Peony

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AT VARIOUS TIMES IN history colonies of Jews have gone to China and lived there. The city of K’aifeng, in the province of Honan, was a center for them. In China they have never been persecuted, and if they have suffered hardships, these were only the hardships of life in the community where they were.

In its basis, therefore, this novel may be said to be historically true, although the characters, with unimportant exceptions, are the creatures of my imagination. The story takes place at the period, about a century ago, when the Chinese had accepted the Jews, and when, indeed, most Jews had come to think of themselves as Chinese. Today even the memory of their origin is gone. They are Chinese.

The Jews of China 1000–1932

Between 200 and 1000 A.D. many Jewish traders from Turkestan and refugees from Persia had settled in China.

884 Revolt of Jewish and Muslim merchants. Many massacred.

Towns which probably had small Jewish communities by 1200 A.D. Many of these had certainly been founded over 500 years earlier. All but Kaifeng had disappeared by 1650.

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