EARLY CHINESE CULTURES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT: 

 A NEW WORKING-HYPOTHESIS' 



By Wolfram Eberhard 



In regard to the origin and manner of growth of the Chinese 

 civilization, numerous theories have been propounded, by etlinolo- 

 gists on the one hand, by sinologists on the other. None of them, 

 however, it must be admitted, has so far met with much favor in 

 either camp. 



Ethnologists in general hestitate to commit themselves in regard to 

 any of the higher civilizations; for without a thoroughgoing familiarity 

 with its language and its entire literature, they find it most difficult 

 to form any accurate judgment about it. Unfortunately, the majority 

 of workers in such a field are obliged to shape their opinions at second 

 hand, through the medium of such translations as may be available. 

 They therefore incur the danger of basing their conclusions on faulty 

 renderings by the translators. Hence, even the latest works treating 

 of China from the ethnological point of view, although they often 

 contain matter of the highest interest, are certain to be regarded by 

 the sinologists as standing in need of further corroboration. In their 

 adoption of this attitude they are thoroughly justified, and for so 

 doing we owe them warm thanks; since it is only as we are stimulated 

 by their criticisms that wc can hope to make any progress at all. 



On the other hand, there are the theories advanced by the sinologists 

 themselves. These we may range in two major groups. Of these, 

 one holds that about the third millennium B. C. a Western people 

 with great natural abilities and a high type of culture migrated to 

 China and settled there, first in the valley of the Wei River and then 

 in that of the Huang Ho (the Yellow River). From these regions 

 they gradually spread their civilization among their more backward 

 neighbors, and so created the germ of the later China. 



The second of the two types of views maintained by the sinologists 

 holds the Chinese to be autochthonous, and their civilization in con- 

 sequence to have been developed independently in China itself, with- 

 out any foreign aid of importance. According to this theory, the 

 primitive Chinese shaped their culture themselves and then were 



I Translated by permission from the Proceedings o( the Ethnological Society (Tagungsbericht der Qesell- 

 schaft fur Volkerkunde), second session, in Leipzig, 1930. Translated by O. W. Bishop. 



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