Our Oriental Heritage

  BY WILL DURANT

  The Story of Philosophy

  Transition

  The Pleasure of Philosophy

  Adventures in Genius

  BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT

  THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION

  1. Our Oriental Heritage

  2. The Life of Greece

  3. Caesar and Christ

  4. The Age of Faith

  5. The Renaissance

  6. The Reformation

  7. The Age of Reason Begins

  8. The Age of Louis XIV

  9. The Age of Voltaire

  10. Rousseau and Revolution

  11. The Age of Napoleon

  The Lessons of History

  Interpretation of Life

  A Dual Autobiography

  Copyright 1935 by Will Durant

  Copyright renewed © 1963 by Will Durant

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  including the right of reproduction

  in whole or in part in any form

  Published by Simon and Schuster

  A Division of Gulf & Western Corporation

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  SIMON AND SCHUSTER and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster

  ISBN 0-671-54800-X

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 35-10016

  MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  TO ARIEL

  Preface

  I HAVE tried in this book to accomplish the first part of a pleasant assignment which I rashly laid upon myself some twenty years ago: to write a history of civilization. I wish to tell as much as I can, in as little space as I can, of the contributions that genius and labor have made to the cultural heritage of mankind—to chronicle and contemplate, in their causes, character and effects, the advances of invention, the varieties of economic organization, the experiments in government, the aspirations of religion, the mutations of morals and manners, the masterpieces of literature, the development of science, the wisdom of philosophy, and the achievements of art. I do not need to be told how absurd this enterprise is, nor how immodest is its very conception; for many years of effort have brought it to but a fifth of its completion, and have made it clear that no one mind, and no single lifetime, can adequately compass this task. Nevertheless I have dreamed that despite the many errors inevitable in this undertaking, it may be of some use to those upon whom the passion for philosophy has laid the compulsion to try to see things whole, to pursue perspective, unity and understanding through history in time, as well as to seek them through science in space.

  I have long felt that our usual method of writing history in separate longitudinal sections—economic history, political history, religious history, the history of philosophy, the history of literature, the history of science, the history of music, the history of art—does injustice to the unity of human life; that history should be written collaterally as well as lineally, synthetically as well as analytically; and that the ideal historiography would seek to portray in each period the total complex of a nation’s culture, institutions, adventures and ways. But the accumulation of knowledge has divided history, like science, into a thousand isolated specialties; and prudent scholars have refrained from attempting any view of the whole—whether of the material universe, or of the living past of our race. For the probability of error increases with the scope of the undertaking, and any man who sells his soul to synthesis will be a tragic target for a myriad merry darts of specialist critique. “Consider,” said Ptah-hotep five thousand years ago, “how thou mayest be opposed by an expert in council. It is foolish to speak on every kind of work.”* A history of civilization shares the presumptuousness of every philosophical enterprise: it offers the ridiculous spectacle of a fragment expounding the whole. Like philosophy, such a venture has no rational excuse, and is at best but a brave stupidity; but let us hope that, like philosophy, it will always lure some rash spirits into its fatal depths.

  The plan of the series is to narrate the history of civilization in five independent parts:

  I. Our Oriental Heritage: a history of civilization in Egypt and the Near East to the death of Alexander, and in India, China and Japan to the present day; with an introduction on the nature and elements of civilization.

  II. Our Classical Heritage: a history of civilization in Greece and Rome, and of civilization in the Near East under Greek and Roman domination.

  III. Our Medieval Heritage: Catholic and feudal Europe, Byzantine civilization, Mohammedan and Judaic culture in Asia, Africa and Spain, and the Italian Renaissance.

  IV. Our European Heritage: the cultural history of the European states from the Protestant Reformation to the French Revolution.

  V. Our Modern Heritage: the history of European invention and statesmanship, science and philosophy, religion and morals, literature and art from the accession of Napoleon to our own times.

