What is the oldest and most mysterious civilization in China?

Chinese civilization: also known as Chinese civilization. It is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and the longest-lasting civilization in the world. It is generally believed that Chinese civilization has three direct sources, namely, the Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze River civilization and the northern grassland civilization. Chinese civilization is the brilliant achievement of the exchange, integration and sublimation of the three regional civilizations. The important factors that have produced Chinese civilization are the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. The agricultural civilization produced in the Yellow River basin is influenced by the natural geographical factors in the historical period, and it is constantly transitioning and developing to the agricultural civilization in the Yangtze River basin. The agricultural civilization in the Yangtze River basin is the inheritance and development of the agricultural civilization in the Yellow River basin. Early agriculture in the Yellow River basin was mainly to grow millet, while agriculture in the Yangtze River basin was mainly to grow rice.

The time and place of China civilization. According to archaeological research, there are several different views from the late Yangshao culture to the early Longshan culture.

China is one of the important birthplaces of mankind. As early as about 8 million years ago, ancient apes lived in Kaiyuan and Lufeng areas of Yunnan. Since then, after a long evolution, there have been primitive people and clan tribes in different periods, such as Yuanmou people, Lantian people, Beijingers, cavemen and Banpo people, which have gone through several stages of primitive people, matriarchal society and paternal society.

China is an ancient country with splendid civilization. Since entering the threshold of civilization, China has experienced Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Qin, Western Han, Eastern Han, Three Kingdoms, Western Jin, Sixteen Eastern Jin Countries, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Liao, Xia Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Rulers of the past dynasties, with their own achievements, staged dramas of different contents on the historical stage, which were either immortal or infamous. Among them, in Xia, Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Period, it experienced the whole process of the development of slave society. From the Warring States period, the feudal society was conceived and formed, and the first centralized and unified feudal empire in the history of China was established in the Qin Dynasty. Since then, the Han Dynasty was a stage of rapid growth of feudal society, and the Tang and Song Dynasties experienced the most glorious era of feudal society. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, feudal society flourished and declined, and finally entered a troubled modern society.

In thousands of years of ancient history, the Chinese nation has written a magnificent historical picture with indomitable will, the spirit of exploration and outstanding wisdom, and at the same time created extremely brilliant material civilization and spiritual civilization in world history. The Great Wall of Wan Li, the Grand Canal, the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing Dynasties and various unearthed cultural relics all reflect bold and superb production techniques; At the same time, countless outstanding figures have been produced in the fields of thought, culture, science and technology, and unparalleled profound achievements have been created; Numerous scientific and technological achievements, including compass, papermaking, gunpowder and printing, have benefited all mankind.

Ancient elephant male civilization

The key project of Social Development Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences "Exploring the Origin of Ancient Elephant and Male Civilization" and the Chinese translation project of Ancient Elephant and Male Buddhist Tripitaka were launched in Beijing on July 20, 2003. The Chinese translation project will not only decipher the ancient Xiangxiong civilization in the snowy plateau, but also explore the history of the interaction and integration between ancient China and ancient Indian, ancient Persian and even ancient Greek civilizations and cultures. [ 1]

The influence of ancient Xiangxiong civilization once spread to Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan, covering the whole of Tibet. The culture of these areas has penetrated into northern India, Kashmir and Ladakh, which used to be an area with frequent cultural exchanges between the East and the West. In the 7th century AD, Songtsan Gampo merged and unified all the tribes in Tibet, established a powerful Tubo dynasty, and began to write the official history of Tibet. Archaeological discoveries in recent years have proved that the ancient elephant-male civilization is the real source of Tibetan civilization. [ 1]

According to the records of Chinese and Tibetan classics, the ancient Xiangxiong Kingdom (actually a tribal alliance) in history was called Tong Qiang and Yangtong; Reached its peak before the 7th century. According to the historical research of Tibetan population, the population of Xiangxiong should be no less than100000 according to the proportion of the army. Later, Tubo gradually rose on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and in the 8th century, it completely conquered the ancient country of Xiangxiong. Since then, Xiangxiong culture has gradually disappeared. The documents of ancient Buddhism in Tibet are called "Xiangxiong Code" by experts. The Ming Jian of the Tubo King's genealogy records: "From Nie Chizamp to Zeng Jietuozan, the twenty-sixth generation was protected by this teaching." At that time, the classics of this teaching were mainly written in ancient Xiang Xiong characters. According to Tibetan ancient books such as Wang Tongji and Duodui, the Tathagata Buddha in Xiangrao Miwo reformed the original religion many times and founded Yongzhong Benjiao, which is called the oldest ancient Xiangxiong Buddhism in Tibet. Fortunately, Buddha Rao Miwo first created the word "Xiang Xiong" and taught the "five disciplines": technology (technology), acoustics (linguistics), medicine, alienation (astronomy) and Naiming (Buddhism). The ancient elephant-male civilization was developed with the spread of "eternal education" [ 1]

Luan Zhangjian, deputy director of the Research Office of the International Liaison Department, once wrote an article to evaluate the ancient elephant civilization and the historical significance of this religion:

"It is no exaggeration to say that to understand Tibetan civilization, we must first understand Xiangxiong civilization; To study Tibetan Buddhism, we should also study this religion first. Otherwise, the deeper you explore, the farther away you may be from the truth. [ 1]

Combined with the characteristics and personality of ancient civilization in China, some people put forward five viewpoints of China's early civilization era:

(1) Establish a state power separated from the people. Its important physical and chemical forms are the emergence of capitals and cities as the base for the ruling class to establish and implement political power, as well as large-scale rammed palace buildings.

