Slavery, the slave trade, is a word that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Robert Thomas pointed out in his book The Rise of the Western World: "The slave trade that broke out during the Renaissance was only the resurrection of the specter of slavery in the prehistoric and Christian periods, which, under the influence of post-Greek thought, slept for hundreds of years, and then on the right soil, a new set of clothes, and quietly took root." Robert's discourse was clearly profoundly influenced by Hegel's view of history and Marx's historical materialism. Both views of history see history as a cyclical, gradual cycle: history is not a simple accumulation of countless new facts; on the contrary, one thing that is essentially the same will continue to repeat itself in the tide of history—of course, in a different pattern. In capitalism, where the capitalists exploited the workers, they replaced the feudal lords in exploiting serfs, and in the same way that Portugal transported black Africans with sailboats and replaced the Roman Empire with warships to plunder slaves.
However, contrary to what is commonly believed, black people and the slavery associated with it were never the preserve of continental Europe and Africa. The British scholar Ron Amiddin said in History of India and the Caribbean: "Before the rise of the slave trade in the West, there were nearly 100,000 black people from Africa in India, who had already multiplied in the region." Similarly, Sir Robert Fitzroy proudly asserted in the early nineteenth century that "many of Australia's aborigines come from the coast of East Africa." However, compared to the history of black Africans in China, these proud assertions and claims are immediately dwarfed. As early as the Tang Dynasty, there were already a large number of black people active in China, and compared with the relatively closed East at that time, black people showed their racial superiority in many aspects. And because they were especially good at two things, they were favored and reused by Chinese at that time.
The earliest evidence of black activities in the Tang Dynasty is found in the Old Book of Tang, which records that "since Lin Yi has been south, all of them have curly hair and black bodies, and their names are Kunlun." The "Kunlun" in this account, referring to "Kunlun Nu", was one of the many names given to black people in the Tang Dynasty. However, it is more puzzling how blacks came to the far East when their productivity was extremely underdeveloped than the surprise of their appearance in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was a period of relatively frequent and developed friendly trade with foreign countries in ancient China, and even so, it was difficult for the Tang Dynasty to have a relationship with the African continent thousands of miles away.
For example, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms states: "In the autumn and July of the ninth year (869) of King Jingwen, Silla (Joseon) sent the prince Su Ton yin and others into Tang Xie'en. For another example, the Old Book of Tang and the Biography of Nan Man reads: "Emperor Taizong, in the form of The King of Funan (Cambodia) published in the Tomb of Zhao Yu, is listed before Xuan Que. Another example is the Old Book of Tang and the Tale of Tubo, which says: "In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, Songzan Gampo and Princess Wencheng returned to China, saying that they were relatives: 'My father and grandfather did not marry each other to the kingdom, and now I have to be a princess of the Tang Dynasty, for the sake of luck and abundance'. In addition, the countries of the Western Regions, such as Yanqi and other countries, also had relatively close contacts with the Tang Dynasty. The above historical data lists the countries in which the Tang Dynasty established diplomatic relations on all sides, and in addition to these countries, there are many more. But in any case, it will not involve Africa.
The Tang Dynasty scholar Qu Tan Siddha recorded in the "Kaiyuan Zhanjing" that "the western region is desert north, tongsai is inconvenient, and the Kunlun nu of Chang'an is from Tianzhu", which opens a breakthrough for us. Qu Tan Siddhartha believed that the blacks of the Tang Dynasty could not have come from the northwest, and most likely came from India (Tianzhu). He made this presumption because he seized the link between Africa and the East at that time: the Arabs. During the Tang Dynasty, the Arab Empire spanning the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa was in a strong stage, and the geographical location of the Arab Empire determined that it always played a bridging role between the West and the East. The Rise and Fall of the Arab Empire states: "The Arabs exchanged gold with Africans with velvet and dates produced in large quantities in their homeland, and then exchanged the gold with India for spices." "In this centuries-long and frequent trade, it makes sense that black Africans came to India as freedmen (such as merchants) or as slaves. At that time, India and China had frequent trade, so it was extremely possible for blacks to reach China from India.
Although the blacks of the Tang Dynasty were called Kunlun nu and their social status was as low as that of slaves, they were respected by the society at that time because they were very outstanding in two things. The first thing is that they are extremely watery. Due to the extreme drought in the interior of Africa, most of the black tribes and civilizations were born along the African coastline, and although Africa has better arable land conditions, it has never developed large-scale cultivation as in Europe and Asia, because most Africans only rely on animal husbandry and hunting to survive. Familiarity with water is perfectly normal because they are accompanied by the sea all year round, and the fact that blacks have the most powerful athletic talent of all races in the world adds to their familiarity with water.
