The word "civilization" in English comes from the Latin word "Civis", which means urban residents. Its essential meaning is people's ability to live in harmony with cities and social groups. After extension, it refers to an advanced social and cultural development state and the process of reaching this state, involving a wide range of fields, including national consciousness, technical level, etiquette norms, religious thoughts, customs and habits, and the development of scientific knowledge.
The word "civilization" in Chinese originated from the Book of Changes, saying that "seeing dragons in the fields makes the world civilized." (Do a classical Chinese). In modern Chinese, civilization refers to a state of social progress, as opposed to the word "barbarism". Civilization and culture have similar meanings, but there are also differences. Culture refers to a way of existence. Having culture means a certain civilization, but having no culture does not mean being "barbaric".
The general name of the way of life and way of thinking produced in the process of inheritance, development, blending and differentiation of human aesthetic concepts and cultural phenomena. It is a phenomenon that human beings begin to live in groups and live in a specialized society, and the embryonic form of human society is basically formed. It is the product of rich material foundation and a basic attribute of human society. Civilization is the concept gradually formed by human beings in the process of understanding and transforming the world and the concrete embodiment of constantly evolving human nature.
Characteristics of China civilization
The Primitive Nature of China Civilization
Chinese civilization is the primitive civilization in the eastern part of Eurasia. Since modern times, historians have gradually revealed the basic context of the development of China's ancient history on the land of our country through the comprehensive study of archaeology, paleoanthropology, ancient philology, ethnology and other documents. Judging from the current materials, human beings have been active in the vast areas of China at least 654.38+0 million years ago. For example, Wushan people in Chongqing are about 2 million years ago, Yuanmou people in Yunnan are about 6.5438+0.7 million years ago, and the human skull fossils found in Gongwangling, Lantian, Shaanxi and Yunxian, Hubei are all close to or earlier than 6.5438+0.0 million years ago. Some sites discovered in recent years may also be close to 2 million years old. From the above-mentioned "ape-men" such as Yuanmou people in Yunnan and Lantian people in Shaanxi, to the "ancients" such as Maba people in Shaoguan, Guangdong and Ding Cun people in Xiangfen, Shanxi, and then to the "newcomers" such as cavemen in Beijing and Ziyang people in Sichuan, the three stages constitute the primitive human period.
According to archaeological research, the rice farming culture in China can be advanced to 1 10,000 years ago. It is hard for people living today to imagine the lifestyle of their ancestors/kloc-0.0 million years ago. After the development of Yangshao culture and Longshan culture, China civilization has experienced a process from origin to gradual formation, and the social complexity is more obvious. In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, it gradually entered a highly developed class society, and then experienced the development and decline of the feudal society in the Qin and Han Dynasties and more than two thousand years later, and experienced a long historical process.
In the study of the origin of Chinese civilization, both Mr. Xia Nai and Mr. Su put forward very important opinions. Mr. Xia believes that the origin of civilization should be traced back to the Neolithic Age. Mr. Su believes that the origin of Chinese civilization is a very complicated process, and there should be different modes, including the first, second and second levels, which will eventually form a multi-ethnic unified country with the Han nationality as the main body. The correctness of their statements is constantly proved by new archaeological discoveries and academic research results. In particular, archaeological excavations show that around 3500 BC, some new phenomena gradually appeared in the archaeological culture of the Neolithic Age in China. In the northern region, large-scale sacrificial buildings, stone piers, jade carvings buried with dragons and jade articles have been found in the late Hongshan Culture site in southeastern Inner Mongolia and western Liaoning, which represent the highest central settlement in Hongshan Culture. In the southern region, Liangzhu cultural sites in Yuhang, Zhejiang Province, covering an area of more than 30 square kilometers, were discovered in Hangjiahu Lake in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At the center of the site group is the base of a large palace building in Jiaomo. These discoveries illustrate the primitive characteristics of Chinese civilization with irrefutable facts.
The credibility of Chinese civilization
In the ancient literature of China, the period of the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di is regarded as the beginning of China's history, and the Xia Dynasty is regarded as the first dynasty. China civilization is considered to have a history of 5,000 years. As a historical basis, it can be found in Sima Qian's Historical Records. However, the records of the Yellow Emperor and Yao Shun and Yu in Historical Records belong to the category of ancient legends, and the records of the history of Xia Dynasty are extremely brief, so it is difficult to comprehensively study the history at that time. Because of this, some scholars at home and abroad doubt whether China really has a civilization history of 5,000 years, and some foreign scholars even doubt whether the Xia Dynasty really exists. To solve this problem and eliminate all kinds of doubts in academic circles, it is far from enough to rely solely on ancient documents. In the past 50 years, China archaeology has made a series of remarkable achievements, and a large number of important archaeological discoveries have provided an important material basis for us to study the long history of Chinese civilization.
