Africans in ancient China

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Africans in ancient China
Most of the archeologists are of the view that the founders of the Chinese civilizations were Africans. Africans were known as Li-mi by the Chinese. Ancient Chinese writings shows that there black people residing in the China 100,000 years ago. Apart from ancient writings there are archeological artifacts, which prove that blacks inhabited China. Archeologists are of the view that the first black people in China were pushed by the Chinese to oceanic islands, India, Nepal, and other surrounding areas. The founders of the ancient Chinese civilization were Fu Xi and Huangdi. The mound culture in the Northern lands of China supports the theory that the black Chinese performed ancient African burial traditions. There are multiple evidence in the Northern lands of China that support the existence of Negroid people. The negroids controlled three empires, namely Zhou Dynasty, Yin Shang dynasty, and Xia Dynasty . The Zhou Dynasty was controlled by the Mongloids. The founders of the Shang and Xia are said to have come from the Africa via Iran . They inhabited the Yellow river and started farming soya beans and millet. In addition, they raised cattle and pigs. They chose the Yellow river valley because of its water for irrigation and fertile soils. They later started rearing silk worms due to increase in demand for silk for making garments. Huag Di, one of the first black settlers in Northern China is said to have arrived from West Africa between 2278 BC and 2282 BC. The Zhou Dynasty depended on black Chinese for food and solders. Li mi or the black headed Chinese black people are said to have devised a calendar to regulate their agricultural activities, music and rituals. In addition, they helped in the creation of the first basic government in China. This essay will focus on the evidence provided by the archeologists to prove that black people lived in the ancient China.
Negroid people archeological evidence
Negroid people are people with certain skeletal and morphological traits from Africa. The skeletal evidence of the negroid people have been located in Mazhiabang, Chinglengang, Jiangxi, pearl River delta, Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiantung, and Shangdong areas. The black people are said to have heavily influenced the culture of the Northern China. Most of the Northern China’s negroids are said to have come from East and West Africa. There is strong resemblance between Chinese negroids and the East Africa’s Melanoid people. The Negroid people were found in Southern lands of India and Northern lands of China. The Manchu Dynasty has had some traces of Li-mi people. Manchu emperor, Pu-Yi was a descendant of black Chinese people. The fossil remains found in the Southern lands of China further proves that black people had various kingdoms within the larger China . Shang’s kingdom is a good example of a strong empire built by the Negroids. Shang’s Chinese dialect had multiple characters similar proto-Saharan script. The ancient Chinese writings that appeared in the pottery artifacts dating 2000BC were made up of bone and shell characters that were similar to the Saharan cuneiform. The Empress Li is said to be a black person. Archeological evidence found in the Chou-K’ou cave in China shows that the Negroid people and Melanesoid people share same skull structure. Black people were dominant in Northern and Southern China. Ancient kwang writings suggests that ancient Northern China was inhabited by the oceanic Negroids and Mongoloids. These people had dark skin completion. The Pleistocene Negroids existence in China can be justified by the presence of the skulls of the Liu Chiang. It is believed that Melanesian, Polynesian, and Austronesian people are descendants of the Yi people. It is believed that the Hua Chinese people came from the North and attacked the Yueh, Black Qiang, and Austronesian tribes around 1500 BC. Hua people pushed the African tribes to the pacific islands and South Asia countries, such as Nauru, and Philippines.
Shang Li, Yi, and Xia dynasties fossil evidence
Shang Li dynasty emerged after the collapse of the Xia Empire. Shang Li dynasty is also known as the Black Shang. Shang Li used a bird as its totem symbol. The founder the Shang Empire was made pregnant by Xia Empire’s black bird. It is believed that Jian Di went to Bath River. An egg was dropped by a bird and Jian took and ate it. Eating the egg is believed to have made her pregnant with Xieh .
The Shang Empire was ruled a black Qiang. Xieh’s mother is said to the founder of the empire. The use of a bird totem shows that the Black Chinese were still practising their Sub-Sahara cultures and traditions . The black bird symbol was a popular among the negroids from the West Africa and Southern Chinese tribes. Shang dynasty is a good example of dynasties controlled by African Chinese. The Xia dynasty was made of negroids. The founder of the empire was Yu. Yu was the builder of the canals and regulators of waters. He said to be the father of wetfield agriculture. Archeological evidence supports that Xia was made of negroids who practiced agrarian along the Chinese rivers. The Taosi ruins represents the late and middle Xia period. Qingliangan archeological site shows Black people from the Hemudu culture in 5BC. Hemudu pottery artifacts found along Taiwan and China’s coastlines is the evidence of occupation of Negroids in ancient China. Southern and Northern Chinese were Black people associated with Shang and Xia civilizations. Blacks are known as Yueh and Yi, Ch’iang, Kunlung, and Li Mi in the ancient Chinese literature.
