ABSTRACT
The theme of this chapter is Chinese linguistics. We will need a stage, upon which the players are to speak their various languages. Therefore we begin our discussion with a description of the stage, which is the physical geography of China with its tall mountains and great rivers. We will then see that the earliest players to have entered the stage from Africa over 500,000 years ago, Homo erectus, were creatures quite distinct from the ones we see now. The modern players, Homo sapiens sapiens, also from Africa, had two major entrances, by a coastal route from the south, and by a northern route across the mountains of West Asia. This dual origin of the diverse Chinese peoples from ancient times is clearly reflected in the genes they carry and the many languages they speak.
