THE CHINESE IN MEXICO IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.
THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
DEVOTED TO LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY
VOL. I.–MAY, 1862.–No. V.
The reader who would ascertain by the map whether it was likely that at
an early period intercourse could have taken place between Eastern Asia
and Western America, will have no difficulty in deciding on the
geographical possibility of such transit. At Behring’s Straits only
forty miles of water intervene between the two continents, while routes
by the Aleutian Islands, or through the Sea of Ochotsk, present no great
difficulties, even to a timid navigator. And the Chinese and Japanese of
earlier ages were by no means timid in their voyages. It is only within
two centuries that their governments, alarmed by the growing power of
the Western world, and desirous of keeping their subjects at home,
prohibited the construction of strictly sea-worthy and sea-faring
vessels. Even within the memory of man, Japanese junks have been driven
to the California coasts.
Click to share via Facebook or Twitter
Impressed by the probability of such intercommunication, Johann
Friedrich Neumann, a learned German Orientalist, while residing in
China, during the years 1829-30, for the purpose of collecting Chinese
works, after investigating the subject, published its results in a work,
subsequently translated by me, under his supervision. Among the first
results of his inquiries, was the fact that ‘during the course of many
centuries, the Chinese acquired a surprisingly accurate knowledge of the
north-east coast of Asia, extending, as their records in astronomy and
natural history prove, to the sixty-fifth degree of latitude, and even
to the Arctic Ocean.’ From the Chinese _Book of Mountains and Seas_, it
appears that the Esquimaux and their country were well known to the
Chinese, and that in the sixth century, natives of the North and of the
islands bordering on America, came with Japanese embassies to China.
When it is borne in mind that the early Chinese geographers and
astronomers determined on the situations of these northern regions, with
an accuracy which has been of late years surprisingly verified by
eminent European men of science, and when we learn that the Year Books
or annals of China continually repeat these observations, and that their
accounts of the natives of the islands within a few miles of the
American shore are as undoubtedly correct as they are minute, we
certainly have good reason for assuming that their description of the
main land and its inhabitants is well worthy, if not of implicit belief,
at least of an investigation by the savans of the Western World. Be it
borne in mind, also, that during the first eight centuries of our own
Christian era, a spirit of discovery in foreign lands was actively at
work all over the East. In the words of Neumann:
‘In the first century of our reckoning, the pride and vanity
induced by the Chinese social system was partly broken by the
progress of Buddhism over all Eastern Asia. He who believed in the
divine mission of the son of the King of Kaphilapura, must
recognize every man as his brother and equal by birth; yes, must
strive (for the old Buddhism has this in common with the Christian
religion) to extend the joyful mission of salvation to all the
nations on the earth, and to attain this end must suffer, like the
type of the God Incarnate, all earthly pain and persecution. So we
find that a number of Buddhist monks and preachers have at distant
times wandered to all known and unknown parts of the world, either
to obtain information with regard to their distant
co-religionists, or to preach the doctrine of the Holy Trinity to
unbelievers. The official accounts which these missionaries have
rendered of their travels, and of which we possess several
_entire_, considered as sources of information with regard to
different lands and nations, belong to the most instructive and
important part of Chinese literature. From these sources we have
derived, in a great degree, that information which we possess
regarding North-eastern Asia and the Western coasts of America
during centuries which have been hitherto vailed in the deepest
obscurity.’
The earliest account, given of extended travels on the North-American
continent describes a journey from Tahan or Aloska to a distance, and
into a region which indicates the north-west coast of Mexico and the
vicinity of San Blas. The following is a literal translation made from
the original Chinese report, by Neumann:
‘THE KINGDOM OF FUSANG, OR MEXICO.
‘During the reign of the dynasty _Tsi_, in the first year of the
year-naming[E] ‘Everlasting Origin,’ (Anno Domini 499,) came a
Buddhist priest from this kingdom, who bore the cloister name of
Roci-schin, that is, Universal Compassion, (_Allgemeins
Mitleiden_: according to King-tscheu it signifies ‘an old
name,[F]‘) to the present district of Hukuang, and those
surrounding it, who narrated that ‘Fusang is about twenty thousand
Chinese miles in an easterly direction from Tahan, and east of the
middle kingdom. Many Fusang-trees grow there, whose leaves
resemble the Dryanda Cordifolia;[G] the sprouts, on the contrary,
resemble those of the bamboo-tree,[H] and are eaten by the
inhabitants of the land. The fruit is like a pear in form, but is
red. From the bark they prepare a sort of linen, which they use
for clothing, and also a sort of ornamented stuff.[I] The houses
are built of wooden beams; fortified and walled places a unknown.
