First of all, let's look at the so-called "four ancient civilizations". There is no such slogan formulation for kindergartens in the international and academic circles, only "the birthplace of several major civilizations". Even so, China can't rank 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 main characters had been separated by 2,000 to 1000 years before that: the civilizations of the two river basins in the Middle East began around 3,500 BC; Egypt's Nile Valley civilization also started around 3500 BC, Greece's Aegean civilization started around 2500 BC, and indus valley civilization started around 2500 BC.
This is only in terms of a large area. There are many more important civilizations around the major civilized areas, 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 Sumerians and Persians are also the ancestors of Jews, Arabs and Iranians. According to the definition of "four ancient countries" mentioned above, it can only be ranked among these civilizations and countries.
Careful readers may find that the first four civilizations should be divided into Middle East civilization, Egyptian civilization, Greek civilization and Indian civilization from the time when the civilizations listed above began. Without the status of China. Why did the Greek position disappear in China's official propaganda and become China later than 1000 years later?
This is not an unintentional mistake. In fact, only under the anti-western political background controlled by the government for a long time, various propaganda movements systematically and purposefully belittle a part of western civilization. Because Greek civilization is the source of western civilization, China officials do not want to see any information showing the superiority of western civilization for ideological and nationalist reasons, and joke forums should derogate from any aspect of western civilization as much as possible. Coupled with the extreme hostility and jealousy of the "nationalists" in power towards western civilization, such a small limb has been created. This kind of propaganda began in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and now China officials only regard it as a means to encourage the further development of nationalism.
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 confused these basic common sense and concepts, misleading and fooling people. This is the difference between the two concepts of "culture" and "civilization", and it is also several basic characteristics that constitute "civilization".
There are strict differences between the two concepts of "culture" and "civilization" in archaeology and history, although we often confuse them in our daily life. Simply put, "culture" is a concept belonging to the Stone Age, which refers to the remains of primitive tribes in the Stone Age, especially the Neolithic Age, including stones and stone tools, while "civilization" is a concept belonging to the Bronze Age.
In fact, we can clearly see the difference between "culture" and "civilization" from the etymology. The original meaning of the word "culture-"is "farming", which clearly shows that the escape of the concept of "culture" belongs to "farming", and the original meaning of the root "civ-" 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". The word city comes from the variant "cit" of the root "civ-"
According to Jasper's definition, the main features of "civilization" are closely related to the emergence of industry and commerce, such as writing, metal smelting (bronze, iron), polis (polis) and religious etiquette. Determine whether and when a civilization began, verify it according to the above standards, and also verify it according to archaeological discoveries. Unofficial history's miscellaneous books, or the so-called "Historical Records" such as "Historical Records" which are two thousand years later than the archaeological era. This is common sense in archaeological history.
Some people may ask: then, why should we judge our own history by the standards of foreigners? Can't you judge by your own standards? Absolutely. However, the concepts of "civilization" and "culture" originally came from the West. Moreover, 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 that "we have a history of L civilization of 5,000 years", but we should use our own words to say "we have a history of myths and legends 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.
For a long time, "historians" in China have confused the standards of "culture" and "civilization", misleading and fooling the public. For example, primitive tribal cultures belonging to the Neolithic Age, such as Hemudu culture, Yangshao civilization, Hongshan Culture, Liangzhu culture and Longshan culture, etc. , have been replaced by the so-called "civilization" era, so that the history of China is one or two thousand years ahead of schedule. Using another standard, starting from the official starting point of other people's civilization (writing, metal smelting, presentation of city-states), this virtually shortens the gap between China and those countries with the oldest culture, and even gives people an illusion, as if China was earlier than these countries and regions which actually had much earlier civilization than China. In fact, if China is measured by his own standards, many countries and regions, especially those around the Mediterranean.
For example, some "scholars" in China began to plant rice or excavate jade in Neolithic sites such as Hemudu culture and Hongshan Culture, and regarded it as a "civilized" era by stealing concepts, and invented humorous terms such as "rice civilization" and "jade civilization" to mislead and cheat. In fact, this is only the agricultural stage of Neolithic culture, and in these places, it is only. Stone Age remains such as bones, woodwork, pottery and crops, but there are no signs of civilization such as writing, metal smelting and urban construction. However, such commodities are everywhere in Stone Age cultural sites all over the world, and there is nothing unusual. For example, although rice was planted earlier in China (Hemudu culture 7000 years ago), it has been planted in other parts of the world for a long time, such as Southeast Asia. In the Middle East, wheat, barley, domestic cattle, sheep, pigs and wheat from China were all introduced from the Middle East more than 2000 years ago (this is historical knowledge); In Central America, corn and pumpkin were planted 10,000 years ago. In the Andes in southern China, corn and potatoes were planted 6,000 years ago. The Qing Dynasty imported corn, potatoes and pumpkins from these two places, which solved the problem of eating in China and doubled the population of China. Even Africa has its own unique crop producing area: Niger.
