Antiquity of the Chinese Jews
Seventy years[1] (seventy- “All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons “ Ex 1:5), inscription) after being taken in captivity in 586 BCE, the Israelites in Babylon (today Iraq and Iran), became free men and were allowed to wander wherever they wanted. And wandering they did. Some of them returned to Jerusalem, with a purpose to rebuild the temple, others were so well entrenched in the local life in Babylon that they preferred to stay. The majority stayed. Though the prophet Ezra enticed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem, he also issued an edict that, if implemented would change the life of many of the Israelites. Ezra decreed that to keep the purity of the Israelites, the men were to separate from their foreign wives. They were to leave with only wife of Jewish birth but the sons and daughters of all their wives, Jewish or not, were welcomed to return. That was a tall request at the time. Many of the clerics, the Levites and the Cohanim had many wives, most of them not of Jewish origin.
It seems that seventy in the stone inscriptions (1489) was a reference to the Israelites, and indirectly, a reference to the relations with the Chinese. “After the death of Confucius, seventy of his disciples scattered to various kingdoms. At The higher level/successful ones became teachers, tutors, high ranking officers/officials. At the The lower level [ones ] befriended teachers, scholars and local officials while others disappeared never to be seen again. …“ [Shiji : Rulin lie chuan 121, also Eugene Chou, Mingjia 35).
Weighing on the gravity of this decree, the Israelite community in Babylon was divided. The least affected by this decree, were ready to return, the wealthier class preferred to stay and engage in commerce, a fact that played an important role in later development of Jewish history, while those most affected, the priests, dispersed and spread Judaism to the four corners of the world.
Some of them migrated South and West and reached the heart of Africa, where only recently they were discovered that they had Jewish roots. The Falasha in Ethiopia proved to be of Jewish origin and Israel resettled them in Israel. Other migrated East, and reached India. The tribe of Menashe is a good example. They have lived in isolation for centuries observing the biblical mizvot of the Torah. “Most of the customs, ceremonies and religious practices of the Arabic speaking Jews in India followed the Baghdad rite, which can claim to be one of the oldest in Jewry. Outside the Holy Land the most ancient settlement was that of the Jews of Iraq” (On the banks of Ganga pg. 188). They were also resettled in Israel.
Lost were the traces of those Israelites that migrated north from India alongside the Hindu –Kush mountain ranges. They were called the Lost Tribes. Many articles and books have been written about them, more fictional than factual, yet the discovery of an entire Jewish community in China in 1605 had raised some interesting questions and theories. How and when did they come to China? Who were they? How did they preserve their Jewish identity? Were they really one of the lost tribes? These are just a few of the questions that had been explored in numerous publications, yet the answers are still elusive.
In order to answer these questions, we need to cross reference the history of Central Asia with that of China, from both Chinese and Western sources. More specifically we need to trace the interaction between China and the West in this region. Central Asia hosted the most active trade routes in antiquity and all the land routes passed through what is today Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Chinese called this area the Western Regions, or Xiyu . Numerous tribes of unknown origin lived there which was conquered by Alexander the Great of Macedon in 330 BCE. After a short-lived Greek conquest (325 BCE) this crossroad region was overrun by a number of different tribes. Most notable was Parthian of which very little is known from Western literature more from, yet untapped, Chinese literature.
