THE BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION IN EASTERN ASIA^ 



By Caul Whiting Bishop 

 Freer Gallery of Art 



[With 10 plates] 

 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE FAR EAST 



To understand the beginnings of civilization in the Far East, we 

 must view them in the light of the laws that govern cultural progress 

 everywhere. Especially must we consider the region's geographical 

 position and relationship to other lands. As a glance at a map, or bet- 

 ter still a terrestrial globe, will show, it occupies a marginal portion of 

 the Eurasiatic continent taken as a whole. That this fact carries with 

 it certain implications, the study of culture-building in general abun- 

 dantly reveals.^ 



The sea routes which link eastern Asia with the rest of the world 

 we may ignore; for their development did not occur until long 

 after the period of beginnings had passed.^ There were, however, two 

 great land routes between East and West. Of these, one connected 

 northeastern India, by way of Burma, with western China; while the 

 other — the famous "corridor of the steppes" — extended eastward from 

 the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea region right across most 

 of Asia. These natural migration routes, traversed in geological times 

 by numerous animal and vegetable forms, in the human period by peo- 

 ples, armies, and culture traits, have always played a part of cardinal 

 importance in the world's history. 



HOMOGENEITY OF THE OLD WORLD CIVILIZATIONS* 



Let us here call attention to another fact also in this same con- 

 nection. This is the striking uniformity in space, time, and general 



1 One of four papers constituting a symposium on The Beginnings of Civilization in 

 the Orient, given at the meeting of the American Oriental Society, Baltimore, Md., Apr. 

 13, 1939. Reprinted by permission from Supplement to the Journal of the American 

 Oriental Society, No. 4, December 1939. 



2 On the effect of marginal positions on the gi-owth of cultures, see e. g., Roland B. 

 Dixon, The building of cultures. New York and London, 1928 ; reference on pp. 272 et seq. 

 and passim. 



» Seagoing ships with Balls are not mentioned In the Chinese records until the third 

 century A. D. 



*The late Dr. Berthold Laufer discussed certain elements of this phenomenon in an 

 important paper, Some fundamental ideas of Chinese culture. Journ. Bace Development, 

 vol. 5, pp. 160-174, 1914-15. 



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