As for jade products, no matter how beautiful jade is, it is still a natural product and can be processed without special technology. It's a product of the Stone Age, nothing special. In many other countries and regions, there are also bronzes made of natural copper (there is natural copper in the artificial world), ornaments made of gold and silver, and works of art carved by ivory and jade. But others did not concoct "red copper" based on this.
The reason of people, the appearance of metal smelting (bronze, iron), cities, etc. This should be regarded as the standard to distinguish civilization from the Stone Age because the appearance of metal smelting is essentially different from the appearance of natural objects such as copper, gold, silver, jade, ivory, stone, wood, bone and earth in the Stone Age. , marking the essential leap of productivity; The appearance of characters marks the substantive Pentium of spiritual culture; The emergence of cities marks the separation of industry and commerce from agriculture.
Let's take a concrete look at the history of China and the world.
Let's start with the history of China civilization. First, directly explain this basic fact: the earliest civilized commercial civilization in China began around 1500 BC, about 3,500 years ago, located in Anyang, Henan. Archaeological basis: the earliest writing in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and China; Mature bronze smelting and unearthed smelting bronzes; A national form has emerged.
I want to make it clear that this is not my discovery. Just find a world history book or textbook in international academic circles, which says that Chinese civilization began in Shang Dynasty.
For example, in Stavri Anoos's A General History of the World, the major world civilizations are arranged in chronological order as follows: Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia, Egyptian civilization in the Nile valley, Minoan civilization in Crete, Halaba civilization in the Indus valley and commercial civilization in the Yellow River valley. It can be seen that the commercial civilization around 1500 BC is just.
This is just in the order of several important civilizations. If several other small civilizations contemporary with or even earlier than the Shang civilization, such as Persian civilization, Jewish civilization, Hittite civilization, Assyrian civilization and Phoenician civilization, are also included, even according to the standards of more than 20 large and small civilizations in the world listed by Toynbee's historical seminar, according to the definition of "ancient civilization", many countries contained in various civilized regions are arranged one by one.
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: there are no words, no bronzes found, and no urban relics to show the existence of the country.
The charlatans in China, like "historians" and "archaeologists", have searched all parts of 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 public, and they have also crustily packed 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 report on the dating project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The lecturer "Archaeologist" showed us a restored map of Erlitou "Capital Ruins", which they claimed was 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 called this "huge" "Xia Dynasty" "Capital City"? What else is there? The pit they dug at the archaeological site claimed to be the "base site of the palace", but in fact, not a brick or tile was found at the site. There are several mud piles at the archaeological site. What are the remains of rammed earth? What is rammed earth? It is the most primitive technology used by primitive tribes to build shacks, commonly known as "dry paving". Now you are in some remote villages in China. There are also some copper slag, a lot of stone tools and bones! Isn't this question very clear? This is only the remains of clan tribes in the Neolithic age. The so-called "summer capital" is pure nonsense!
If this is a "capital relic", then there are too many "capital relics" in the Neolithic culture around the world. For example, at the Huju Cultural Site in 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 "Capital Ruins" of the "Great" 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 totally deceptive propaganda. They are bronzes made of natural copper in the stone-to-stone era, and they are products of the late Neolithic age. There are also 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.
Archaeologists in China discovered a bronze knight in Erlitou. In fact, the age of the bronze knight is measured by carbon 14, which is also in the same period as Shang civilization. However, China scholars first identified Erlitou as the site of the so-called "Xia Dynasty", then determined it as 2000 BC according to the records in ancient books, and then forcibly identified Qingtongjue as a "cultural relic of Xia Dynasty". Then use it to prove in turn that Erlitou is the site of the "Xia Dynasty". Archaeologists in China took advantage of this fictional condition, then concocted the so-called "Xia Dynasty cultural relics" with the hypocrisy of reincarnation theory, and then used it to prove the existence of the "Xia Dynasty" that vanished into nothing. This is their usual means.
In other ancient civilizations, there are characters, bronzes and a large number of complete urban relics that mark the starting point of civilization, and all of them are masonry structures, especially the Crete civilization sites in Egypt, Greece, West Asia and the Indus Valley. The palace in Knossos (2000 BC) is magnificent and rich, ranking among the best in all early civilizations, but many modern palace buildings existing in China after 4,000 years are helpless. Needless to say.
There is also the Halaba civilization, an early civilization in the Indus Valley (2500 BC). Many complete urban relics have been found in Mohenzo and Halaba, with complex masonry structure, advanced facilities and even public bathrooms. According to research, the urban population at that time had reached 30,000 to 40,000.