On the heels of the Parthians (anxi) were the Yuezhi (Kushan) people from the Northern borders of the Taklimakan Desert. In 128 BCE a Chinese emissary noted that the Yuezhi had occupied Sogdina with the largest city in Jianshi (Samarkand today). In 126 BCE Yuezhi conquered the kingdom of Gaofu (high plateau- Kabul?) of which The Records of the Latter Han Dynasty) commented that: “The way of life of people of gaofu is similar to that of Tianzhu (India), but they are weak and easy to subdue. They are excellent traders and are very wealthy.” (Hou Hanshu ch. 88
No sooner had the Yuezhi settled, the Xiongnu (who later became the Huns) defeated them and forced the Yuezhi to move to Daxia (Bactria). Lacking of a strong “great chief”, the kingdom split among five xihou (Allied Princes). Among the allied princes was the King of Fergana (Dawan) ruling over a kingdom that was made up of independent tribes, many of them unidentified. Fergana was the farthest kingdom from China, and a good place to hide from the turbulent Central Asian nomadic warriors. The Chinese called the people of Fergana and Kashgar (Afghanistan today) Se (color) most likely because of the color of their eye and hair. Later in the Mongol Dynasty (1279-1368) every foreigner was called semu- colored eyes. They spoke various dialects in addition to the lingua franca of the time an East Iranian dialect (Stein). The Se overran Sogodina (the country north of the Wei River, that is north of the Oxus) and then Bactria (Daxia) between 140-130 BCE that was inhibited by nomad tribes among them indentified in Chinese annals as wusun, and se (Saka, Saraucae) (Grousset, pg 29). The tribes lived in relative peace and isolation, engaged in agriculture, domestic husbandry, raising grapes for wine, but they were best known for breading the finest warhorses.
The fame of these warhorses was already known to King Solomon in antiquity and later became highly prized by the nomad warriors and China. King Solomon was interested in horses, especially warhorses (I Kings 4:26), and he had also received some as gifts from visiting foreigners (I kings 10:24; 2 Chr. 9:28). He also imported horses from Egypt “and the king’s traders received them from Keveh (Kue) at a price”(I Kings 10:28). Biblical scholars placed (Keveh) Kue in southern Anatolia and pointed out that although no horses were bred there they brought them in from the north.
Those warhorses were bought in Kucha in the kingdom of Fergana (Northern Afghanistan today). Kucha was the marketplace for “heavenly horses” in ancient times and gradually developed into the geographical crossroad of the Silk Road (Caravan Road). The north road led to Tianshan Mountains and the south route led to Khotan , Dunhuang and eventually to Changan (Xian today), the capital of ancient China By the second century CE , Kucha had a population of 150,000 and three centuries later its population doubled (Liu and Chen 1996). The people of Fergana were the prime breeders of warhorses and they sold their horses to traders from far away places. Trade between China and the West was not direct but through many intermediaries mostly of Central Asian origin. Among those buyers were the traders of Solomon in antiquity and the Chinese military. China needed the warhorses to combat the persistent Huns that were harassing the Chinese borderland and they were ready to go to war to obtain them.
In 108 CE, a Chinese emissary came to negotiate the purchase of warhorses with the King of Fergana. The King reasoned that China was too far to offer any protection to his kingdom and any deal with the Chinese would bring the Huns wrath. He ordered the emissary killed. In retaliation, China dispatched Deputy Commander Li Guangli to Fergana with the intent to conquer and kill the King. With the fall of Fergana the interaction between China and the West under Chinese control.
Indirect contact between China and the West through the Western Region dates back to antiquity. Chinese records indicate that Laozi, the founder of Daoism in China spent the last twenty years of his life in the Xiyu in the 7th century BCE. Though he did not say much about his experience there, his writing had exhibited some similarities to biblical wisdom literature. He wrote a five thousand-character book of wisdom that rivaled the bible in wisdom and depth. Though the Book of the Way and Virtue (Daodejing) had been translated to almost all the languages in the world, every translator would agree with the assessment that it is untranslatable. Laozi wrote about such concepts of Dao is One, Dao is intangible; it is beyond human comprehension etc. abstract concepts that were strange at the time in China. In addition he had inserted a chapter in his book that was contrary to the conditions in China. He wrote about a small country with few people that make weapons but do not use them. These people enjoyed unprecedented security and prosperity, that despite having an army, they have never engaged in war. The neighbors can hear each other dog barking and they died of old age (chapter 80). Conditions like these were very uncharacteristic in China and it seems to have emanated the conditions in Jerusalem under the rule of King Solomon (c.a. 960 BCE)
Another sage that went to explore the Western Region was Mencius (372-289 BCE), the second most influential Chinese sage after Confucius. He had also spent twenty years “beyond the borders” (Western Region), and had encountered a tribe that he described them as: “though among them are wicked people, but if they fast and bathe, then they can sacrifice to Shangdi” (Legge 1975, 330). Shangdi was the Chinese Almighty equivalent only the Israelite Elohim (Weisz 2008, ch.1). Evidently Mencius came upon a tribe that practiced a religion that believed in one God and had to purify the body before praying. He did not identify the tribe; neither did Chinese nor Western sources. But, Biblical Hebrew literature had already mentioned such a custom among the Levites and the Cohanim (Priests): “Wash yourselves, cleanse yourselves, put your evil deeds out of my sight!” (Carmi 1981, 159; Isaiah 1:16). The Levites and the Cohanim (priests- sons of Aaron) had to purify and cleanse before making their offerings to Elohim/(Shangdi: “For this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you, of all your sins before the Lord. And when the priests and the people… hear the name of the Elohim come from the mouth of the high priest, in sanctity and purity, they bow down and prostrate themselves” (Carmi 1981, 213).
