n 3000 and 2000 B. C., they found the
country already occupied by various wild tribes whom they considered
as savages. In their early traditions they describe these tribes
respectively by four words: those of the south are called _Man_
(a word with the silk radical); those on the east, _Yi_ (with
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the bow radical); those on the north, _Tih_ (represented by
a dog and fire); and those on the west, _Jung_ ("war-like,
fierce," the symbol for their ideograph being a spear). Each of
these names points to something distinctive. Some of these tribes
were, perhaps, spinners of silk; some, hunters; and all of them,
formidable enemies.

The earliest book of history opens with conflicts with aborigines.
There can be no question that the slow progress made by the invaders
in following the course of those streams on which the most ancient
capitals of the Chinese were subsequently located was owing to the
necessity of fighting their way. Shun, the second sovereign of
whose reign there is record (2200 B. c.), is said to have waged
war with San Miao, three tribes of _miaotze_ or aborigines,
a term still applied to the independent tribes of the southwest.
Beaten in the field, or at least suffering a temporary check, he
betook himself to the rites of religion, making offerings and praying
to Shang-ti, the supreme ruler. "After forty days," it is stated,
"the natives submitted."

In the absence of any explanation it may be concluded that during
the suspension of hostilities negotiations were proceeding which
resulted not in the destruction of the natives, but in their
incorporation with their more civilised neighbours. This first
recorded amalgamation of the kind was doubtless an instance of
a process of growth that continued for many centuries, resulting
in the absorption of all the native tribes on the north of the
Yang-tse and of most of those on the south. The expanding state
was eventually composed of a vast body of natives who submitted
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to their civilised conquerors, much as the people of Mexico and
Peru consented to be ruled by a handful of Spaniards.[*]

[Footnote *: To this day, the bulk of the people in those countries
show but small traces of Spanish blood. Juarez, the famous dictator,
was a pure Indian.]

As late as the Christian era any authentic account of permanent
conquests in China to the south of the "Great River" is still wanting,
though warlike expeditions in that direction were not infrequent