There are also ruins in the south of Egypt (in 3500 BC, during the Negada civilization). Some books mistakenly say that there are no cities in Egypt, but in fact, Mayan civilization has no words. For example, Stavri and Anoos's A General History of the World (I have long said that his book is full of problems in details).
To tell an old lie, the so-called Yin Ruins in Shang Dynasty are actually just some rammed earth sites, but the scope is a little larger. Joke forum is not a city relic at all. If it weren't for the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the smelting of bronzes, the international community wouldn't recognize the Shang civilization at all. After all, compared with other countries and regions, there is too little evidence.
Some people in China have found an excuse for this: they say that the early buildings in China are all made of brick and wood structures, so it is not easy to preserve them, while other countries and regions, especially the West, mainly use stone buildings, so they have preserved more, and there is even a slap in the face: the brick and wood buildings in China are more advanced in technology than the stone buildings in other civilizations. In fact, on the contrary, in the major civilized areas I mentioned above, in fact, the sites of early civilizations they excavated were all built with a large number of fired bricks, the most typical being the site of Halaba civilization in the Indus Valley, the earliest urban sites in Ur, Babylon and Susa in the two river basins, the site of Cheng Nan in Egypt, the site of Minos civilization in Greece and so on. In fact, as a typical representative of western architecture, the buildings in ancient Rome were not built of stones as some people imagined, but also used a lot of bricks. Concrete and other buildings, such as the ancient city of Pompeii, roads made of stones (some of them are still in use today after more than 2,000 years, which are much stronger than the dirt roads in China at the same time), overhead canals still preserved in French and Spanish places, and so on. , are well preserved.
The early civilized monuments in China were not built with bricks, but with rammed earth and wood, which were difficult to preserve, but it was precisely because of the low technical level. The Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty was built of rammed earth, and now it has disappeared without a trace. The so-called Great Wall we see now is only rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, and the Great Wall used for sightseeing, such as Badaling, was rebuilt in ancient times.
The productivity, water temperature and technical level of masonry buildings in the Middle East and the West are much higher than those in China, and the cost is also much more expensive. It is also stronger and of course easier to preserve. For example, the city ruins of Mycenae civilization in Greece (BC 1600), with a wall made of huge stones up to eight meters thick, are still well preserved.
Moreover, in the early days of China, it was not because of the lack of stones, as some people explained, but because of the low level of productivity, because China was not short of stones compared with other civilized areas. After the productivity level reached a certain level in the Han Dynasty, stone buildings began to be used. On the contrary, the two river basins are the areas where stones are most scarce. The Indus and Nile basins are not richer in stone producing areas than China, but they may have developed fired bricks and stones long ago.
So it's not surprising that the so-called "Xia Dynasty" remains can't be found, because they don't exist at all, just the remains of some primitive villages in the Stone Age.
However, the appearance of two more crucial evidence words and the appearance of metal smelting are even more insignificant.
At the beginning, we should pay more attention to the fact that the problem is not as simple as any evidence of the existence of the so-called "Xia Dynasty", but that there is a lot of evidence to prove that it basically does not exist. The typical evidence is that the Shang Dynasty, which followed the so-called "Xia Dynasty" in time, can't find any records about this previous "dynasty" in its Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions. Isn't this ridiculous? Haven't you figured out the truth yet? You can imagine Zhou Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, etc. Nothing about their previous "dynasty" is recorded in their government documents and archives? Only an initial civilization like Shang Dynasty would do this, because there was nothing ahead.
This truth is similar to the legal presumption of innocence: to prove the existence of a thing, you only need to cite an example to prove it, while to prove that it does not exist, you need to use exhaustive methods, which is inconsistent with the facts. Therefore, if there is no evidence to prove the existence of something, it can't be said that it exists. It can only be regarded as an expectation, not as a fact.
However, we have no direct method (exhaustion method) to prove that something does not exist, but there are indirect methods to prove that something does not exist. For example, to prove that someone didn't do something, we can prove it by proving that he wasn't there when the incident happened. However, we can indirectly prove that the Xia Dynasty did not exist through the evidence that was not recorded in the inscriptions of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronzes in Shang Dynasty.
However, if there are records of the Xia Dynasty in the inscriptions on Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronzes in Shang Dynasty, it only proves that it exists as a legend, and it also needs direct evidence from its own words, bronzes and cities. However, not only the direct evidence does not exist, but also the indirect evidence proves that it does not exist. This is enough to explain the problem completely.
In desperation, some boring literati lied that Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen in 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 about their professional reputation.
