Where does China rank among the four ancient countries in the world?

China is not one of the four ancient countries.

This article only represents the author's point of view, and the author is responsible for it (posted by Alibaba Guangzhou)

Because this topic is very hot, two articles related to it are added to provide dinner for readers:

The Dispute of "Xia Shang Zhou Dating Project" is Difficult to Decide (reposted)

Five Thousand Years Up and Down —— Excerpt from Li Xueqin's Report, Head of Dating Project

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Debate on "5,000-year-old civilization"

For a long time, China officials have always claimed that China is one of the so-called "four ancient civilizations", and that we are an ancient country with a civilization history of 5,000 years, which is an important part of educating the people. These ridiculous arguments are still widely circulated and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In fact, anyone with a little knowledge of world history knows that this is just a joke.

First, let's look at the so-called "four ancient civilizations". There is no such slogan for kindergartens in the international and academic circles, only "the cradle of several major civilizations" is similar. Even so, China is not among the "Big Four".

If we follow the definition of "four oldest civilized countries", then China may not even rank in the top ten, not to mention four. Its civilization began in the Shang Dynasty around 1500 BC, but it took more than 3,000 years, while other great works had existed from 2000 to 1000 before that, and the civilization of the two river basins in the Middle East began around 3,500 BC. The Nile Valley civilization in Egypt also began around 3500 BC, the Aegean civilization in Greece around 2500 BC, and indus valley civilization around 2500 BC. This is only in terms of large areas, and there are more secondary civilizations such as Hittite civilization, Assyrian civilization, Phoenician civilization, Persian civilization, Jewish civilization and so on. (These ancient civilizations are the predecessors of many countries in West Asia today, and these ancient Semites and Persians are also Jews today. According to the definition of "four ancient countries", China can only rank among these civilizations and countries. Where can it rank?

Careful readers may find that the top four civilizations should be Middle East civilization, Egyptian civilization, Greek civilization and Indian civilization from the starting time of the civilizations listed above. There is no place for China. Why did the Greek position disappear in China's official propaganda, but it became China after 1000 years?

This is not an unintentional mistake. In fact, under the background of anti-western politics manipulated by the government for a long time, systematically belittling western civilization is only an integral part of various propaganda activities. Because Greek civilization is the source of western civilization, China officials, for ideological reasons, don't want to see any information showing the superiority of western civilization, and want to belittle any aspect of western civilization as much as possible, plus the extreme hatred and jealousy of the "nationalists" in power to western civilization, so they have made such a trick. It's really mean.

The reader may ask: Isn't the official in China promoting "5,000-year civilization"? Why is it actually only 3500 years?

Then we need to understand some basic common sense and concepts in archaeology and history, and some "historians" in China have long misled and fooled people by confusing these basic common sense and concepts. This is about the difference between the two concepts of "culture" and "civilization" and several basic characteristics that constitute "civilization".

There are strict differences between the two concepts of "culture" and "civilization" in archaeological history (although we often confuse them in daily life). Simply put, "culture" is a concept belonging to the Stone Age, especially the primitive tribal remains of the Stone Age, especially the Neolithic Age, including the Stone Age and the Stone Age, while "civilization" belongs to the concept of the Bronze Age, especially the national stage after human beings entered the Bronze Age.

In fact, from the etymology of the two English words "culture" and "civilization", we can clearly see the difference between them. The original meaning of the word "culture-"is "farming", which clearly shows that the original meaning of the concept of "culture" belongs to the category of primitive tribal times associated with "farming"; The original meaning of civ-, the root of the word "civilization" is "citizen", which also clearly shows that the original meaning of the concept of "civilization" belongs to the category of the Bronze Age and is related to the emergence of "citizen" and industry and commerce. (The word city comes from the variant "cit-" of the root "civ-". )

The main characteristics of "civilization": writing, metal smelting, city-state, religious etiquette, etc. (defined by Jasper) is closely related to the emergence of industry and commerce. Judging whether and when a civilization started is based on the above standards and archaeological findings, instead of using myths and legends, folk stories, unofficial history's miscellaneous books, or so-called "historical records" like historical records two thousand years later than the archaeological era. This is the common sense of archaeology and history.