‘THEIR WRITING AND CIVIL REGULATIONS.
‘They have written characters in this land, and prepare paper from
the bark of the Fusang. The people have no weapons, and make no
wars, but in the arrangements of the kingdom they have a northern
and a southern prison. Trifling offenders were lodged in the
southern, but those confined for greater offenses in the northern;
so that those who were about to receive grace could be placed in
the southern prison, and those to the contrary in the northern.
Those men and women who were imprisoned for life were allowed to
marry. The boys resulting from these marriages were, at the age of
eight years, sold for slaves; the girls not until their ninth
year. If a man of any note was found guilty of crimes, an assembly
was held: it must be in an excavated place, (_Grabe_.) There they
strewed ashes over him, and bade him farewell, as if he were
dying. If the offender were one of a lower class, he alone was
punished; but when of rank, the degradation was extended to his
children and grandchildren. With those of the highest rank it
attained to the seventh generation.
‘THE KINGDOM AND THE NOBLES.
‘The name of the king is pronounced _Ichi_. The nobles of the
first class are termed Tuilu; of the second, Little Tuilu; and of
the third, Na-to-scha. When the prince goes forth he is
accompanied by horns and trumpets. The color of his clothes
changes with the different years. In the first two of the ten-year
cyclus they are blue; in the two next, red; in the two following,
yellow; in the two next, red; and in the last two, black.
‘MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
‘The horns of the oxen are so large that they contain ten bushels,
(Schaeffel.) They use them to hold all manner of things. Horses,
oxen and stags, are harnessed to their wagons. Stags are used here
as cattle are used in the Middle Kingdom, and from the milk of the
hind they make butter. The red pears of the Fusang tree keep good
throughout the year. Moreover, they have apples and reeds; from
the latter they prepare mats. _No iron is found in this land; but
copper, gold, and silver are not prized, and do not serve as a
medium of exchange in the market._
‘Marriage is determined upon in the following manner. The suitor
builds himself a hut before the door of the house where the one
longed for dwells, and waters and cleans the ground every morning
and evening. When a year has passed by, if the maiden is not
inclined to marry him, he departs; should she he willing, it is
completed. When the parents die, they fast seven days. For the
death of the paternal or maternal grandfather they lament five
days; at the death of elder or younger sisters or brothers, uncles
or aunts, three days. They then sit from morning to evening before
an image of the ghost, absorbed in prayer, but wear no mourning
clothes. When the king dies, the son who succeeds him does not
busy himself for three years with state affairs.
‘In earlier times these people lived not according to the laws of
Buddha. But it happened that in the second year-naming ‘Great
Light,’ of song, (A.D. 458,) five beggar monks, from the kingdom
Kipin, went to this land, extended over it the religion of Buddha,
and with it his holy writings and images. They instructed the
people in the principles of monastic life, and so changed their
manners.’
Such is the account of Mexico, as given by the old Buddhist monk
Hoei-schin. What is there authentically known of ancient America and its
inhabitants which confirms his account?
In the Fusang tree we have, according to the opinion of Neumann, the
_Agave Americana_ or Great American Aloe, called by the Indians Maguey,
which is remarkably abundant in the plains of ‘New-Spain,’ and which
supplies so many of the wants of its inhabitants even at the present
day. An intoxicating drink, paper, thread, ropes, pins, and needles,
(from the thorns,) and clothing, are all furnished by it, so that a
traveler, observing the ease with which these are obtained, declares
that in Mexico the Maguey plant must first be exterminated ere the sloth
and idleness which now so generally afflict them, can be checked. Such a
curious plant, supplying to such an extent, and so exclusively, so many
of the needs of life, would naturally be the first object noted by an
explorer.
