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Does Chinese Civilization Come From Ancient Egypt?
Foreign Policy ^
| 02 September 2016
| Ricardo Lewis
Posted on 09/05/2016 2:46:13 PM PDT by Theoria
A new study has energized a century-long debate at the heart of China's national identity.
On a cool Sunday evening in March, a geochemist named Sun Weidong gave a public lecture to an audience of laymen, students, and professors at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, the capital city of the landlocked province of Anhui in eastern China. But the professor didnt just talk about geochemistry. He also cited several ancient Chinese classics, at one point quoting historian Sima Qians description of the topography of the Xia empire traditionally regarded as Chinas founding dynasty, dating from 2070 to 1600 B.C. Northwards the stream is divided and becomes the nine rivers, wrote Sima Qian in his first century historiography, the Records of the Grand Historian. Reunited, it forms the opposing river and flows into the sea.
In other words, the stream in question wasnt Chinas famed Yellow River, which flows from west to east. There is only one major river in the world which flows northwards. Which one is it? the professor asked. The Nile, someone replied. Sun then showed a map of the famed Egyptian river and its delta with nine of its distributaries flowing into the Mediterranean. This author, a researcher at the same institute, watched as audience members broke into smiles and murmurs, intrigued that these ancient Chinese texts seemed to better agree with the geography of Egypt than that of China.
In the past year, Sun, a highly decorated scientist, has ignited a passionate online debate with claims that the founders of Chinese civilization were not in any sense Chinese but actually migrants from Egypt.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: china; egypt; trade
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1
posted on
09/05/2016 2:46:14 PM PDT
by
Theoria
To: Theoria
2
posted on
09/05/2016 2:46:30 PM PDT
by
Theoria
(I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
To: SunkenCiv
3
posted on
09/05/2016 2:46:52 PM PDT
by
Theoria
(I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
To: Theoria
Lot more ancient trade in the ancient world than anyone has realized yet.
4
posted on
09/05/2016 2:51:49 PM PDT
by
GraceG
(Only a fool works hard in an environment where hard work is not appreciated...)
To: Theoria
Maybe they were talking of the St. Johns river.
5
posted on
09/05/2016 2:58:32 PM PDT
by
yarddog
(Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
To: Theoria
How do you say, "So let it be written, so let it be done.", in Mandarin?
6
posted on
09/05/2016 2:58:49 PM PDT
by
BigEdLB
(Take it Easy, Chuck. I'm Not Taking it Back -- Donald Trump)
To: Theoria
All the geographic agreement possible means nothing - if the human DNA does not bear the human migration from Egypt to China.
7
posted on
09/05/2016 3:03:27 PM PDT
by
drpix
To: yarddog
Allagash
Orinoco
New River
caddis the elder
8
posted on
09/05/2016 3:04:15 PM PDT
by
palmerizedCaddis
(I'm not sure if Obama is worse than Carter, just that Barry is a lot dumber.)
To: Theoria
CORRECTION
bear OUT the human migration
9
posted on
09/05/2016 3:04:32 PM PDT
by
drpix
To: SunkenCiv
10
posted on
09/05/2016 3:04:43 PM PDT
by
indcons
(Blue Lives Matter.)
To: Theoria
Except as a rule Egyptians didn’t found colonies or emigrate to other lands. According to their religion they couldn’t be reincarnated unless they were interred in Egypt.
11
posted on
09/05/2016 3:09:35 PM PDT
by
SeeSharp
To: drpix
On the other hand....the rulers don’t need to be the populace.
12
posted on
09/05/2016 3:10:57 PM PDT
by
lepton
("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
To: Theoria
There’s a “the Chinese are in de Nile” joke hidden in this somewhere...
13
posted on
09/05/2016 3:14:34 PM PDT
by
chajin
("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
To: drpix
All the geographic agreement possible means nothing - if the human DNA does not bear the human migration from Egypt to China.Yes, it should be easy to determine if there's anything to it. Which I doubt.
To: drpix
All the geographic agreement possible means nothing - if the human DNA does not bear the human migration from Egypt to China.
It may not actually. If not many Egyptians migrated to China The genetic anomalies may get pushed below natural variation. They may have been able to insert themselves into Chinese culture without changing the genes much. E.g., what if no Europeans followed Cortes to the New World? He had still conquered Mexico and Aztec culture would have fallen/changed significantly, but there would be few Europeans to breed with.
15
posted on
09/05/2016 3:42:28 PM PDT
by
ronnietherocket3
(Mary is understood by the heart, not study of scripture.)
To: Theoria
There is only one major river in the world which flows northwards. Which one is it? The Rhine?
16
posted on
09/05/2016 3:47:39 PM PDT
by
glorgau
To: glorgau
Possum Creek?
Oh, dang it, that one flows downhill, not northwards.
17
posted on
09/05/2016 3:54:19 PM PDT
by
blueunicorn6
("A crack shot and a good dancer")
To: Theoria
Nu? אחרי כל כך הרבה שנים We can buy anything we want at Wal-Mart except another Exodus!
18
posted on
09/05/2016 4:01:32 PM PDT
by
golux
To: Theoria
Eh...
Mere speculation that the supposed translation means what is claimed. There are certainly great rivers in what is now Russia that flow north, and they are much closer to China than the Nile.
19
posted on
09/05/2016 4:04:20 PM PDT
by
jjotto
("Ya could look it up!")
To: Theoria
Interesting since when I visited a traveling Egyptian exhibit when I was young the first thought I had was... they look Asian!
20
posted on
09/05/2016 4:52:18 PM PDT
by
TexasFreeper2009
(You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, R)
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