In the 1980s, Mr. Xia Nai proposed in his masterpiece The Origin of Chinese Civilization that the archaeological study of the origin of Chinese civilization should focus on excavating three symbolic remains, namely, the city, the writing and the smelting metal, which are the centers of political, economic and cultural activities, and are called the "three elements of civilization". One is about the city. Many ancient city sites have been discovered in China, among which large city sites have appeared at least in the late Yangshao culture. For example, the site of Xishan Ancient City in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and the site of Chengtoushan Ancient City in Lixian County, Hunan Province all have a history of more than 6,000 years. Moreover, more ancient city sites appeared in the late Longshan period, and their locations were more widely distributed. The second is about words. The earliest ancient Chinese characters discovered by China are the inscriptions of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Shang Dynasty, which are complete and mature characters. Before Shang Dynasty, many carved symbols were found in pottery in Yangshao period and Longshan period, especially some symbols such as Dawenkou culture and Liangzhu culture, which are generally considered to be related to words. The symbolic pottery of Dawenkou culture can be traced back to around 2500 BC. The characters on pottery and jade articles of Liangzhu culture appeared from about 3000 BC to 2300 BC. The third is about smelting metals. It appeared very early in China, such as the semi-circular brass and copper sheet found at Jiangzhai site in Shaanxi Province, which is the earliest bronze ware found at present; The small copper knife found in Linjia site in Gansu belongs to Majiayao culture, which is about 3000 BC and is the earliest bronze ware found at present.
As early as 1959, the archaeologist Mr. Xu made an archaeological investigation according to the main activity areas of Xia Dynasty recorded in ancient documents and discovered the Erlitou site in Yanshi, western Henan. After nearly 50 years of site excavation, criss-crossing roads, large palace architectural remains, bronze smelting and casting, pottery firing, bone-making workshops and various tombs have been found in an area of nearly 4 square kilometers, and high-grade bronze ritual vessels, jade articles and various pottery have been unearthed, which reflects the formation of the real kingship in the history of China. 1928, the academic institutions in China organized the excavation, archaeological discovery and scientific research results of Yin Ruins for the first time, which further confirmed the existence of Shang Dynasty with only sporadic records in the literature, and made the contents contained in Shiji Yinbenji and other documents become a history of trust. More than 150000 pieces of Oracle bones unearthed in Yin Ruins not only prove the independent origin of ancient Chinese characters, but also provide independent rules for the ancient Chinese characters in China. This had a fundamental influence on China culture 3000 years ago, and it is still used by14 people in the world. In terms of metal smelting, Yin Ruins is the site with the largest number of bronzes unearthed in Shang Dynasty, totaling about 6,000 pieces. The highly developed technical means of creating civilization achievements displayed in Yin Ruins are unique, which fully proves the credibility of China's ancient civilization and lays a solid foundation for eventually forming a more complete and systematic conclusion.
Integrity of Chinese civilization
The formation of Chinese civilization is both pluralistic and integrative, that is, the so-called "pluralistic integration". After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Chinese nation gradually formed, which not only refers to the country established by various ethnic groups living in China, but also is the general name of 56 ethnic groups in China today. The mainstream of the Chinese nation is composed of many scattered and isolated ethnic units, which, through contact, mixing, connection and integration, have formed a unity of diversity and individuality. The evolution of Chinese civilization, first of all, is the integration of multiple civilizations, which is mutual integration, not mutual extinction. China has a vast territory, many ethnic groups and no dialect. It takes cultural thoughts and cultural figures as a link, maintaining a pluralistic and integrated cultural pattern. Through mutual competition, collision and integration, the cultures of various regions finally formed a complete Chinese civilization.
The main reasons for the continuation of the integrity of Chinese civilization are as follows: First, the scale factor of Chinese civilization itself, that is, the vast geographical area and huge overall scale, has formed a force that is difficult to conquer and divide. Chinese civilization has formed a complete and interrelated cultural whole in politics, economy and culture. Other civilizations that once threatened Chinese civilization were eventually absorbed and assimilated by this huge cultural whole. Second, the cultural factors of Chinese civilization, which are linked by blood relationship, play a great role in maintaining civilization. For example, the worship of the ancestor of the Chinese nation, Yanhuang, has a far-reaching impact, which has enabled Chinese civilization to maintain its integrity while diversifying. Mr. Dai Yi analyzed various factors that have a great influence on China culture, including economic conditions, political structure, social structure and geographical environment, which all have an impact on the occurrence and development of China culture. First of all, China is an agricultural society. For a long time, the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy has dominated and the commodity economy is underdeveloped. In such an agricultural society, the national character has both a hard-working and simple side and a stable and conservative side. Secondly, China's political system and structure for thousands of years are long-term feudal absolutism. It has a history of more than two thousand years since the Qin Dynasty, which has left a deep imprint on our traditional culture. Thirdly, China is a country where the patriarchal clan system prevails. Both male chauvinism and family consciousness are very strong, and traditional culture is formed in such a social structure. Fourthly, the geographical environment has also had a great influence on China culture. China is located in the east of the Asian continent, with oceans in the east and mountains and deserts in the northwest. In this geographical environment, an independent and complete system of Chinese civilization and culture has been formed.
