## The myth of Africans in China in early times  
A long history of Africa-China contacts is recorded in Chinese dynastic histories ${ }^{1}$ and various literatures, as indicated in Book I. Scholars have studied blacks in China  
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[^0]:    1 In ancient China, the government had specific officials in charge of writing authentic dynastic history. There are 24 Histories which cover Chinese history from the time before the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  
since the nineteenth century (Lacouperie, 1887; Weidenreich, 1939, pp. 161-174; Li Chi, 1928; Ling Shun-sheng, 1956, pp. 251-267), yet the blacks in their works are Negrito, or Oceanic Negroids of Melanesian type, or related to the Rouzhi (Chen Jianwen, 1993, pp. 111-143). Archaeological evidence suggests the possibility of contact between Africa and China even before the Han Dynasty (Brunson, 1985, pp. 121-137; Li Anshan, 2015b, pp. 34-59). Three views were offered for the origins of the early blacks, namely the islands near Indochina (Han Zhenghua, 1957, p. 200), the Indigenous people of Indonesia (Hu Zhaochun and Zhang Weichi, 1961, p. 86), and West Asia or East Africa (Institute of Archaeology of CASS et al., 1981, p. 478).  
The local archive discovered in Juyan, the Juyan Han Jian, seems to be the earliest written indication of the presence of blacks in China. It contains about 10,000 pieces ranging from 102 BCE to 30 CE , covering collective and individual subjects, such as political systems, economic activities, the military and culture. Among the 60 individuals recorded in items giving their identity, including height and colour, 53 are recorded as black. The blacks were possibly of foreign origin from the west, including Africa (Yang Ximei, 1995, pp. 969-987).