History Puistied Back To 1500 B.C. By Chinese Find

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 46, 25 February 1936, Page 10

History Puistied Back To 1500 B.C. By Chinese Find

SHANGHAI Authentic written history in China has been pushed back to at least 1500 years before Christ by archaeological excavations at An Yang, Honan province, Dr. Y. Y. Tsu of St. John’s University declared in the course of a lecturo here.

These excavations by Dr. Li Chi and others have brought to life much valuable information on the life and literature of the people of tho Skang Dynasty (1766-1122 B. C.), Dr. Tsu declared.

“The people of this period,” he said, “were great believers in divination and have left behind them huge stores of oracle bones with inscriptions. Theso inscribed bones, and the stone and bronze implements and pottery associated with them, reveal the arts and crafts the social custom, and religious beliefs of a pastoral people who had taken up agriculture, who knew the art of brewing, and who were engaged in trade with remote regions. Hunting as a form of organized recreation and warfare seemed to occupy a large part of their time and attention.

“Tho Tun Huang discovery by Sir Aurel Stein in the Stone Chamber at Tun Huang, Kansu, was perhaps tho richest single haul of ancient manuscripts and paintings ever achieved by anyone. Sir Aurel found the walledup stone chamber, nine feet-square and 10 feet high, filled to the ceiling with 15,000 rolls (books) sewed up in 1130 cloth bundles, each containing a dozer; pieces. Ho was able to examine most of them and to select 3000 rolls and five to six thousand detached pieces. These have been carefully restored and studied, and are now in the possession of the British Museum,

“Tun Huang was once a great center of Buddhism and the theory is that the manuscripts and paintings were sealed up in the eleventh century to prevent them from falling into barbarian hands during raids. They remained ‘lost’ to the world till Sir Aurel accidentally hit upon them nine centuries later. Re-education of women prisoners under such conditions was declared particularly successful. Women were organized into "phalanxes" as were the men, and sometimes women were appointed directors of male groups. The same paper insists, “Theso workers led a cultured life beiug encouraged to write poems eulogizing the new life, the new women and the new country. They formed orchestras and bands for cheering themselves and their fellows. Every private in this labour army became a reconstructed citizen in the task of strengthening the economy and defense of the Soviet Far East."