by
Damien F. Mackey
As there appears to be a very close connection
between the Chinese language and that of the Sumerians - whom I previously
identified, following professor Gunnar Heinsohn, with the ancient Chaldeans -
then what may have been the origins of the Chinese?
Introduction
According to conclusions reached in Part One of this series:
- the Sumerians may have been the famed Chaldeans (professor Heinsohn’s view); and
- the ‘Ubaid civilisation may archaeologically represent this culture (Dr. Osgood’s view).
These interesting conclusions, when combined with two further ones, that:
- the Sumerian language has close affinities with Chinese; and that
- the Chinese, the biblical Sinites (Genesis 10:17), were similar to the Chaldeans,
may lead us to the very origins of the Chinese people and how far back
is to be dated their actual beginnings.
The key biblical text for this will be Genesis 10:15, 17, 19:
“Canaan was the
father of …the Hittites … Sinites ….
Later the Canaanite clans scattered …”.
Biblical Chinese and Chaldeans
The following article is, I think, most useful
on this, though I may not agree with all details: http://www.brogilbert.org/chinese_genesis/1_genesis_chinese.HTM
….
There is increasing evidence of the connection
between Biblical Genesis (Ch. 1-11) and the origin of Chinese Civilization. In
Genesis 10 we have the Table of Nations, that is, the descendants of Noah's
three sons Shem, Ham and Japhet. Ham is
regarded as the father of the Mongoloid and Negroid races because he generated Canaan whose two sons Heth
(Hittites/Cathey) and Sin (Sinite/China) who are presumed to be the progenitors
of the Mongoloid stock.
"The
name Sin appears frequently in the Chinese language, and the city of Xian, a
provincial capital in western China, was known as Sianfu in the nineteenth
century, meaning "Father Sin." Some scholars have suggested that the
Sin referred to here may have been Fu Xi, the legendary first king of China, who
began his reign in 2852 B.C. Later, when the first Chinese kingdom broke up in
the first millennium B.C., a state named Qin (also spelled Tsin or Ch'in),
arose near Xian; the Qin rulers reunited the land in the third century B.C.,
and the whole land became known as China, named after Qin. Thus the name
"Sin" came to us in a roundabout fashion, altered over the ages to
become "China." The ancient name also appeared in its original form
in the 1960s and 70s when news reports told about the "Sino-Soviet"
border dispute."
(see
http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/A Biblical Interpretation of World History)
Most likely the Chinese Civilization began in the area of the former
Chinese capital Shensi or Siang-fu (Father Sin) also called Hang'an and today
called Xi'an meaning city of "Everlasting Peace". This is the place
where the Silk Road began and served as the first capital of the unified
empire. "One
ancient Chinese classic called the "Hihking" tells the story of Fuhi,
whom the Chinese consider to be the father of their civilization. This history
records that Fuhi, his wife, three sons, and three daughters escaped the great
flood. He and his family were the only people left alive on earth. After the
great flood they repopulated the world. An ancient temple in China has a wall
painting that shows Fuhi's boat in the raging waters. Dolphins are swimming
around the boat and a dove with an olive branch in its beak is flying toward
it." (Webpage: Evidence-the Great Flood)
There are also cultural similarities between the Chinese and Chaldeans
which suggest their origin. Like the Chaldeans, the Chinese had astronomical
knowledge and belief in astrology, used same of methods of measurement, the
cycle of sixty and decimal system. They believed in interrelation and
correspondence of five elements, the five colors, the harmony of numbers and a
multitude of other customs that the Chaldeans had. All of this cannot be mere
coincidence." (Webpage: Archeology, The Bible and the Post-Flood
Origins of Chinese History/ article by Roy L. Hales)
[End of quotes]
Along
similar lines we read in the article, “The Table of Nations”, at:
….
The vast
aggregate of peoples who are generally classified as Mongoloid, who settled the
Far East, have been a question as to where they fall into the Table of Nations.
The evidence shows they are Hamitic, even though some have incorrectly reasoned
that the Chinese were of Japhetic stock, and the Japanese were either Japhetic
or Semitic. There are two names which provide clues. Two of Canaan's sons, Heth
(Hittites) and Sin (Sinites), are presumed to be the progenitors of Chinese and
Mongoloid stock. The Hittites were known as the Hatti or Chatti. In Egyptian
monuments the Hittite peoples were depicted with prominent noses, full lips,
high check-bones, hairless faces, varying skin color from brown to yellowish
and reddish, straight black hair and dark brown eyes.