Someone may ask me this question: Then, why should we judge our own history by foreigners' standards, and can't we judge it by our own standards? Absolutely. However, the concepts of "civilization" and "culture" originally came from the West. Not only that, the whole method system of archaeology and history was introduced from the west. If we want to use our own standards, we can't use western concepts to preach "we have a civilization history of 5,000 years", but we should use our own words to say "we have a myth of 5,000 years".

But according to this standard, we have a history of 5,000 years, while other countries and regions, especially around the Mediterranean and the Middle East, are not only "5,000 years", but at least 10000 years old. So we still can't take advantage of anything.

Historians in China have long confused "culture" with "civilization", misleading and fooling people. For example, primitive tribal cultures belonging to the Neolithic Age (such as Yangshao culture, Longshan culture and Liangzhu culture). ) stolen, pretending to be the so-called "civilization" era, so that the history of China suddenly advanced by one or two thousand years, or even two or three thousand years. When introducing other civilizations in other countries, we use another standard, strictly from the official starting point of other countries' civilizations (writing, metal smelting, the emergence of city-states), which virtually shortens the distance between China and those countries with the oldest civilizations, and even gives people an illusion. It seems that China is earlier than these countries and regions which actually have much earlier civilization than China. In fact, if we measure ourselves by China's standards, many countries. That's the trick. Trick.

Let's take a detailed look at the history of China and the world from the beginning.

Let's start with the history of China civilization. Let's get this basic fact straight: the earliest civilization in China, Shang civilization, started around 1500 BC, 3,500 years ago, and is located in Anyang, Henan Province today. Archaeological basis: the earliest writing in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and China; Mature bronze smelting and unearthed smelting bronzes; State forms have emerged.

To be clear: this is not my invention. Just find a textbook of world history or international academic circles, which says that Chinese civilization began in Shang Dynasty.

Of course, China's own history textbooks can be traced back to the so-called "Xia Dynasty" in 2000 BC. However, the international academic community does not recognize this nihilistic "Xia Dynasty" because there is no archaeological basis: no writing, no discovery of smelting bronzes, no basis for showing the existence of national forms, no urban relics, and so on.

China charlatans, like "historians" and "archaeologists", have searched all over China and found no evidence to prove the existence of the so-called "Xia Dynasty", but they have the cheek to put this fictional "Xia Dynasty" into textbooks and publicity materials to sell it to the world, and they have also crustily skin of head to package some Neolithic cultural relics found in Erlitou and other places into the so-called "Xia Dynasty".

Let's see what the "archaeologists" and "historians" in China have discovered. I once heard a lecture on the dating project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The lecturer "archaeologist" showed us the restoration map of the so-called "capital ruins" in Xia Dynasty. When I took a closer look, it turned out to be a few rotten huts, a standard primitive village. They call it the "big" and "capital" of the Xia Dynasty? What else is there? A few mud piles at the archaeological site, what is that-rammed earth remains, what is rammed earth? It is the most primitive technology used by primitive tribes to build shacks, commonly known as "dry paving". They call it the "great" and "capital" of the Xia Dynasty? There are also some copper slag, a lot of stone tools and bones! Isn't this question very clear? It's just the remains of the Neolithic clan and tribe. The so-called "capital of Xia Dynasty" is pure nonsense!

If this is a "capital relic", then there are too many "capital relics" in Neolithic culture all over the world. In the lake culture of Wangjin, Switzerland (as early as 5000 BC), people built a large village on the lake with 50,000 wooden stakes, which was much larger than the "ruins of the capital" of the Great Emperor and the Xia Dynasty. It seems that westerners are still too thin-skinned

Some archaeologists claim that some bronzes have been found in other parts of China, which is even more misleading. What is that? Bronzes made of natural copper in the stone-and-stone era are products of the late Neolithic age, and there are many Neolithic cultural relics in other countries and regions. If this is the standard, the history of the ancient civilization areas I mentioned earlier will be one or two thousand years ahead of schedule.

In other areas with ancient civilizations, a large number of complete urban relics have been found, all of which are masonry structures. Needless to say, Greece, West Asia and the Indus River, especially the Minoan ruins of Greece and the palace of Knossos (2000 BC), are second to none in all early civilizations, and many modern palace buildings existing in China after 4,000 years are incomparable. Needless to say, just go to the scene and have a look.

