Bringing the Railway to Daming

Upon seeing the video title, everyone was slightly taken aback, momentarily confused.

Some people wonder: What race do Chinese people represent? Aren't they just Han, Mongol, Miao, Yi, and other ethnic groups, with Han being the majority?

Some people roughly understood the meaning of the title and speculated: Could there be a race in Europe similar to the Chinese?

While everyone was making wild guesses, the video started.

A video clip featuring a man with an accent providing commentary was played.

"Today we're going to talk about a mind-blowing topic: suppose Europeans have never seen or interacted with Chinese people before, what kind of people would they think we were when they first met us?"

"When you see this question, I believe many people's subconscious reaction is: Isn't this question simple? Europeans see our yellow skin, black hair, and black eyes, so of course they think we are yellow people."

"If this is the first answer that comes to mind, then congratulations, you have already fallen into the mindset trap set by Europeans."

"Because the 'three-color theory' of races is a concept that Europe began to deliberately construct in the 18th century. In 1735, the Swedish biologist Linnaeus first proposed the 'four-color theory' of races of black, white, yellow and red. It was not until the end of the 18th century that French naturalists began to use the 'three-color theory' widely."

"That is, black people, also known as Negroes; white people, also known as Caucasians; and yellow people, also known as Mongoloids, forcibly defining the skin color and race of all humans."

“Until the nineteenth century, Europeans deliberately equated white people with concepts such as ‘civilization,’ ‘advanced,’ and ‘intelligence,’ which led to the ‘white supremacy’ theory.”

"As modern European culture established its voice in the world, many people have subconsciously accepted the 'tricolor theory,' and a very small number have even accepted the notion that 'white people are superior to yellow and black people'..."

Upon seeing this, Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiong Ying, and the others subconsciously glanced at Liu Kuan.

The current Ming Dynasty's concept of "white, black, and yellow races" was introduced by Liu Kuan. If, as the video suggests, later Europeans deliberately constructed this "tricolor theory" and influenced the entire world, wouldn't that mean the Ming Dynasty was also influenced by this ideology?
Fortunately, Liu Kuan is not the person who believes that white people are superior to yellow or black people, as described in the video. In fact, through Liu Kuan's words and actions, they can sense that he actually believes that Chinese people, or Chinese civilization, are more unique than other civilizations in the world, and may even be better.

Furthermore, now that the Ming Dynasty dominates the world, even if the "tricolor theory" originated in Europe, there will never be a saying that "white people are more noble." On the contrary, there is a possibility that "yellow people are more noble."

If this really happens, wouldn't it be considered that European whites have dug their own grave?
Thinking of this, people like Zhu Xiong Ying couldn't help but smile.

"So, how did Europeans before the seventeenth century view people from outside Europe?"

"Some uninformed people may think that before the Age of Exploration, the various ancient civilizations developed independently and had no understanding of each other or even any contact with each other."

"However, this is not the case. The density of exchanges between ancient civilizations may have far exceeded modern people's imagination."

"This painting is called 'The Three Wise Men from the East,' which depicts the story of three wise men from the East bringing warmth to the Heavenly Brother at the time of Jesus' birth."

The audience saw a painting in the video with a style completely different from that of the Ming Dynasty at that time. It was an oil painting popular in Europe. One of the three wise men in the painting was clearly a European, another was an Arab, and the third was a Black man.

Next, the video showed a second painting from ancient Europe.

However, it depicts a scene from the slave trade in medieval Europe.

However, the slave inside was neither black nor yellow, but a white woman. Instead, the slave owner who sold her was a black man, and the buyer of the white slave was an Arab tycoon.

"You didn't expect that, did you? The slave trade between black people and white people did happen in history, and it was even prevalent in North Africa and West Asia for a time."

"During the Tang and Song dynasties in China, there were also numerous written records about 'Bodhisattva Barbarians,' 'Kunlun Slaves,' 'Silla Maids,' and 'Goryeo Slaves.'"

"The names of the Silla maids and Goryeo slaves clearly indicate their origins, so I won't elaborate. As for the Kunlun slaves, some people know they are black slaves and assume they come from Africa, but that's not actually the case. They mainly refer to dark-skinned slaves from Southeast Asia."

"As for the Bodhisattva Barbarians, they refer to white slaves brought to China from the Western Regions—many of whom were European whites sold to China by Arab merchants."

"Through these historical materials such as texts and paintings, we can know that for a long time in ancient times, the civilizations of various ethnic groups in the world had friendly exchanges, and sometimes even fought each other."

"Whether it is white people, black people or so-called yellow people, they actually had a certain degree of understanding of each other in the ancient world, and people's understanding of skin color and race at that time was very different from that now."

