6 SMITHSONIAN AF ISCKLI.ANEOl'S COI.L1-:CTIONS VOL. 8o 



In Sino-Iranica he shows that a large nuniher of cultivated plants 

 have been brought from distant lands and made to em-ich the agri- 

 cultural life of China. To quote Dr. l.aufer: 



We know that Iranian peoples once covered an immense territory, extending 

 all over Chinese Turkistan, migrating into China, coming into contact with 

 Chinese, and exerting a profound influence on nations of other stock, notably 

 lurks and Chinese. The Iranians were the great mediators between the West 

 and the East, conveying the heritage of Hellenistic ideas to central and eastern 

 Asia and transmitting valuable plants and goods of China to the Mediterranean 

 area. Their activity is of world-historical significance, but without the records 

 of the Chinese we should be unable to grasp the situation thoroughly. The 

 Chinese were positive utilitarians and always interested in matters of reality : 

 they have bequeathed to us a great amount of useful information on Iranian 

 plants, products, animals, minerals, customs, and institutions, which is bound 

 to be of great service to science.^ 



Szechuan has been rich in racial contacts. Many wars have been 

 fought between the Chinese and the aborigines, and these continue to 

 the present day. The Chinese, being more ntimerotis, better organized, 

 and more highly civilized, have always in the end been victorious. 

 There have also lieen wars between the inhabitants of Szechuan and 

 those of other parts of China.' 



Commerce, perhaps, has been of even greater importance. Quanti- 

 ties of hides, medicines, and other raw materials are shipped from 

 Tibet and from the various aboriginal districts into the center of 

 the province, and thence down the Yangtse River. Rice, tea, clothing, 

 and other commodities are sent back in rettirn. Before the completion 

 of the railroad from Haiphong to Yunnanfu, Suifti was the shipping- 

 place for most of the exports of Ytinnan Province. When undis- 

 turbed by civil wars, the Yangtse River and its tributaries carry a 

 tremendous amount of commerce. 



The language spoken by the Chinese of Szechuan is the mandarin, 

 which is used by abotit two htindred and fifty million Chinese people. 

 The written language is the same throughout all China. Until very 

 recent times the old system of examinations in the Chinese Classics, 

 and the appointment of officials from Peking, further served to con- 

 nect the lives of the Szechuanese with the rest of the nation. Chinese 

 scholars went from Szechuan to Peking to continue their sttidies or 

 to compete in the examinations. Officials from other parts of the 

 empire came to help govern Szechtian. Through these contacts, 

 throtigh wars and pilgrimages, through commerce, and through the 



^ Laufer, Berthold, .Sino-lranica, 1919, p. 185. 



' Pott, F. L. Hawks, A Sketch of Chinese History, 1915, p. 41. 