There is also the Halaba civilization (2500 BC), an early civilization in the Indus Valley. Many complete urban relics, masonry structures and complex structures have been found in Mohenjo and Halaba. According to research, the urban population at that time had reached 30,000 to 40,000.

There are also ruins of cities in southern Egypt (in 3500 BC, during the Negada civilization). Some books mistakenly say that there are no cities in Egypt, and Mayan civilization and Inca civilization have no characters, but there are. For example, Stavri Anoos's A General History of the World (I have long said that his book is full of mistakes in details).

To tell the truth, the so-called Yin Ruins in Shang Dynasty are actually just some rammed earth relics, but the scale is a little large, and they are not urban relics at all. If it weren't for the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the smelting of bronzes, commercial civilization wouldn't be recognized internationally at all. After all, compared with other countries and regions, there is too little evidence.

Some people in China made an excuse for this: they said that the buildings in the early days of Chinese civilization were all brick-wood structures, so it was not easy to preserve them, while other countries and regions, especially the West, mainly used stone buildings, so they preserved more, and even turned their backs: China's brick-wood structures were more advanced than other civilizations. In fact, on the contrary, in the major civilized areas I mentioned above, the relics of early civilization excavated are actually built with a large number of sintered bricks. The most typical examples are the ruins of Halaba civilization in the Indus Valley and the earliest urban relics in the two river valleys, such as Ur, Babylon, Susa, Cheng Nan, Minos in Greece and so on. In fact, the typical representative of western architecture-ancient Roman architecture, not all buildings are built of stone as some people imagine, but also a large number of buildings such as bricks and concrete are used, such as the elevated canals still preserved in France and Spain, which are well preserved.

The remains of early civilization in China were not built with bricks, but with rammed earth and wood. Of course, it is not easy to preserve, but it is precisely because of its low technical level. Bricks and stones used in the Middle East and the West are much higher in productivity and technology than those used in China, and are much more expensive, stronger and of course easier to preserve. The ruins of a city in Mycenae, Greece. The walls are made of huge stones, with a thickness of 20 meters. )

So it's not surprising that we can't find the so-called "Xia Dynasty" relics, because it doesn't exist at all, just the remains of some primitive villages in the Stone Age.

And we can't find two more crucial evidences-the appearance of words and the appearance of metal smelting, which is even less worth mentioning.

What needs to be reminded now is that the problem is not only that there is no evidence to prove the existence of the so-called "Xia Dynasty", but that there is a lot of evidence to prove that it does not exist at all. A typical example is the Shang Dynasty, which followed the so-called Xia Dynasty in time, but its Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions can't find any records about this previous dynasty. Isn't that ridiculous? Haven't you explained the truth clearly? You can imagine Zhou Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, etc. Nothing about their former "dynasty" is recorded in their government documents and archives? Only an initial civilization like Shang dynasty would do this, because there is nothing in front of us, it is a blank.

And some boring literati, in desperation, simply lied that Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen of Shang Dynasty had found records about Xia Dynasty. Ironically, the head of the archaeological department immediately denied it. Obviously, they are not afraid to make international jokes with their professional reputation.

These "historians" and "archaeologists" in China are at their wits' end. In desperation, they only offered the magic weapon that "a lie will become truth if repeated thousands of times", and repeatedly publicized that "Xia Dynasty was the first slave country in China" in primary and secondary school textbooks and publicity materials, but they still told everyone hesitantly in university history textbooks that it was only a "dynasty" on paper, and even they felt guilty. But there's nothing I can do. After all, these history students will all join the "historical fraud team" and "archaeological fraud team" in the future. Before teaching them how to fake the truth, they should know the truth first, otherwise they will all be "cultivated" into * *?

The funniest thing is that China officials used the "5,000-year-old civilization" to fool everyone in domestic propaganda, but in order not to make jokes internationally, they honestly admitted that China's history began with the Shang civilization. For example, the English version of the General History of China published by FLTRP classifies the so-called Xia Dynasty and the legend of the Yellow Emperor into the category of the era of myths and legends. I really feel sorry for us in China. It turns out that our own people are not as good as foreigners in the official eyes, and we don't even have the right to know our own history like foreigners.

