The 5000-year history we can see is between prehistoric times hundreds of times longer than ours and the infinite future. In the endless existence of human beings, this is a negligible distance. This period of history is open to the prehistoric world and the future. It will not be isolated from any one of them, nor will it get its own complete picture in a perfect form.

We and our present are in history. If the present degenerates into a simple present in today's narrow vision, then it will lose its profound significance. I hope to improve our present consciousness with the help of the book Origin and Goal of History.

Jaspers divided the past development of human history into four stages, and it was based on * * *. These four stages are: 1. Vorgeschichte II. Alte Hochkulturen; Third, the Axis Age (Achsenzeit); Fourth, the age of science and technology (Wissenschaftlich-technisches zeit alter). In these four stages of civilization development, the axial age is of great significance. Because of this, Jaspers called it a "breakthrough period" and called "prehistoric times", "ancient high-culture times" and "scientific and technological times" an "intermission period". The previous intermission gathered the necessary energy for the breakthrough in the Axis era, laid the foundation and set the standard for the future development of mankind. On the one hand, the era of science and technology is the further development of the achievements made in the axis era, on the other hand, it also makes necessary preparations for the breakthrough in the new axis era. Nevertheless, in the era of science and technology, mankind has not found new historical significance, and the second breakthrough of mankind needs further efforts.

The axial age is put forward to completely break the historical and philosophical myth created by Christian religious belief in the western world. Because Hegel once said: "All history belongs to Christ and comes from Christ. The arrival of the Son of God is the axis of world history. " The problem with this statement is that even in the west, Christians will not associate their historical view based on experience with Christian beliefs. Besides, Christianity is only the belief of believers, not the belief of all mankind. And Jaspers' "Axis Age" is the key point in the whole process of human civilization, excluding the content of specific beliefs, which is a convincing measure for westerners, Asians and even all mankind:

The axis of world history seems to be around 500 BC, which is a spiritual process from 800 BC to 200 BC. ..... and then came the people we still live with today. ..... Extraordinary events are concentrated in this era. Confucius and Laozi lived in China, which produced all schools of China's philosophy. Mo Zhai, Zhuangzi, Liezi and countless other philosophers are thinking about this problem. Upanishads appeared in India where the Buddha lived, and all philosophical possibilities, such as skepticism and materialism, sophistry and nihilism, came into being, just like China; In Iran, Zarathustra is teaching him a challenging world outlook, that is, it is a struggle between good and evil; In Palestine, from Elijah to Isaiah and Jeremiah, to the second Isaiah, a prophet appeared; In Greece, there are Homer, philosophers parmenides, Heraclitus, Plato, many tragic writers, Thucydides and Archimedes. In these few short centuries, almost everything outlined by these names took place in China, India and the West, which are strangers to each other.

The novelty of this era is that in the above three areas, people are beginning to realize their overall existence, their own existence and their own limitations. They feel the horror of the world and their powerlessness. They asked the most basic questions. Facing the bottomless abyss, they seek liberation and redemption. After realizing the limits of their abilities, they set the noblest goals for themselves. In the depth of their own existence and the clarity of transcendence, they experienced infinity.

..... In this era, the basic category we have been thinking about has been created, and the seeds of the world religion on which people live have been created.

"Axis Age" refers to the fact that China, Indian, Persian, Palestinian and Greek civilizations all laid the foundation of human spirit on the premise of "breaking through" their early civilizations, opened the development direction of their later civilizations, and thus formed different religious-ethical views and cultural models. It is in this period that human beings began to have the consciousness of awakening and realized the significance and limitation of the whole and self-existence. For Jaspers, a very important feature of the axis era is to transcend the regionality of the nation and culture with the help of the idea of "communication", and then "get something that is the same for all mankind and transcends all beliefs". Jaspers believes that human beings are interrelated through unique origins and purposes. To this end, Jaspers conceived a "universal history of empirical understanding" (die empirisch zug? Ngliche Universalgeschichte) aims to make this irreplaceable one-off existence of history as important as human communication and continuation. The historical experience that determines universality is not just Christianity as a revealed religion: "It is not revelation but experience that binds all people together. Revelation is the historical form of personal belief, but experience is understandable by everyone. "

Jaspers believes that the Axial Age "has produced a * * * same framework for all ethnic groups to know themselves historically, which is the same for the West, Asia and even all people, and there is no specific scale of belief connotation." ..... the most profound turning point in history. "

According to Jaspers' understanding, the "axis age" includes three characteristics: one is the so-called synchronization. Almost at the same time, similar achievements appeared in China, India, the Middle East and Europe, that is, on the geographical axis from Greece to East Asia. The second is diachronic. The ideological development of great philosophers in this period is the axis of the subsequent development of each specific cultural circle; The third is universality. For the first time, the Axial Age revealed the future of mankind from a brand-new perspective.

In view of Hegel's juxtaposition of China, India and the West as the stage of dialectical ladder order of spiritual development, Jaspers refuted this: It is through reflection and transcendence that thinkers in the Axis era are no longer limited by material and life, and all kinds of ideas that we still rely on for survival have emerged, thus completing the first step of human beings entering unity. Jaspers wrote:

We just denied the sequence of development from China to Greece-it didn't exist in time and significance. On the contrary, they coexist and have no connection. Many roads with different starting points seem to lead to the same destination temporarily. These three forms have the same diversity. These three independent roots, through discontinuous individual contact, eventually developed into the only unity that later became history, from centuries, in fact, until today.

That is to say, in Jaspers' view, the progress of world civilization is not from east to west, and the development order from China to Greece that Hegel thought never existed. People should grasp the significance of various civilizations from the overall situation of human civilization. The internal integrity and consistency of cultural phenomena in various regions of human history and the common humanity of human beings in the axial era show that the ultimate goal and inevitable trend of history is the unity of history. The history originated from consciousness, but also moved towards the goal of unity because of consciousness: "the axis era assimilated everything left over from history." Since then, world history has gained a unique structure and unity, which continues to this day. "

In Jaspers' view, although axis civilization only occurred in a few areas such as China, Indian and Greek, it was very important to the unity of history. In other words, the axial age is not a universal stage of human historical development, but actually a unique historical branch process. But this period laid a universal human history and attracted all people spiritually. Jaspers pointed out:

We-all of us-can * * share the truth of the universal change of mankind in the era of the axis of perception. Although the Axis Age was limited to China, India and the West, and the three worlds were not related at first, it laid a universal history and brought all people in spiritually.

It is the emergence of the Axial Age that makes human nature the spiritual basis of "human existence", thus profoundly affecting the changes in the historical structure of the world. Jaspers therefore believes that the axial age constitutes the same value scale of human beings, and also makes human beings change from individual and regional people into the whole existence. Jaspers believes that the structure of the whole world history has been changed due to the axial age; The new nation has entered these three cultural circles:

New nations have emerged in these three cultural circles. There are Germans and Slavs in the west and Japanese, Malays and Siamese in East Asia. They created new cultural forms. But they are realized through inheritance and transformation in the confrontation with the elegant culture passed down.

From this perspective, as a philosopher, Jaspers has understood history from a global perspective.