In 1492, Columbus discovered the New World, and the Spanish began their journey to colonize America. Although the Spaniards had guns and vicious methods, the number of troops alone was not enough for the purpose of rapid conquest.

1492 Columbus discovered the New World , and the Spanish began their journey to colonize America. Although the Spaniards had guns and vicious methods, the number of troops alone was not enough for the purpose of rapid conquest. The virus indirectly became their weapon, killing an alarming number of indigenous people and accelerating the colonization process. The colonists experienced malaria, measles and other infectious diseases, and had immunity. When they set foot on the American continent, the virus was accidentally brought in by someone and transmitted to the indigenous people. The indigenous people did not have immunity and died in large numbers.

Why didn't Native Americans bring guns and viruses to Europe? This is the theme of the book "Guns, Germs and Steel", the last book I read in 2022. After I tested positive for the antigen, I quickly developed a fever, body aches, and joint pain. I was surprised at how quickly. I think if I lived in Wuhan and got infected during the Spring Festival of 2021, the world might have been gone without me. Realizing the destructive power of the virus increased my interest in this book, and I picked up this book after my symptoms were slightly relieved. The author of

summarizes the history of mankind over the past 13,000 years, analyzes the historical development trajectories of different continents, and explains the ultimate reasons for the current world situation. The author concludes that the cause is not the people but the environment. He said that if the indigenous Australians and the indigenous peoples of Eurasia had switched their homes in the late Pleistocene, the people who occupied most of the lands in America and Australia today would have been the Australian indigenous peoples who multiplied in Eurasia.

Different environments resulted in different animals and plants domesticated by Homo sapiens on each continent in prehistoric times. Eurasia has more advantages in terms of domesticated animals and plants. It started a group life first and gradually developed into a society with complex economy, social differentiation and concentrated political power. Living in groups, being kept in captivity, and eating meat caused the virus to spread from animals to humans, and Eurasians were the first to develop corresponding immunity. The Eurasian continent is distributed from east to west, and the natural environment at the same latitude is conducive to the spread of seeds, animals, technology, etc., and accelerates the development process. It is distributed in the north and south of the Americas and the African continent, and and are scattered in Oceania. The environment at the same longitude is very different, communication and communication are slow, and development lags behind. As history evolved, the result was that Eurasia progressed rapidly, and eventually white Europeans became colonizers.

Thinking about the fate of mankind from a broader perspective of time and space, we have to say that the American Indians, New Zealand , and the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea and other places were choked by God from the beginning. Judging from the conclusion, it seems that this book has nothing new. It is just a summary of apes, , humans, and then the emergence of groups and countries, until modern times. Maybe, we don't care about other humans, we care more about ourselves. Why is the United States sanctioning us in terms of technology, rather than us having the advantage to sanction them? Why do so many of us envy American and Western democracy, freedom, and rule of law, rather than the other way around?

You can roughly understand these issues about proximate causes by reading " The Rise of Great Powers ". In the 15th century, Portugal kicked off its European expansion because it was surrounded by land on three sides and had no other way to develop than maritime exploration. Its first urgently needed commodity was spices, and spices came from the East, which is today's China, India and other places. Along the coast to the east, the Portuguese reached Macau. The advantage to the east was occupied by Portugal, and Spain, which came later, moved to the west. With the gradual development of navigation technology, Columbus discovered the American continent to the west, prompting the Spanish to colonize the Americas. The discovery of the new sea route caused the European trade center to shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast. The Netherlands happened to be at the main transportation route and relied on finance and trade to grow rapidly. The natural barrier of the ocean prevented continental invasion and relative independence, which contributed to the early development of a modern democratic system in the UK. Its institutional advantages eventually made the UK an empire where the sun never sets. France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United States, who came later, quickly embarked on the path of great powers based on learning and reference, and basically laid the foundation for the world pattern that affects today.

China was once the world economic center for a long time, but in modern times it began to fall into a situation divided among the great powers. Zheng He's voyages to the West reached as far as the east coast of Africa, but then suddenly stopped. Why didn't Zheng He discover the New World like Columbus and prompted the Ming Dynasty to embark on the road of foreign colonial expansion?

The reason was the divided state of Europe, which gave Columbus the opportunity to finally convince one of hundreds of monarchs to finance his voyage after four failures. After Spain joined the colonial cause, other countries saw wealth flowing into Spain and began to follow suit, promoting the invention of cannons and firearms technology, and Europe gradually became stronger. China is a unified and centralized country. With just one decision, the Chinese fleet can be stopped. At that time, the ministers of the DPRK fought with the eunuchs, and the ministers gained the upper hand. They no longer maintained Zheng He's fleet and issued a sea ban. Today, we can feel the advantages of the system, such as the effectiveness of epidemic prevention and control and the construction of high-speed rail. Putting it into the long history, it can also be used to explain why we missed the historical opportunity.

