Lock the Red Sea

Author: Su San
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-10-01
Features: "When I first heard that Chinese culture originated from the Middle East, I was very angry, especially when I saw the author was a woman's name, and a sense of betrayal and treason arose. As a result, I avoided Su San's works for so long. But I finally read them, and this time, I felt a complete difference. I want to thank Su San." Chinese history is the glorious part of human history. Only when it is placed in the context of all humanity does its brilliance become more prominent. The days when it was confined to an old room and appreciated in isolation are over. —Archaeologist Li Ji, "Revisiting the Reconstruction of Ancient Chinese History" (1962)
Since October 23, 2003, I have been driven by the accidental reading of a book about the Sanxingdui culture to explore the origins of civilization, and it has been a year since then. In this year, I wrote three books. At the beginning of the next year, I wrote this fourth book, and I believe it is the conclusion of this hasty system. On the macro level, there is no significant addition left, and everything is laid before the public: (approximately) race, language, roads, and religion have all been "explored."
In the past year, although there were minor setbacks and fluctuations, the overall progress was quite smooth, even exceeding my expectations. At the same time, I received support from Chinese communities around the world, and some regions have already contacted me about publishing outside mainland China. This also prompted me to reflect: how should I classify my work? What kind of work is it? And even, to which discipline does it belong? I am quite satisfied with my work, of course, with many flaws and errors. I was even reluctant to publish this book in other regions, as I felt it would bring me shame due to its immaturity. However, it was my first step, though crooked, reflecting my initial thoughts. If I wanted to show the entire process of my thinking, I would still have the courage to present the flaws of this book to the public, which itself is a decent "draft."
What slightly restored my dignity is that this book demonstrated that my initial macro understanding was correct: directly linking the origin of the "Western theory" to the southern part of the Middle East, firmly pointing to Egyptian civilization, and connecting it directly with the Jews. This book is immature but laid the foundation for the correct direction. The two main threads of Egyptian civilization and Jewish culture ran through my entire research. Previous "Western theories" often deviated from this main thread, stopping at the Tigris-Euphrates region, which led to the "disaster" of the "Western theory," resulting in a complete failure. This book, by completely avoiding the old system, miraculously avoided this pitfall. I plan to keep all the original text in the second edition, with explanations for the errors, so that the entire development of my thoughts can be fully seen. The reason for doing this is that the errors, as of now, have not damaged the framework.
The valuable clues in this book are the proposed law that each major civilization block spreads outward in phases every thousand years. This is reflected in the "civilization list" after The Great Guesswork of Sanxingdui Culture. Another important hypothesis in this book is that human civilization became a turning point around 2,500 years ago: before this period was the primitive and romantic era of human free migration, when early human civilization had been widely and sufficiently spread and exchanged; after this period, the development of nations and states led to a closed pattern, and the emergence of anti-migration factors caused relative stagnation in war and cultural exchange. Without this division, it would be impossible to grasp the general transmission pattern of human civilization, and failing to recognize this would mean missing the secrets of early human civilization transmission, leaving many historical mysteries unsolved, and the "Western theory" would naturally not exist.
The second book, Eastward, Eastward, and Further East, also seemed like an accident. Since publishing this book, I needed a lot of supplementary materials from the Bible, and an increasing amount of information flooded me. Eventually, I said, "Alright, I'll give up this 'supplementary' work and start a new book, interpreting the origins of Chinese civilization based on the Bible as a whole." During this process, many astonishing discoveries were made, and if it shocked the world, it first shocked myself, as many of the discoveries were unknown to me beforehand. Some people said this book established my legendary status, which may not be entirely accurate, but it can at least show its great significance to the system. It more "standardly" proposed my system framework: the origins of Chinese Xia, Shang, and Zhou civilizations came from the Middle East. Considering that Chinese people are not familiar with the Bible, for the convenience of mainland readers, I《》 materials, and to let the general public perceive the specific history and general social patterns of the Jews, and more importantly, to maintain the relative continuity of the Bible in Eastward, I compressed and selected parts of the Bible with little explanation as transitions. This approach was not understood by some readers, who heavily criticized it as "plagiarism to make money." In fact, I had spent a lot of effort on these references and compressions of the Bible; it was not "direct plagiarism" as some people claimed, unless these people did not have access to the Bible. In fact, a book as thick as that is not favorable for the market, not to mention making more money. Before publication, I painfully cut out over 30 pages of compressed Bible materials. Regarding this feedback, especially considering that most Hong Kong readers have access to the Bible for reference, I asked the publisher in Hong Kong whether they might consider reducing some of the biblical citations in the book, but they flatly refused. So it seems I will have to continue to bear the names of "plagiarism" and "making money."
The second book, as of now, is also not very mature, mainly due to its rigidity. It focused all its attention on the Jews, although the continued study of Egyptian civilization also helped somewhat. If I had continued, I would have fallen into rigidity again, unable to take the "Western theory" to its conclusion. The main tendency of this rigidity was to overly unify race and culture, whereas race and culture could potentially spread separately and should not be rigidly adhered to.