The Taiping Imperial Records record: "Tang Jiedu moved south to Lingnan, encountered the earth dragon, the boat overturned, and the precious treasure jade he brought with him sank to the bottom, but the Kunlun ghost seized it, and the ghost was blinded, and there was no exit from the water, and there were many earth dragons, and they did not dare to seize it." "To the effect that a Tang Dynasty emissary migrated south to the Liangguang area, encountered a crocodile (earth dragon) on the way, the boat was about to overturn, and the precious treasure jade with it sank to the bottom of the water, so he let the black man go into the water to fish, the black man went into the water, even his eyes were not closed, and he did not need to go out of the water to breathe, but because there were too many crocodiles, he did not dare to continue fishing. It is precisely because of the good water nature of blacks, so the "General Code" says: "Kunlun Nu is good at water, and there are many people who are willing to do it", they received certain attention and respect in the society at that time, and were highly valued and reused in some special fields and industries, such as fishing, and other water-related industries.
In addition to being very watery, the blacks of the Tang Dynasty were also very loyal, which was another important reason why they were respected. The black people in the family of The Tang Chang'an City Riding Governor Yang Shi (name unknown) are one example. The black man was taken to the black market by the Youngs to sell, did not sell them because the price was too low, and was beaten violently, but instead of jealousy and revenge, he rescued the Son of the Youngs after drowning. The negro's loyalty to their masters made them trusted and valued, and even reused in key positions, such as in charge of internal affairs. This phenomenon also occurred during the American Revolutionary War. At that time, some farmers and manor owners in the United States would employ large numbers of blacks to work, and some of the more intelligent blacks were particularly respected for serving a white family with a surname for generations, and could even be equal to white people in terms of eating and dressing, as well as some personal rights.
However, the loyalty of black people in the Tang Dynasty to their masters was not unconditional, and the "YuanGui of the Book" said: "During the Tang Dynasty, Kunlun nu rarely betrayed the master, one was far away from the home country, and the other was nowhere to escape", which shows that there was also a reason for the black people's loyalty to the master at that time. Because they are trafficked thousands of miles away, they do not have a clear geographical concept, it is impossible to return to their homeland on their own; at the same time, they are very different from Chinese culture, and it is difficult to generate value in Chinese society and find a suitable way of survival, so even if they escape, it is a dead end. Since these blacks are mainly from India, most of them are distributed in southern China, and after living in China for a long time, some people also choose to intermarry with Chinese and multiply. Now in Guangdong Province, China, there are still some yellow people with black blood, these people are the descendants of black people in the Tang Dynasty, they have been living in China, just like the Jews who came to China, becoming one of the members of the Chinese nation.
Slavery is a disgraceful page in human history, but for more than two thousand years, people have intensified this page. What is the origin of slavery?
Fertile ground for the birth of slavery: backward productivity
Engels wrote in The Private Ownership of the Family and the Origin of the State: "The fundamental cause of slavery is the backwardness of the productive forces... Slavery did not arise after the emergence of the state and private property at all, but already existed in primitive society. Engels believed that the backwardness of the productive forces led to slavery because of the ultimate insurmountable obstacle in human nature: the desire to survive. During the primitive clan society, productivity was extremely low, cultivation techniques had not yet been mastered, and even the manufacture of hunting tools was a problem. During this period, men and women divided their labour as follows: men were responsible for hunting and fishing, with incidental harvesting, while women took care of the family and nursed their children. The inevitable result of this division of labour is that the viability of men gradually increases, the viability of women gradually decreases, and eventually, if they leave their husbands, their wives will starve to death. That's why Marx said in Capital: "Whoever controls the lifeblood of the economy has the right to speak." In order to survive, women must rely on men for their sustenance, that is, women's right to survive is decided in the hands of men, so Engels said: "Slavery was first born between husband and wife." ”
The slave system of civilized society is only the expansion and legalization of the slave system in clan society, and its essence has not changed. In order to survive, slaves had to sell their labor power, and then they had to completely commodify themselves and trade them on the market. When the state saw this phenomenon, it intensified the social status of slaves. Legislation restricts the rights of slaves, education strengthens people's identification and prejudice against slaves, and finally, even slaves themselves think that they should only be slaves, which is legalization and rationalization. The Indian caste system is also a variant of slavery. The Indian classic Rig Veda states: "The four castes are completely differentiated in terms of social status, legal status, economic status and trades, without any intersection. Jandhara is the lowest of the fourth castes, the untouchable. "The caste system, like slavery, is essentially the use of rationalized violence to coerce the shaping of a social group according to the wishes of those with vested interests.
Fertile Ground for the Resurrection of Slavery: Ethnographic Theory
As the productive forces progressed, the soil of slavery inevitably shrank, because more and more people did not have to sell their labor power just to survive. Nevertheless, slavery in antiquity was revived thousands of years later, and the ethnographic theory that arose in the Western world was one of the reasons. Ethnographic theory divides different types of people around the world into different races according to certain conditions. This theory was not originally value-oriented, that is, it did not favor the so-called Aryan and white races. But ethnographic theory, once combined with social practice, is distorted and used. The rise of the slave trade was also largely based on ethnographic theory. At that time, some unscrupulous ethnographers in the West, in the interests of the big capitalists, put forward proposals for a strict division of the black race. By strictly measuring some characteristics of the black body, such as nose width, cheekbone height, lip thickness and other parameters, they distinguished people with certain characteristics from the rest of the race, and after establishing a complete set of ethnographic theories, all those who met the characteristics of black people were classified as black and treated like blacks.