Why is China so obsessed with "grand unification" that it has not developed many small powers like Europe? Regarding this issue, "Comparison of the Fundamentals of Chinese and Western Civilizations" is undoubtedly a good book. The author starts from the comparison between Warring States and ancient Greece , and finds that Europe has been moving towards separation from the beginning, geographically, nationally, and linguistically; China has been moving towards unity, geographically, nationally, and linguistically. The conclusion is that the Chinese have always valued unification , that is, "one world", and the cultures of the past dynasties have continued to promote the "logic of unity"; while the West, from the beginning, has paid more attention to itself and the autonomy of city-states, and has always been amplifying the "logic of division."

As for the ultimate reason, the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" also tried to explain it from the environment, that is, the coast of Europe is extremely tortuous, with five major peninsulas, each of which is a nearly isolated island, so each island has developed an independent language, ethnic group, and government. In comparison, China's coastline is relatively smooth, making it easy to develop a unified centralized government. The fate of a country and a nation has been determined by the environment from the beginning. This explanation cannot be agreed with by everyone, but it still makes some sense. History has its own trajectory, and it is not up to anyone.

Professor Liu Yu published a new book this year, "The Art of Possibility". Reading this book can give you a rough understanding of the current political operations around the world. This time, she said: "Because all countries are different and all eras are different, there is no right or wrong, good or bad." I think she is more rational. Probably because she has grown older, her ideas have changed. In this book, we can see the difficulty of the country's political transformation, Americans' view of the country, South Africa, which has transformed relatively well, democracy "doesn't work" in India, the tragedy of in Afghanistan, the ruined in Venezuela, etc.

When I read her book this time, I obviously felt that it lacked some of the "foreign moonlight" flavor. When I read her books in the early days, I had just started working not long ago, and I read "Details of Democracy", " Send You a Bullet " and "The Water Level of Concepts" one after another. At that time, I often heard the word "stability maintenance", and I also paid attention to the "die-hard" lawyers. The peak period was "Han Sanpian". I also thought that the level of the country's rule of law was worrying, and I envied the social governance of the United States and the West. I’ve felt lost as a young person, always asking why we weren’t good enough. Over the past ten years, many of my ideas have changed.

As individuals grow older and their circumstances change, people's ideas and concepts will change. Perhaps we are not aware of the specific details of this change. After all, your butt determines your head, and your interests determine your thoughts. But it is undeniable that China has indeed undergone many changes in the past decade, especially in terms of national governance, which has made great progress from concept to practice. From what I have seen, the low-level attitudes and crude methods of officials and officials are much less common, and they are much more self-disciplined.

Nowadays, whenever I hear people around me questioning the country and the system with too strong words, I always argue. We must not continue to deny ourselves based on the so-called goodness of certain aspects of the United States and the West, let alone be led by the rhetoric and routines of the United States and the West.Unfortunately, there are often many so-called "public intellectuals" who habitually speak out to express dissatisfaction and vent their private anger. Denial for the sake of negation is suspicious, abominable, and requires vigilance. Because I had those concepts when I was young, I now understand more deeply that the country needs time to get better, and it will always get better. Problems like this cannot be changed overnight.

In the era of globalization, it is not just national politics, but also international politics that deeply affects our destiny. To a large extent, the international system reflects the fate of countries, and then affects individuals through the fate of countries. Our struggle with the United States and the West is all-round, not just economic and political, but ideology is even more important. Only by containing us from becoming stronger will they be able to plunder us for a long time. This is real. National security depends to a large extent on how we view our own country and the society in which we live. Although we still have problems, we must not always be criticized completely. National consciousness and patriotism must be vigorously promoted.

Many people may not feel that they are lucky, and may even think: so-and-so’s parents are high-ranking officials or rich people, so they can save many years of hard work, but my parents can’t give me anything, so I have been treated unfairly. But we have to say that we are lucky in at least one aspect. We were reborn in a peaceful country. This influence on our destiny is far more important than our family background.

After reading Qi Bangyuan 's "The Great River" and Wang Dingjun 's Memoirs Quartet, I have deepened this understanding. Qi Bangyuan's father was once a subordinate of Zhang Xueliang. After the fall of Northeast China, she followed her mother to Nanjing to find her father, and then followed the troops to withdraw to Chongqing in the rear. After Japan surrendered, she returned to Nanjing, and later went to Taiwan. When Japan invaded and occupied Shandong, Wang Dingjun fled to Anhui, where he went to school, and later moved to Shaanxi with his school. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he joined the Kuomintang army. He was captured during the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party . After his release, he went to Shanghai and then to Taiwan. The fate of the two authors rises and falls with the fate of the country. In their youth and even throughout their lives, they did not think too much about their political opinions. They just thought about surviving and trying to make themselves better.

