yptian.]

[Illustration: Chinese.]

This does not seem to speak for racial consanguinity any more than the
well-known curled heads and bearded faces of Assyrian sculptures as
compared to the straight-haired and almost beardless Chinese.
Similarities in the creation of cultural elements may, it is true, be
shown to exist on either side, even at periods when mutual intercourse
was probably out of the question; but this may be due to uniformity in
the construction of the human brain, which leads man in different parts
of the world to arrive at similar ideas under similar conditions, or to
prehistoric connexions which it is as impossible for us to trace now as
is the origin of mankind itself. Our standpoint as regards the origin of
the Chinese race is, therefore, that of the agnostic. All we can do is
to reproduce the tradition as it is found in Chinese literature. This
tradition, as applying to the very earliest periods, may be nothing more
than historical superstition, yet it has its historical importance.
Supposing it were possible to prove that none of the persons mentioned
in the Bible from Adam down to the Apostles ever lived, even the most
sceptical critic would still have to admit that the history of a great
portion of the human race has been materially affected by the belief in
the examples of their alleged lives. Something similar may be said of
the alleged earliest history of the Chinese with its model emperors and
detestable tyrants, the accounts of which, whether based on reality or
not, have exercised much influence on the development of the nation.

The Chinese have developed their theories of prehistoric life.
Speculation as to the origin and gradual evolution of their civilization
has resulted in the expression of views by authors who may have
reconstructed their systems from remnants of ancestral life revealed by
excavations, or from observation of neighbouring nations living in a
state of barbarism. This may account for a good deal of the repetition
found in the Chinese mythological and legendary narratives, the personal
and chronological part of which may have been invented merely as a
framework for illustrating social and cultural progress. The scene of
action of all the prehistoric figures from P'an-ku, the first human
being, down to the beginning of real history has been laid in a part of
the world which has never been anything but Chinese territory. P'an-ku's
epoch, millions of years ago, was follo