EXOGAMY IN CHINA 



115 



where we can survey so to speak a living past, and 

 converse with fossil men." 



There are, however, much older Chinese records 

 than the Book of Bites, or even the Ritual of Chow, 

 from which a picture of Chinese life in the beginning 

 or once upon a time may be drawn ; and which afford a 

 irich mine of information for the student of social 

 phenomena and the beginnings of family life. 



' ' The pencil of the recording officers was busy f rom Legge's Chinese 

 the time of Hwang-te" says Ma Twan-lin. The reign pj.o?oo**py 11" /" " 

 of Hwang-te is assigned to the twenty-seventh century 

 B.C. Whether the Recorders of the Chinese States had 

 thus early begun their labours, or that the records when 

 made, or as handed down orally, survived, may be 

 doubted; but in the " Songs of the People," recorded 

 in the Books of Odes we have the earliest record of 

 Chinese civilization and family life. 



Legge says of the Chinese Classics that no other Legge, Texts ci 

 literature, comparable to them, for antiquity, has come fsacred Booils 

 down to us in such a state of preservation. of the East), 



Names and Their Avoidance. 



A name had virtue, power, and dread in ancient Genesis 11, 19, 

 China. It is said in Genesis: "And out of the ground 20 * 

 the Lord formed every beast of the field, and every 

 fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see 

 what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called 

 every living creature, that was the name thereof. And 

 Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of 

 the air, and to every beast of the field." 



It is said in the "Li Ki," the Book of Rites: 

 "Hwang Ti, who gave everything its right name, there- 

 by showing the people how to avail themselves of its 

 qualities; Kwang-hsu who completed this work of 

 Hwang Ti." 



If one carries one's mind back to the time when 

 man first spoke, made articulate sounds — not the mere 

 expression of love, hate, or hunger — but descriptive, 

 then one can understand something of the power of a 

 name. 



Sitting by the hearth, early man, well-fed, having 

 had good hunting, tries to tell his mate by gestures and 

 sounds of the day's hunting, and finds she understands. 

 He wants something — water or a skin — and some day 

 finds that even without descriptive gesture, he can 

 name it — make it be brought. 



Li Ki, Legge 

 8.B.E. Vol. 28. 

 Pt. IV. p. 208. 



