Why is the culture of China the only one among the four ancient civilizations that survived?

No, Egypt is still there. Babylon is now Iraq. If he was destroyed, we were also destroyed by Mongolia and Manchu. Now these ancient countries are still alive.

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 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 of all, let's take a look at this so-called "four ancient civilizations". There is no such slogan formulation for kindergartens in the international and academic circles. Only the "cradle of several civilizations" is similar. Even so, China is not among the "four great civilizations".

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 previous 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.

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 clearly shows that the original meaning of the concept of "civilization" belongs to the category of the Bronze Age, and it is linked with "city" and industry and commerce by the appearance of "citizen". (The word city comes from the variant "cit-" of the root "civ-". )

The main characteristics of "civilization", such as writing, metal smelting, city-state, religious etiquette, etc. (defined by Jasper) are closely related to the emergence of industry and commerce. Judging whether and when a civilization began is based on the above criteria and archaeological findings, not on 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 age. 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 history of civilization 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 more than 10,000 years. So we still can't take advantage of anything.

China's "historians" have long confused the standards of "culture" and "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.

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

Let's see what the "archaeologists" and "historians" in China have discovered. I once heard a lecture entitled "The Dating Project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties", and the lecturer "Archaeologist" showed us the restoration map of the so-called "Capital Ruins" of the so-called "Xia Dynasty". When I took a closer look, it turned out to be a few rotten grass huts, a standard primitive village. They call this "capital" the "great" Xia Dynasty? What else is there? There are several mud piles at the archaeological site. What are they?-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 "summer capital" is pure nonsense!

If this is regarded as the "Capital Relics", there are too many "Capital Relics" in Neolithic cultures around 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 in China cannot be compared with them until 4000 years later. 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 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.