Book Title: Ashtapad Maha Tirth 02
Author(s): Rajnikant Shah, Others
Publisher: USA Jain Center America NY

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Page 398
________________ Records of early Han history 1. The known facts from Han history records From the recent archaeology findings, there were wide spread settlements all over China, including Tibet, over 6,000 years ago. One could use the phrase '10,000 stars' to describe the situation. There were even some primitive written languages, one of them at Bon Po, which I had personally observed, Note that the settlement in Tibet may or may not be by Tibetans. a) The relation between Shang people and Jian-Tibetan At the time around 1,400 B.C., there was a semi-Tibetan people called 'Jian' mixed with Shang people. From the oracles, one see phrases as 'Today we captured 50 Jians' frequently. Certainly, some Shang people were captured by Jian, but not recorded. By the way, the Tibetan people were considered to be the descendent of Jian by some scholars in the past. Today, Jian and Tibetan are classified as one race, Jian-Tibetan people. Anyway, we are satisfied with the closeness of Tibetan and Jian. One of the Kings of Shang Dynasty had a name Jian-Chia. For the convenience of the reader, I will use English alphabet A, B,.. to replace the Han ordering Chia, Yee,... So, let us call this King Jian-A. There were possible explanations of his name, may be his mother was a Jian, may be he was a Jian conqueror, i.e., he killed a lot of Jian, and was famous for his acts. However, there was no record of big battle between Shang people and Jian people at that time. I would rather think that his mother was a Jian, In any case, there were some inter-marriage between Shang people and Jian people who lived near each other. Let us consider the life style of the two people. The name Jian has a root in Yion (goat, the animal 'sheep' was transplanted to Han people from Northwest during Han Dynasty, sheep was called Hu-Yion, and later Mion - Yion), which indicates that Jian was likely to be goat raising nomad. This observation checks with the later records of Jian people. On the other hand, Shang people were semi-nomad with settlements, as indicated by - 1. large amount of animal bones discovered in the sites of Shang people, 2. the animal decorations of bronzes, the associations of Yion (goat root) in Han Characters of beauty, taste good, etc., 3. the fame that Shang people ate a lot of meat, 4. the constant movements of Shang people, one Shang King moved his capital 8 times. Ref. Vol. X Ch. 69 B Pg. 4479-4481 Records of early Han history 342

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