The
term Hittite in Cuneiform (the earliest form of writing invented by the
Sumerians) appears as Khittae* representing a once powerful nation from the Far
East known as the Khitai, and has been preserved through the centuries in the
more familiar term, Cathay. The Cathay were Mongoloids, considered a part of
early Chinese stock. There are links between the known Hittites and Cathay, for
example, their modes of dress, their shoes with turned-up toes, their manner of
doing their hair in a pigtail, and so forth. Representations show them to have
possessed high cheekbones, and craniologists have observed that they had common
characteristics of Mongoloids.
….
Sin (or Seni), a brother of Heth, has many occurrences in variant forms in the Far East. There is one significant feature concerning the likely mode of origin of Chinese civilization. The place most closely associated by the Chinese themselves with the origin of their civilization is the capital of Shensi, namely, Siang-fu (Father Sin). Siang-fu appears in Assyrian records as Sianu. Today, Siang-fu can be loosely translated, "Peace to the Western Capital of China". The Chinese have a tradition that their first king, Fu-hi or Fohi (Chinese Noah), made his appearance on the Mountains of Chin, was surrounded by a rainbow after the world had been covered with water, and [sacrificed] animals to God (corresponding to the Genesis record). Sin himself was the third generation from Noah, a circumstance which would provide the right time interval for the formation of early Chinese culture.
Sin (or Seni), a brother of Heth, has many occurrences in variant forms in the Far East. There is one significant feature concerning the likely mode of origin of Chinese civilization. The place most closely associated by the Chinese themselves with the origin of their civilization is the capital of Shensi, namely, Siang-fu (Father Sin). Siang-fu appears in Assyrian records as Sianu. Today, Siang-fu can be loosely translated, "Peace to the Western Capital of China". The Chinese have a tradition that their first king, Fu-hi or Fohi (Chinese Noah), made his appearance on the Mountains of Chin, was surrounded by a rainbow after the world had been covered with water, and [sacrificed] animals to God (corresponding to the Genesis record). Sin himself was the third generation from Noah, a circumstance which would provide the right time interval for the formation of early Chinese culture.
Furthermore,
those who came from the Far East to trade were called Sinæ (Sin) by the
Scythians. Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, referred to China as the land of Sinim
or Sinæ. Reference to the Sinim in Isaiah 49:12 notes they came "from
afar," specifically not from the north and not from the west. Arabs called
China Sin, Chin, Mahachin, Machin. The Sinæ were spoken of as a people in the
remotest parts of Asia.
….
With respect to the Cathay people of historical reference, it would make sense to suppose that the remnants of the Hittites, after the destruction of their empire, traveled towards the east and settled among the Sinites who were relatives, contributing to their civilization, and thus becoming the ancestors of the Asian people groups. Still others migrated throughout the region and beyond, making up present-day Mongoloid races in Asia and the Americas. The evidence strongly suggests that Ham's grandsons, Heth (Hittites/Cathay) and Sin (Sinites/China), are the ancestors of the Mongoloid peoples.
[End of quote]
All this is
fine, but the task really here is to demonstrate a connection between the
Chinese and the Chaldeans, rather than the Hittites.
Dr. I.
Velikovsky may have managed to have done that for us. In the process of his
mis-guided effort in Ramses II and His Time (1978) to reduce history
by attempting to identify the Hittite empire of Hattusilis with the Chaldean
empire of Nebuchednezzar II, he made the following interesting observations
about the Hittites and Chaldeans:
In the region of Ararat, east of Ur of the Chaldees, on the upper
Euphrates and around Lake Van, there lived a people who worshiped the god
Chaldi. Modern scholars, beginning with Lehmann-Haupt, called them “Chaldians”
on the assumption that their tribal name reflected the name of their chief
deity (similarly the Assyrian nation took its name from its chief god Assur),
choosing this form of the name to distinguish them from the Chaldeans of
Babylonia. The dynasties of these “Chaldians” were engaged in defensive wars
against the Assyrians. …. They were also called Urartu, a name that survives in
the scriptural Ararat. Scholars have noted “striking” similarities between
Urartian (Chaldean) and “Hittite” culture. …. In the light of the persistent
pressure the Assyrians under Esarhaddon and his son Assurbanipal exerted on the
population around Lakes Urmia and Van, which resulted in the involuntary
resettlement of these populations farther and farther to the west, there is
some ground to suppose that the worshipers of Chaldi earned the name
“Chaldeans” (“Casdim” in Hebrew) because they were one of the branches of the
ancient Chaldean people.
