples of unknown but probably related origin the chou with this invasion came significant changes that occurred slowly but surely by B C china was finally coming into her iron age s said id 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 civilization took on those characteristics that marked it for the next two thousand years or until the impact of sea trade routes led to its collapse |