We often say that Chinese civilization has five thousand years. How did this statement come from? Many people think this is China's boast. Actually, it is not.
But how are these five thousand years calculated? When did you start counting? 1. The west thinks that we only have a history of 3,000 years, and China was born in 200 BC, that is, during the Qin Shihuang period.
China people think that China has been a country since summer. In this case, the Shang and Zhou dynasties implemented the enfeoffment system, and the vassal States under the king were unified. Qin unified the enfeoffment system into the county system, and the system was different when the dynasties changed. Europeans don't understand it that way. Europe was a small country at first, and became an empire after Rome destroyed ancient Greece.
But in the long Middle Ages, Christianity, the state religion of Rome, became the actual ruler of the European continent, and its religious power was higher than the royal power. There are other lords under the kingship, and the lords obey the king rather than absolute. At this point, there is the French king's sentence, the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal. Due to historical reasons, Europeans' understanding of the country is different from ours.
They believe that reunification is the beginning of a country. They didn't think of the previous enfeoffment system, and even domestic historians didn't recognize the existence of Xia Dynasty, because there were no unearthed cultural relics, only records in historical records and ancient books. Some people say that it is not the capital of Xia Dynasty, but something similar to Liangzhu civilization. There is no unearthed cultural relic, and it cannot be regarded as it.
But even so, our civilization has a long history and there is no need to care about this thing. Other ancient civilizations have been cut off many times. Their race is not the first race now, and their written language has long been different.
Only our works are in the same strain. Therefore, if foreigners start counting from the Qin dynasty, they also have the consideration of unified measurement. However, when studying the history of China, it is not necessary to pay special attention to the opinions of foreigners. The best people who study the history of China are always from China. Even if foreigners spend time, they can touch the bones but not the meridians. It's good to take foreign studies on the history of China as a reference.
2. The source of 5,000 years' history
Since the era of the Yellow Emperor, the astronomical phenomena have been "the chaotic Jiazi era of Shangyuan, the combination of the sun and the moon, the five-star alliance and the seven-Yao period". According to this phenomenon, later forecasters (all astronomers) calculated that it should be 2697 BC, so according to the Gregorian calendar, 20 17 should be 47 14, and Taoism still uses this number. In fact, this calendar was also adopted by the dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, because Laozi was the ancestor, Laozi's birthday was the epoch, which was 1300 BC.
In other words, the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization started from the Yellow Emperor, not from any dynasty. Xia Dynasty was the first hereditary dynasty in the history of China. According to the research results of modern archaeology, the Xia Dynasty was founded around 2070 BC and died around 1600 BC, which lasted for more than 400 years.
This is the origin of 5,000 years of civilization.