BLACK HEADED PEOPLE OR THE GREAT UNWASHED

I wish to put forward the idea that there existed and still exists ia division within society on the basis of social classes, separating groups from one another. Dikötter states that: “not all Chinese had the privilege of a light complexion. Labourers were called ‘black-headed people’.  The label established a symbolic distance between the peasants and the landlord class. Although this term changed in meaning as a result of an official decree in 221 BC, probably because it was associated with a negatively valued for peoples with a natural dark complexion. 

According to the Shuowen (first century AD), the common people were called black- headed because of their 'pigmentation.' The Chunqui emphasised the black complexion of the peasant, was due to the fact that they were burned swarthy by the sun. Under the Zhou, slaves were called renli. Li referred to a large cooking utensil stained by smoke and blackened by fire. It was a metaphor for the black faces of the slaves who tilled the fires under the burning sun.  Obviously over time the term black headed implied contempt and disdain., for society, for ideas surrounding fashion and image from that time suggest that “whiteness” would have been associated with the ideals of beauty, and that both males and females would aspire towards a pale complexion.

According to the indigenous belief, the Tibetan kings were direct descendants of the gods of Phyva. They came down from heaven to reign over the black headed people.

In the summer of 1973 a Ch'in dynasty iron weight was unearthed in Chien-shan Commune, Wen-teng hsien, Shantung. It weighed 32 kilograms and was oval in shape. On the top a semicircular nose had been cast, and a bronze plate bearing an imperial decree was inlaid on the side. The imperial decree engraved on this plate was issued by Ch'in Shih-huang in the twenty-sixth year of his reign. It read: "In the twenty-sixth year the Emperor annexed all the feudal lords under Heaven, brought peace to the black-headed [people], and proclaimed himself Emperor. 

This is in the twenty-sixth year (i.e., 221 B.C.), when the Emperor completely unified the regional lords of the 'All-under-Heaven.' The black-headed ones (i.e., the common people) were now at great peace, and it was he who established the title of “Emperor.

The Clear Mirror is a treasuretrove of the traditional narrative and folk wisdom of Tibet. It presents in full the often-cited but elusive accounts of the origins of the Tibetan people, the coming of the Dharma to Tibet, and the appearance of Avalokiteshvara as the patron deity of Tibet.
Here is an excerpt from the book:"...In the perception of the Bodhisattvas of the Ten Stages, it appeared that Avalokiteshvara, with the intention of leading the sentient beings of this wild and snowy realm to the Dharma, manifested himself as a king who would strive to benefit beings by means appropriate to each. In the perception of the common black-headed people..."

From the offset I wish to make it clear that I don't believe the scribes of Mesopotamia/Sumer meant the color of the hair on their heads of, or the ethnicity of their inhabitants when they used the designation the “black-headed people”. I believe rather, that they were referring to the commoners, the working class, the community at large, the people 'belonging' to the civic center, the king the clergy, under whose authority and care they existed. Synonyms for the lower classes today include, the great unwashed, the proletariat, commonalty, hoi polloi, lower orders, lower ranks and lowlife.  

It is my deeply considered opinion that the Sumerian use of the term the “black-headed people” - which over time was also used by the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian scribes, referring to the people under their jurisdiction - has not yet been convincingly interpreted. 

I believe the term is most likely a designation of a social class, for parallels  exist in Sino-Tibetan culture to support my interpretation. 

In Tibet for example “the black-headed people” was a term used for mankind as a whole, all created by the gods and named by the king and his scribes. 

In China we find at the time of Shi Huan-di (III BC), the term “black-headed” is used as a reference to the entire clan. The term is also found in more ancient texts. 

For me there is only one relevant interpretations of this term 'black headed people,' whether in Mesopotamia or Sino-Tibetan culture and that is the ordinary people. Ordinary working class people who were exposed 24/7, 365 days of the year, working outdoors. Exposed to the wind and rain and most of all they were exposed to the direct rays of the sun. It is not hard to imagine therefore that they as today all had a rough, ruddy, dark, tanned completion. Almost black compared with the protected ruling classes who all avoided being exposed under any circumstance. Black headed was the laborer who deals with dirt of civilization. 

Shulgi wrote a long royal hymn to glorify himself and his actions, in which he refers to himself as "the king of the four-quarters, the pastor of the black-headed people".

In the Sumerian material, the “black-headed” is the designation used for the city/urban dwellers, not necessarily members of the civilized group o people, which one might name society. We learn from the royal inscriptions that Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin I, are “the shepherds of the "black-headed”.