Mackey’s
comment: On the “Casdim”, see my article:
Those Poor Neglected Kassites
Now,
continuing with Velikovsky:
The Chaldeans under Nabopolassar occupied Babylonia, but Babylonia was
not their native land. They came from Chaldea and transferred their capital to
Babylon. Ezekiel called them “Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their
nativity” (Ezekiel 23:15). Where was “the land of their nativity”? From where
did Nabopolassar come? Judged by the remnants of the strange culture ascribed
to the “Hittites,” which I identify as Chaldean, the land of the Chaldean
nativity in the eighth and seventh centuries was in Cappadocia and Cilicia,
between the Black Sea on the north, the region of Ararat and the upper
Euphrates on the east, the big bend of the Mediterranean on the south, and the
river Halys on the west. Boghazkoi, Alisar, Senjirli, and Carchemish are
situated in this area. Xenophon … the Athenian soldier (ca. -435 to -335) who
fought in the army of Cyrus the Younger of Persia and traversed with the famous
“ten thousand” mercenaries the length of Asia Minor, wrote about the Chaldeans
as a tribe living in Armenia that stretched from Ararat to south of the Black
Sea. One hundred forty years earlier Cyrus the Great, at war with Croesus,
referred to Chaldeans as “neighbors” of Armenians. He also said of the land
which modern scholars assign to the Hittites: “These mountains which we see
belong to Chaldaea.” …. Strabo, a native of Amasia in Pontus, who knew Asia
Minor at first hand, located the Chaldeans next to Trapezus (Trebizond) on the
Black Sea coast: “Above the region of Pharnacia and Trapezus are the Tibareni
and the Chaldaei, whose country extends to lesser Armenia” …. It is asserted
that these “Black Sea Chaldeans” of Xenophon and Strabo are not the real
Chaldeans but “Chaldians,” or that Xenophon used the wrong name for the
bellicose tribe of that region. But Xenophon and Strabo were not wrong. Though
under Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldeans entered the melting pot of
the Neo-Babylonian Empire, many of them survived in Cappadocia: Xenophon met
them
there at the close of the fifth century and Strabo records their
presence in the area as late as the first. Soon we shall also bring
archaeological evidence to bear on the question and will show that Chaldean
(“Hittite”) pictographs were in use in this very region in the time of Strabo,
and even beyond. The Secret Script of the Chaldeans Attaining supreme power in
the extensive region from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea and
to the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, the Chaldean Empire embraced many
nations, religions, and tongues. In the subjugated provinces the local
languages were respected. “O people, nations, and languages,” called
Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. The language in daily use in Babylon was
Akkadian-Babylonian; in the provinces this was the language of official and
diplomatic documents; these documents were often translated into the local
tongues. The system was not bilingual but trilingual. Besides Babylonian, the
official international language, and the native speech of the various
localities, Chaldean was used in sacred services for liturgies and prayers and
also in the solemn festivities of the palace. In the Book of Daniel it is
written that King Nebuchadnezzar ordered training for certain Judean youths of
aristocratic origin who were “skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge,
and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the
king’s palace, and whom they teach the learning and the tongue of the
Chaldeans” …. For many centuries and down to modern times scholars thought that
Chaldean was the language in which a part of the Book of Daniel, as well as the
Talmud, was written. For this reason there exist “Chaldean” dictionaries.
However, it has subsequently been shown that the language of these books was
not Chaldean but Aramaean or Syriac. In the same Book of Daniel (2:4) it is
said that, besides the tongue of the Chaldean and Babylonian, Syriac was used
in the palace. “Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac.” The absence of
inscriptions in the Chaldean tongue conflicted with the reference in the Book
of Daniel to a language the Chaldeans used in their secret teachings and for
sacred purposes. It was finally stated that the “language of these Chaldaeans
differed in no way from the ordinary Semitic Babylonian idiom” … and was
practically identical with the Akkadian language of Babylonia and Assyria. The
Akkadian population of Babylon was merged with the Chaldean stock, but the land
of origin of the Chaldeans was not Babylon. The Chaldeans retained for
themselves the position of a caste of priests and astrologers … and it would
have been only natural that, in their sacerdotal invocations and mysteries,
they should have used the tongue of their ancient traditions, not known to the
common people. They recorded their secret knowledge, not to be divulged, in a
script not understandable to the profane abecedarians. It is often asserted
that no secret writing has been discovered in the countries along the
Euphrates. Even modern books on ancient history maintain this in the chapters
dealing with Chaldea; and in the chapters on the discovery of a strange
pictographic script in Carchemish on the Euphrates, in Babylon, in Assur on the
Tigris, in Hamath, in Boghazkoi, and in other places, the new statement is made
that this writing must have been left by a people of “a forgotten empire” and,
centuries later, by the so-called Syrian Hittites. But since at least some of
the monuments with this pictographic script are unanimously assigned to the
sixth century … the “Hittites” who supposedly wrote these hieroglyphics
(pictographs) when under the later kings of the Chaldean dynasty in Babylon
must have escaped not only the memory of subsequent generations but also the
notice of their contemporaries. ….
[End of quote]
Emmet Sweeney
adds a little more to this:
…. Velikovsky associated the
Hittites with the Chaldaeans (see Ramses II and His Time {1978}).
