with whom the Chinese fought, as they did with the wild animals and the
dense vegetation, but with whom they also commingled and intermarried,
and among whom they planted colonies as centres from which to spread
their civilization.


The K'un-lun Mountains

With reference to the K'un-lun Mountains, designated in Chinese
mythology as the abode of the gods--the ancestors of the Chinese
race--it should be noted that these are identified not with the range
dividing Tibet from Chinese Turkestan, but with the Hindu Kush. That
brings us somewhat nearer to Babylon, and the apparent convergence
of the two theories, the Central Asian and the Western Asian, would
seem to point to a possible solution of the problem. Nü Kua, one of
the alleged creators of human beings, and Nü and Kua, the first two
human beings (according to a variation of the legend), are placed
in the K'un-lun Mountains. That looks hopeful. Unfortunately, the
K'un-lun legend is proved to be of Taoist origin. K'un-lun is the
central mountain of the world, and 3000 miles in height. There is
the fountain of immortality, and thence flow the four great rivers
of the world. In other words, it is the Sumêru of Hindu mythology
transplanted into Chinese legend, and for our present purpose without
historical value.

It would take up too much space to go into details of this interesting
problem of the origin of the Chinese and their civilization, the
cultural connexions or similarities of China and Western Asia in
pre-Babylonian times, the origin of the two distinct culture-areas
so marked throughout the greater part of Chinese history, etc., and