And let's take a step back, from the so-called "Xia Dynasty", from 2000 BC to 2000 AD, it is only 4000 years. Where did you get the "5,000-year history of civilization"? 2000+2000 = 5000? So the "5,000-year history of civilization" is just a joke. This joke is so ridiculous that it's not even a lie, because the basic facts are clear at a glance, and they can't be allowed to lie and cheat. The only way is to spread it by monopolizing the propaganda machine and let everyone get used to it. If someone says 1+ 1=3, or 1+ 1=4, people really don't think that he is lying, but only treat it as a joke. That's what happened. )

Some "historians" became angry from embarrassment and asserted in a ruffian tone: "Historical Records recorded the Xia Dynasty, no doubt!" . Well, it turns out that two thousand years later, Sima Qian described something he had never seen through hearsay, and it became "beyond doubt"? Plato in ancient Greece also recorded that there was a country called Daxizhou more than 10,000 years ago, and people also found some ruins of suspected cities on the seabed, which is "beyond doubt".

How credible is Sima Qian's words? The Historical Records he wrote is not so much a historical record as a historical novel. I don't know how many plots have been made up. What one person does alone, or what two people talk about in secret, and they are all hidden activities without outsiders present. How did he know? Do ancient people still keep diaries every day and publish them after death, so that people hundreds of years later can know these details? Since being castrated by the emperor, it should be said that his psychology has become extremely distorted, immersed in the fantasy of fictional ancient "sages" and "prosperous times" and has become an important spiritual pillar to support his survival (of course, this is also my guess). This mentality led him to turn the absurd myths and legends of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" (which even China officials dare not admit) into history, didn't it?

As for the so-called Huangdi, Yao, Shun and Yu, these figures were just invented by alchemists in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Qin and Han Dynasties according to myths and legends, and even China officials dared not admit it, so they obediently called it "the legendary Huangdi era". Needless to say here. This is not a question that needs to be debated here, but historical common sense. There are a lot of articles and materials in this field, and these problems were solved only during the May 4th Movement. These problems have been clearly expounded in the Debate on Ancient History written by Gu Jiegang, Beidou of Taishan Mountain in China. )

Ironically, although China officially called it "The Legend of the Yellow Emperor" in the official textbooks, the so-called "Five Emperors' Era" was listed in the chronology in the published dictionaries, so a funny scene happened: The "Five Emperors" from the "Yellow Emperor" actually lasted for 500 years! The average reign time of each "emperor" is 100 years! In addition, they have to reach the adult age before "succession" and the old age after "abdication", and the average life expectancy of each person is above 100 years old! It turns out that the average life span of primitive tribes in the Stone Age has reached 100 years old, which is really an amazing record!

Although these politicians and literati in China really want to publicize this fictional so-called "ancestor of the Yellow Emperor" as an official history, and have staged several farce of "paying homage to the Yellow Emperor", I believe that unless cults run rampant in China, their attempts will not succeed.

"Yao, shun. Yu "is only a fiction of later generations, and there is no so-called" ancestor of the Yellow Emperor ". Gu Jiegang put forward the viewpoint that "the ancient history of China is caused by layers of fatigue". The two main points are "the longer the time, the longer the legendary period of ancient history" and "the bigger the central figure of legend", which are the guiding ideology to identify false history. As for the alchemists in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, what exactly? Can be investigated in detail.

By the way, Gu Jiegang is one of the few historians with a little conscience in China. However, due to time constraints, he also mistakenly thought that Peking Man unearthed at that time was the ethnic origin of all ethnic groups in China. We know today that scientists have determined the mitochondrial DNA of different ethnic groups and found that all ethnic groups are African Homo sapiens, Beijingers and other early primitive people who originated 200,000 years ago. It is only common sense that our people in China migrated from Central Asia after the end of the Ice Age.

The so-called "Chinese civilization is the only surviving ancient civilization, and all other civilizations have disappeared and become genocide", which some people in China relish, is also an absurd argument that can confuse people. It's time to completely clarify this ridiculous argument.

