Chinese have been considered a branch of the Mongoloid race ever since anthropologists started classifying the races of mankind. There are many different opinions regarding the exact position of the Chinese. But from the time of Blumenbach to William Howells, who made his last statement in 1961, the racial status of the Chinese has been Mongoloid.
The physical anthropologists do not know much about the origin and evolution of the Mongoloids, although they have advanced a number of theories. It is generally acknowledged that the most representative physical traits of the Mongoloid are found in his physiognomy. These include the almond eye with the Mongoloid folds, the flattish forehead, the more or less depressed nasal root and the broad, heavily padded cheek bones. Compared with either the Caucasoid or the Negroid, the Mongoloid face looks flat.
According to the theory expounded by Professor Carleton Coon and supported by others, the Mongoloid face is a product of climate. Early Mongoloids were trapped in northeastern Siberia during the last glacial age. Man had invented both clothing and shelter but his face was left exposed. The severe cold led to sinus infections and pneumonia and wiped out those who were physically unfit. Natural protection was afforded those with smaller nasal apertures and with fatty layers in the sinus regions and around the eyes. The Mongoloid physiognomy evolved.
Professor Howells suggests that the Mongoloid face originated between 25,000 and 10,000 B.C., which would place it after the first migrations of Homo sapiens to the new world. He believes that about 600 generations would have been required for the development. However, this ingenious theory leaves such other physical characteristics as hair structure, pigmentation and the peculiar anatomy of the incisor teeth unexplained. The origin of the Mongoloids is still in doubt.
One of the most informative studies of the Chinese people's anthropometry was carried out by Professor Paul H. Stevenson, who measured more than 1,000 Chinese soldiers - most of them from the northern plain. The results were published by the Academia Sinica in 1938. Stevenson made 66 measurements and recorded such details as the skin color, hair structure and nasal form. This is reliable data about the bodily characteristics of people from Honan, Hopei and Shantung provinces where ancient Chinese civilization had its roots. The Stevenson study and others indicate that the Chinese are by no means homogeneous in their physical attributes but vary from locality to locality. Northern Chinese are taller than southern Chinese by averages ranging as high as 9 centimeters. Concentrations of long-headed people are found in Shantung and Kansu, while in Hunan, Hupeh and Fukien areas near the coast the people are broad-headed and have a cephalic index that may exceed 85. However, the textbooks give a cephalic index of a little under 80 for the southern Chinese and 81 for the northern Chinese. Stevenson gives the nasal index of northern Chinese as 68.66, while Shirokogoroff calculates the southern average at 93.19.
Cephalic and nasal data are incomplete and inconclusive. What they show is the variability of the physical characteristics of the Chinese people. This is confirmed by some osteological measurements. None of the three measurements - cephalic, nasal and osteological - indicates that the Mongoloid traits of the almond eye and high cheek bone are dominant among the Chinese. Stevenson made 921 observations on the eyes of soldiers. Only 30.7% showed a marked Mongoloid fold, 8.9% had no trace of it and the remaining 60.4% were intermediate cases. Of the 906 observations on eye-slits, 14% were classified as horizontal and 5.1% as markedly sloping. The rest - 80.9% - were only moderately or slightly sloping.
The malar bone provides a number of measurements. The maximum bizygomatic width is especially important and can be determined for both the living person and for skulls. In 1932, Biometrika published a preliminary classification of Asiatic races based on cranial measurements. T. L. Woo and G.M. Morant compared 26 series of cranial measurements, of which 18 were the skulls of Oriental or Mongoloid peoples. The authors divided the Orientals into three subgroups: northern Mongolian, Chinese and Japanese, and others (including inhabitants of Tibet, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, etc.). This tripartite division is based mainly on what biometricians call the "coefficient of racial likeness". The average value of bizygomatic measurements of the six series of northern Mongols ranged from 139.5 to 144 millimeters, the five series of the Chinese and Japanese from 132.2 to 134.7 and the seven series for other Orientals from 131 to 134.7. Five Indian series presented in the same paper ranged from 124.3 to 127.8.
The excessively large value of the northern Mongols may be considered an obvious characteristic of the Mongoloid race. Such peoples are now found mainly in the neighborhood of Lake Baikal; the settlement area is confined to central, eastern and southern Siberia well to the north of the great Gobi belt. Generally speaking, the average facial diameter of the Chinese and Japanese shows a drop of more than half a centimeter compared with the northern Mongols. This may be the result of environment or racial admixture or both; we do not know. Some years ago I collected these measurements of the bizygomatic diameter of Chinese cranial series from various datable periods, as follows:
- C.K.T. Upper Cave (1)
10,000 B.C.
143.0 mm
- Black's Prehistorical (32)
3,000-2,000 B.C.
132.2 mm
- Yin-Shang Series (20)
1,400-1,100 B.C.
136.9 mm
- Sui-T’ang Series (2)
700 A.D.
133.6 mm
- Modern Northern China (83)
1,900 A.D.
