Chinese Civilization
(The oldest civilization in the world)
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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 there are three direct sources of Chinese civilization, namely the Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze River civilization and the northern grassland civilization. Chinese civilization is the brilliant fruit of the exchange, integration and sublimation of the three regional civilizations. The important factors that gave rise to Chinese civilization were none other than the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. The agricultural civilization produced in the Yellow River Basin was affected by the natural geographical factors in historical periods and continued to transition and develop 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 generally focused on planting millet, while agriculture in the Yangtze River Basin mainly grew rice.
Origin
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The place and time when Chinese civilization emerged. According to archaeological excavation research, there are several different views ranging from the late Yangshao Culture to the early Longshan Culture.
China is one of the important birthplaces of mankind. As early as about eight million years ago, ancient apes were already living in Kaiyuan, Lufeng and other places in Yunnan. Since then, after a long period of evolution, primitive people and clan tribes have emerged in different periods, such as Yuanmou people, Lantian people, Beijing people, Shandingdong people, Banpo people, etc., and have experienced several primitive groups, matrilineal societies and patrilineal societies. stage.
China is another ancient country with a glorious civilization. From the day it entered the threshold of civilization, China has experienced the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Qin Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, the Western Jin Dynasty, the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, Historical periods such as the Five Dynasties, Song, Liao, Xia and Jin, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The rulers of the past dynasties have performed plays with different contents on the historical stage based on their respective political achievements, which are either famous in history or infamy for thousands of years. Among them, during the Xia, Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods, they experienced the entire process of the development of slave society. Starting from the Warring States Period, feudal society took shape, and the Qin Dynasty established the first centralized unified feudal empire in Chinese history. After that, the Han Dynasty was a stage of rapid growth of feudal society. The Tang and Song Dynasties experienced the most glorious era of feudal society. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, feudal society flourished and declined, and finally entered the troubled modern society. .
In thousands of years of ancient history, the Chinese nation has composed a magnificent historical picture with its indomitable will, spirit of exploration and outstanding intelligence, and created an extremely brilliant event in world history during the same period. Material civilization and spiritual civilization. The Great Wall, the Grand Canal, the Forbidden City of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and various unearthed cultural relics all reflect bold and superb production technology; at the same time, countless outstanding figures have been produced in the fields of thought, culture, science and technology, creating incomparably broad, profound achievements; and countless scientific and technological achievements, including the "four great inventions" of the compass, papermaking, gunpowder and printing, have benefited all mankind a lot.
Conceptual elements
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The concept of civilization
Civilization refers to the state of progress achieved by human beings in terms of material, spiritual and social structures . The essence of the origin of civilization is the historical process of the decline and disintegration of the primitive clan system, the entry into a confrontational class society and the establishment of a national organization on the basis of a certain level of material production and spiritual production. The origin of civilization is predicated on the improvement of productivity and the growth of social wealth. It is the overall transformation from primitive public ownership to private ownership production mode and the social form of slavery. The time limit for the origin of civilization should include the gestation and development of the factors that constitute civilization until the final birth of the civilized era (or the formation of a civilized society).
Elements of Civilization
When discussing the formation of the civilization era in archeology, some scholars have briefly put forward the concept of elements of civilization. Although the "elements of civilization" are not completely consistent, they are basically four: cities, writing, metallurgy and ceremonial centers. Among them, the first one is the existing city as the center of politics (shown as palaces and official offices), economy (handicrafts and commerce) and culture (including religion). This element embodies the evolution from an egalitarian clan society to a classed society. The historical turning point of national society. In order to highlight the key role of cities in the formation of civilization, some scholars call the beginning of the civilized era the urban revolution. This is another epoch-making event in human society after the "agricultural revolution" of the Neolithic Age.
Early Civilization
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Ancient Zhangzhong Civilization
The key project of the Social Development Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "Exploration of the Ancient Zhangzhug Civilization" "Source" and the Chinese translation project of the ancient Zhangzhung Buddhist Tripitaka was launched in Beijing on July 20, 2013. The Chinese translation project will not only decipher the ancient Zhangzhung civilization on the snowy plateau, but also explore the history of the mutual influence and integration of civilizations and cultures between ancient China, ancient India, ancient Persia, and even ancient Greece. ?[1]?
