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THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 187
still conspicuous in some of the southern provinces, notably in Fokien and
Kwangtung, the natives of which seem to form two races not yet thoroughly fused.
But whence came that primitive stock, which, blending with diverse elements,
resulted in the great Chinese nation ? The people formerly called themselves the
" Hundred Families," and pointed to the north-west beyond the Hoang-ho as the
region whence the migrating groups descended to ihe fluvial plains, where they
either expelled or subdued and absorbed the less civilised aborigines. Nor is it at
all unlikely that the vast and fertile region of the " Yellow Lands," lying mainly
north of the Hoang-ho, played a leading part in the early history
of the Chinese
people. Here was room for millions of agriculturists, who may have gradually
mi "rated eastwards according as the lacustrine basins dried up and the sands of the
desert encroached upon the cultivated plains of Central Asia, where the forefathers
of the Chinese had dwelt in close proximity with those of the Turki, Hindu, and
Iranian races. Every river valley became a highway of migration, and consequently
of dispersion for the peoples of higher culture, and the arts, manners, and
speech of the early settlers may have thus been gradually diffused from north to
south throughout the empire.
Like those of Europe, the peoples of China have had their stone age, and the
collections of the extreme East include implements and objects of all kinds similar
to those of the palaeolithic and neolithic periods in the West. Sladen has brought
from Yunnan a number of jade hatchets, which, as in Europe, were formerly
supposed to be " thunder stones," bolts hurled to the earth by the god of thunder.
The Chinese have divided the prehistoric ages into three periods corresponding with
those of the Western archaeologists.
" Fu-hi," they say, " made weapons of wood ;
Thin-ming, of stone ; Shi-yu, of metal." But after the introduction of iron implements
the stone arrow-heads were still credited with a symbolic virtue, and in the
hand of the sovereign regarded as emblems of royalty. Down to the twelfth
century n.c. the Chinese emperors received in tribute stone arrow-heads, and long
after that time these arms continued in use amongst the wild tribes of the western
highlands. Amongst the Chinese ideographic characters there is still a particular
sign to indicate a stone used in manufacturing arrow or dart heads.
The Chinese nation has thus passed through successive stages of progress
answering to those of other civilised peoples, only in China the early evolutions
were brought sooner to a close than elsewhere. The European races were still rude
barbarians when the Chinese were writing their history some four thousand years
ago. In spite of all their shortcomings, the Chinese annals constitute the most
authentic and complete historical record possessed by mankind. Here are faithfully
roistered the political vicissitudes of the land, as well as the natural phenomena
and astronomic observations by means of which the dates of historic events may be
tested or determined.
THE CIIIXKSE LANGUAGE.
But notwithstanding their ancient culture, the Chinese are distinguished
amongst all civilised peoples for the still primitive form of their speech. In this
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