132.7 mm
The osteological laboratory of the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica has issued a preliminary report summarizing results of an extensive osteometical analysis of more than 300 Yin-Shang crania excavated in the Anyang area. Of these, 272 specimens were sufficiently well preserved for bizygomatic measurement.
Professor Yang Hsi-mei classified his materials in these five subgroups on a morphological basis:
- Subgroup 1, composed of 30 specimens, characterized by a broad and flat face with massive malar bones, narrow nasal bones and narrow nasal aperture, broad cranium, average cephalic index of 79.15.
- Subgroup 2, composed of 40 specimens, characterized by a narrow and short face with moderate malar bones and low orbits, prognathous maxilla, depressed nasal roots, low and broad nasal aperture, skull cap comparatively long, average cephalic index of 75.00.
- Subgroup 3, composed of 2 specimens, characterized by a narrow face with high and narrow nasal bridge, moderate malars and prominent browridges, head form definitely dolichocephalic, average cephalic index of 73.58.
- Subgroup 4, composed of 50 specimens, characterized by a flat face but not as broad as subgroup 1, with massive malars, spacious orbits, pinched nasal bone and keel-shaped skull, average cephalic index of 76.35.
- Subgroup 5, composed of 50 specimens, size of skull smaller than the other four subgroups, a narrow face but not as short as subgroup 2, skull cap narrow with protruding occipital, average cephalic index of 75.71.
The average bizygomatic measurements of the five groups are as follows:
| Subgroup Average | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Bizygomatic Diameter | 141.18 | 134.52 | 131.50 | 133.66 | 131.32 |
It is interesting to compare the averages of the bizygomatic measurements of the five subgroups with those given in Woo and Morant's paper for the three Oriental subgroups. Yang's subgroup with an average of 141.18 falls definitely within the range of the northern Mongols, while the mean values of Yang's subgroups 3 and 5 are below the modern Chinese average and only slightly above the minimum of the 'other Orientals'. Subgroup 4 is within the range of the modern Chinese and Japanese but subgroup 2 is above it.
Professor Yang Hsi-mei also announced the results of some of his comparative studies. In 1963, Professor Yang took some of the specimens from the Anyang collection to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington where he was helped to carryon a series of comparative studies - subgroup 1 with the Buriats, Chuckchis and Mongols of Urga; subgroup 2 with the Melanesians, Australoids and some African Negroes; subgroup 3 with American-British and Plains Indians; subgroup 4 with the Eskimoid; and subgroup 5 with some Hawaiian skulls. Professor Yang found some striking morphological resemblances in each study.
All this leads us to the making of the modern Chinese people. As a matter of general observation, it may be said that the continuous change in the physical characteristics of the Chinese people is faithfully reflected in the present day geographical variations recorded, although imperfectly, by many anthropometricians and craniologists. Four Chinese series of cranial measurements are discussed in Woo and Morant's paper on the classification of the Asiatic races. The first Chinese series was taken from Gordon Harrower's work, consisting of 31 male skulls of Fukien origin. The second series is based on data collected by the Japanese anthropologist Dr. Koganei in Chihli, Shantung and southern Manchuria in 1902. However, the 70 skulls were those of soldiers killed in war, so they are actually of unknown origin. The third and the fourth series were taken from Davidson Black's works. One consists of the measurements of 86 skulls from the northern provinces of China, the other the measurements of 64 male skulls of the late neolithic and early bronze age.
Applying the coefficient of racial likeness formula, Woo and Morant found that Koganei's group was more closely related to Harrower's Fukien collection. The CRL between these two series is 2.86. Black's modern series shows only a moderate association with Koganei's; the CRL is 5.6, which is a much larger figure than the 3.73 figure for the Japanese series and the Fukien series. The prehistoric series of Black shows only a slight association with the three modern Chinese series; the CRL between the prehistoric and any of the three modern Chinese series is more than 9 but less than 10.
If we compare these Chinese series with the other Oriental and non-Oriental races of Asia, we find some significant results. It is a fact that modern Chinese crania are differentiated from all the northern Mongolian series except those of the Chukchis, an isolated people located on the coast of the Bering Strait. But with other groups of Orientals in the south, the Chinese series demonstrates a relationship of mixed character.
Anthropologists find a rich documentation of written records and archeological remains for the cultural development of the Chinese during the historical period of the last 3,000 years. Data on the racial aspect are accumulating more slowly.
Describing the skeletal remains of what he called "the earliest moderns in East Asia (the upper cave finds at Chou-k'ou-tien), Franz Weidenreich concluded that the old male among them represents not only a very primitive form of modern man but also a type of primitive Mongoloid. He said that the recent northern Chinese, while more advanced in physical characteristics, are in fact traceable to ancestors such as the old man.
Weidenreich's conclusion has been widely discussed. Recently both Soviet and Chinese Communist archeologists have claimed the discovery of skeletal remains identified as Mongoloid but older than those of the CKT upper cave. Detailed verification is lacking. Davidson Black said in his investigation of north China prehistorical series that the neolithic Chinese show physical characteristics differing little from the modern inhabitants of north China.