The oldest culture in China is Hemudu. The Hemudu people are domesticated pigs, dogs, and pigs and practiced pottery. Archeological evidence shows that modern Chinese are Zhou’s descendants. The skeletal remains shows that Negroids were well established in Southern and Northern lands of China. Oceanic Negroids are said to have developed from Chinese Negroids. This theory is supported by the Liu Chiang and Tzu-Yang’s skulls . Archeologists believe that oceanic blacks entered Southern China through the Indian sub-continent. Most of the archeological artifacts in the Southern China are much related to the artifacts in the South East Asia and India. The founders of Shang dynasty are said to possess mixed origins. Ancient Africans and Chinese used the same naming culture. A Shang child had a regular name and day name just like in ancient Africa. Shang dynasty named their children according to the days of the sun. There were 10 sun days in Shang dynasty. These days were known to have celestial signs. The sun days are believed to be black birds. This explains why Shang dynasty upheld and respected black birds that much that they used them in their totems. The ten ‘black bird’ days acted as unification of the 10 clans in the dynasty . Most ancient Chinese writers trace the origin of the mythological black birds to the black Shang dynasty. There a similar mythological account among the native North Americans that a black bird saved a red bird from a white bird and took it to the cave. This is an analogy that the ancient black Chinese saved the Indians from the tyranny of the ancient European colonialists.
Some of the blacks in China moved to Tibet where they adopted nomad life just like the cushites of Kenya. The Yi people are said to be made of Negroids from the ancient central Africa. These people occupied both Southern and Northern lands of China. Shang and Yi were allied because they shared African traditions and cultures. They also practiced agrarian together because China had fertile lands and was much wetter than their places of origin. Yueh people spoke Manding language while Yi spoke Dravidian language. The Shang Li dynasty was based in the Zhengzhou . The dynasty had over 30 kings. 16 kings were situated at the Anyang. Anyang Shang people are said to be descendants of the Mongoloid people. The artifacts found at the Yangtze River shows that Shang Li, Xia, and Yi tribes were homogenous in terms of cultures. It is believed that the black Chinese domesticated some of the animals in Northern China and took with them to South East Asia and Southern lands of China. Oracle bone records shows that Shang Li drove the Rhinos and elephants from the north because they destroyed their millet and rice farms. Oracle bone writings shows that Shang people could speak Manding language. Shang dynasty is said to be the start of the Chinese civilization. Shang’s emperor, who was black, was a military and religious leader. He paid homage to gods and made them sacrifices on behalf of the people. Most written literature about the ancient China starts with the Shang dynasty . Shang priests wrote holy inscription on the walls of the cave and pottery to answer various life questions. Shang people kept records using bamboo and wood. The dynasty was known for its bronze and pottery work. According to archeological evidence, Ancient African tribes in central and West Africa were also known for their bronze and pottery work. Shang’s technology was heavily influenced by the African traditions. Shang people used cowrie shells as the money for trade purposes. They introduced the monetary system in Northern China, Southern China, and south East Asia .
Shang and Yi people used the turtle shells for divine purposes. Ancient writings on the turtle shells provides additional element of the culture of Shang dynasty. Bamboo books by an ancient author of Shanxi has accounts of black headed people’s descendants doing agriculture at the Yellow river. The rise of the Zhou dynasty is attributed to the hard work of the ‘black head people’ in both trade and agriculture. The Li mi people engaged in trade and agriculture in both north and south until the emergence of the Zhou dynasty. Black people practiced farming because it was the major economic activity in East, Central and West Africa besides hunting and gathering. Li-mi spoke Manding language and Dravidian languages. These two languages are substrata languages used by the Chinese people. The languages are not widely spoken due to their disorganization in nature. The first Chinese monarchy, Xia, was founded by a black man. Shang Dynasty borrowed the government and political system from the Xia .
DNA evidence
According to a Chinese archeologist, Li, Chinese evolved from home erectors, who appeared in Africa over 100,000 years ago. Li collected over 12000 samples in Asia and China. After conducting a genetically research, he found that some samples had a genetically marker that was found in East Africa over 100,000 years ago. This proves that there were blacks in the ancient China. Archeological evidences shows that humans in ancient sub-Saharan Africa moved to China via South East Asia.