The influence of the ancient Zhangzhung civilization once spread to present-day Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, and covered the entire Tibet region. The culture of these areas has penetrated into northern India, Kashmir and Ladakh. The latter was once a region with frequent cultural exchanges between the East and the West. In the 7th century AD, Songtsen Gampo annexed and unified the various tribes in Tibet and established the powerful Tubo Dynasty, and the official history of Tibet began to be written. In recent years, archaeological discoveries have proven that the ancient Zhangzhung civilization is the true root of Tibetan civilization.
?[1]?
According to Chinese and Tibetan classics, the ancient Zhangzhong Kingdom (actually a tribal alliance), known as Qiang Tong and Yangtong in history, reached its peak before the 7th century. The article "A Survey of Tibetan Population History" records that according to the proportion of the army, the population of Shangshung should be no less than 10 million. Later, Tubo gradually rose up on the Tibetan Plateau, and by the 8th century AD, it completely conquered the ancient kingdom of Shang Shung. Since then, Zhangzhong culture gradually disappeared. The documents of Tibet’s ancient Buddhist sect are called “Zhangzhong Code” by experts. "Mingjian of the Genealogy of the King of Tubo" records: "From Nie Chi Zanpu to Chijie Tozan, all twenty-six generations used this religion to protect the state affairs." At that time, the ancient Xiangxiong characters were mainly used in the classics of this religion. write. According to records such as "Records of Tibetan Kings" and "Duo Dui", Buddha Shangzung Xingrao Miwo Tathagata made many changes to the original Bon Buddhism in the past and founded Yongzhong Bon Sect, which is known as the oldest ancient Shang Shung Buddhism in Tibet. Buddha Xingrao Miwo first created the Zhangzhong script and taught the "Five Ming Studies": Gong Qiao Ming (craftsmanship), Sound Theory (linguistics), medicine, external Ming Xue (astronomy) and Inner Ming Xue (astronomy). Buddhism). The ancient Zhangzhong civilization developed based on the spread of "Yongzhong Benjiao". ?[1]?
Luan Jianzhang, deputy director of the Research Office of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, once wrote an article evaluating the historical significance of the ancient Zhangzhong civilization and Benjiao:
“It is no exaggeration to say, To understand Tibetan civilization, you must first understand Shangzhung civilization; to study Tibetan Buddhism, you must first study the true religion. Otherwise, the deeper you delve into it, the farther away you may be from the truth. ?[1]?
Integrate with China. Regarding the characteristics and personality of ancient civilization, some people have put forward five comprehensive views on the signs of China's early civilization era:
①The establishment of the state's public power separated from the masses of the people is its important materialized form. Capitals and cities (capitals and cities) emerged as bases for the ruling class to establish and implement political power, including palace buildings with large areas of rammed earth foundations.
②A society centered on class confrontation. The stratification phenomenon is often reflected in the cemetery layout and burial specifications (such as coffins and burial objects), and is accompanied by the emergence of human sacrifice and human sacrifice systems.
③ More complex etiquette systems and royal authority. The formation of the religious power of service. The series of jade ritual vessels can be regarded as one of the indicators in this regard; at the same time, the emergence of ceremonial center buildings, especially the ancestral temple, became an important symbol of the location of the royal capital, and large-scale rituals for worshiping the main god were also produced. Place.
④The emergence of the writing system. Because the scope of control and use of writing in early civilized societies was very narrow, the information revealed could only be found from scattered individual words.
⑤The prosperity of bronze casting and jade carving industry. This not only represents the cutting-edge achievements of material culture in China, but also has the nature of serving social politics and permeating strong ideological forms.
Both the world and China. There are differences between high and low levels in early civilized societies, which have gone through stages from inception to prosperity. The beginning of civilization was both multi-source and centered (core), and the intersection of multi-source and the rise of the center complemented each other. < /p>
Various views on the origin of Chinese civilization. Based on the above theory, concrete analysis of the meaning of existing physical data to determine the age and cultural remains of the beginning of the Chinese civilization era is a major topic being studied by the archaeological community. At present, There is no conclusion yet.