  Our story begins with the Orient, not merely because Asia was the scene of the oldest civilizations known to us, but because those civilizations formed the background and basis of that Greek and Roman culture which Sir Henry Maine mistakenly supposed to be the whole source of the modern mind. We shall be surprised to learn how much of our most indispensable inventions, our economic and political organization, our science and our literature, our philosophy and our religion, goes back to Egypt and the Orient,† At this historic moment—when the ascendancy of Europe is so rapidly coming to an end, when Asia is swelling with resurrected life, and the theme of the twentieth century seems destined to be an all-embracing conflict between the East and the West—the provincialism of our traditional histories, which began with Greece and summed up Asia in a line, has become no merely academic error, but a possibly fatal failure of perspective and intelligence. The future faces into the Pacific, and understanding must follow it there.

  But haw shall an Occidental mind ever understand the Orient? Eight years of study and travel have only made this, too, more evident—that not even a lifetime of devoted scholarship would suffice to initiate a Western student into the subtle character and secret lore of the East. Every chapter, every paragraph in this book will offend or amuse some patriotic or esoteric soul: the orthodox Jew will need all his ancient patience to forgive the pages on Yahveh; the metaphysical Hindu will mourn this superficial scratching of Indian philosophy; and the Chinese or Japanese sage will smile indulgently at these brief and inadequate selections from the wealth of Far Eastern literature and thought. Some of the errors in the chapter on Judea have been corrected by Professor Harry Wolf son of Harvard; Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy of the Boston Institute of Fine Arts has given the section on India a most painstaking revision, but must not be held responsible for the conclusions I have reached or the errors that remain; Professor H. H. Gowen, the learned Orientalist of the University of Washington, and Upton Close, whose knowledge of the Orient seems inexhaustible, have checked the more flagrant mistakes in the chapters on China and Japan; and Mr. George Sokolsky has given to the pages on contemporary affairs in the Far East the benefit of his first-hand information. Should the public be indulgent enough to call for a second edition of this book, the opportunity will be taken to incorporate whatever further corrections may be suggested by critics, specialists and readers. Meanwhile a weary author may sympathize with Tai T’ung, who in the thirteenth century issued his History of Chinese Writing with these words: “Were I to await perfection, my book would never be finished.”*

  Since these ear-minded times are not propitious for the popularity of expensive books on remote subjects of interest only to citizens of the world, it may be that the conti
nuation of this series will be delayed by the prosaic necessities of economic life. But if the reception of this adventure in synthesis makes possible an uninterrupted devotion to the undertaking, Part Two should be ready by the fall of 1940, and its successors should appear, by the grace of health, at five-year intervals thereafter. Nothing would make me happier than to be freed, for this work, from every other literary enterprise. I shall proceed as rapidly as time and circumstance will permit, hoping that a few of my contemporaries will care to grow old with me while learning, and that these volumes may help some of our children to understand and enjoy the infinite riches of their inheritance.

  WILL DURANT.

  Great Neck, N. Y., March, 1935

  A NOTE ON THE USE OF THIS BOOK

  To bring the volume into smaller compass certain technical passages, which may prove difficult for the general reader, have been printed (like this paragraph) in reduced type. Despite much compression the book is still too long, and the font of reduced type has not sufficed to indicate all the dull passages. I trust that the reader will not attempt more than a chapter at a time.

  Indented passages in reduced type are quotations. The raised numbers refer to the Notes at the end of the volume; to facilitate reference to these Notes the number of the chapter is given at the head of each page. An occasional hiatus in the numbering of the Notes was caused by abbreviating the printed text. The books referred to in the Notes are more fully described in the Bibliography, whose starred titles may serve as a guide to further reading. The Glossary defines all foreign words used in the text. The Index pronounces foreign names, and gives biographical dates.

  It should be added that this book has no relation to, and makes no use of, a biographical Story of Civilization prepared for newspaper publication in 1927-28.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to the following authors and publishers for permission to quote from their books:

  Leonard, W. E., Gilgamesh; the Viking Press.

  Giles, H. A., A History of Chinese Literature; D. Appleton-Century Co.