Some samples collected has genetical markers related to people in South East Asia. Research shows that Polynesians left China, Taiwan, and South East Asia over 11,000 years ago for Alaska where they stayed for over 2000 years before finally moving to the Tahiti, Hawaii, and oceanic islands over 2000 years ago. Polynesians share common gene with negroids from sub-Sahara area.
Polynesian people can be found among Philippine’s Negritos and Andaman island inhabitants. The possible explanation for existence of these people even though Polynesian people left south East Asia over 11,000 years ago is intermarriage. In addition, there is a high probability that not all Polynesian people left south East Asia. Their physical characteristics, such as height, head shape, and skin completion have changed due to change in environment. There is strong genetically connection between the Negrito pygmies and the Polynesian people. The connection is believed to have happened in Sunda area where they lived and traded together. The genes of Polynesian people are related to Taiwanese and Southern Chinese. The gene separation dates backs to 11,000 years ago when these people vacated the south East Asia . The Maori people of New Zealand are also said to have genetical connections with early Southern and Northern China Polynesians. The North American Indian population has genetically connection with the Maori islanders even though the two groups have been genetically separated for over 1000 years. The North American Indians maintained minimal contact with their genetic relatives in New Zealand partly due to ocean barrier. The ancient Mayan people and the Polynesian share mitochondrial DNA sequence. Pima Indians arrived in North America over 5000 years ago from Alaska. It is believed that the Pima Indians were part of the Polynesian people who were advancing to Hawaii, Rarotonga, Fiji, and New Zealand. Genetical connections between the Maori, Maya, Pima, Tlingit, Yakut, Butyat, Orochon, Tibetans, and Taiwan indigenous people have been identified. This furthers supports the argument that there were Negroids in the ancient China.
Conclusion
From the essay, it is clear that Black people existed in the ancient Chinese civilization. There are multiple archeological, ancient writings, and DNA evidence showing existence of Africans in Northern and Southern China. Africans were known as Li-mi by the Chinese. Ancient Chinese writings shows that there black people residing in the China 100,000 years ago. Negroid people are people with certain skeletal and morphological traits from Africa. The skeletal evidence of the negroid people have been located in Mazhiabang, Chinglengang, Jiangxi, pearl River delta, Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiantung, and Shangdong areas. The black people are said to have heavily influenced the culture of the Northern China. Most of the Northern China’s Negroids are said to have come from East and West Africa. The ancient Chinese writings that appeared in the pottery artifacts dating 2000BC were made up of bone and shell characters that were similar to the Saharan cuneiform. The Empress Li is said to be a black person. Shang dynasty is a good example of dynasties controlled by African Chinese. Shang Li dynasty emerged after the collapse of the Xia Empire. Shang Li dynasty is also known as the Black Shang. Shang Li used a bird as its totem symbol. The use of a black bird totem shows that the Black Chinese were still practising their Sub-Sahara cultures and traditions. The black bird was a popular among the negroids from the West Africa and Southern Chinese tribes. Qingliangan archeological site shows Black people from the Hemudu culture in 5BC.
Hemudu pottery artifacts found along Taiwan and China’s coastlines is the evidence of occupation of Negroids in ancient China. Southern and Northern Chinese were Black people associated with Shang and Xia civilizations. Black people practiced farming because it was the major economic activity in East, Central and West Africa besides hunting and gathering. Li-mi spoke Manding language and Dravidian languages. These two languages are substrata languages used by the Chinese people. According to Li, Chinese evolved from home erectors, who appeared in Africa over 100,000. Li collected over 12000 samples in Asia and China. After conducting a genetical research, he found that some samples had a genetical marker that was found in East Africa over 100,000 years ago. This proves that there were blacks in the ancient China. Archeological evidences shows that humans in ancient sub-Saharan Africa moved to China via south East Asia.
Works Cited
Allan, S. “Sons of Suns: Myth and Totemism in Early China.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2007): 290-326.
Chang, K C. “Prehistory and Early Historic Culture Horizon and Traditions in South China.” Current Anthropology (2009): 23-56.
—. “The Archaeology of Ancient China.” New Haven (2000): 359-375.
Weasal publishers. Chinese Scientist Proves The First Inhabitants Of China Were Black! 1 June 2012. 7 September 2014.
Winters, Clyde Ahmad. “The Dravido Harappan Colonization of Central Asia.” Central Asiatic Journal (1999): 120-144.

References

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