Two hundred years later in 104 BCE, the Chinese expeditionary force of Deputy Commander Li Guangli encountered a tribe in Fergana, describing them having: “big eyes, high noses and [distinctive] headdress” (Jian 1964, 198)[2]. “Big eyes and high nose” have long been attributes associated with the Israelites and the Jews, and headdress or turban was a common head cover among the Central Asian people. But apparently the headdress described by the Chinese was not an ordinary turban, nor was it a commonly worn head cover, but a distinctive one that caught the eyes of the Chinese Deputy Commander. Such a distinctive headdress was worn by the Levites and Cohanim to fulfill the mizvot of the Torah: “And for the sons of Aaron [priests/cohanim] you shall make coats and girdles and caps, you shall make them for glory and beauty” (Exodus 28:40)… “and bind the caps on them” (Exodus 29:9)… “and the turban of fine linen and the caps of fine linen” (Exodus 39:28} While the High Priest, Cohen Hagadol wore “the crown on his head… a turban-diadem of the fine linen, for dignity and beauty” (Carmi 1981, 212).
Chinese sources tell of of that contact between the Roman Empire and Han China reached the borderland of China in the first century BCE. Excavations in the 1980’s in the village of Liqian (Young Chang Prefecture, Gansu Province) revealed buildings, a temple, a street and an amphitheater modeled on ancient Roman town. Chinese historians researching the biographies of Chen Yang and others in the Han Shu focused their attention on a battle between Chinese border guards and military garrison that utilized Roman fighting techniques in 36 BCE. Both Chinese and European historians think that this garrison was the remnants of the Roman army of 50,000 legionaires that Crassus dispatched in 53 BCE to Central Asia. Chinese history mentions that the Roman garrison was surrounded and defeated and about 6000 soldiers disappeared. The excavations indicated that this garrison settled at the foot of the Mountain Qilian and took on the name of Liqian. At that time that how China called Rome.
Chinese sources tell of of that contact between the Roman Empire and Han China reached the borderland of China in the first century BCE. Excavations in the 1980’s in the village of Liqian (Young Chang Prefecture, Gansu Province) revealed buildings, a temple, a street and an amphitheater modeled on ancient Roman town. Chinese historians researching the biographies of Chen Yang and others in the Han Shu focused their attention on a battle between Chinese border guards and military garrison that utilized Roman fighting techniques in 36 BCE. Both Chinese and European historians think that this garrison was the remnants of the Roman army of 50,000 legionaires that Crassus dispatched in 53 BCE to Central Asia. Chinese history mentions that the Roman garrison was surrounded and defeated and about 6000 soldiers disappeared. The excavations indicated that this garrison settled at the foot of the Mountain Qilian and took on the name of Liqian. At that time that how China called Rome.
Ancient Han maps place Liqian administrative center near the village of today Liqian. Several villagers today still resemble Ancient Roman villagers and are called “Roman descendants”.