These "historians" and "archaeologists" in China have exhausted their organs. Disappointed, they only presented the treasure 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 in university history textbooks, they still stammered that it was just a "dynasty" on paper, and even they felt guilty. After all, these history students will join the "historical forgery team" and "archaeological forgery team" in the future. Before teaching them how to forge, it is necessary to let them know the truth first, otherwise they will all be "cultivated" into idiots.
The most ridiculous 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 the history of China began with the civilization of Shang Dynasty. For example, the English version of A General History of China published by FLTRP lists the so-called "Xia Dynasty" and the legend of the Yellow Emperor into the catalogue of "Myth and Legend Times". I really feel sorry for us in China.
And we will take another 10,000 steps, from the so-called "Xia Dynasty", from 2000 BC to 2000 AD, which is only 4,000 years. Where did the "5,000-year history of civilization" come from? Isn't it 2000+2000=5000? So the "5,000-year history of civilization" is just a joke. This joke is so ridiculous that it is not even a rumor. Because the basic facts are all there, inscrutable, and they can't be allowed to lie and falsify. The only measure is to get everyone used to it by monopolizing the propaganda machine. If someone says 1+ 1=3 or 65438+,
Some "historians" became angry from embarrassment and asserted in a ruffian tone: "There is no doubt that the Xia Dynasty was recorded in the Historical Records!" Sima Qian, who was separated by two thousand years, described something he had never seen through hearsay, and it became "beyond doubt"? Plato in ancient Greece also recorded that there was an Oceania country more than 10 thousand years ago, and people also found traces of suspected cities on the seabed, which is "beyond doubt"
And Sima Qian's words don't have much credibility. The Historical Records he wrote is not so much a historical record as a historical novel. Many plots and dialogues are simply fictional. What a person does alone, or a confidential conversation between two people, is a hidden activity with no outsiders present. According to his own records, the client disappeared after the incident. So where did he know these things? Could it be that ancient people kept diaries every day and published them after their death, so that people would know these details hundreds of years later? A careful reading of his historical records reveals many such flaws.
Since being castrated by the Emperor of Heaven, it should be said that his psychology has become extremely distorted, indulging in the fictional ancient ideal of "sages" and "prosperous times" and becoming the main energy pillar to support his survival. This mentality led him to record the absurd myths and legends of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" (which even China officials dare not deny) as history. Is this also "beyond doubt"?
As for the so-called Huangdi, Yao, Shun and Yu, these figures were all invented by alchemists and scholars in the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties according to myths and legends. Even China officials dare not admit it, but they are obediently called "the legendary era of the Yellow Emperor". Needless to say here. This is not a question that needs to be falsified, but a historical common sense. There are many articles and materials on these issues.
Ironically, although China officials refer to the so-called "Yellow Emperor" as the "Legend Era of the Yellow Emperor" in official textbooks, the so-called "Five Emperors Era" is also listed in the published "Xinhua Dictionary" and "Modern Chinese Dictionary", which leads to a funny scene: the "Five Emperors" starting from the "Yellow Emperor" actually lasted for 50 years. Even the reign time of every "emperor" is 100 years! In addition, they must reach the age of adulthood before "succession" and in the twilight 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!
But these really talented and knowledgeable clumsy "nationalists" shamelessly explained that the "five emperors" did not refer to five people, but many people in five eras. However, the names, resumes and inheritance relations of the "Five Emperors" are all written in black and white in the Chronicle of the Five Emperors, that is, the relationship between the six generations is defined (Zhuan Xu is the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, but he is a direct continuation of the Yellow Emperor. Now they find that what they once believed in is full of loopholes and want to deny change and distortion. It's shameless.
Although these politicians and literati in China want to publicize this fictional so-called "ancestor of the Yellow Emperor" as official history, and have staged several farce of "offering sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor", I believe their plan will not fail unless cults are rampant in China.
"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 accumulation". The main two points are "the longer the time, the longer the legendary period of ancient history" and "the longer the time, the bigger the core figure of legend", which are the leading ideas to identify false history.
By the way, Gu Jiegang is one of the few China historians who have a little intimate friend. However, due to the premise of the times, he also mistakenly thought that Peking Man excavated at that time was the ethnic origin of all ethnic groups in China. We know today that by measuring the mitochondrial DNA of different races, scientists found that all races in the world are African Homo sapiens, which originated 200,000 years ago. Early hominids in other areas, such as Beijingers, have long been extinct, which is not the origin of human beings in China. It is only common sense that China's present human beings migrated from the Middle East and Central Asia one after another 10 or 20 thousand years ago.
Some people in China relish the absurd statement that "Chinese civilization is the only surviving ancient civilization, and all other civilizations have disappeared and become extinct", which is also an absurd argument that can confuse people. It's time to get rid of this absurd argument completely.