Very remarkable is the observation that ‘in this land no iron is found,
and that copper, gold, and silver, are not prized;’ from which we may
infer that they were known, and probably abundant, and that they ‘do not
serve as a medium of exchange in the market.’ It is needless to point
out the fact that this was the case not only in ancient Mexico, but also
in Peru, and that these were probably the only countries on the face of
the earth where ‘the precious metals’ were held in such indifference. Be
it observed that the monk Hoei-schin says nothing of the abundance of
gold and silver; he simply remarks as a curious fact, that they were not
used as a circulating medium.
In commenting on this record, Neumann judiciously reminds the reader
that the information given by Hoei-schin and other Buddhist travelers,
goes back into a period long anterior to the most remote periods alluded
to in the wavering legends of the Aztecs, resting upon uncertain
interpretations of hieroglyphics. One thing we know, that in America as
in Europe, one wave of emigration and conquest swept after another, each
destroying in a great measure all traces of its predecessor. Thus in
Peru, the Inca race ruled over the lower caste, and would in time have
probably extinguished it. But the Incas themselves were preceded by
another and more gifted race, since it is evident that these unknown
predecessors were far more gifted than themselves as architects. ‘Who
this race were,’ says Prescott, (_Conquest of Peru_, chap. i. pp. 12,
13, ed. 1847,) ‘and whence they came, may afford a tempting theme for
inquiry to the speculative antiquarian. But it is a land of darkness
that lies far beyond the domain of history.’
But as the American waves of conquest flowed South, it is no extravagant
hypothesis to assume that the race of men whom the monk encountered in
Mexico may possibly have had something in common with what was afterward
found further south, in the land of the Incas. One thing is certain;
that there is a singularly Peruvian air in all that this short narrative
tells us of the land ‘Fusang.’ Fortified places, he says, were unknown;
and Prescott speaks of the system of fortifications established through
the empire as though it had originated–as it most undoubtedly
did–with the Incas. Most extraordinary, however, is the remark of the
monk, that the houses are built with wooden beams. As houses the world
over are constructed in this manner, the remark might seem almost
superfluous. It is worth observing that the Peruvians built their houses
with wooden beams, and as Prescott tells us, ‘knew no better way of
holding the beams together than tying them with thongs of _maguey_.’ Now
be it observed, that the monk makes a direct transition from speaking of
the textile fiber and fabric of the maguey to the wooden beams of the
houses–a coincidence which has at least a color of proof. It may be
remarked, by the way, that this construction of houses ‘tied up,’ was
admirably adapted to a land of earthquakes, as in Mexico, and that
Prescott himself testifies that a number of them ’still survive, while
the more modern constructions of the conquerors are buried in ruins.’
Most strikingly Peruvian is the monk’s account of ‘the Kingdom and the
Nobles.’ The name Ichi, is strikingly suggestive of the natural Chinese
pronunciation of the word Inca. The stress laid on the three grades of
nobles, suggests the Peruvian Inca castes of lower grade, as well as the
Mexican; while the stately going forth of the king, ‘accompanied by
horns and trumpets,’ vividly recalls Prescott’s account of the
journeyings of the Peruvian potentate. The change of the color of his
garments according to the astronomical cycle, is, however, more
thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of the institutions of the
Children of the Sun than any thing which we have met in the whole of
this strange and obsolete record. ‘The ritual of the Incas,’ says
Prescott, ‘involved a routine of observances as complex and elaborate as
ever distinguished that of any nation, whether pagan or Christian. Each
month had its appropriate festival, or rather festivals. The four
principal _had reference to the Sun_, and commemorated the great periods
of his annual progress, the solstices and equinoxes. Garments of a
peculiar wool, and feathers of a peculiar color, were reserved to the
Incas. I can not identify the blue, red, yellow, and black, but it is
worthy of remark that the rainbow was his special attribute or
scutcheon, and that the mere fact that his whole life was passed in
accordance with the requisitions of astronomical festivals, and that
different colors were reserved to him and identified with him,
establishes a strange analogy with the narrative of Hoei-schin.