Briefly, it should be mentioned that Sumerian royal titles, such as Gal-Lugal,
were always used by the Hittite monarchs, and that the Hittite pantheon and
mythology was entirely Sumerian. Indeed, the close links between the Hittites
and Sumerians were not lost on scholars, and have been frequently commented
upon. Khattili, the original "Hittite" language, is agglutinative,
like Sumerian; but whether it is closely related is another question. Sumerian
kings had strong links with Anatolia, and we find the term khatti (as
in Tukim-khatti-migrisha) used as an element in Sumerian royal names. Finally,
it must be remembered that the Chaldaeans were equally associated with Anatolia
and southern Mesopotamia. We have, for example, classical references to the
Chaldaei of Anatolia, and the fact is that the people of "Urartu",
who waged war against the Assyrians in the 8th century, called themselves
Chaldi (children of Khaldis): Urartu, or Ararat, is an Assyrian term. ….
[End of quote]
Finally, Charles J. Ball proved
with detailed comparisons the very close relationship that existed between the
Sumerian language and Chinese.
Here is just a small sample:
....
INITIAL AND FINAL SOUNDS—
THEIR CORRESPONDENCE AND PARALLEL CHANGES That Chinese is related to the old
Sumerian language of Babylonia is a con- clusion which appears inevitable, when
we notice the great similarity of the two vocabularies. This may perhaps be
best exhibited in tabular form. The following list does not, of course, pretend
to be exhaustive. Its purpose is merely to weaken any presumption of antecedent
improbability; and so to bespeak an unprejudiced consideration for the
arguments and comparisons to follow.
….
INITIAL AND FINAL SOUNDS—
THEIR CORRESPONDENCE AND PARALLEL CHANGES It is evident that the preceding list
presents at a glance sufficient similarity between the material of the two
languages to suggest at once the hypothesis of relationship. But if we look
below the surface, as Philology justifies us in doing, we shall discover in
Chinese a large number of vocables which, although they have become dissimilar
in the natural course of phonetic change, were originally either identical with
the corresponding sounds of the primitive Sumerian speech, or at all events
manifestly akin to them. In fact, much as Philology justifies us in connecting
the Latin aqua with the French eau, so it may justify us in connecting the
Chinese ho, river, with the Sumerian ID, I, river, and CjAL, to flow ; although
the three terms possess not a letter in common. When it is pointed out that the
character ^ ho is still read ka or ga in the traditional Japanese
pronunciation, which is more faithful to the ancient sounds of the Chinese, and
that the kindred Mongol word for river is gol, Manchau hoi ; we see at once
that the Chinese initial h represents, as indeed is usual, an older k (from a
yet earlier g), and that the lost final of the root is 1 or a related sound. It
thus appears likely that the Chinese ho, river, is akin to the Sumerian GAL, to
flow. But, further, the Sumerian ID, I, river, which occurs in the name
I.DIGNA, Assyrian Idiglat, the Tigris, is really a worn form of GID, as is
shown by the Hebrew transcription Vpin Khiddeqel ; and this earlier GID
suggests a primary GAD, cognate with GAL, to flow, and identical with the old
Chinese kat, gat, river (cf P. 145).
There can be little doubt, one
would think, that the Sumerian (G)USH and MUD, on the one hand, and their
Chinese equivalents hiieh-hut and mieh-myt, on the other, although given in the
dictionaries as mutually independent words, are really related to each other in
much the same way as GISH and MESH, GU and MU, tree, wood, are related in
Sumerian, or as ho and fo, fire, or ngo and wo, I, in Chinese. One is simply a
labialized form of the other. The Chinese Phonetics have preserved many
vestiges of such philological counterparts. Thus in Sumerian, ^^, the character
denoting black and night, had the sounds GA, GE, GIG, and MI (from MIG, MUG).
Accordingly, we find that the Chinese M (P. 862) has the Phonetic values kek
and mek. By itself, the character is read hei or h^ or ho, C. hak, H. het, W.
he, hah, hek, K. hik, J. koku, black {see G. 3899) ; and with the Radical or
Determinative j^ earth, it is ^ mo, mek, met, meik, mai, me, muk, me, K. mik,
J. boku and moku, A. mak, ink ; black ; obscure (G. 8022). It will be noticed
that the vowel-variation resembles that of the values of the Sumerian
prototype, GA, GE, GIG, MI, KUKKU. Of course, the sound 6 INITIAL AND FINAL
SOUNDS, ETC. belongs to the Phonetic ^. The Radical, added later for
distinction's sake, has nothing to do with sound, but only with sense.
....
[End of quote]
Conclusion
If, as this article suggests, the
Chinese people originated from Sin, a son of Canaan, a Hamite, then this people
cannot pre-date c. 2000 BC.
No comments:
Post a Comment