② Social stratification with class confrontation as the core. It is often reflected in the cemetery layout and tomb specifications (such as coffins and funerary objects), accompanied by the emergence of the system of human sacrifice and human sacrifice.

③ The complicated etiquette system and the formation of religious forces serving the kingship. Serialized jade ritual vessels can be regarded as one of the indicators in this respect; At the same time, the etiquette center building, especially the ancestral hall, became an important symbol of the location of the king's capital, and also produced a large-scale sacrifice place for the Lord God.

(4) The emergence of writing system. Because of the narrow scope of mastering and using characters in early civilized society, the information revealed can only be found in scattered individual characters.

⑤ The prosperity of bronze casting and jade carving. In China, this not only represents the frontier achievements of material culture of the times, but also has the nature of serving social politics and infiltrating strong ideology.

Whether in the world or in China, there are still differences between high and low levels in early civilized society, which has gone through the stage from initial establishment to prosperity. The origin of the initial civilization is both multi-source and central (core), and the intersection of multi-sources and the rise of the center complement each other.

Various viewpoints on the origin of Chinese civilization According to the above theory, it is an important subject being studied by the archaeological community to analyze the significance of existing physical materials in detail to determine the age of the beginning of the Chinese civilization era and cultural remains, and there is no conclusion yet.

Academic viewpoint

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① From the late Yangshao culture to the early Longshan culture, it experienced or is experiencing a qualitative change from clan to country, which is the early national stage of China, and it can also be called the "primitive civilization" period. This is equivalent to the era of the Five Emperors in ancient history. For example, in 3500 BC, the highest-level site in Hongshan Culture, the tomb of Tan Liang Temple in Niuhe, Lingyuan, Liaoning, reflected the combination of kingship and theocracy. At that time, huge social forces were mobilized to build huge public buildings. Stone quarrying, jade making and pottery making have a fairly specialized division of labor, and special classes such as clergy have emerged, indicating that there are political entities higher than clan tribes.

② With Longshan culture in the Central Plains as the core, the major cultural areas in China entered the initial stage of civilization, and early countries appeared. From the late Longshan culture to the early Erlitou culture in Henan (see Erlitou site), it may be a Xia civilization. In the later period of the Five Emperors before Xia Dynasty, the situation of all nationalities in the world was an early state form, which can be called the embryonic state of the first dynasty, the state of the kingdom, the state of the confederacy, or the era of the tribal kingdom. For example, from the cemetery of Taosi site in Xiangfen, Shanxi, we can see that different classes and grades from "king", nobles to civilians have been formed at that time. A complete set of ritual vessels consisting of jade (Liangzhu culture is the most abundant), painted pottery and lacquered wood have appeared in many places, reflecting the ritual system based on private ownership and patriarchal hierarchy, which is one of the elements and characteristics of ancient civilization in China.

③ The primitive clan society, represented by the late Yangshao culture, the late Dawenkou culture, the late Hongshan Culture culture and the early Liangzhu culture, declined around the times of Huangdi, Zhuan Xu and Di Ku, resulting in polarization between the rich and the poor and even initial class polarization, and the origin of Chinese civilization began. By the time of Longshan and Tangyu, archaeological culture was probably close to the threshold of civilized society, and some of them had entered an early civilized society different from Xia civilization. Later, the whole Erlitou culture, that is, Xia culture, belonged to the civilized generation.

④ Yangshao culture belongs to primitive clan society. Longshan culture is in the period of military democracy or heroic age, and has not yet entered the threshold of civilization. The whole Erlitou culture, that is, Xia culture, is the beginning of civilized society in China.

⑤ The late Erlitou culture is equivalent to the late summer and early Shang Dynasty, which is enough to be called civilization and will definitely enter the era of civilization. Xia culture is an unsolved problem in exploration.

think

During the 1,000 years from 800 BC to 200 AD, human beings appeared and developed knowledge to reflect on their own human spirit from different aspects in three different parts of the world almost at the same time, namely, theology initiated by ancient Hebrew prophets, philosophy initiated by ancient Greek philosophers and human studies initiated by ancient saints in China. Strictly speaking, they are all human studies that reflect on the human spirit. The difference is that theology reflects the mysterious will power of human spirit, philosophy reflects the rational power of human spiritual practice, and anthropology reflects the moral and emotional power of human spirit. Although they are good at a certain aspect of the human spirit and become systematic knowledge, their purpose is to care about the fate of mankind.