With the study of the earliest historical crania nearing the final stage, we are in a position to amend Black's conclusions. The core of the Anyang data problem is that while comparative studies have made clear that the collection is composed of at least five morphologically distinct units, of which four can be identified with living ethnical groups, it is not clear which of the units was typical of the ruling class of the Yin-Shang dynasty. Virtually all of the skulls in the Anyang collection were excavated from what archeologists call "cranial pits". In other words, these skulls were offerings to the departed spirits of the masters of the royal tombs. The bodies of the masters themselves were destroyed by tomb robbers long before the excavation took place. In oracle bone inscriptions are found many records of the Yin-Shang people fighting against foreign invaders on both the northwestern and southeastern borders. The records indicate that the heads of captured invaders often were chopped off and offered to the spirits of departed ancestors, a practice which was highly fashionable among warriors of the Bronze Age all over the Eurafrican and Asian continents.
It is possible that sacrificial victims might have included members of the royal clan and the descendents of royalty. This is a question that should be investigated by social scientists. For the present, we can note that in the latter part of the 2nd millennium B.C., north China was a meeting place for a variety of peoples: Eskimoid, Mongoloid, Australoid, Negroid, Caucasoid and a number of others. The Eskimoid and Mongoloid are the numerically dominant groups; next are the various Melanesian types; the smaller headed skulls are not precisely identifiable. These identifications indicate that the Chinese of this period were already in a melting pot.
For the dynasties that followed, we have more historical data regarding Chinese migrations both within China proper and in adjacent areas. Successive invasions, mainly from the north, gave impetus to most migrations. In every case, the result was an intensification of hybridization among clans, tribes and nations. There were at least four major population movements in the historical period. The first took place when the Chou dynasty replaced Shang in the 12th century B.C. This was followed by the Chankuo movement that began in the 5th century B.C. and lasted until the late 3rd century B.C., The best recorded are the Yungchia movement in the 4th century A.D. and the Chigk'ang movement of the 12th century A.D. These movements started with foreign invasions from the north. The remnant indigenous people in north China absorbed the invaders from the steppes. Emigrants from the Yellow River basin who crossed the Yangtze River mixed to some degree with the indigenous populations of the south.
Volkerwanderungs are not unlike atmospheric circulation; the principal movements mentioned here were typhoons or hurricanes. In addition, there were seasonal winds and gentle breezes between the stormy years. In continental China, Volkerwanderung is still present.
One of the results of this perpetual motion is the highly hybridized character of the Chinese of the present day, homogenized by a unique culture. Two questions remain to be answered. What happened to the northern Mongols, whose ancestral type not only made a major contribution to the sacrificial pits in the royal tombs of the Yin-Shang period but also produced a Genghis Khan for world historians to ponder and created a dynasty for the Chinese people to endure? They seem to have left no noticeable somatic impression on the Chinese population despite their philandering activities of nearly a century.
The second question concerns the Melanesian elements found in the Anyang skeletal remains. The Melanesians were present in the neighborhood of the North China Plain in Shang times. Were they mixed with other racial elements in the Chinese population?
These are questions for more detailed investigation. But from the data we have reviewed, one point is clear: If the northern Mongols and the Melanesians have vanished from mainland China today, it is not due to any political reason or to race prejudice, which is wholly a modern concept. Everybody knows the famous Confucian saying: "Education without discrimination." This helped the Chinese statesmen of more than 2,000 years in forging many racial elements into one people and many local cultures into one civilization. If the northern Mongols and the southern Melanesians have disappeared somatologically, the reasons were mainly environ mental.
I am using "environmental" in its broadest sense, covering both physical and social aspects. There is little doubt that in China, as everywhere else, group mores and individual variations in man's ability to adapt to climatic ecological changes, and to the constant new demands of an active society and a dynamic polity, have played a fundamental role in the selective process. By continually molding and remolding the physical as well as the mental character of the people this process developed a modern type of Chinese quite different from their neolithic ancestors. This divergence has been convincingly demonstrated in the study of Woo and Morant. Their application of the CRL formula shows that the degree of association among the three modern series of Chinese crania is much closer than any of the three compared with the prehistoric group.
In spite of the wide range of anthropometrical variations in surveys of living inhabitants, a more or less convergent physical type seems to be emerging in continental China. This inevitably will be accelerated by the quickened pulse of volkerwanderung in East Asia. The recent population movement is a repetition of the many historical marches recorded in the Chinese chronicles. Its consequence is likely to be an intensification of the hybridizing process of the immigrants with the native born along the migratory route. If racists should insist on the existence of a pure Chinese stock, let me quote what Franz Weidenreich had to say more than 20 years ago. He asked: "Who are the individuals who produce the hybrids anew each day?" His answer is well known. There has never been any "pure race" on this planet of ours. This is confirmed in the racial history of the Chinese people.