Then let's see if other civilizations have disappeared and whether races have become extinct.

First of all, Greece, the earliest civilization in Greece-Minoan civilization, began in 2500 BC, more than 4000 years ago. It was first recorded in Homer's epic. /kloc-at the end of 0/9 century, a large number of its remains were found in Crete, Greece and other places. Archaeological basis: early hieroglyphics, and medium-term linear characters a; Mature bronze smelting, and unearthed a large number of smelting bronzes; Early castles and palaces in Knossos in the middle period, especially the latter, are beautiful and gorgeous, which can be said to have reached a peak in all early civilizations.

(Note: China's history books trace back to Minoan civilization from 2000 BC, but foreign history books began from 2500 BC, so you have to judge for yourself. )

Followed by the Mycenae civilization in southern Greece, which began in 1600 BC, 3600 years ago. The history of this period is mainly described in Homer's epic. /kloc-in the 0/9th century, many city relics, a large number of bronzes and linear characters B were found in Mycenae, Trins and other places in Greece.

Then there was Homer's time two hundred years later. At this time, Greece began to enter the Iron Age, and weapons and tools were generally made of iron. China didn't officially enter the Iron Age until nearly a thousand years later in the Han Dynasty (I'm not exaggerating. It's historical common sense that other civilized regions entered the Iron Age about a thousand years earlier than our China region. The reason is very simple, because iron smelting originated from Hittite civilization in the Mediterranean region, and then it was introduced to various civilizations far and near, and China region was the farthest, so it spread at the latest.

Then there is the familiar era of classical civilization represented by Athens.

The pilar people who created Minoan civilization were not Greeks. Some rogue literati in China made a fuss about this point, deliberately emphasizing that the creator of Crete civilization was not the same as the Greeks who created Mycenae civilization, trying to belittle the originality of Greek civilization. In fact, the pilar Skies are only non-Greeks, but they are Indo-European or Aryan with the Greeks. In addition, from the early Minoan civilization, they gradually merged with the Akayan family, which created Mycenae civilization, and their civilizations came down in one continuous line. In Attica and other places, the Pilaski people have long been integrated with the local Akaya people, creating the later classical civilization. Their secularism and naturalism in culture and art are unique among several ancient civilizations. It has the same origin as the later Greek classical civilization.

Even from the authentic Greek Mycenae civilization, it was earlier than the earliest commercial civilization in China. I don't know how the "four ancient civilizations" can be counted on China.

What's more, China's two early civilizations, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, were created by nomadic people who migrated from the west. After the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the Shang clan became extinct. Who dares to say that he is a descendant of a "businessman" today? To say "authentic" "China people"-Han people, it was only in the Qin and Han Dynasties that they were formed. Should it also be said that "the early civilization in China has disappeared and the race has become extinct"?

After 65438 BC+0000 BC, Dorians who were the same as achaean and the first two created classical Greek civilization. The Macedonians who later unified Greece and established the Alexander Empire were also Greeks, creating the Hellenistic civilization era. After Rome annexed Greece, it became the direct successor of Greek civilization; After the demise of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) lasted for a thousand years, and its core nation was still Greeks, who used Greek. Until the Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed by the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the15th century, the Greeks experienced a 400-year national subjugation and regained their independence at the beginning of the19th century. Today, the territory of Greece is the main area of ancient Greece, the vast majority of the population is still Greeks, and Greek is the national language. Since ancient times, the ethnic composition of this area has not changed greatly. What is the "disappearance of race"?

Moreover, it is also a joke to say that human civilization has disappeared. Today's modern civilization is entirely the content of western civilization, based on Greek and Roman civilization. Greek and Roman civilization still has great influence on science, philosophy, literature, art, politics and law in today's society. The shadow of Greek and Roman civilization can be seen everywhere around us. Why did it "disappear"?

Greek and Roman civilization only accepted the elements of Christianity in the middle, and it was Hellenistic Christianity. Christianity can be said to be a mixed product of Greek civilization and Jewish civilization from the beginning. The Christian classic "New Testament" was written in Greek at the beginning, and the main disseminator was the Greeks during the Roman Empire. Judaism, which only serves the Old Testament, is forbidden to worship idols, while all Christian schools can paint and carve icons, which is a typical feature of its Hellenism.

