Yesterday: We have Chaoyang
——The splendid civilization of ancient China
Today is the yesterday of the future and the future of yesterday; we are always turning reality into past events, just as turning ideals into reality at all times.
Know yesterday, just to know today and tomorrow.
In 1798 AD, the French Legion of Pimo landed in Egypt. After conquering half of Europe, Napoleon became the master of the pyramid again. However, when people thought he would continue to move the eastward, the short commander suddenly stopped. He said incredibly: China is still sleeping, don’t wake up this sleeping giant.
History is shocked: Why did this military genius look to the east and be discouraged? What made him so convinced that once the giant wakes up, the whole world will be shocked?
145 years later, in 1943 AD, the unprecedented catastrophe in human history - World War II is about to come to an end. At the proposal of US President Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill agreed unanimously that China will become one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council after the war.
The world is pondering: A country that has been humiliated for a hundred years, has been destroyed by more than ten years of Japanese war of aggression against China, , why does it still have this international status and influence that cannot be ignored?
Another 29 years later, in 1972, Nixon visited Beijing. During his eight years as vice president, the United States has intimidated Red China with nuclear weapons three times.
This time, Nixon stayed in China for eight days. It is said that this is the longest time the US president has visited a country, and the current president has negotiated in countries that have not established diplomatic relations, which is even more unprecedented in American history.
This seems to be a rule: no matter how complicated the mentality is, all the great foreign politicians in modern times have closely watched China, as if they have recited Goethe's immortal line - "Where you see through your eyes, it is always the East."
The Chinese nation is the only ancient nation among the ancient civilizations that has not interrupted its cultural traditions. It is a diverse unity of close ties between brotherly nations. Unification is an irreversible general trend in Chinese history
From the perspective of archaeological anthropology, the development history of the Chinese nation can be traced back at least 1.7 million years ago. At that time, the "Yuanmou Ape Man" could have made simple stone tools, and might have even used fire. Later, the "Beijing people" 800,000 years ago, the "Lantian people" 400,000 to 500,000 years ago, the "Shanding Cave people 18,000 years ago... Homo erectus (also known as "ape people", 100,000 years ago), Early Homo HOMO (also known as "ancient people", about 100,000 to 40,000 years ago) and late Homo HOMO (also known as "new people", about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago) were discovered in my country, forming a relatively complete evolutionary sequence.
At present, Neolithic cultural sites have been discovered in all provinces and regions of my country, with a total of more than 7,000 places, and have initially formed different cultural units. This shows that from 6000 BC to 4000 BC, our ancestors had scattered and lived in the vast land in today's territory. In the years that followed, the Chinese nation created a long and dazzling cultural river in the history of the world for thousands of years.
600 years ago. Before and after, Egyptian civilization and Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia civilization: about 3500 BC, slave states appeared in the Xiyatigris River and the Euphrates River (now within the territory of Iraq) and were known as the "Mesopotamia civilization") almost entered the era of using stone and bronze ware at the same time as ours. The emergence and increase of private property caused by the new productivity and the emergence and increase of private property finally completed the original clan. The disintegration of the society entered the era of slavery one after another.
At this moment, Europe is basically still in a wilderness.
When the ancient Greeks sucked the rich nutrition of Egyptian civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization, rose in the southeast corner of Europe, and reached the peak of Western slavery civilization, in the sixth century BC, Egypt and Mesopotamian civilizations successively destroyed under the iron hoof of the Persians.
Almost at the same time, in the East, the Chinese who mastered the ironmaking technique took the lead in moving towards feudal society based on the new productivity generated by this. (Fethical production relations in my country appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period. In 475 BC, China entered the Warring States Period. Historical circles generally regarded this as the beginning of Chinese feudal society.) This was the beginning of Chinese civilization leading the ancient world. It was not until more than nine hundred years later that Europe slowly evolved into feudalism as the Western Roman Empire perished the Germanic nomadic peoples in the north.
Therefore, the history of civilization left a miracle that is always worthy of fun: if Western European culture is like the " relay run " of multiple people, passed from Egyptians, Babylonians to Greeks, Romans, and to the northern nomadic peoples, and passed to the Latin Teutonic people in modern times, then Chinese culture is a "marathon" for one person. From Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu, Zhou Gong, Confucius, through Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, and Tang, to Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, all the people who ran down the road were Chinese. It can be said that the Chinese nation is the only ancient nation among the birthplaces of ancient civilizations that have not interrupted its cultural traditions; China is the only country in the world that has maintained a roughly the same territory and an irreversible trend of unification for a long time.