Academic Opinions
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① From the late Yangshao Culture to the early Longshan Culture, the process of evolution from clan to country has been or is ongoing. The qualitative change is the early national stage of China, which may be called the "primitive civilization" period. This is equivalent to the Five Emperors era in ancient history. For example, the Niuheliang Temple and Tomb Site in Lingyuan, Liaoning, was the highest level of the Hongshan Culture in 3500 BC. , which reflected the combination of royal power and divine power. At that time, a lot of social power was mobilized and organized for the construction of giant public buildings. Quarrying, jade making, and pottery making had a fairly specialized division of labor, and clergy also appeared. and other special strata, indicating the existence of political entities higher than clan tribes
② With the Longshan Culture of the Central Plains as the core, China's major cultural areas entered the beginning of the civilized era, and the early countries of the Henan Longshan Culture emerged. The early stage of the Erlitou Culture (see the Erlitou Site) may have been the Xia Dynasty civilization. In the late period of the Five Emperors before the Xia Dynasty, the situation of all the states in the world was an early state form, which can be called an embryonic state, a Fang state, a Bang state, or the tribal Fang state era in the pre-dynasty period. For example, from the cemetery at the Taosi Temple site in Xiangfen, Shanxi, it can be seen that different classes and levels had been formed at that time, from "kings", nobles to common people. Complete sets of ritual vessels consisting of jade wares (the richest in Liangzhu culture), painted pottery, painted lacquered wood wares, etc. have appeared in many places, reflecting that the ritual system based on private ownership and patriarchal hierarchy has been established, which is an element of ancient Chinese civilization. and one of the characteristics.
③Represented by the late Yangshao Culture, the late Dawenkou Culture, the late Hongshan Culture, and the early Liangzhu Culture, around the time of the Yellow Emperor, Zhuan Xu and Emperor Ku, the primitive clan society declined and emerged. The differentiation between rich and poor and even the initial class differentiation is the beginning of the origin of Chinese civilization. By the Longshan period, roughly the Tang and Yu periods, various archaeological cultures had probably approached the threshold of civilized society, and some might have entered an early civilized society that was different from the Xia civilization. Afterwards, the entire Erlitou culture, that is, the Xia Dynasty culture, belonged to the Civilized Age.
④ Yangshao culture belongs to primitive clan society. Longshan culture was in the period of military democracy or the heroic age, and had not yet crossed the threshold of civilization.
The entire Erlitou culture, that is, the Xia Dynasty culture, is the beginning of Chinese civilized society.
⑤The late Erlitou culture is equivalent to the late summer and early Shang Dynasty. It can be called civilization and will definitely enter the civilized era. Xia culture is an unsolved problem in exploration.
Thoughts
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During the millennium from 800 BC to 200 AD, human beings almost lived in three different regions of the world. At the same time, knowledge that reflects on one's own human spirit from different aspects emerged and developed, namely theology pioneered by ancient Hebrew prophets, philosophy pioneered by ancient Greek philosophers, and human studies pioneered by ancient Chinese sages. Strictly speaking, they are all studies of human nature that reflect on the human spirit. The difference is that theology reflects on the mysterious will power of the human spirit, philosophy reflects on the practical rational power of the human spirit, and human science reflects on the moral and emotional power of the human spirit. Although each of them specializes in one aspect of human spirit and each has become a systematic knowledge, their purpose is to care about the destiny of human beings themselves.
In the history of nearly 2,500 years, the above-mentioned theology, philosophy, and humanities have all experienced death and rebirth more than once. The so-called death of knowledge means that it has completely lost the power to think about the difficulties facing human destiny and contribute to change. In this sense, the earliest thing to die was ancient Chinese humanities, or more specifically, ancient Chinese Confucianism, the symbol of which was the "burning of books and entrapment of Confucians" after Qin Shihuang unified China. Later in the Han Dynasty, after the rebirth of Han Confucianism, Confucianism as a primitive humanistic study actually turned into a pseudo-theology of Han Dynasty Classics; in the Song Dynasty, after the second rebirth of Song Confucianism, it turned into a kind of Pseudo-philosophical Song Dynasty learning or Taoism. This pseudo-philosophical Neo-Confucianism of the Song (Ming) Dynasty lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty, even until the May 4th Movement in 1919 when young people shouted the slogan "Smash the Confucian store". In fact, people don't know that Confucius and his authentic Confucianism, which was the first human learning, died shortly after Qin Shihuang unified China. As an authentic philosophy, Confucianism has been continuously influenced by Buddhism from foreign civilizations and Taoism from local civilizations during the development process of more than two thousand years, and developed into Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty and Wang Zhan Xinxue in the Ming Dynasty. However, with the impact of barbaric culture on the grasslands, The efforts of the Song Dynasty scholars to explore the exquisite universe came to nothing under the trampling of the Mongolian cavalry. The Ming Dynasty Xinxue's exploration of human nature was exiled to Japan with the national oppression of the Qing Dynasty, and what people saw was just passing through the rulers. It was just a whitewashed zombie wrapped in two layers of shrouds: "Confucian classics of the Han Dynasty" and "Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties." After the Republic of China, ancient Chinese human studies were burned together with their zombies. In modern times, with the gradual increase in national power, New Confucianism has been reborn again under the advocacy of a group of international and domestic Confucian masters such as the Japanese mind-study master Okada Takehiko.
