Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 8 (Chinese and Japanese).djvu/29

 INTRODUCTION

HE origin of the tribes which first settled along the valley of the Yellow River and expanded into the Chinese race, is still a subject for future investigators. Wherever these early settlers came from, they possessed strong physiques and must have been fond of adventure, for we find them scattered along the Yangtze River in the neighbourhood of the present city of Hankow and far east of the hills of Chehkiang, as well as having pushed their way to the country north and south of the mouth of the Yellow River. The courses of the great rivers of China being eastward, it is reasonable to suppose that the drift of the mainland population of China has been from west to east.

The coast provinces of China, Kuangtung, Fukien, and the southern half of Chehkiang, give evidences of having been populated in the first instance by seafaring people, probably of Malay origin. They were allied to the early populations of the Philippine Islands and Japan, spoke many dialects, and persisted for a long time in their inherent tendency to split up into small divisions. The mainland civilization of China gradually spread south-eastward among these illiterate people, and from the time of the T'ang dynasty in the seventh century, absorbed them not only into the political domain, but also infused into them its dominating spirit. China furnished these tribes with literature, art and government institutions so completely that in a few generations nearly all traces of their exotic origin had been obliterated, the only persisting reminder being in the name "Men of T'ang" by which the people of Canton still call themselves, thus remembering that they came into the