Of course, there have been nomadic conquests of farming nations in China. The Huns, Xianbeis, Di people, Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongolians whistled down from the Mongolian Plateau or Liaodong areas many times and entered the Central Plains. The Mongolians and Manchus also established a nationwide unified regime. However, these nomadic peoples learned and quickly accepted the advanced Central Plains agricultural civilization without exception. As a result, Chinese culture not only did not cause any faults, but was inherited through the mutual learning of various ethnic groups. These nomadic peoples have successively become members of the Chinese nation's big family, which is also unprecedented in the ancient civilizations of the world.
In China's more than two thousand years since the Qin and Han dynasties, the time of unification accounts for about 2/3 and the time of division accounts for 1/3. And every brief split quickly moves towards a higher degree of unification. Although there have been a long-term melee between the regimes of various regions and ethnic groups, causing heavy disasters, they have jointly developed China's territory and jointly created a unique and dazzling history of the Chinese nation. The Chinese nation and its culture have such tenacious centripetal force and continuity, which is a great wonder in the history of world civilization. The reason is of course very profound.
Open the map and we will find that this fertile soil where the Chinese nation reproduction confronts the vast Mongolian Plateau in the north, the desert Gobi and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the west, and the vast sea in the east. If Egypt, Babylonian , Greek and Roman nations all live on or near the Mediterranean coast that is easy to transit and therefore easy to communicate, then Chinese culture spontaneously occurs and develops under a relative isolation caused by a huge natural barrier. Therefore, she has strong independence and is a self-contained system. In terms of upholding and retaining the cultural traditions of our nation, we are much more determined than many other nations.
However, the Chinese nation is not a single nation that lives in a narrow region. In a relatively closed geographical framework, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River rush down from the "roof of the world" above 4,000 meters above sea level, shaking a vast array of plateaus and basins in the middle with an altitude of one or two thousand meters, leaving behind large plains and hills in the east. The huge gap cuts the land of China into three-stage steps that slant from west to east, spanning the north and south lands of more than 30 latitudes, and is arranged in parallel with different temperature and humidity zones with significant differences. Such a vast territory and diverse natural climate types have enabled each region to form cultural units with its own characteristics and different clans and ethnic entities, and have a close connection with each other.
When the Yellow River first nurtured the more advanced farming culture in its middle reaches, it naturally became the center of exchanges and gatherings among various ethnic groups and their cultural exchanges and gatherings. It can be said that the development of Chinese culture is like a huge concentric circle, spreading outward one after another. The core Huaxia people (Huaxia people: an ancient tribal alliance with Huangdi and Yandi as their ancestors. The Huaxia people formed through the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. It was called "Zhuxia" and "Zhuhua" during the Warring States Period, collectively known as "Huaxia", which is the predecessor of today's Han people."As the name of the Han people, it only appeared in the Han Dynasty) culture has also been continuously enriched and developed in the process of absorbing and learning other ethnic cultures. Chinese culture is not only a combination of openness and integration between multiple cultures, but also a condensation core, forming an independent system.
Multiple cultures can be unified into one system. In the final analysis, they must be based on natural economic ties. The northern nomadic peoples have long had complementary economic exchanges with dryland farming areas, known in history as "horse and silk trade" and "tea and horse trade"; (horse and silk trade, tea and horse trade: refers to the trade between Han farmers along the Great Wall, using, tea and other things to exchange horses with northern nomadic peoples, which began in the west of . Han ) Advanced technologies in dryland farming areas have continued to develop southward with several ethnic migrations, forming paddy farming areas. Starting from Sui and Tang , China's economic center of gravity has shifted from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In this way, we can understand why no ethnic group in the world has dug up the arteries that communicate north and south like the Grand Canal , and no country has built a huge barrier to divide agriculture and herdsmen like the Great Wall.
The cultural consistency and close economic connection are constantly strengthened through the political and cultural measures of the state regime. Qin Shihuang After completing the great cause of unification, a series of measures were taken to consolidate unification - establish counties and counties, and politically incorporate all ethnic groups and economic and cultural regions into the same system; unified weights and measures , built a road, further strengthening the connection between various places, and the most important thing was the unified text. It stipulated a unified information symbol for the dialects of each region, becoming a common text basis for overcoming regional or ethnic barriers, strengthening mutual influence and communication, and strengthening cultural identity. Later, Emperor Wu of Han " respects Confucianism " established a unified ideology.
From then on, unified became the Chinese calendar The mainstream of history. The Han people, developed from the Xia and Shang dynasties, became the center of the diverse and integrated ethnic pattern with their developed farming technology and developed scientific culture. The Chinese nation eventually became a diverse unity with close connections between all ethnic groups in our territory today.