The continuation of Chinese civilization
The four ancient civilizations of mankind all originated from rivers. Around 3500 BC, the ancient Egyptian civilization in the Nile valley, the Babylonian civilization between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the ancient Indian civilization in the Indus and Ganges rivers, and the Chinese civilization in the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valley appeared all over the world. However, except for Chinese civilization, almost all these ancient civilizations have been interrupted in their cultural development history.
Compared with the other three ancient civilizations, the origin of Chinese civilization is not the earliest, but it is the only civilization that has never been interrupted. In the course of thousands of years' development, although it has gone through hardships and storms, its cultural tradition has always been consistent and never stopped. It is a unique phenomenon in the history of the whole world that Chinese civilization has been completely preserved and passed down to today. Professor Yuan Xingpei believes that we can find some answers from the geographical environment. The first three civilizations developed in relatively concentrated areas, leaving little room for manoeuvre. Once they are invaded by powerful foreign countries and destroyed by war or natural disasters, it is difficult to continue and recover. Chinese civilization, on the other hand, is carried out on a large scale, with a lot of room for manoeuvre, which is convenient for absorbing and integrating the strength and culture of different nationalities and will not be completely destroyed by regional natural disasters.
Since the dawn of civilization first shone on China, the ancestors of all Chinese nationalities have lived and multiplied in this ancient and vast land. People living in this land today are descendants of ancestors who created ancient civilization. In this land, the same civilization evolved and developed according to its own logic and continued. At the same time, Chinese civilization has shown great cohesion in the process of development, not only without interruption, but also without division; It's just that new civilization factors are increasing. Mr. Su pointed out that no country as big as China has a long history of cultural development that began millions of years ago.
The advanced nature of Chinese civilization
Technological invention is the common foundation of all human activities, which profoundly affects human life style, economic development and cultural value orientation. In a long historical period, China inventors led the trend of scientific and technological innovation in the world. From the Spring and Autumn Period to 1800 in the Song Dynasty, China's technological inventions have been at the forefront of the world. After more than 5,000 years of migration, evolution and integration, the Chinese nation has become the largest nation in the world and created splendid traditional culture. Philosophers' far-reaching theories, voluminous historical ancient books, colorful poems and songs, ingenious paintings and sculptures, and four great inventions of future generations in Zebei have all amazed the world.
In 600 BC, China invented the liquid pig iron smelting technology, so that iron ore was continuously transformed into iron and directly cast. This invention promoted the extensive use of metal tools and the large-scale renewal of weapons, and made human history quickly enter the Iron Age. Around 300 BC, the ancient China people invented the deep well drilling technology, which enabled mankind to gain hidden wealth. Porcelain invented by ancient people in China replaced pottery, erased the last trace left by the Stone Age, and became a necessary commodity for every family on our planet. During the period from 1 century BC to15th century AD, China was much more effective than the West in acquiring knowledge of nature and applying it to the actual needs of human beings. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, China was the main target country for economic, political and cultural exchanges among countries all over the world. 1700 or so, the economic income of China and India, two great eastern countries, was still in the forefront of the world at that time. It was only in the middle and late Qing Dynasty that Chinese civilization gradually fell behind the trend of world civilization.
In recent twenty or thirty years, many western scholars have attached importance to China's traditional culture. 1988, dozens of nobel prize winners from many countries gathered in Paris, France, and issued a declaration, pointing out that if human beings want to survive in the 2 1 century, they must look back more than 2,500 years ago and learn from the wisdom of Confucius. In other words, western scholars began to pay attention to our traditional culture while reflecting on their own culture. In fact, Confucius and Laozi have long been great thinkers in the hearts of European philosophers. Today, people see China's motto "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you" written in the hall of the United Nations, which shows the important position and far-reaching influence of our traditional culture in the development of the whole human society.
If from a historical point of view, the most glorious period should belong to the Tang Dynasty, then it is not bad to be in the revival stage now.
The influence of culture on people is as follows:
(1) Culture influences people's communication behaviors and ways.
