Is China really one of the four ancient civilizations?

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1.

China must be one of the ancient civilizations in the world. There is no doubt about it.

2.

First, it criticizes and denies the statement that China is an ancient civilization, which is a typical view of harmony. This view is characterized by the pursuit of total westernization, so it totally denies China's achievements in ancient times. What's more, it moves towards historical nihilism.

3.

It is said that the four ancient civilizations were put forward by Liang Qichao in 1900 to boost national self-confidence?

These four ancient civilizations were indeed put forward by Liang Qichao, who wrote in the 20th Century Pacific Song in 1900 that "there are four ancient civilizations on earth: China, India, Egypt and Asia Minor".

This formulation may really boost national self-confidence, but only by understanding it to this extent can it be said that it is superficial.

The four major civilizations actually refer to the four major river valley civilizations. The Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Yellow River and Indus Delta are fertile and the cradles of civilization.

The formulation of the four ancient civilizations actually has its profound scientific nature. These ancient civilizations are all primary civilizations, representing several regions where civilizations can be born continuously, namely, the Nile Valley, the Two Rivers Valley, the Ganges Valley, and the Yellow River and the Yangtze River Valley.

The reason why the four ancient civilizations are called together is mainly because they are basically developed independently, are the cradles of civilizations in their respective regions, and have their own characteristics, such as architecture, Egyptian stones, Indian bricks, China wood, such as writing, Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform characters in two basins, such as calendar, Egyptian solar calendar, lunar calendar in two basins, and China.

4.

So that it has not been recognized by the mainstream international academic circles?

This is a complete joke. In fact, there is a term "X ancient civilization" or "X ancient civilization" in the world, which generally includes but is not limited to the four ancient civilizations mentioned above. For example, some versions should add Greek civilization, some versions should add Mayan civilization, and some even mention Roman civilization. Talking about the four ancient civilizations is of course relatively thin. After all, when this view was put forward (1900, not necessarily initiated by Liang Qichao), ancient Greek civilization had been rediscovered for decades, and Mayan civilization was first known in the 1930s of 18. The academic world itself is a process of continuous development. There is no need to stick to the number four. Generally speaking, some people say that ... different times, different angles, each has its own view, and it is difficult for humanities to strictly distinguish right from wrong.

For example, NHK has a documentary called "Four Ancient Civilizations Series" (China, Egyptian, Indian and Mesopotamian civilizations). You can have a look if you are interested.

5.

Say that China is not outstanding among the ancient civilizations in the world?

This depends on the angle of things. From the time point of view, according to the current archaeological discoveries, Chinese civilization is undoubtedly the latest among the four major civilizations. This is a fact, but just like the children's shoes @ Jang Jin above, the scouting hero doesn't ask the source, and the rogue doesn't ask the age. The focus of ancient civilization is not on time, but on originality.

In addition, it is obviously unfair to say that our ancient civilization is not outstanding. I can also say that our civilization has the best continuity. Don't you see that the Chinese characters we use can still come down in one continuous line with the hieroglyphics of our ancestors, and civilization has never been broken. (China's words did not become extinct language, but were clearly handed down from generation to generation from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, Shi Guwen and Da Zhuan, and the traditions of architecture, calendar and attaching importance to ancestors also continued. )

For another example, since 84 BC1year, China has had a continuous historical calendar, so it can be accurately verified that the history of events is more than 2,800 years (many things can be determined to the specific date after being converted into the solar calendar), which is impossible for other civilizations.

6.

Found that the problem has been @ modified ya ya ya ya ya ya:

Should ancient China and Oracle Bone Inscriptions be called "three ancient civilizations" if they are not in an order of magnitude with the other three? (to say that x must be the same order of magnitude)?

His example is as follows:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions in ancient China: "BC 14 ~ 1 1 century", calculated in 3250;

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics: "Ancient Egypt had hieroglyphics about 6000 years ago", calculated in 6000 years;

Ancient Babylonian cuneiform: "Invented by Sumerians around 3200 BC", calculated in 5200;

Ancient Indian seal script: "In the middle of 3000 BC, ancient Indian residents created seal script", calculated in 4500 years.

Ancient Greek characters came earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions (about the 20th century BC, calculated in 4000 years), and by the 9th century BC (calculated in 2900 years), ancient Greece had a long epic masterpiece with more than 10,000 lines like Homer.

Definition of ancient civilization: the country or region where human civilization was first born ("ancient" and "civilization" are used as attributes of "country")

These are all his views and arguments. The data has not been verified and is correct.

But there are several obvious mistakes worth mentioning:

One:

Order of magnitude, 1 and 10 are not an order of magnitude, 10 and 100 are not an order of magnitude, nor are 1000 and 1000. From this perspective, these four civilizations belong to the same order of magnitude.

Two:

Logic, according to the logic in the example, civilization is older than ancient, so is it finally concluded that only ancient Egypt is an ancient civilization? More extreme, is Africa the only country with an ancient civilization? In fact, current archaeological discoveries support that Sumer was the first birthplace of human civilization. )

Three:

Ancient Greece, the term "ancient Greece" refers to the Greek civilization from the archaic period in the 8th century BC to the period before 146 BC was conquered by Rome. According to his description, he refers to the civilizations before ancient Greece, that is, the splendid Crete civilization and Mycenae civilization in the Aegean region. In addition, the ancient Greek writing system was not original, but came from Phoenicians. On this basis, the Greeks created the Greek alphabet. Later, the Romans inherited the Greek alphabet and created the Latin alphabet.

Four:

Definition of ancient civilization: the country or region where human civilization was first born ("ancient" and "civilization" are used as attributes of "country")

There should be no such logic to understand ancient times as early, understandable and earliest?

In fact, whether to look at the problem in terms of the length of civilization, I have already expounded the above point of view, so I will not repeat it.

Based on these obvious logical flaws and common sense mistakes, I guess this is @ Lin Canbin children's shoes deliberately fishing here. I don't know how many points I guessed correctly, and what else I didn't see. Please give me some advice ~

7.

If I see this place and still have doubts (that is, I don't wiki for me) and have doubts about our civilization, then I can only enlarge my unique skills and recommend General History of the World by L.S. Stavri and Anoos. I don't need to finish reading it. The beginning is to introduce the origin of human civilization. I can go and see what ancient Eurasian civilizations he recognized (Sumer and Crete are Greek, Egyptian, Indian and China).

Look at his division of the birthplace of civilization, only intercepting a short paragraph:

The fertile river basins and plains in the Middle East, Indian, China and Europe gave birth to the greatest civilization in history. These civilizations have made Eurasia the center of world history and played an important role. More specifically, the civilization centers in the Middle East include the Nile Valley, the Tigris River Valley, the Euphrates River Valley and the Iranian Plateau, while the civilization centers in India are located in the Indus River Valley and the Ganges River Valley. The civilization centers of China are the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin; The center of European civilization is on the northern shore of the Mediterranean-this area has always occupied obvious advantages in economy and culture from the Minoan culture period to the end of the Middle Ages.

Even so, China is regarded as one of the important sources of the origin of world civilization.

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If ancient China is not worthy of the "Big Four" ... Ha ha. ...

Reference, wiki, is the statement "four ancient civilizations" valid? Why is China the only one of the four ancient civilizations in the world that has not been destroyed? Why did the four ancient civilizations exclude Greece? Song of the Pacific Ocean in the Twentieth Century ...

—— Excerpted from zhihu/question/24131553.