  Underwood, Edna Worthley, Tu Fu; the Mosher Press.

  Waley, Arthur, 170 Chinese Poems; Alfred A. Knopf.

  Breasted, Jas. H., The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt; Scribner’s.

  Obata, Shigeyoshi, Works of Li Po; E. P. Dutton.

  Tietjens, Eunice, Poetry of the Orient; Alfred A. Knopf.

  Van Doren, Mark, Anthology of World Poetry; the Literary Guild.

  “Upton Close,” unpublished translations of Chinese poems.

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CIVILIZATION

  Chapter I: THE CONDITIONS OF CIVILIZATION

  Definition—Geological conditions—Geographical—Economic—Racial—Psychological—Causes of the decay of civilizations

  Chapter II: THE ECONOMIC ELEMENTS OF CIVILIZATION

  I. FROM HUNTING TO TILLAGE

  Primitive improvidence—Beginnings of provision—Hunting and fishing—Herding—The domestication of animals—Agriculture—Food—Cooking—Cannibalism

  II. THE FOUNDATIONS OF INDUSTRY

  Fire—Primitive Tools—Weaving and pottery—Building and transport—Trade and finance

  III. ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION

  Primitive communism—Causes of its disappearance—Origins of private property-Slavery—Classes

  Chapter III: THE POLITICAL ELEMENTS OF CIVILIZATION

  I. THE ORIGINS OF GOVERNMENT

  The unsocial instinct—Primitive anarchism—The clan and the tribe—The king—War

  II. THE STATE

  As the organization of force—The village community—The psychological aides of the state

  III. LAW

  Law-lessness—Law and custom—Revenge—Fines—Courts—Ordeal—The duel—Punishment—Primitive freedom

  IV. THE FAMILY

  Its function in civilization—The clan vs. the family—Growth of parental care—Unimportance of the father—Separation of the sexes—Mother-right—Status of woman—Her occupations—Her economic achievements—The patriarchate—The subjection of woman

  Chapter IV: THE MORAL ELEMENTS OF CIVILIZATION

  I. MARRIAGE

  The meaning of marriage—Its biological origins—Sexual communism—Trial marriage—Group marriage—Individual marriage—Polygamy—Its eugenic value—Exogamy-Marriage by service—By capture—By purchase—Primitive love—The economic’ function of marriage

  II. SEXUAL MORALITY

  Premarital relations—Prostitution—Chastity—Virginity—The double standard—Modesty—The relativity of morals—The biological rôle of modesty—Adultery—Divorce—Abortion—Infanticide—Childhood—The individual

  III. SOCIAL MORALITY

  The nature of virtue and vice—Greed—Dishonesty—Violence—Homicide—Suicide—The socialization of the individual—Altruism—Hospitality—Manners—Tribal limits of morality—Primitive vs. modern morals—Religion and morals

  IV. RELIGION

  Primitive atheists

  1. THE SOURCES OF RELIGION

  Fear—Wonder—Dreams—The soul—Animism

  2. THE OBJECTS OF RELIGION

  The sun—The stars—The earth—Sex—Animals—Totemism—The transition to human gods—Ghost-worship—Ancestor-worship

  3. THE METHODS OF RELIGION

  Magic—Vegetation rites—Festivals of license—Myths of the resurrected god—Magic and superstition—Magic and science—Priests

  4. THE MORAL FUNCTION OF RELIGION

  Religion and government—Tabu—Sexual tabus—The lag of religion—Secularization

  Chapter V: THE MENTAL ELEMENTS OF CIVILIZATION

  I. LETTERS

  Language—Its animal background—Its human origins—Its development—Its results-Education—Initiation—Writing—Poetry

  II. SCIENCE

  Origins—Mathematics—Astronomy—Medicine—Surgery

  III. ART

  The meaning of beauty—Of art—The primitive sense of beauty—The painting of the body—Cosmetics—Tattooing—Scarification—Clothing—Ornaments—Pottery—Painting—Sculpture—Architecture—The dance—Music—Summary of the primitive preparation for civilization

