National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

in Shen-si and in Shan-si, the Jung; to the north around the Yellow River, the Ti;
to the south on the Yang-tse, the Man. The latter, kin to the Tibetans and
the Asiatics of the southwest, do not concern us here. Maspero considers
some of the Jung, the Ti, and probably the I, as Chinese, while he calls the rest
of the Jung, and some tribes less frequently mentioned, Tungus and Huns.
He proves in this way that some members of the family of north Asiatic peoples
were neighbours of the Chinese. In any case, at the beginning of the Chou
Dynasty, the I and the Ti were also northern nomads who were only very
slowly assimilated. The texts have much that is instructive to say about these
people. The ancient Chinese considered them as dangerous foreigners. It is
often said of them, " The barbarians are insatiable wolves " (8), " lacking affec-
tion and greedy " (9) " the barbarians from the west and the north give free
rein to their feelings " (10), that is, they did not live as did the Chinese, in a society
regulated by custom and ceremonial. But it is particularly remarked that they
differ above all, in costume, in head-dress and in food (11). They eat un-
cooked food, probably raw meat (12); they migrate from home to home (13),
a characteristic sign of nomads. Human sacrifice proves the cruelty of their
customs (14). However they gradually become influenced by Chinese civil-
ization, but succeed nevertheless, particularly in the mountains, in maintaining
their independance until the IV Century B.C. (15). For the Chinese there
were always two ways of dealing with these awkward and dangerous neighbours :
one was to assimilate them, and to let them slowly melt into Chinese society ;
the other was to push them as far back as possible from the Chinese frontier,
and with fortifications prevent their return. That results could be attained with
a method of pacification is proved by the description : " Barbarians pacified and
governed " (16), quoted in the III Century B.C. The texts often speak of
walls serving for defense; the most important fortifications of this type date from
the year 219 B.C. (17).

It is mentioned several times in historical texts that Chinese princes adopted
customs of the barbarians (18). Mixed marriages were the fashion (19). It
would therefore appear very possible that certain forms of belief as well as certain
artistic forms may have seeped into Chinese society from bordering nations.
Hentze has shown that in frequent cases there are myths common to both
regions (20), but here we are only concerned with pointing out the correlative
artistic motives. When we attempt to do so in the following pages we are
surely warranted in comparing the Chou forms with later examples from the
north. The nomads learnt the use of metals later than did nations possessing a
higher civilization. But they retained along, with their old myths, artistic forms
that are also extremely ancient.

3) Works of art.
The reprensentation of the owl is part of the old inheritance of the Chou.