The Chinese nation created the most powerful and advanced productivity in ancient history of the world and the most glorious and vast scientific and technological civilization. Ancient China was the most developed country in the world for a long time.
Engels pointed out: Before the modern industrial economy dominated the world, "agriculture was the decisive production department of the entire ancient world. "(Engels: "Family, Private ownership and the Origin of the State ") All civilizations and prosperity at that time were based on agriculture.
The history of primitive agriculture in my country can be traced back to at least 10,000 years ago (In the Neolithic stoneworks site discovered in Emaokou, Huairen County, Shanxi Province, stone hoes, stone sickles and other primitive agricultural tools were unearthed from the Neolithic stoneworks site about 10,000 years ago.) There are six to eight thousand years of millet planting history, seven thousand years of rice planting history, four to five thousand years of wheat cultivation history, and ancient agricultural technology history far ahead of the West.
and industrial revolution almost at the same time, Europeans carried out an agricultural technological revolution in the 18th century. Improvement of agricultural tools, round-rooting and livestock pen farming The implementation of curved iron wall plows, seed seed seeds and cultivators made the biggest leap in Europe since the Middle Ages. However, similar plowshares were used in China in the Han and the First Century of AD at the latest. Seed seeds and cultivators had achieved perfection in the Han and Tang Dynasties in China, which was seen in the third century BC. The rotation and livestock raising were also inherited by the Chinese in the centuries of BC. As a result, Paul Lesser, an expert in the history of agricultural technology in the West, insisted that it was the knowledge of agricultural technology in the East, especially China, that awakened the European people from hundreds of years of insensitiveness, causing an agricultural revolution , which eventually led to the economic and industrial revolution.
Therefore, when you see the following set of numbers, you should not be surprised.
——my country's grain yield per mu was estimated to exceed 100 kilograms in the middle and late Warring States period (about 3-2nd century BC), more than 130 kilograms in the late Western Han Dynasty (about 2nd century BC), and about 160 kilograms in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). (The grain yield per mu in my country has no detailed records. According to Mr. Wu Hui's research results: 108 kilograms in the middle and late Warring States period, 132 kilograms in the late Warring States period, 167 kilograms in the late Western Han Dynasty, and 183.5 kilograms in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, citing "China's Going to the 21st Century", written by Hu Angang, page 57) The yield per mu of barley in the UK was only more than 50 kilograms in the 16th century. (According to "500 Years of Comparison between China and the West": Xiajun, Mao Lei and Shi Guangrong, edited by China Workers Publishing House , page 4)
—At the peak of the Song Dynasty, the total grain output of the country was estimated to be 46.4 billion jin, while the total number of Western countries in the 11th century was only 21 billion jin. (According to "500 Years of Comparison between China and the West": Edited by Xiajun, Mao Lei, Shi Guangrong, published by China Workers Publishing House, page 4)
It can be said with certainty: the precocious agricultural civilization and advanced feudal system have created the most powerful and advanced productivity in ancient history of the world, as well as the most glorious and vast scientific and technological civilization in the land of China.
The Kensington Science Museum in the United Kingdom still preserves a model of an 8-spinned hydraulic spinning machine, which is said to have laid the technical foundation for modern textile machines. However, its origin is still unclear. The only thing that can be confirmed is that Europeans at that time knew that there was a hydraulic hemp spinning machine in China: Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs", from graphics to text, the 32-spillar hydraulic spinning wheel depicted in the Yuan Dynasty Wang Zhen's "Book of Agricultural Sciences" was almost intact. China was the first country in the world to start textile production. There were hand-crank spinning wheels in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and single-spillar and multi-spillar spinning wheels appeared one after another in the Western Han Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. In Europe, hand spinning wheels did not appear until the 14th century. What surprised experts in science and technology history even more were the two Qin Dynasty copper swords unearthed with the huge terracotta warriors and horses. They actually had a 10 micron oxide layer, which made it sleep underground for more than two thousand years and still remained stainless and uncorrosive. Similar chromed anti-rust treatment process was not listed as patents in Germany and the United States until 1937 and 1950 respectively.
