EARLY CHINESE CULTURES— EBERHARD 523 



on to completion. However in its main outlines — i. e., the listing of 

 the six basic cultures out of which has developed the historical Chinese 

 civilization — I feel convinced that it will stand. What we have tried 

 to depict here is the cultural situation which existed in China during 

 something like 2,000 years before our era (2500-500 B. C). We must 

 not suppose that during the earlier part of this period the mutual 

 interpenetrations and interminglings of these early cultures were as 

 marked as they became farther along in the same period, to say 

 nothing of still later times. Material gathered from the latter it 

 seems to me quite permissible to use in connection with our study, 

 since it comes from just those regions where the early cultures had 

 not yet been so deeply submerged by the type of civilization then 

 prevailing in the Chinese area proper.^ 



PART 2 



I shall now try to show how, in my opinion, out of the above early 

 cultures there developed the historical Chinese civiHzation. The proc- 

 ess as I depict it, I wish to emphasize, is so far nothing more than a 

 far-reaching hypothesis. The attempt has, however, already been 

 made to bring the scheme which I have worked out by the aid of the 

 early historical and archeological material now available into con- 

 formity with the one drawn up for the Farther Indian and the Oceanic 

 Cultures by Professor Heine-Geldern. Should the latter 's theory 

 prove correct — at least in its general outlines — then we may expect 

 to find on Chinese soil also evidences of those early cultures that he 

 has postulated. We have, as a result of our preliminary discussions, 

 already reached a broad agreement. Further attempts have been 

 made^ — by Dr. Rampf (Berlin) on the one hand and, along somewhat 

 different lines, by Dr. Oka (Vienna) on the other — to explain the 

 development of the Japanese culture. The result of such preUminary 

 discussions has been, moreover, to show that in this way far-reaching 

 conclusions may be attained. 



1. The oldest culture that has as yet been clearly distinguished on 

 Chinese soil is the one called, from its type-station, the Yang Shao. 

 With this are grouped certain others, often very limited in area, per- 

 haps in part contemporary with it, whether they be sUghtly earlier or 

 slightly later. This culture contains, in my opinion, elements derived 

 from the Western Culture; this, for instance, it is, perhaps, which is 

 responsible for that unmistakable western Asiatic influence shown by 

 its painted pottery. Possibly, indeed, it will prove to have been the 

 case that theie had already settled in the Ordos region Scythians or 

 some such people, who were the carriers of these elements. In this 

 event we shall have to suppose that very early exchanges took place 



• A work In which the evidence in support of the views here outlined is given is in course of preparation; 

 but for some references on the subject see the Arch. f. Relig. Wiss., vol. 32, p. 3G6, and vol. 33, p. 332. 