We cannot overestimate Greek civilization. It can be said that without Greek civilization, there would be almost no modern society today. Many modern scientific disciplines, technological inventions and democratic systems have already taken shape as early as ancient Greece. The ancient Greek civilization directly gave birth to the Renaissance in medieval Europe, which led to the emergence of modern science and the germination of democratic system. This is a civilization that has made the most important and crucial contribution to the whole human world today. We didn't know enough about it before.

Let's look at the ethnic composition of China in turn. As mentioned earlier, Shang and Zhou were originally foreigners, and after the demise of Shang, the Shang clan also perished. The so-called "Han people" was formed after the first great ethnic integration in the Qin and Han Dynasties, which is no different from the ethnic evolution in other countries and regions. At the peak of the Han Dynasty, the population reached more than 50 million, but after the turmoil at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were only 7 million people left in the Three Kingdoms, of which the population of Shu was only over 900,000 at the peak (so it is not difficult to understand that the basic strategy of Shu was self-defense rather than joining hands with Wu to resist Wei). The description in Cao Cao's poems that "white bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no crows in a thousand miles" is not an exaggeration in literature, but a true record of population extinction at that time. How to fill such a huge population vacuum? It was filled by a large number of northern barbarians who moved south. Then in the short Western Jin Dynasty (less than a generation), a large number of northern Han people moved south to Jiangnan, and then there was a period of "five wild flowers" that lasted for more than 200 years, and the Yellow River basin was basically changed.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, all parts of the country were alien, and this so-called "most brilliant" Tang Dynasty itself was a partially sinicized Xianbei regime (it is no secret that Li Shimin and his family were all sinicized Xianbei people), and a large number of barbarian bad habits were retained, such as the death of their brothers, the death of their fathers and the remarriage of their children. Is this the so-called "Chinese civilization" in the same strain?

As for the period of Liao, Jin, Meng, Yuan and Manchu, it is not to mention that the whole period is a conquered national period. Is it the so-called "Chinese civilization" that the Hu people are sinicized and the Han people are also Hu Hua, whipping and waving flags?

It must be said that southerners and northerners living in China today are quite different not only in the basic characteristics of the concept of "nation"-* * * but also in the physiological characteristics of race. Generally speaking, northerners are pure Mongols, while southerners are more complicated, mixed with many Malay elements. There are two reasons for this: First, when the nationalities of China migrated from Central Asia and South Asia, this pattern was formed, that is, Mongolians migrated from Central Asia dominated the Yellow River Basin, while Malays migrated from South Asia to the south of the Yangtze River dominated. Second, in the historical evolution and ethnic migration after thousands of years, a large number of Mongolians in the north merged with Baiyue and other ethnic groups south of the Yangtze River. (This is also a question of ethnology common sense. Readers can consult experts in this field around them and know that I am not exaggerating. )

The races are the same, not to mention the culture. It is said that "Chinese civilization is the only one that survives", so what survives? For example, ethnic groups in other countries often have their own national costumes. Do China people (Han nationality) have their own national costumes? Don't tell me that the Chinese tunic suit is a national costume. It is made of Japanese students' clothes. More than a thousand years have passed, especially in the last few hundred years, the wheel of history has been ruthlessly crushed, and the so-called "Chinese civilization" left is just fragments, unlike four. Japanese culture is closer to Han and Tang culture than China native culture now.

Many people in China like to boast that "the only surviving characters in the world are Chinese characters, and all other languages are broken". In fact, this is an absurd statement. Take English as an example. English majors should know that although there are millions of English words, except for a few basic words, most of them are composed of a limited number of Greek roots, Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes (and Latin roots are derived from Greek roots), especially a large number of scientific and technological words are basically composed of Greek roots. Many people think that the formation of English vocabulary seems to be a random combination of some letters, which is irregular. In fact, they don't understand English, which is just a word formation method of Greek roots. (Some internet gangsters like to preach the fallacy that "Chinese vocabulary is regular, English vocabulary is irregular, and Chinese is superior to English", which is simply ridiculous. )

You will find that many words are very similar in various languages in western countries because