In the history of nearly 2500 years, all the above theology, philosophy and human studies have experienced more than one death and rebirth. The so-called death of learning means that it has completely lost any power to think about the plight of human destiny. In this sense, China's ancient humanism died out the earliest, or more specifically, it mainly refers to China's ancient Confucianism marked by "burning books and burying Confucianism" after Qin Shihuang unified China. Later, in the Han Dynasty, after the rebirth of Confucianism, Confucianism, as a primitive anthropology, actually became a pseudo-theological Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, Confucianism in the Song Dynasty was reborn for the second time and became a pseudo-philosophy or Taoism in the Song Dynasty. This pseudo-philosophical neo-Confucianism continued until the end of Qing Dynasty, even until the May 4th Youth in19 shouted the slogan of "smashing Kongjiadian". In fact, people don't know that Confucius and his original Confucianism died shortly after Qin Shihuang unified China. Confucianism, as a practical learning, has been continuously influenced by foreign civilized Buddhism and local civilized Taoism for more than two thousand years, and developed into Neo-Confucianism in Zhu Cheng in the Song Dynasty and Neo-Confucianism in Wang Zhan in the Ming Dynasty. However, with the impact of barbaric grassland culture, the efforts of Neo-Confucianism to explore the exquisite universe in the Song Dynasty were shattered under the trampling of Mongolian fighters, and the exploration of human nature by Neo-Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty went into exile in Japan with the oppression of Manchu. What people see is only zombies wrapped in two layers of shroud: Confucian classics in Han Dynasty and Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties whitewashed by the rulers. After the Republic of China, even the ancient zombies in China were burned. In modern times, with the gradual strengthening of national strength, Neo-Confucianism has been reborn under the advocacy of a number of international and domestic Confucian masters such as Takehiko Okada, a Japanese master of mind.

The above rough description of the historical evolution of ancient theology, philosophy and human studies not only shows the great historical view of human reflection on human spirit, but also shows the indispensable integrity and necessary complementarity of human spirit in three aspects. Whether it is theology (expressing the mysterious will of human spirit), philosophy (expressing the practical reason of human spirit) or humanism (expressing the moral emotion of human spirit), it is an indispensable aspect to study the complete human spirit. Any knowledge that lacks the isolated reflection of human spirit in other aspects will lead to the rise of pseudo-knowledge in its historical evolution. For example, China, who insisted on isolated human studies, raised pseudo-knowledge in Han Dynasty and Song Dynasty respectively. Similarly, in later history, ancient Hebrew theology still proposed pseudo-anthropology (Christian moral theology) and pseudo-philosophy (medieval scholasticism). In the later history, pseudo anthropology (the moral philosophy of Stoicism and Epicurus) and pseudo theology (the medieval scholasticism) also emerged in ancient Greek philosophy.

In the past, people used to define philosophy only by "loving wisdom", but they didn't say anything, because people would ask, what is wisdom? Is wisdom self-evident? Today, although the people of China have a civilization and historical tradition of about 5,000 years, the traditional China people's answer to what is wisdom is very confusing and biased. Confucianism, the study of human in ancient China, advocates a life of extremely noble moral feelings-filial piety, loyalty and forgiveness. However, people who truly follow Confucian morality in history will certainly be considered ignorant, pedantic, rude and stupid. To put it bluntly, it has not really taught people the wisdom to deal with natural and social problems. On the contrary, it really teaches people a lot about the history of China's literary warehouse.

China's history books mainly describe the power struggle in officialdom since ancient times. Therefore, the traditional wisdom of China people is not so much human science as political strategy in the officialdom struggle. They may belong to Taoism, legalism, strategists, etc. Instead of Confucianism, which is full of irrational strategies, changes, lies, fraud and so on. In the final analysis, traditional China people almost completely understand wisdom as a tool full of irrationality, which is completely different from the philosophy understood by westerners. Ancient Greek philosophy began with people's understanding of natural objects. The invariance and obvious regularity of natural objects (whose life span is much longer than that of human beings), such as the sun, the moon and the stars, prompted the ancient Greeks to create philosophy. Different from the ancient people in China, the Book of Changes, which was originally created as a science of divination, has obvious fatalism and absolute variability, thus it is far from the invariance and regularity of the world. In the long history, traditional China people neglected the creation of logic, that is, the creation of thinking tools. Therefore, all the so-called inventions made by China people so far (including the four great inventions) have the nature of accidental fate, rather than the inevitable logic of theoretical thinking. Therefore, China people are doomed to wait for westerners who have knowledge of logical inevitability to blast their doors in the way of "building a strong ship and benefiting from guns" in modern history.