Feb., 1912. Jade. 57 



as e. g. the reed pipe, 1 several kinds of dances and songs, 2 the well-known 

 bronze drums, from this once powerful and highly organized stock of 

 peoples. In opposition to the prevalent opinion of the day, it cannot 

 be emphasized strongly enough on every occasion that Chinese civiliza- 

 tion, as it appears now, is not a unit and not the exclusive production 

 of the Chinese, but the final result of the cultural efforts of a vast 

 conglomeration of the most varied tribes, an amalgamation of ideas 

 accumulated from manifold quarters and widely differentiated in 

 space and time; briefly stated, this means, China is not a nation, but 

 an empire, a political, but not an ethnical unit. No graver error 

 can hence be committed than to attribute any culture idea at the 

 outset to the Chinese for no other reason than because it appears 

 within the precincts of their empire. 



At all events, whenever Chinese authors speak of flint arrow-heads, 

 these generally refer to foreign non-Chinese tribes. Especially the 

 Su-shen, a Tungusian tribe akin to the later Niuchi and Manchu, are 

 looked upon by Chinese tradition as typical makers and owners of 

 such arrow-heads. When the Chou dynasty rose in power and ex- 

 tended its influence into the far north-east, the chief of the Su-shen of- 

 fered as tribute arrows provided with stone heads and wooden shafts, 

 one foot eight inches long. The Emperor Wu (b. c. 11 22-1 116) caused 

 the words "Arrow of the tribe Su-shen" to be engraved on the shaft 

 to transmit the matter to posterity. Another tradition tells that, 

 "when Confucius was in the kingdom of Ch'en in b. c. 495, the king 

 took one day his meal on a terrace of his garden, and suddenly a bird 

 pierced by a stone arrow fell down in front of him. Confucius when 

 consulted as to this arrow replied: 'The bird is a sort of sparrow- 

 hawk originating from the land of the Su-shen, and the arrow-head 

 resembles that of the Emperor Wu which he bestowed as an emblem 

 of rank on the prince in whose favor he raised the country of Ch'en 

 into a kingdom.' Thereupon a search was made in the arsenal of the 

 king where in fact the stone arrow-head was found which the princes 



1 A musical instrument consisting of a windchest made of gourd with a mouth- 

 piece attached to it, and a series of tubes or pipes, five of which vary in length. An 

 interesting article, with illustrations, on the wind-pipes of the Miao-tse by Ryuzo 

 Torii will be found in No. 169 of the Kokka (June, 1904). 



2 The Chou emperors had a special master of ceremonies called mao jSn. Mao 

 is a flag made from the tail of the wild ox which the dancers held in their hands as 

 signals. It was the task of the mao jin to teach the foreign dances with the music 

 accompanying them. All people from the four directions of the compass who had 

 duties at court as dancers were under his command, and in solemn sacrifices and 

 on the occasion of visits of foreign ambassadors, representations of these dances were 

 given. The ancient Chinese furnish the naive explanation that they were adopted 

 to show that all peoples under Heaven form only one empire or family. 