Fa Xian, Buddhist monk who traveled to India in 399 CE in search of Budha crossed the Himalyas into India and from there he traveled north to the "Sandy Desert" and in 404 CE reached the Middle Kingdom. He left us a description of a tribe the custom of which resembles some tenets of the Torah. "The only exception is that of the Chandalas. That is the name of those who are wicked men, and live apart from others. When they enter the gate of a city or market-place, they strike a piece of wood to make themselves known and avoid them and so not come in contact with them. In that country they do not keep pigs and fowls, and do not sell live cattle; in the market there are no butchers' shop and no dealing with intoxicating drink. In buying and selling they use cowries. Only the Chandalas are fishermen and hunters and sel flesh meat." (Travels of Faxian ch 16). - Fa xian might have called these people Chandalas - outcast/lowest cast in India- but his description of these people in the Middle Kingdom is closely associated with following the dietary laws of the Torah. )
Local Afghan oral tradition recounted that some of the people who dwelt in the mountains of Ghor were called Benei Israel or Benei Afghana. Very little was known about them, the belief was that they came from India in antiquity and kept for themselves. (Bellew, Henry 193). This belief was reinforced by Prophet Isaiah’s who believed that Israelites lived in all corners of the world including the “land of Sinim”: “Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (49:12). For a long time Biblical scholars indicated that ”the land of Sinim” referred to a place in Anatolia, because they could not fathom a connection between biblical places and China.
Local Afghan oral tradition recounted that some of the people who dwelt in the mountains of Ghor were called Benei Israel or Benei Afghana. Very little was known about them, the belief was that they came from India in antiquity and kept for themselves. (Bellew, Henry 193). This belief was reinforced by Prophet Isaiah’s who believed that Israelites lived in all corners of the world including the “land of Sinim”: “Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (49:12). For a long time Biblical scholars indicated that ”the land of Sinim” referred to a place in Anatolia, because they could not fathom a connection between biblical places and China.
Yet, when all these circumstantial evidence is juxtaposed with the Chinese accounts, the existence of an Israelite tribe at the outskirts of China cannot be denied. Laozi’s depiction of the existence of monotheism, Mencius description of a tribe that cleanses before praying, the multi -ethnic region of Fergana where Indians Sogodians, Khotanese, Turfanese Chinese and other unidentified tribes lived alongside Kucheans (Liu and Chen 1996), and the sighting of a tribe that observed the laws of the Torah, all this pointed to the existence of an Israelite community that adhered to Jeremiah’s prophecy: “Build houses and dwell in them and plant garden and eat fruit of them, take wives and beget sons and daughters… multiply there and not be diminished. “ (On the banks of Ganga pg. 188).
Not just that but they also settled in valleys of remote area where they lived by the mizvot of the Torah
[1] Seventy years in exile, seventy descendants of Jacob, seventy nations of the world from Adam to the Diaspora, seventy clans returned to China in the Song Dynasty.
[2] It is unclear if he saw headdress, a cap, a diadem, a hairdo or even perhaps males with the tefilin on. What he had seen must have been quite out of the ordinary to mention it.
KABUL (Reuters) - A cache of ancient Jewish scrolls from northernAfghanistan that has only recently come to light is creating a storm among scholars who say the landmark find could reveal an undiscovered side of medieval Jewry.
The 150 or so documents, dated from the 11th century, were found in Afghanistan's Samangan province and most likely smuggled out -- a sorry but common fate for the impoverished and war-torn country's antiquities.
Israeli emeritus professor Shaul Shaked, who has examined some of the poems, commercial records and judicial agreements that make up the treasure, said while the existence of ancient Afghan Jewry is known, their culture was still a mystery.
"Here, for the first time, we see evidence and we can actually study the writings of this Jewish community. It's very exciting," Shaked told Reuters by telephone from Israel, where he teaches at the Comparative Religion and Iranian Studies department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The hoard is currently being kept by private antique dealers in London, who have been producing a trickle of new documents over the past two years, which is when Shaked believes they were found and pirated out of Afghanistan in a clandestine operation.
It is likely they belonged to Jewish merchants on the Silk Road running across Central Asia, said T. Michael Law, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford University's Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
"They might have been left there by merchants travelling along the way, but they could also come from another nearby area and deposited for a reason we do not yet understand," Law said.
No comments:
Post a Comment