The above rough description of the historical evolution of ancient theology, philosophy, and humanities not only demonstrates the broad historical perspective on human reflection on the human spirit, but also illustrates the indispensability of the three aspects of the human spirit. integrity and necessary complementarity with each other. Regardless of theology (which expresses the mysterious will of the human spirit), philosophy (which expresses the practical rationality of the human spirit) or anthropology (which expresses the moral emotions of the human spirit), they are indispensable to the study of the complete human spirit. In one aspect, any knowledge that lacks other aspects of isolated spiritual reflection on human nature will lead to the rise of pseudo-knowledge in the evolution of its time and history. For example, China that insists on isolated human studies-Confucianism, successively developed in the Han Dynasty and the Song Dynasty respectively. The rise of the pseudo-theological classics of the Han Dynasty and the evolution of the pseudo-philosophical Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties. Similarly, ancient Hebrew theology still gave rise to pseudo-humanities (Christian moral theology) and pseudo-philosophy (medieval scholasticism) in later history. Ancient Greek philosophy also gave rise to pseudo-anthropology (moral philosophy of Stoics and Epicureans) and pseudo-theology (medieval scholasticism) in later history.
In the past, people used only "love of wisdom" to define philosophy, which was just a tautology. In fact, it said nothing, because people would ask, what is wisdom? Is wisdom self-evident? Today's view Although the Chinese have about five thousand years of civilization and historical tradition, the traditional Chinese people's answer to the question of what wisdom is is very confusing and very biased. Confucianism, the study of humanities in ancient China, advocates a life of extremely noble moral emotions among human beings - filial piety, loyalty, loyalty and forgiveness. However, in history, people who truly behave according to Confucian ethics will definitely be regarded as corrupt Confucians who do not know the world. To put it bluntly, it does not really teach people the wisdom to deal with natural problems and social problems. What really teaches people wisdom is the large number of historical books that fill the Chinese literature warehouse and the wisdom of other schools of thought. Book.
Chinese historical records mainly describe the power struggle in officialdom since ancient times. Therefore, the traditional wisdom of the Chinese people is not so much the study of people as it is the study of power and strategy in official struggle. They may be more about It belongs to Taoism, Legalism, military strategists, political strategists, etc., rather than Confucianism, which belongs to human science. It is full of stratagems, conspiracies, lies, fraud, etc. that have no rationality at all. In the final analysis, traditional Chinese people almost completely understand wisdom as a tool full of irrationality for people to fight for their own minds, power, strategies, and intrigues. This is completely different from the philosophy that Westerners understand. Ancient Greek philosophy began with people's understanding of natural objects.
The immutability of the existence of natural objects (their lifespan is much longer than that of human beings) and obvious regularity (such as the sun, moon and stars) prompted the ancient Greeks to create philosophy. Unlike the ancient Chinese who only started from understanding people themselves, the philosophy they originally founded But it is the "Book of Changes" that is a divination study. It obviously has the destiny of absolute variability, thus staying away from the immutability and regularity of the world. Traditional Chinese people have neglected the creation of logic, that is, the creation of thinking tools, in their long history. Therefore, all the so-called inventions made by the Chinese people so far (including the four great inventions) are accidental and fatal. There is no inevitable logic of theoretical thinking, so it is destined that the Chinese people in modern history can only wait for Westerners who have the knowledge of logical inevitability to blast open their own doors with "strong ships and sharp guns".
Literature
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Pre-Qin Literature
The achievements of Pre-Qin literature are huge, and its influence is very far-reaching. Since there are no written records of prehistoric oral literature, not much has been handed down, but some of the myths are quite rich. The emergence of myths preceded class society. It is spread orally among the masses. After constant modification and addition, it becomes more and more beautiful and artistically imaginative. This is the law of the development of oral literature. In the initial stage of its development, poetry was also an oral creation and was entirely a literary art belonging to the whole society. Following the 300 chapters of the Book of Songs, the most radiant poem in the history of Chinese literature is the "Chu Ci". "Chu Ci" is mainly the work of the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan. It is a new poetry style created by him on the basis of studying folk songs. Due to the fundamental changes in society during the Warring States Period, the practice of private book writing flourished. We have always been accustomed to refer to "feng" and "sao" together. "Feng" refers to the style of the fifteen countries, representing the "Book of Songs", and "sao" refers to "Li Sao", representing the Songs of Chu. "Guo Feng" and "Li Sao" have indeed shown us two bright avenues for literary creation in the past, and they will continue to play their due role in the future. The influence of "The Book of Songs" and Chu Ci on later literature is inestimable. As for the political essays and theoretical essays written by later generations of politicians, philosophers, and scholars, as well as the narrative essays and biographical essays written by ancient writers and historians, many of them were based on pre-Qin prose and achieved varying degrees of success. Even today, pre-Qin prose can provide us with useful reference in terms of art.