The third book, History Is Crazy, is not a framework-based text but rather my reading notes and travel sketches. However, this book was an important turning point for me. Due to an accidental event in my life, I developed a special connection with the Silk Road in China's northwest. A month-long field study in the northwest region strengthened my beliefs and broadened my horizons. At the same time, the confirmation that the language of the Xia culture and the Banpo culture were early Phoenician scripts was a crucial part of this book and the entire system. It was also in this book that I began to pay attention to the clear concepts of "East" and "West" within ancient Chinese culture, which could also be expressed as "North" (West) and "South" (East). This revealed the two main threads of the "Western theory" in China, and this specificization process holds significant meaning.
Starting from the third book, the connection between Arabs and the Chinese, beginning with Xia Jia, once again caught my attention. My "Western theory" began to adjust its direction more precisely, targeting specific countries and regions rather than the general Middle East. The focus on language was quite accidental but became the most important gain during this period. At the same time, I began to notice the separation of culture and race, and the complex relationship between scripts, languages, and race began to be considered. After the third book, the comparison between classical southern Arabic scripts and oracle bone scripts was one of my most excited discoveries. This laid an important foundation for the fourth book.
Locking the Red Sea is still very hasty. This was originally a long reading note, very disorganized, but thankfully, the goal was very focused—just the Red Sea. I haven't organized them yet, and I don't even know how to organize them. However, its results are significant. I even feel a sense of relief I've never had before, as many long-standing questions that had puzzled me were unexpectedly solved in this book in a hasty manner. I had no idea I would gain these insights before starting to write. During my busiest period, my health was also not good, and I even regretted that if I suddenly passed away, it would be difficult for others to continue this work. Now, at last, I can sigh with relief. Although the system is disorganized and the writing is sloppy, the main threads that the entire system needs to touch upon have been addressed. At a glance, it has taken shape, and anyone can see the origins and development of my thoughts.
At this point, I can finally sigh with relief. The main religious systems, languages, races, myths, and literatures of China are very specifically linked to the "West." This book may have partially deviated from the previous focus—the eastern coast of the Mediterranean—but this was only possible within the framework of the previous route. For this reason, I do not plan to revise the minor differences in the previous three books in the second edition, only to provide explanations. The four books show the true footsteps of exploration rather than a declaration of correct truth. I think this approach is good, but I also need to remind everyone that if you find contradictions while reading, the later book should be considered as the definitive one.
The fourth book locks the "Western theory" in the "Kingdom of Sheba" at the southern end of the Red Sea, but the influence of Greek and Persian cultures in the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean on the northwest of China is becoming increasingly significant through the exploration of religion and mythology. Increasing evidence shows that these two different ancient civilizations advanced into the eastern and western parts of China—south and north, respectively—eventually converging in the Central Plains to form the cultural foundation of China.
Speaking calmly, my work is a preliminary effort to gather materials for a massive project. This positioning is quite accurate. Recognizing this, I plan to publish the fourth book with minimal embellishment in its "rough" form, as this will preserve the "materials" to a large extent. Many pieces of information would have to be removed if I followed standard academic conventions, but considering the difficulty and importance of collecting these materials, I am willing to abandon "academic" considerations to preserve as much of the original material as possible. However, I might consider special formatting in the layout to make it easier to read and accept.
After a year of collecting materials in a hazy manner, I'm not entirely sure to which discipline my words belong, or which discipline they are closest to. I have asked myself this question before, but I'm not entirely clear. Many people might think it belongs to history, some say archaeology, and others say it relates to the Chinese Department. A careful examination of my work reveals that it actually belongs to "cultural anthropology," a discipline not very familiar to Chinese people. Its other names are "ethnology" and "social anthropology." However, the understanding of these disciplinary names varies greatly across different countries and regions, sometimes even being completely different. The safest approach is to identify it as "cultural anthropology." If you want to be even more cautious, simply calling it "anthropology" would be better.
"Cultural anthropology" (cultural anthropology) is the science of analyzing and comparing human cultures, such as social structures, languages, religions, and sciences and technologies. The main task of anthropology is to study humans, including ethnic origin research, human physical characteristics, and their geographical distribution and mobility. It is not difficult to see that this is exactly the work I have done, though it is not systematic or professional. As for the previously mentioned history, archaeology, or even Chinese linguistics, none of them can encompass the research scope of "cultural anthropology," and they can only be used as tools for a certain aspect of it.
However, it is a pity that "cultural anthropology" in China is certainly not well-developed. This is also why the study of prehistoric Chinese culture is insufficient, why the origins of Chinese civilization have not been well-understood, and why an outsider suddenly. This field is basically unattended, or those who are interested are busy with other things, and there has been a lack of specialized cultural anthropology focused on the origins of Chinese civilization.
"World without heroes, so a mere child becomes famous" might be quite suitable here. The materials I collected are rough, and I still hope to inspire the broader society with them.