Textile and metallurgy are the two industries that are most closely related to ancient agriculture. In many other fields, based on the most developed ancient agriculture, the Chinese nation has also created many "world firsts" as brilliant as stars.
my country has astronomy history recorded over 4,000 years, and has the earliest star list in the world created around 360 BC, and has the earliest records of sunspots and nova explosions in the first year of Heping (28 BC) and the first year of Yuanguang (134 BC). The earliest comet map discovered so far was unearthed from the Han tomb of Mawangdui. The records of Halley's comet were not only seen in 613 BC (the 14th year of Duke Wen of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period), but also over a long period of more than two thousand years, its 29 appearances were recorded by the Chinese, achieving amazing completeness and accuracy. Liu Xiang of the Western Han Dynasty and Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han Dynasty also correctly explained the causes of solar and lunar eclipses.
my country's calendar research can be traced back to the ancient legendary era. It was measured around the fifth century BC to be 365 and 1/4 days each year, more than a hundred years earlier than the Greeks obtained similar values. The Yuan Dynasty Guo Shoujing calculated a year that was only 26 seconds shorter than the modern Gregorian calendar, but it was 300 years earlier.
The ancient geolemology of China also achieved amazing achievements. The three maps unearthed from the Han Tomb of Mawangdui are the earliest existing maps based on actual measurements in the world. They have a very accurate record of mountains, rivers, and have a relatively accurate scale (one in 180,000). A famous monk in the Tang Dynasty was the first to measure the meridian of the earth. Shen Kuo 's discovery of magnetic declination has become an important achievement in the world's geographical science, leading Europe for more than 400 years. The Song Dynasty " Yujitu " was recognized as the most outstanding map in the world at that time for its precise description of China's water system and coastline.
China is the first country in the world to establish a decimal system, and uses this advanced counting method and calculation method (calculation method: Ancient calculation tools, arranged several bamboos with the same length from left to right on the calculation method, representing each digit, and then performing four or even square operations. It is the predecessor of abacus .) and other calculation tools have developed into a mathematical system that is known for solving practical problems; in the world, the concept of zero and positive and negative numbers, the rules of addition and subtraction, square, and square. In the past, Western academic circles generally believed that Indian mathematics had an important impact on Arabia and even the world's mathematics.
has been argued in recent years: As early as the fifth century, the world's most advanced Chinese mathematics was introduced to India; only after a century, Indian mathematics developed greatly. Therefore, mathematics is a discipline that China has made direct contributions to the world's natural sciences.
The unique traditional Chinese medicine is another special contribution of China to mankind. The famous "Compendium of Materia Medica" was introduced to Japan and North Korea 13 years after the death of Li Shizhen. Later, it was translated into Latin, French, Russian, German and English, and spread all over the world, with more than a dozen English translations alone. Ancient traditional Chinese medicine has achieved many world-leading achievements: in the early years of the Warring States Period, Bian Que has begun to study human anatomy ; in the Three Kingdoms, Hua Tuo was the first to create general anesthesia ; in the Tang Dynasty, golden needle was able to remove cataracts, and amalgam was used to fill human teeth. In the 16th century, the vaccine for smallpox was obtained through human poison elimination method, and human acne vaccination was implemented, which was undoubtedly an amazing achievement in the history of world medicine.
Due to space limitations, we cannot continue to list. However, please remember a proud statistic: Before the Ming Dynasty , there were about 300 major inventions and major scientific and technological achievements in the world, of which 173 were in China, accounting for more than 58% of the total. (According to the "Chronology of the Major Events of Natural Science", quoted from "Comparison of Five Hundred Years of China and the West", pages 11 and 12)
No wonder British professor Joseph Needham had to spend his whole life studying ancient Chinese science and technology. In the voluminous English masterpiece "History of Science and Technology of China", he asserted that the inventions and discoveries of ancient China far exceeded those of contemporary Europe, especially before the 15th century.
The Chinese nation has never been a nation that is closed. The developed ancient Chinese civilization profoundly influenced the process of world history and made great contributions to human civilization and progress
On August 3, 1492, three small boats of Columbus sailed out of the Port of Barros, Spain. At that time, no one would have thought that this unsure voyage unexpectedly discovered America, thus opening a new page in the history of human civilization.
But Columbus's original destination was China or India. (Columbus (c. 1451-1506), an Italian navigator, believed that the earth was round and that crossing the Atlantic Ocean could reach China, Japan or India. He also carried a letter from the Spanish ruler to the king of China when he set out.) He read "The Travels of Marco Polo" since he was a child. ("Travels of Marco Polo": Italian traveler Marco Polo (1254-1324), arrived in China in 1275, and was trusted by Kublai Khan, a senior official, and traveled all over China. After returning to China, he or she wrote oral stories about the East and made a book, which was scrambled by Europeans) In that book, this Venetian traveler generously used words such as millions, millions, and dozens of millions to exaggerate China that he had personally visited for 17 years, so that this travel book was nicknamed "The Book of Millions" by later generations. This book, no, is the "paradise of silk and gold" described in this book, which formed the basic understanding of the far east by Europeans in the 14th to 15th centuries, and inspired the earliest voyage impulse of the monarchs in Western Europe.