Literature of the Two Han Dynasties
In the literature of the two Han Dynasties, both Fu and prose are very developed. The concept of essay came into being in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which mainly refers to Fu and prose. But the achievements of Fu are far inferior to those of prose. Fu in the early Han Dynasty generally imitated Qu Yuan's works, lacking realism and freshness, and could no longer arouse much interest among readers. The historical prose of the Han Dynasty reached a highly developed stage. The main symbol is Sima Qian's "Historical Records". The author made use of all the achievements of pre-Qin historiography to create a large-scale and well-organized new system-Ji Zhuan style, which brought the development of our country's historiography to a new stage and made immortal contributions in the history of historiography. The author's record-keeping spirit of "no false beauty, no hidden evil" is the direct inheritance and development of the "calligraphy" tradition of pre-Qin historians. He respected objective facts and had a clear tendency. He not only dared to expose the crimes of the ruling class, but also dared to praise the heroes of the peasant uprising, expressing his ideas of materialism and people's nature. The political prose of the Han Dynasty is the remnant of the prose of the pre-Qin scholars. Their content and style are generally not as rich and colorful as Zhuzi's prose. But they accuse the darkness of reality, expose social contradictions, are realistic, speak freely, and reveal abundant emotions in their simplicity and depth. The literature of the Han Dynasty has experienced the rise and fall of a series of literary forms, such as the decline of four-character poems and Sao style poems, the rise and decline of large-scale poems, and the rise of lyrical poems and five-character poems. This process shows that the rise or decline of a literary form is closely related to changes in social life and the requirements for literary development to adapt to such changes.
Literature of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
The most accomplished aspect of literature during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was poetry, and the development of five-character ancient poetry was particularly prominent. It laid a solid foundation from the Jian'an period, and through the efforts of a series of poets such as Ruan Ji, Zuo Si, Tao Yuanming, etc., not only the number of writers and works increased day by day, but also the artistic expression continued to improve, and a variety of styles were created, forming the Five The period when ancient poetry flourished. Since the Western Jin Dynasty, due to the monopoly of culture by aristocrats, literature has generally been far away from people's lives. This particularly highlights the value of Yuefu folk songs in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During this period, although there were a large number of Fus, they had lost their dominance in the literary world like Han Fus. Under the influence of many lyric poets, lyrical poems developed accordingly. It gets rid of the habit of extravagant piling up of Fu in the Han Dynasty, expresses the writer's thoughts and feelings in a short space, greatly improves the artistic appeal of Fu, and is a progress in the development of Fu. Prose was the least developed genre of this period. Only the prose of the Wei and Jin Dynasties is natural, clear, fresh and meaningful. Although the number is small, it has its own characteristics and has had a certain influence on future generations. During this period, a large number of fantasy novels and novels recording anecdotes about characters appeared. Although they are just miscellaneous notes and not conscious creative activities, they also contain relatively complete stories and some vivid descriptions, reflecting a certain degree of social life. Especially the folk tales in fantasy novels have deeper social significance and higher artistic achievements. This gave our country's novels a rough scale and had a great influence on later novels and operas.
Tang Dynasty Literature
The Tang Dynasty was a glorious era in the history of Chinese literature, with outstanding achievements in poetry, prose, and novels.
The achievements of poetry are particularly outstanding. The number of poets and the number of works written in the Tang Dynasty exceeded those of previous generations. There are more than 2,300 people and nearly 50,000 poems recorded in "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" alone. The content of Tang poetry is also unprecedented. It reflects the historical development process of the Tang Dynasty, and also comprehensively reflects the living conditions and mental outlook of people from all walks of life. Judging from some poems and records of the Tang Dynasty, folk songs in the Tang Dynasty were very developed. Unfortunately, very few have been handed down. But there is no doubt that it had a profound impact on the literati poetry of the Tang Dynasty at that time. For example, Liu Yuxi's famous "Bamboo Branch Ci" is an imitation of folk songs. The brilliant achievements of Tang Dynasty literature reflect the high level of wisdom and great creativity of our nation. The literature of the Tang Dynasty not only occupies a very important position in the history of Chinese literature. Abroad, it also has a great influence on the literature of many neighboring countries in Asia, such as Japan, North Korea, and Vietnam.