“Take Europe as an example. Before the 18th century, Europeans did not have the concept of forcibly dividing people into races by defining skin color. But this does not mean that there was no racial discrimination in Europe before that. In fact, racial discrimination is an embedded mechanism in Europeans.”

"Why is that? It all starts with the composition and origins of the European race..."

Upon seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the video was quite valuable, at least in helping the Ming Dynasty better understand Europeans, thereby expanding into, influencing, and even further controlling Europe. Those more honest and upright, like Zhu Biao and Li Wenzhong, thought: Racial discrimination isn't limited to Europe; it probably exists all over the world, just as there are discriminatory hierarchies within the same race.

Of course, judging from the meaning of this video, racial discrimination was most severe in later Europe or white countries.

The video then begins to introduce the origins of Europeans.

Then Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiong Ying and others couldn't help but look at Liu Kuan again—according to Liu Kuan's previous statement, the white people in the major European countries today all originated from the barbarians of Northern Europe, and only a few countries' people still have the bloodline of the ancient Romans.

However, this video claims that the white people in Europe and even West Asia actually originated from a white ethnic group in Central Asia, namely the "Proto-Indo-Europeans".

Whether it is the white people of later Europe or the white people of the Indian subcontinent, they are all descendants of the original Indo-European people who migrated there.

The original Indo-Europeans who migrated to Europe were divided into two lines, north and south.

Indo-European peoples who migrated to Europe from the south mainly lived along the Mediterranean coast, such as the Greek peninsula and the Balkan peninsula. This region's proximity to West Asia facilitated trade with Asia and Africa, and also allowed them to absorb advanced ideas, culture, and technology from the East.

Therefore, Greece and Rome were the first to rise in Europe, eventually giving rise to the Roman Empire, which continues to this day (14th century) as the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium).

As for the Indo-European groups that traveled the northern route, they were further divided into several different groups according to their timeline.

The first to arrive were called the Celts. Because they lived in high-latitude regions for many years, their most prominent physical characteristics were red hair and pale skin—so pale that you could even see the freckles under their skin, meaning that most of them had many freckles on their faces.

"But before the Celts entered Europe, there were actually indigenous people in Europe called the Basques, who looked something like this."

The video included a photo of a typical Basque, providing viewers with a concrete reference point.

"The Celts thought the land in Europe was good, so they used their ancestral skills to enthusiastically integrate with the Basques. While helping the Basques reduce population pressure, they also occupied the land in Europe."

"Ultimately, the Basques' living space was compressed to the southwesternmost part of Europe, which is now Spain and Portugal. The Spanish and Portuguese are certainly not descendants of the Basques. In fact, the Basques are now only a minority group there, living in a very small area."

Seeing this, and considering the previous descriptions of Indo-European ethnic groups by this content creator, I couldn't help but laugh. I found it quite humorous that she described ethnic war as "enthusiastically getting along with the locals."

"The second group to enter Europe via the northern route were Germans, because they went further north, that is, to the Nordic region."

"Because they lived further north, the Germans not only had very fair skin, but also very light-colored hair, mostly light yellow or even white."

"When the Germanic people arrived in Europe, they found that the local area had been occupied by their good brothers, the Celts. So they also used their ancestral skills to enthusiastically integrate with the Celts, helping the Celts reduce population pressure while driving them to the western edge of Europe."

"But the Germans' joy was short-lived, as another Indo-European group migrated to Europe—the Slavs..."

Slavs are not much different from Germans in appearance, and both are equally capable fighters.

So the final result was that the Germanic peoples occupied Western Europe, the Slavic peoples occupied Eastern Europe, and the Celts could only live on the edge of Western Europe.

The earlier indigenous Basque people have already disappeared.

The video has played more than two-thirds of its length, almost to the end, and has explained the origins of the main white races in Europe today.

Then he began to explain why racial discrimination is an embedded mechanism and an ancestral skill of white Europeans.

"Although they are all of Indo-European descent, they are different ethnic groups and arrived in Europe at different times, which led to the formation of a hierarchy of contempt among white Europeans."

"The Germanic people, who were the most skilled fighters and occupied the best lands in Europe, looked down on the Celts who arrived in Europe before them and the Slavs who arrived later, considering them all barbarians."

"The Slavs, on the other hand, despised the Celts, believing that if they could not defeat the Germans, they would certainly not be able to defeat them either."

"The Celts were indeed defeated and driven out by the Germanic peoples, and therefore could only despise the native Basques."

"So, were the Germanic peoples at the very top of the European white hierarchy? Of course not. The Romans in the south declared, 'You little carami fighting amongst yourselves in the north are all barbarians!'" (End of Chapter)