The West's longing for Chinese civilization is far from Marco Polo. As early as the early years of the era, the Roman dictator Emperor Caesar wore a purple Chinese silk robe, which caused a great sensation among the subjects. This gorgeous fabric called " Cialis " is really too expensive because the Romans would not make it yet.So they called the mysterious country in the far east the country "Syris", that is, the "Silk" country. This is the earliest European nation's understanding of China. (my country's silk and silk fabrics began to trade with Central Asia and European countries as early as the Warring States Period. At the latest in the 3rd century BC, the Greeks called China the "Seris Country". It was not until the end of the 16th century that the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci confirmed that the ancient Western "Silk Country" was the China he had arrived at that time.)
This should be attributed in part to a fierce officer in the guards of Emperor Wu of Han. From 138 to 105 BC, Zhang Qian two-way connection to the Western Regions, establishing the earliest relatively stable connection for the East and the West. Silk Road , which made him the first world-class well-known explorer.
camel bells, croakers, desert afterglow, golden swords and iron horses...
An ancient desert road almost summarizes the history of exchanges between the East and the West for more than a thousand years.
Print Buddhism was first introduced to the Central Plains from here. (In 2 BC, envoys from the Great Yuezhi Kingdom of the Western Regions came to Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, and taught Buddhist scriptures to others. This is the earliest record of Buddhism being introduced to China during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han (58-75 AD), and sent 12 envoys to the Western Regions to seek Buddhism and bring back two Indian monks. As a result, Buddhism began to flourish in China.) Accompanied by famous horses, cotton, walnuts (walnuts), green onions, (onion), coriander, and pineapple Vegetables, grapes, music, dance, acrobatics. The prosperous Han and Tang dynasties opened their broad minds, and they absorbed them with a grand manner, enriched and developed Chinese civilization; at the same time, China's silk, metallurgy, etc. were also continuously introduced to the Western Regions. The collision of civilizations merged with civilization, and the indescribable wonders made today's thinkers still thrilled. Someone asked the famous British historian Toynbee: "Which country do you want to be born?" He replied without hesitation: "China's Xinjiang when Buddhism was introduced to the first century AD. (See the preface of "Looking forward to the Twenty-first Century", International Cultural Publishing Company Chinese translation)
Japanese archipelago, with a slim lace, is naturally unique in cultural integration.
Archaeologists once couldn't figure out: How could the fishing and hunting nation, which was still in the primitive clan society in more than 200 BC, miraculously gave birth to the "Yaeyo culture" with farming, bronze and iron tools as prominent features? (Yaeyo culture: The early Iron Age of Japan was around the third century BC to the third century AD. Stone knives, wooden shovels, bronze horns (sound race, arrow) iron horns were unearthed, and they have entered the agricultural economic stage of rice planting. Previously, the "rose culture" still used collection and fishing as the basic economic form.)
Today, the Japanese historical community has recognized that the Yaeyo culture comes from the northern coast of China. The rice, iron tools and farming techniques brought by the ancestors of the East made the primitive tribes on the island end their wandering fishing and hunting life, and began to settle down in farming. Japan quickly entered the farming civilization and formed a country. This nation, which had not had time to create its own characters, accepted Chinese characters and began a history of using Chinese characters completely. Today's Japanese language has gradually developed based on Chinese characters. There are nearly 2,000 Chinese characters that are often used so far. The use of Chinese characters made it possible for Chinese books to be directly introduced to Japan, and Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges were closer. By the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese nation began to learn Chinese culture on a comprehensive and large scale on a large scale by sending "Tang envoys" and a large number of international students.
In short, Japanese culture grew up by sucking the essence of Chinese culture. Southeast Asia, North Korea and the South China Sea islands also accept the radiation of Chinese civilization to varying degrees, forming an East Asian Chinese character cultural circle that is very different from Western civilization.
Historical eloquently stated: The relatively closed geographical environment has never made the Chinese nation a nation that is self-satisfied with being closed. The "blue" factor is also active in the blood of the Chinese nation.
is almost synchronized with Zhang Qian's westward journey. Han Dynasty merchant ships have frequently traveled back and forth on the South China Sea-Indian Ocean route with the end of the country (now Sri Lanka). According to records, some ships also sent envoys and translators from Emperor Wu of Han. The "Haiyi Ancient Road" of the Tang and Song Dynasties further extended to East Africa and the Persian Gulf coast.
