I8 § The Black Heads
T H E name of the Ethiopians signifies, literally, 'burnt faces' (Aithi-ops), [1] and consequently 'black faces' is commonly interpreted as designating a people of the black race or at least of a dark complexion. This simplistic explanation, however, seems unsatisfactory as soon as we call to mind that the ancients gave the name of Ethiopia to very diverse countries, even to some for which that explanation would have been in no way appropriate. It is said, for
example, that Atlantis itself was also called Ethiopia, whereas, on the other hand, this name does not seem to have ever been applied to countries inhabited by peoples belonging fully to the black race. There must therefore be something else in all this, and that becomes still more evident as soon as we take note of the existence of similar words or expressions elsewhere-so much so that we feel impelled in the natural course to find out what symbolic meaning such expressions may really have.
In very ancient times the Chinese designated themselves as 'black people' (li-min); this expression is found specifically in the Chou-king (the reign of the Emperor Chouen, 2317-2208 вс). At the beginning of the Tsing dynasty, much later (third century вс), the emperor gave to his people another analogous name, [2] that of 'black heads' (kien-cheou); and what is again peculiar is that exactly the same expression is found in Chaldea (nishi salmat kakkadi) at least a thousand years before this time. Besides, it is to be noted that the characters kien and he, meaning black, represent fire; and thereby the meaning of this expression 'black heads' is brought back much closer to that of the name of the Ethiopians. The orientalists, who for the most part deliberately ignore all symbolism, wish to explain these terms of 'black people' and 'black heads' as designating 'people with black hair'. Unfortunately, if this characteristic in fact describes the Chinese it could not in any way distinguish them from neighbouring peoples, so that this explanation also would still appear to be fundamentally without significance.
On the other hand, some have thought that the 'black people' were strictly speaking the masses of the people to whom the colour black would have been attributed just as it is in India to the Shüdras, and with the same sense of indistinction and anonymity; but it seems that it is really the entire Chinese people who are thus designated, without any distinction being made between the masses and the élite, and if this was the case, then the symbolism in question could no longer apply. Moreover, given not only the fact that expressions of this kind have been used so widely in space and time as we have shown (and it is even very possible that still more examples exist), but also that the ancient Egyptians, for their part, gave their country the name of Kemi or 'blackland', it seems most unlikely that so many diverse peoples would have adopted for themselves or for their countries a designation which would have a pejorative sense. It is not, therefore, to this lower sense of the colour black that we should refer here, but rather to its higher sense, for as we have explained on other occasions, black has a double symbolism, in the same way that anonymity, to which we have just alluded in connection with the mass of the people, has likewise two opposite meanings. [3]
It is known that in its higher sense the colour black symbolises essentially the principial state of non-manifestation, and that it is in this sense that one
must understand, for example, the name of Krishna, as opposed to that of Arjuna (which signifies 'white')-the one and the other representing respectively the non-manifested and the manifested, the immortal and the mortal, the Self and the self, Paramätmä and Jivätmä. [4] But how can a symbol of the non-manifested be applicable to a people or to a country? Admittedly the relationship is not obvious at first glance; nevertheless, it does indeed really exist in the cases in question. Furthermore, it cannot be without reason that in several of these cases the colour black is related especially to the 'faces' or 'heads', the symbolic significance of which we have already indicated elsewhere in connection with the ideas of 'summit' and of 'principle'. [5]
To understand what is involved we must recall that the above-mentioned peoples are among those who considered themselves as 'central'. In this connection, it is known that China was designated as the 'Middle Kingdom' (Tchoung-kowo), and that Egypt was assimilated by its inhabitants to the 'Heart of the World'. This 'central' situation, furthermore, is perfectly justified from the symbolic point of view because each of the countries to which it was attributed was in fact the seat of the spiritual centre of a tradition, emanation and image of the supreme spiritual centre and representing it for those pertaining to the tradition in question, so that for them it was truly the 'Centre of the World'. [6] Now the centre is, by reason of its principial status, that which one might call the 'place' of non-manifestation; and as such the colour black, understood in its higher sense, is truly apt for it. It should moreover be noted that on the contrary the colour white is also fitting for the centre in another relationship, that is, insofar as it is the starting-point of a 'radiation' comparable to that of light. [7] It could therefore be said that the centre is 'white' from the outside and in relation to the manifestation that proceeds from it, while inwardly and in itself it is 'black'; and this point of view is naturally that of the beings who, for reasons such as we have mentioned, are symbolically situated in the centre itself.