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SOME PHYSICAL TRAITS OF THE CHINESE OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C.
D. J. FINN.
In the last issue of "The Naturalist," some account was given of what might be learned from the most ancient type of Chinese characters as to the occurrence of the epicanthal fold in the eyes of the people who then Those characters were, it were the possessors of typical Chinese culture. was explained, somewhat earlier than 1,000 B.C.—and as they evidently had seen some time of development already-one might fairly take their evidence as holding good for the middle of the second millennium B.C. This present article is in the same strain and in fact for a Chinese grammarian might prove that already a very considerable development lay behind the use of the symbols, but we shall take it that the forms indicated here hold certainly for the same dates as before.
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It will help us greatly to reconstitute the then Chinese facial features if now we discuss the nose. The present writing uses the symbol A PI: this is not a mere pictogram but is a combination of a phonetic symbol Pl with an older pictograph now read as TSZ and understood as Oneself" or From
Naturally," etc. Now this latter is known to have been originally the picture of a nose ings are explained by the supposed importance of embryo and in a general idea of prominence breathing.*
or
and its specialized mean- that feature in the human
attached to the organ of
In the characters of the Yin (Shang) dynasty we find several varieties of the form as follows:-See Figure 1.†
and these give us a series of evolution to the modern form after this fashion: See Figure 2.
Now for the interpretation of this, it is obvious that in the older forms the nostrils are indicated very distinctly suggesting the dilated type with the base of the nose making an obtuse angle with the upper lip so as to be fully visible in the frontal view. It is a type often found associated with hot climates and some explain it as cooling protective adaptation. Nowa- days Chinese scholars are finding traces in early Chinese traditions of a life spent in warm, jungle lands to the south where the fire god played a great part in their culture, ** However that lies beyond my competence and some reader may find it an interesting line of research. The in-coming of the Chinese from the West into the Yellow River Basin is on many counts falling more and more into suspicion.
Above the nostrils is a triangular area which sometimes has an added compartment below it. This seems to represent the fleshy apex and the part
* Already in the bone characters we find, obviously meaning from the East REAY, I. p. 179, No. 378; which indicates a long grammatical development.
(+ See 殷虛文類編 Bk.4).
(** REAY, Vol. II, p. 366).
THE
HONG KONG NATURALIST
A QUARTERLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL
PRINCIPALLY FOR HONG KONG AND SOUTH CHINA.
EDITED BY
G. A. C. HERKLOTS, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.L.S.
READER IN BIOLOGY, THE UNIVERSITY, HONG KONG.
VOLUME III.
pages 1-292.
WITH NINE COLOURED PLATES AND NUMEROUS
PHOTOGRAPHS AND FIGURES IN THE TEXT.
HONG KONG
The Newspaper Enterprise Limited.
1932.
The Hong Kong Naturalist.