This route full of Chinese silk and porcelain has become the second channel to communicate Eastern and Western civilizations. It is known in history as the "Marine Silk Road" or the "Ceramic Road".
The most glorious chapter in the history of ancient Chinese maritime navigation was naturally the Zheng He fleet sent by Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty, with seven voyages to the West. It has more than 27,000 and more than 240 treasure ships, with the largest estimated to be 2,500 tons, and is the largest fleet in the world in the 15th century. Only 64 years after his last return from East Africa, in 1497, Da Gama (Da Gama (about 1469-1524), a Portuguese navigator. In 1498, he led a ship around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and arrived at the city of Kalikut, India, and was the discoverer of the so-called "Eastern Route".) The four Portuguese ships with a maximum of only 120 tons appeared in the Indian Ocean. Needless to say, he arrived in India along the route of Zheng He's fleet.
"Discovering America and detouring the Cape of Good Hope to East India is the greatest and most important event in human history." Adam Smith (Adam Smith (1723-1790): the founder of the British bourgeois classical political economy system. The main work is "Research on the Nature and Causes of National Wealth", referred to as "The Wealth of Nations") correctly evaluates the epoch-making significance of the great geographical discovery, and historians in the 20th century have recognized that Zheng He was the pioneer of this great geographical discovery.
should also be emphasized: Like almost all European sea ships at that time, Columbus and Da Gama also had the compass invented in China.
That is just one of the particularly important Chinese material civilization that has been surging westward.
In 751 AD, the Tang Dynasty army fought against the Arabs in the Taras River in Central Asia. This war is insignificant in military history, but it is of great significance in the history of science. Tens of thousands of captured Tang Dynasty people brought papermaking technology to the Arabs; then, movable type printing, compass and gunpowder were successively passed through the hands of the Arabs and spread to the dark medieval Europe.
For this, Marx made a very high evaluation from the perspective of 's history of social development. He said: "Gunpowder, compass, and printing are the three major inventions that previewed the arrival of bourgeois society. Gunpowder shattered the knight class, compass opened up the world market and established colonies, while printing became a tool of Protestantism. Generally speaking, it became a means of scientific revival and the most powerful lever for the necessary premise of spiritual development and creation." (Marx: " Economic Manuscripts ", "Complete Works of Marx and Engels", Volume 47, page 427)
Western scholars also recognized this evaluation. American Dirk Hyde's discourse is almost annotation of Marx's above statement: "If there is no paper and printing, we will still live in the Middle Ages; without gunpowder, the world might suffer less, but on the other hand, the armoured knights in medieval Europe might still be dominant in the castle surrounded by moats, and our society might still be under the slavery of the feudal system. Finally, without a compass, the era of great geographical discovery might never come, and it was this era of great geographical discovery that stimulated the material and cultural life in Europe and brought knowledge to the world that people did not understand at that time, including our United States." ("The Study of the West of Chinese Objects", quoted from "Chinese Culture Second Volume, pp. 364, 365.)
The major inventions and creations of natural science often promote great progress in society. The Western divination of ancient Chinese material civilization was from one aspect for the epoch-making European Renaissance Movement (Renaistor: in the 14th and 15th centuries, due to the development of urban commodity economy, capitalist relations gradually formed within the European feudal system. At this time, an ideological and cultural movement emerged, advocating the breaking of the church's shackles on people's thoughts and calling for restoration of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, so it was called the "Renaistor". It prepared the foundation of material and technology for the European bourgeois revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries in terms of ideology and public opinion), promoted the emergence and development of Western European capitalism, and had a comprehensive and far-reaching impact on the entire European modern culture.
By the 17th and 18th centuries, China had lagged behind in social systems, but it was still at its peak in the minds of Europeans.
On the first New Year's Day in the 18th century, the princes and nobles who attended the French royal masquerades dressed up as Chinese people - this is a kind of glory, because the Chinese were a symbol of "elegance of virtue" at that time. At the Spring Equinox 56 years later, King Louis XIV of France followed his emperor model, Emperor Kangxi, and plowed and whipped, went to the ground to farm to show the farmers' hard work. His successor Louis XV had a whim and ordered the melting of all silverware, and replaced it with popular Chinese porcelain. At that time, the same famous Chinese silk, tea, raw lacquer and lacquer tools were also well-known, and even the saddles that were free and safe and comfortable up and down. Even riding in a Chinese sedan or sedan-style carriage became fashionable, and the construction of Chinese garden buildings was even more popular...
Western Europeans studied China's plants, medicinal materials, cultivation methods and use, introduced and learned Chinese culture, translated Chinese classics, published a large number of works introducing China, and even gradually formed a brand new discipline - "European Chinese Studies".
