4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



world. " Szechuan is a spooky place " is a proverb among the common 

 people. 



2. THE HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE 



In the past centuries there have been many floods and occasional 

 droughts. More than i.ooo years ago Suifu was destroyed by flood. 

 The city was then rebuilt on higher ground on the opposite side of 

 the Min River. This calamity has never recurred, and the city is 

 now again in the more favorable location at the junction of the 

 Yangtse and the Min Rivers. In the summertime there are terrific 

 thunderstorms. Pestilences sweep across the land, striking terror 

 into the hearts of the people, and killing hundreds and sometimes 

 thousands. 



Into this fertile province the Chinese came about 300 years before 

 Christ. They soon took possession of the lowlands, although the 

 history of Suifu says that Chu Ko Liang finally drove the aborigines 

 out of that city after the time of Christ. 



One outstanding event in the history of the province is its almost 

 complete depopulation, during the years 1643 to 1648, by Tsang Shien 

 Tsong, one of the most cruel rulers that ever lived. Killing off every 

 man, woman, or child who refused to join his ranks and many of his 

 own followers, he almost made that fair province a wilderness. After 

 the death of Tsang Shien Tsong, settlers came from other provinces, 

 so that Szechuan was soon again the scene of a thriving population. 



3. CONTACTS WITH THE REST OF CHINA AND WITH OTHER RACES 



There is a common conception that until very recent times China 

 has been isolated from the rest of the world. The great wall, the 

 Pacific Ocean, the plateau of Tibet, and the high mountains between 

 China and India are assumed to have been efficient barriers to inter- 

 racial contacts. 



Among anthropologists, the fact that few if any groups of people 

 have long been isolated is gaining general acceptance. Diffusion of 

 culture, although it cannot explain all social phenomena, is receiving 

 a larger emphasis than before. Able sinologues have dwelt on the 

 isolation of the Middle Kingdom during the past milleniums,* but 

 there is increasing evidence that this isolation has been more or less 

 fictitious. 



^ Pott, F. L. Hawks, A Sketch of Chinese History, 191 5, pp. i, 3. 



