Are there tiny people in this world? British writer Jonathan Swift in his book “Gulliver’s Travels” vividly described the story of the country of the little people. But after all, it’s just a novel. In fact, in history there have been records of prehistoric times when tiny people, dwarfs, giants and humans like us today existed at the same time. The height of this type of elves and dwarfs ranges from about 10cm to about 1m.
Plot in “Gulliver’s Travels” .
(Illustration: Richard Redgrave, Victoria and Albert Museum, Wikipedia, Public Domain)
The History quotes a dialogue from “Confucius’s family” as follows:
The country of Ngo attacked the country of Viet, destroyed Coi Ke mountain, and burned a cart full of bones. The Kingdom of Wu sent an envoy to ask Trong Ni (Confucius): “What is the bone that is so big?”
Trong Ni replied: “King Vu of the Xia Dynasty summoned the Gods to Coi Ke Mountain, Phong Phong Thi arrived late, Vu killed and dried their bodies, burned his bones to fill a cart, that’s why the bones were so big. So.”
The guest of Wu asked: “Who is God?’
Trong Ni replied: “The Gods of the mountains and rivers are enough to act as guides for the world. The person who maintains the worship of the mountains and rivers is the God, and the person who holds the place of the Divine Shrine is the servant, and they all depend on the King.”
The guest asked: “What does Phong Phong keep?”
Trong Ni replied: “The King of the Uong Vong family, in charge of worshiping the Gods of Phong Mountain and Ngu Mountain, of the Hy family. During the Ngu, Ha, and Thuong periods, it was called Uong Vong, during the Zhou period, it was Truong Dich, now called Dai Nhan.
Guests asked: “How tall are different types of people?”
Trong Ni replied: “The Tieu Nghieu tribe is three meters tall, extremely short. The height of a person is no more than ten times three meters, that is the tallest.”
The ancient Chinese unit of “ruler” was also called “chic”, one “ruler” is equivalent to about 33cm. Three meters means 1 meter today. From Confucius’ answer, it can be seen that ancient dwarfs were about 1 meter tall. These dwarves still exist today in some minority clans. Meanwhile, the tall man that Confucius called “Great Man” was at most about 10 meters tall.
Modern people today are on average about 1.7m tall, the same breed of people with average height that has been popular since ancient times until now.
A person who is 1 meter tall can be called a dwarf, temporarily called a tiny person, but is considered a relatively large type of tiny person. There are many records of this type of dwarf.
“National language, Lu language” says: Tieu Nghieu ethnic people are three meters tall, but there are also people shorter.
“Dai Hoang Nanjing – Son Hai Kinh” records that: There is a country called Tieu Nghieu Quoc, people in this country all have the surname “Ky” , and the food is grain. There is another type called “Bacteria”. Legend has it that these people were only three meters tall.
“Dai Hoang Dong Kinh – Son Hai Kinh” says: In a place beyond the sea, in the wilderness, there is a nation of tiny people, called “Pure People”. “Pure” means very small. Legend has it that they are only nine inches tall (which is approximately 3 meters, 1 inch is about 10 cm).
In “Nanjing Overseas – Son Hai Kinh” it is also recorded: In the East of Tieu Nghieu Quoc, there is also a country called Chu Nhieu Quoc. People living in caves, although short, only about three meters tall, still wear clothes and hats like normal people, and are intelligent in nature, able to create all kinds of sophisticated utensils. In addition, they also know how to cultivate crops.
Quoting from “Quat Dia Mantra”, “Historical Records of Dai Uyen Truyen” says: Small Human Country in the south of Dai Qin, three meters tall, when farming, afraid of being pecked by birds.
In “Wei Zhi – Dong Di Zhi”, which records events that happened in Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, it describes a kingdom where people were only three or four meters tall.
In “Ten Di Ky” there is a record of a country called Da Di, the people of that country are only three meters tall, but can live for over ten thousand years. Legend has it that it is another name for Chu Nhieu Quoc.
In the eighth book of the series “Fhap Uyen Chau Lam” of the Tang Dynasty, it was written: People of Tieu Nghieu country are three meters tall, have beautiful faces, but live in caves.
About tiny people whose bodies are smaller than dwarfs, ancient books also have records, just less.
“The God of Horror” recorded that, in the wild Northwest region, there was a dwarf one inch (10 cm) tall, wearing a red cinnabar shirt and wearing a crown. There is also the Crane country, the little people there are seven inches (70 cm) tall. The sea cranes will swallow them when they see these little people.
In “The Magic of Strange Things” it is written: “In the western sea of the kingdom of Dai Thuc, there are tiny people living in trees, six or seven inches tall, who laugh when they see them. If you touch their arms or legs and don’t pull them down carefully, they will die.”
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