The most interesting thing is those missionaries who set foot on Chinese land, without a doubt, have strong enough theological beliefs and religious qualities, and take it as their mission to convert the "pagan" China to Western God. However, the intuition of life has aroused many people's enthusiasm for Chinese culture - the successive reports about China were passed back to Europe along with praise. Therefore, Europeans who have been ruled by the theocracy of Christ for more than ten centuries suddenly discovered that a world without "God" could create such a developed civilization, and in addition to religious authority, there is also the authority of Chinese ethics and morality! It is conceivable how amazing the European intellectual community should be.
The actual pioneer of German Enlightenment philosophy excitedly wrote: "None of us had ever thought that there was a nation in this world that was more perfect than our ethics and more progressive in our lives, but in fact, we discovered the Chinese nation, which actually awakened us." He asserted: "If reason has a cure for this evil harm (referring to the ignorance, ignorance and various sufferings caused by religious theocracy), then the Chinese nation will be the first nation to obtain such good norms." (Lebniz (1646-1716): "The New Theory of China" is also known as "Recent Things in China".)
"Compared with this ancient world" and "it looks overshadowed" - In the eyes of Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, the Chinese use of their own moral ethics to coordinate human things is much more progressive than that of European countries dominated by "God", and therefore China's level of civilization is much higher than that of Europe under the rule of the Roman Catholic Church.
The temple of Christianity was shaken by the impact of "Chinese fever". The spreaders of the theocracy actually aroused the Enlightenment movement against the theocracy. (Enlightenment: Before the French bourgeois revolution in the 18th century, the cultural education movement carried out by French bourgeois progressive thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, etc., pointed directly at the authority of the church and feudal system at that time.) This was probably unexpected by missionaries from China.
Ancient Chinese spiritual civilization is profound and profound, has a long history, with distinct national characteristics and infinite vitality. Chinese culture is moving to the world again
Chinese culture can move to the world, which shows that it has profound connotations and distinctive national characteristics. And all of this, fundamentally speaking, is rooted in the developed agricultural economy.
The developed farming economy has made the Chinese pay special attention to the farming experience passed down from generation to generation, and the struggle against the harsh environment has enabled them to strive for self-improvement and pay attention to the harvest in this world. Therefore, they would rather bow down to the tablet of the ancestor who left valuable experience than easily kneel down in front of a nihilistic "God". Although various superstitions and ghosts and gods inevitably existed in ancient times when science was very underdeveloped, the cultural tradition of focusing on the world's life and self-effort has never seen the religious madness of the entire nation in ancient China that was like the European Middle Ages. The vitality of medieval European culture shrank from the strict shackles of Christian theocracy, while traditional Chinese culture occasionally gave birth to great atheists and materialist thinkers such as Wang Chong, Zhang Heng, and Fan Zhen.
Of course, there is also "heaven" in ancient Chinese philosophy, but that is not a synonym for "God", but is often synonymous with nature - the developed farming economy has made the Chinese attach great importance to changes in the time, seasons and climate, and do it in the same way, so the Chinese almost intuitively unify "man" and "heaven". No matter how absurd this view of "harmony between man and nature" was later distorted to the point where feudal literati were later distorted, it advocated that the existence of "man" and the existence of heaven were mutually inclusive, that man was integrated into nature, and nature was also integrated into the reasonable core of "man", and in fact, it regarded the entire world as a large system. This almost coincides with modern system theory. The West emphasizes that man’s conquest of nature has certainly promoted the progress of human history, but it also led to a high tension in the relationship between man and nature, leading to the revenge of nature on man that can be seen everywhere today. Therefore, China's emphasis on the "harmony between man and nature" of the system and harmony shows immortal value and is highly valued in the West.
China's farming economy is also a small peasant economy, that is, family is used as the basic production unit; while several family-type villages with blood ties as the bond have become grassroots political organizations in feudal China. Therefore, Chinese people attach great importance to coordination within the big family, emphasizing the use of moral ethics to distinguish between elders and young people, and to generalize it for national governance - the so-called "governing the world with filial piety" means governing the world with moral ethics.
Morality and judgment on morality replace the functions of Western medieval laws and contracts. Although this ethics and morality became the ideology of the feudal landlord class to maintain its rule and took the opposite side of stifling personality and personal freedom in the late feudal society, it also derived excellent traditions and political ideals such as improving oneself, respecting the elderly and being kind, self-esteem and self-improvement, sacrificing one's life for justice, being upright, being honest and dedicated to the public, being frugal and not extravagant, loving the collective and the motherland, which is still a valuable heritage of China and even the world today. The various disadvantages of money supremacy, intrigue and material desire in Western capitalist society have caused many knowledgeable people to pay attention to the rationality of Chinese traditional morality that emphasizes the perfection of personality and overall harmony, and regard it as a prescription to correct current problems. The revival of the so-called "new Confucianism" in the West and Southeast Asia in recent years has emerged against this background.