People always adopt certain methods and forms in their communication. People of different times, nationalities, regions, classes and strata all have their own cultural marks in their communication methods. The differences in communication methods between people can be reflected in the language, symbols and utensils used in communication, as well as in the behavior in the process of communication; Moreover, the dominant values of different times are different, and people adopt different ways in communication.
(2) Culture affects people's practical activities, cognitive activities and ways of thinking. Different cultural environments, different knowledge literacy and different values will affect people's perspective, depth and breadth of understanding of things, and determine their goals and behaviors in practice, forming different ways of thinking.
Other civilizations. .
Like Greek civilization.
The political system of ancient Greece
The greatest invention of the Greeks was their democratic system, which made an extremely important contribution to the establishment of European democratic system in later generations. The Greek city-state system rose in the "dark age", developed in the "antique age", perfected in the "classical age" and finally died out with the end of Greek history.
In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides said this through the mouth of Nesias: "Man is a city-state." This sentence contains two meanings. First, the city-state is a union of all citizens, and citizens have certain rights and responsibilities, emphasizing their democracy. Secondly, the so-called "man" refers to a man with Athenian citizenship, and all Athenian women and foreigners are excluded. (3) Another feature of polis is its external feature of "small country with few people". Sparta, the largest city-state in Greece, covers an area of only 8,400 square kilometers and has a population of about 400,000.
Athens is unanimously regarded as a model of Greek democracy. Athens abolished the monarchy as early as 1 1 century BC, and in 682 BC, it began to form a regime in which collective power was exercised. Solon's political reform in 594 BC further expanded citizens' political and economic rights, which made Athens take a big step on the road to democracy. After the reform in Cristini, a more democratic system was established, so that all citizens had the opportunity to participate in politics, and the democratic and harmonious system in Athens was finally established. Although the Athenian city-state democracy is still based on the existence of slavery, it is still a great pioneering work of the Greeks, which not only created a democratic system in human history, but more importantly embodied the ideas of "sovereignty belongs to the people" and "equality of citizens", providing an ideological basis and exemplary role for the development of the Western Renaissance.
Religion and myth in ancient Greece
Religion permeates all aspects of Greek life and is closely related to ancient Greek mythology. The reason why ancient Greek myths are so developed is that they have been handed down in the form of art, and its initial core content has been covered by many later layers, and its later re-creation has increased its vitality. (4) At present, the main sources of Greek mythology are literary works such as Homer's epic and hesiod's Shenpu.
The religion of ancient Greece was polytheism, and the twelve gods were the masters of the world. They are: Zeus, the father of gods (the god of thunder and lightning), Hera, the wife of Zeus (the god of the sky), Poseidon, Athena, the god of wisdom, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, hephaestus, Hermes, the god of business travel, and Di, the god of agriculture.
A major feature of ancient Greek religion is the serious humanization tendency of gods. All gods are similar to people in appearance, including men and women, emotions, jealousy, quarrels and all people's shortcomings. The biggest difference between God and mortals is that God is immortal, which is an insurmountable boundary between man and God.
Literature and art in ancient Greece
In the history of Greek literature, Homer and Hersiad represented the first peak. In particular, the mythical stories and heroic epics in Homer's epic have influenced and shaped the religious beliefs of the Greeks and become an endless source of Greek literary works. Drama is very popular in Greece, and the works of playwrights often have high artistic value, such as the works of Aeschylus and euripides. The works of a few people that have been handed down to this day have become treasures in the history of western literature.
The philosophy of ancient Greece is a precious legacy in human history, but unfortunately, the ideas of early philosophers such as Thales and Heraclitus have not been preserved. Plato's Republic is the representative of philosophical works preserved to this day. Plato profoundly expounded his thoughts in the Republic, which had a great influence on the establishment of later philosophical systems.
The artistic achievements of ancient Greece were equally brilliant, especially sculptures. The sculpture art in "Antique Period" was deeply influenced by Egyptian statues, and the figures were solemn and inflexible. But in the 6th century BC, Greek sculptors began to get rid of the shackles of Egyptian art, and their works were imbued with the breath of life, and the beauty of the human body was displayed. (5) From the discus thrower in Miron to the spear bearer in Polly Crete, from Aphrodite in Cornidos in Prahitlis to Venus in Milos, its exquisite and elegant style was highly praised by the sculptors in the Western Renaissance.
As one of the sources of western civilization, Greek civilization has transcended time and space and become a great civilization that every generation and every nation can learn from and get inspiration from in any historical period. From the secularized and personified gods, it can be seen that the Greeks paid more attention to realism, the establishment of democracy reflected the establishment and spread of Greek humanism, and the achievements in literature and art added a lot of color to the history of human civilization. Today, Greek civilization exists in the eloquence of western parliaments, in the hands of artists who are committed to creation, and in distant epics handed down from generation to generation. ...