  Chronological Chart: Types and Cultures of Prehistoric Man

  Chapter VI: THE PREHISTORIC BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION

  I. PALEOLITHIC CULTURE

  The purpose of prehistory—The romances of archeology

  1. MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE

  The geological background—Paleolithic types

  2. ARTS OF THE OLD STONE AGE

  Tools—Fire—Painting—Sculpture

  II. NEOLITHIC CULTURE

  The Kitchen—Middens—The Lake—Dwellers—The coming of agriculture—The taming of animals—Technology—Neolithic weaving—pottery—building—transport—religion—science—Summary of the prehistoric preparation for civilization

  III. THE TRANSITION TO HISTORY

  1. THE COMING OF METALS

  Copper—Bronze—Iron

  2. WRITING

  Its possible ceramic origins—The “Mediterranean Signary”—Hieroglyphics—Alphabets

  3. LOST CIVILIZATIONS

  Polynesia—“Atlantis”

  4. CRADLES OF CIVILIZATION

  Central Asia—Anau—Lines of Dispersion

  BOOK ONE

  THE NEAR EAST

  Chronological Table of Near Eastern History

  Chapter VII: SUMERIA

  Orientation—Contributions of the Near East to Western civilization

  I. ELAM

  The culture of Susa—The potter’s wheel—The wagon-wheel

  II. THE SUMERIANS

  1. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

  The exhuming of Sumeria—Geography—Race—Appearance—The Sumerian Flood—The kings—An ancient reformer—Sargon of Akkad—The Golden Age of Ur

  2. ECONOMIC LIFE

  The soil—Industry—Trade—Classes—Science

  3. GOV
ERNMENT

  The kings—Ways of war—The feudal barons—Law

  4. RELIGION AND MORALITY

  The Sumerian Pantheon—The food of the gods—Mythology—Education—A Sumerian prayer—Temple prostitutes—The rights of woman—Sumerian cosmetics

  5. LETTERS AND ARTS

  Writing—Literature—Temples and palaces—Statuary—Ceramics—Jewelry-Summary of Sumerian civilization

  III. PASSAGE TO EGYPT

  Sumerian influence in Mesopotamia—Ancient Arabia—Mesopotamian influence in Egypt

  Chapter VIII: EGYPT

  I. THE GIFT OF THE NILE

  1. IN THE DELTA

  Alexandria—The Nile—The Pyramids—The Sphinx

  2. UPSTREAM

  Memphis—The masterpiece of Queen Hatshepsut—The “Colossi of Memnon”—Luxor and Karnak—The grandeur of Egyptian civilization

  II. THE MASTER BUILDERS

  1. THE DISCOVERY OF EGYPT

  Champollion and the Rosetta Stone

  2. PREHISTORIC EGYPT

  Paleolithic—Neolithic—The Badarians—Predynastic—Race

  3. THE OLD KINGDOM

  The “nomes”—The first historic individual—“Cheops”—“Chephren”—The purpose of the Pyramids—Art of the tombs—Mummification

  4. THE MIDDLE KINGDOM

  The Feudal Age—The Twelfth Dynasty—The Hyksos Domination

  5. THE EMPIRE

  The great queen—Thutmose III—The zenith of Egypt

  III. THE CIVILIZATION OF EGYPT

  1. AGRICULTURE

  2. INDUSTRY

  Miners—Manufactures—Workers—Engineers—Transport—Postal service—Commerce and finance—Scribes

  3. GOVERNMENT

  The bureaucrats—Law—The vizier—The pharaoh

  4. MORALS

  Royal incest—The harem—Marriage—The position of woman—The matriarchate in Egypt—Sexual morality

  5. MANNERS

  Character—Games—Appearance—Cosmetics—Costume—Jewelry

  6. LETTERS

  Education—Schools of government—Paper and ink—Stages in the development of writing—Forms of Egyptian writing