In addition, China's agricultural economy is maintained by the vast number of farmers. Without the hard work of farmers, there would be no everything in feudal society. Therefore, the "agricultural-oriented" in economic policies penetrated into the political and cultural field, and the idea of "people-oriented" emerged. The so-called "people-oriented, the country is second, and the king is less important" (Mencius). This idea of people-oriented thinking has become the consistent way of Chinese cultural traditions and ethics. Most Chinese scholars and officials are "worrying about the country and the people", and the word "worrying about the people" is the embodiment of the people-oriented idea.
nourishes rich nutrition of national culture. Ancient Chinese literature and art radiates brilliant light very early. The people-oriented idea makes most ancient writers take "sorrowing the hardships of people's livelihood" (Qu Yuan) as the main theme of their creation, thus forming the mainstream of realisticism with a long history of ancient literature. Ancient writers rarely use literature for literature, but emphasize "literature carries the way", use literature to express political thoughts, and correct ethics and morality; although the formalism of pure literature has spread several times, it quickly became the object of criticism by future generations of literary people.
But Chinese literature is not a form. Literary masters of all dynasties have made full use of and leveraged the unique beauty of sound and rhyme and the combination of form and sound. For poetry, the rhythm is rigorous and sonorous, and for literature, it is majestic and magnificent, fresh and bright. The excellent literary tradition has led to the emergence of a large number of world-class cultural celebrities in China, including Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Lu You, Xin Qiji, Guan Hanqing, Luo Guanzhong, Shi Nai'an, Tang Xianzu, Wu Chengen, Pu Songling, Cao Xueqin, etc., forming many literary schools with different styles and literary peaks such as "The Book of Songs", "Chu Ci", pre-Qin prose, Tang poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Song, Ming and Qing novels, which amazed later generations.
In addition, ancient Chinese calligraphy, art, sculpture, architecture, music, dance, and acrobatics all reached extremely high artistic standards, enriching the treasure house of world art. Chinese historiography is one of the most developed social disciplines in the ancient world. The 24 histories are thriving throughout almost all the civilization history of our ancient nations, and can be called the insurmountable "the best in the world".
It is no secret that there are many bad things in traditional Chinese culture; one of the deep reasons why China lags behind in modern times is the inherent closed nature of traditional culture and the rigid and conservative dominant tendency that inevitably leads to the later stage of feudal society, which imprisons people's thoughts, suppresses the development of the commodity economy and the birth of the spirit of scientific democracy.
However, in every era of fierce social changes, whether it is the leaders of countless peasant uprisings in the feudal era, or Kang Youwei, Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong in modern times, advanced people can always find a solid basis and distant source of change from Chinese traditional culture.
Today, Chinese culture is moving back to the world. The essence of Chinese traditional culture has made many famous Western thinkers savor and linger. The Eastern, mainly Chinese spiritual culture is becoming their prescription for trying to cure the shortcomings of Western civilization. After the Beijing Asian Games, a Taiwanese newspaper commented: "At today when the Western Tide is flooding the world, the only one who has enough strength to compete with Western civilization and open up a new spiritual world is the Eastern Chinese culture." This is the important part of the world significance of Chinese culture.
Can a culture be understood by people in different countries and transformed by people in different eras mean that it has a full and reasonable core and profound connotation? Understanding is destined to not be abandoned, and transformation itself is development; and a culture can be inherited and developed from generation to generation, which means that it has infinite vitality and strong adaptability? In today's China, traditional culture has become an important part of the new socialist culture after being criticized and transformed by the scientific truth of Marxism-Leninism, and has once again radiated with more dazzling brilliance. (To be continued)
article is selected from the book "National Conditions Education Reader"
Guess: The local Sizhou Toutiao number is a public welfare platform for recording and studying the history, culture, folk customs and natural scenery of ancient Sizhou and present Si County (including some surrounding areas). The manuscripts noted by this platform are related historical materials, books, and other articles/pictures of other media and websites are all reprinted articles. Reprinting of this platform does not mean that it agrees with its views or confirms the authenticity of its content. This platform is reproduced for non-commercial cultural exchanges and scientific research purposes. If the reprinted article infringes your copyright, please inform this platform to remove it in a timely manner.