Reading these books gives me a strong sense of immersion. I feel like I have been displaced across the land of China in the last century, surrounded by a devastated land, which makes me feel sad. Personal destiny must first be placed on the country and nation. Reading their books, I also see the importance of cherishing spirituality, reading and learning. Only by perseverance can we see the stubbornness of life. What would be my fate if I were born in 1900 or 1950? This thought experiment is depressing. Therefore, I feel that I was lucky to be born in the mountains of eastern Chongqing in 1985. The fate I once thought was unfair to me was hypocritical. As I reach my forties, I also begin to enjoy communicating with my children about these things.

This is the benefit of reading that I have known for a long time, and it has helped me deeply reconcile with my destiny. In the final analysis, which continent, which country we are born in, which era and which family we are born in is simply a matter of chance. When we realize that we need to be better, the only thing we can do is keep changing ourselves. Because of this, I am increasingly disgusted with expressions that frequently use society as an excuse to vent their dissatisfaction. It is undeniable that the inability to realize personal interests and needs may often be related to the unfairness of certain rules in this world, but it is more related to your personal efforts and dedication. What we can do is to work hard in the long river of time and strive to have a better situation for ourselves.

Thinking of these is related to my reading of Li Jingrui 's novel "Shen Yu Tang". Li Jingrui used to be a reporter on the rule of law column and reported on many cases. At one time, he was disappointed, even depressed and angry, about politics and the rule of law. Her latest novel tells the story of a big era and small people, with a clear purpose. The theme is "It turns out that in any era, we can just plant a tree of our own regardless of it."Compared to time or to human beings, where are the distinctions between big people and small people? The protagonist Ling Zhi's brother does not seem to understand what revolution is, but he does many ridiculous things in the name of revolution, including killing his sister's child.

Ling Zhi has the shadow of the author. People who are familiar with Li Jingrui know that she also wanted to shoulder the moral responsibility. It was probably as I gradually matured that I came up with the idea of ​​just planting a tree of my own. I don’t think that’s meant to be negative, just to give readers a warm hug. After all, on the shoal of fate, ordinary people really need to be content with the situation. With this book, I can relive the history of a century ago and have a fuller imagination of the life in rural Sichuan at that time, which makes me feel even more fortunate!

Experience tells me that in life, the people who really compete with you are not around, and the people who can really help you change your destiny are often not around either. We shouldn't have bad emotions like jealousy at all. We should always be grateful and altruistic, and try to help others as much as possible. Probably, this is the sense of collaboration, or the pattern. In this way, we can not only receive recognition and respect from others, but more importantly, we can realize the value of life to a greater extent. These experiences deepened again when I finished reading "The Lifetime Instructions of Shin Inamori Kazuo".

also read the "Godfather" trilogy and has a general understanding of the Italian Mafia. Sicily is the largest island in Italy. It has a history of people coming and going, ups and downs, and it is a typical "jianghu". Local farmers did not trust the central government in Rome , nor did they trust the Roman government's spokesperson in Sicily. In order to protect their own interests, revenge and revenge are popular. Everyone abides by the "silence" rule and does not report or expose, gradually forming the " mafia ".

"The Godfather" is known as the Bible for men, but what are the creeds? Justice, integrity, courage, etc. If men truly practice these excellent qualities, I think they can probably realize that "virtue never leads to isolation". This sentence in the Analects is the sentence that comes to mind most frequently after I read "The Analects", "The Analects of Confucius", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Tao Te Ching". Of course, every sentence in these books is a life guide, so just follow it.

I re-read " Bailuyuan " again this year and marveled at the author's skill in depicting group portraits and revealing reality and human nature through the fate of different characters. This changed my impression that this book was not as good as " Ordinary World ". It was still too superficial before. I read "A Village of One Man" by Liu Liangcheng and "Far Away Rivers and Mountains" by Zhang Wei , and was impressed by their ability to write words flexibly. For those who learn to write, these two books can be used as models. Under their pens, the words flowed with ease, and it felt like it was not someone who wrote the words, but the words came out on their own with the help of their pens. That kind of freedom and freedom without being bound to anything is the highest state of writing.

Other books are also very good. For example, "Wujiang Yin", the party's intelligence deciphering work in Long March was superb, and Chairman Mao used it to perfection. After reading it, you will understand why 四道中水 is so magical. Another example is "Soul Calling: The Great Sorcery Panic of 1798". A small superstitious behavior involving "braids" affected the emperor's nerves. The bureaucracy had to be group sensitive, and there were more and more innocent ghosts.

Whether it is done accidentally or intentionally, once the political machine is set in motion, it is difficult to stop it. This is true from ancient times to the present, both at home and abroad. It doesn’t matter how bad the people who control the machine are, or how bad the political machine itself is, the machine is just a machine, cold-blooded. I hope that there will be fewer victims of the operation of political machines in this world, and that all political machines in this world will operate more scientifically, humanely, and justly.

Reading is to see all sentient beings and all things, and more importantly, to see yourself. Looking back on my studies in 2022, I am interested in destiny, the destiny of mankind, countries, and individuals. The biggest thinking and gain is how to reconcile myself with my own destiny.