‘Of this subject of the cycles and change of colors corresponding to
astronomical mutations, it is worth noting that Montesinos[J] expressly
asserts that the Peruvians threw their years into cycles of ten; a
curious fact which has escaped the notice of Neumann, who conjectures
that ‘it may have been a subdivision of the Aztec period, or have even
been used as an independent period, as was indeed the case by the
Chinese, who term their notations ’stems.’ It is worthy of remark,’ he
adds, ‘that among the Mongols and Mantchous these ’stems’ are named
after colors which perhaps have some relation to the several colors of
the royal clothing in the cycles of ‘Fusang.’ These Tartaric tribes term
the first two years of the ten-year _cyclus_, ‘green and greenish,’ the
two next, ‘red and reddish,’ and soon, yellow and yellowish, white and
whitish, and finally, black and blackish.’
I am perfectly aware that Peru is not Mexico; but I beg the reader to
keep in mind my former observation, that Mexico _might_ have been at one
time peopled by a race who had Peruvian customs, which in after-years
were borne by them far to the South. The ancient mythology and
ethnography of Mexico presents, however, a mass of curious identities
with that of Asia. Both Mexico and Peru had the tradition of a deluge,
from which seven prisoners escaped; in the hieroglyphs of the former
country, these seven are represented as issuing from an egg.
It is remarkable that a Peruvian tradition declares the first
missionaries of civilization who visited them to have been white and
bearded. ‘This may remind us,’ says Prescott, ‘of the tradition existing
among the Aztecs, in respect to Quetzalcoatl, the good deity, who, with
a similar garb and aspect, came up the great plateau from the East, on a
like benevolent mission to the natives.’ In like manner the _Aesir_,
children of Light, or of the Sun, came from the East to Scandinavia, and
taught the lore of the Gods.
The Peruvian embalming of the royal dead takes us back to Egypt; the
burning of the wives of the deceased Incas, reveals India; the
singularly patriarchal character of the whole Peruvian policy is like
that of China in the olden time; while the system of espionage, of
tranquillity, of physical well-being, and the iron-like immovability in
which the whole social frame was cast, brings before the reader Japan,
as it even now exists. In fact, there is something strangely Japanese in
the entire _cultus_ of Peru, as described by all writers.
It is remarkable that the Supreme Being of the Peruvians was worshiped
under the names of _Pachacomac_, ‘he who sustains, or gives life to the
universe,’ and of _Viracocha_, ‘Foam of the Sea,’ a name strikingly
recalling that of Venus Aphrodite, the female second principle in all
ancient mythologies. Not less curious was the institution of the Vestal
Virgins of the Sun, who were buried alive if detected in an intrigue,
and whose duty it was to keep burning the sacred fire obtained at the
festival of Raymi.
‘Vigilemque sacraverat ignem Excubias divum aeternas.’
This fire was obtained as by the ancient Romans, on a precisely similar
occasion, by means of a concave mirror of polished metal. The Incas, in
order to preserve purity of race, married their own sisters, as did the
kings of Persia and other Oriental nations, urged by a like feeling of
pride. Among the Peruvians, _Mama_, signified ‘mother,’ while _Papa_,
was applied to the chief priest. ‘With both, the term seems to embrace
in its most comprehensive sense, the paternal relation, in which it is
more familiarly employed by most of the nations of Europe.’
It should be borne in mind, that as in the case of the Green Corn
festival, many striking analogies can be established between the Indian
tribes of North-America and the Peruvians. Gallatin has shown the
affinity of languages between all the American nations; at the remote
age when the monk visited Mexico, it is possible that the _first race_
which subsequently spread southward occupied the entire north.
Let the reader also remember that while the proofs of the existence or
residence of Orientals in America are extremely vague and uncertain, and
supported only by coincidences, (singular and inexplicable as the latter
may be,) the _antecedent probability_ of their having come hither, is
far stronger than that of the Norse discovery of this country, or even
that of Columbus himself. When we see an aggressive nation, with a
religious propaganda, boasting a commerce and gifted with astronomers
and geographers of no mean ability, (and the accuracy of the old Chinese
men of science has been frequently verified,) advancing century after
century in a certain direction, chronicling correctly every step made,
and accurately describing the geography and ethnography of a certain
region, we have no good ground to deny the last advance which their
authentic history claims to have made, however indisposed we may be to
admit it. One thing, at least, will probably be cheerfully conceded by
the impartial reader; that the subject well deserves further
investigation, and that it is to be hoped that it will obtain it from
those students who are at present so earnestly occupied in exploring the
mysteries of Oriental literature.