Song Dynasty Literature
The prose, poetry, and lyrics of the Song Dynasty inherited the achievements of the Tang and Five Dynasties and continued to develop. Storytelling, opera, and rap literature have prepared the conditions for the prosperity of novels and opera since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty was a literary innovation movement called for restoration. In terms of ancient prose, under the strong advocacy of Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, and Su's father and son, they inherited the achievements of Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, etc., further getting rid of the habits of Fu writers since the Han and Wei dynasties, and continued to influence many ancient writers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The ideological content of Song poetry is not as rich as that of Song poetry, but it shows more creativity in art, and its influence on later poets is greater than that of Tang and Five Dynasties poetry. With the prosperity of creation, theoretical criticism of literature has also developed. The essays on poetry of the Song Dynasty are scattered in the poems of important writers, such as Mei Yaochen's essay on scene, Su Shi's essay on expressive diction, and Lu You's essay on "practice". They are all summaries of their long-term creative practice experience, which are of great significance to us. There is still inspiration today. The various scripts and singing literature that appeared in the Song Dynasty faced a wide range of people from the middle and lower classes. They used popular language and forms that the people liked to hear and see, and directly reflected urban life and the thoughts and feelings of citizens. The emergence of these new literary phenomena not only gave Song Dynasty literature a new look, but also made Chinese literature begin to transition to the prosperous stage of novels and operas.
Yuan Dynasty Literature
Class conflicts and ethnic conflicts in the Yuan Dynasty were unprecedentedly acute, and the people's armed uprisings never stopped. The main contents reflected in the literature of the Yuan Dynasty, especially in dramas and folk literature, are sharp social contradictions and resistance to class oppression and national oppression. It not only exposed the darkness of society at that time, but also inspired the broad masses of people to fight against the rule of the Yuan Dynasty. Yuan Zaju is based on my country's profound national art foundation and is directly influenced by the Yuanben and Zhugong tunes. It has a unique artistic style. At the same time, it is a product of the times and reflects the social life of the Yuan Dynasty extensively and profoundly. Yuan dramas are rich in content and diverse in style. Writers from different schools have jointly formed a prosperous situation in the creation of Yuan dramas. At the same time, Yuan dramas also clearly reflected the sharp struggle between different class ideas. A small number of poetry writers have inherited the progressive tradition of Chinese poetry and written some works that reflect social reality. However, most writers are divorced from reality and the people, and have a serious tendency to passively avoid the world. Most of them can only imitate their predecessors in art, with little success. At this time, a new poetry form - Sanqu also appeared. The original authors of Sanqu were some citizens in the neighborhood and unknown artists in Goulan. Later, works by literati such as Guan Hanqing and Ma Zhiyuan appeared, expressing their strong dissatisfaction with reality and their bright and vigorous style.
Literature of the Ming Dynasty
The outline of the development of literature in the Ming Dynasty is very clear. Taking the Hongzhi and Zhengde years as the boundary, it can be divided into two periods. In the early period of literature, except for the excellent novels "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" that appeared during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the achievements were not great. After the mid-1990s, the literary world began to flourish. This is inseparable from the various changes in social economy, culture and thought at that time, and is closely related to the prosperity of urban industry and commerce, the emergence of capitalism, the increase in the number of citizens, advanced philosophical trends and their huge impact on the ideological world. . The achievements achieved by various literary genres in the Ming Dynasty were quite uneven. In summary, prose and poetry are in a state of decline compared with previous periods, while novels, operas and folk literature that emerged to adapt to the socio-economic and cultural ideas of the time have made great achievements and produced many Excellent works became the mainstream of Ming Dynasty literature. Famous works such as the Ming Dynasty novel "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" were processed and re-created by writers based on the collective creation of the people. He has achieved high achievements in both thought and art, and plays an important role in the history of Chinese literature.
Qing Dynasty Literature
The outstanding classical Chinese novels and chapter-length novels of the Qing Dynasty reached a new level in exposing and criticizing the feudal system and the ruling class, and their artistic expressions also improved significantly. . The authors inherited and carried forward the progressive traditions of Wei and Jin Dynasty novels, Tang and Song legends, Song and Yuan scripts, and Ming Dynasty chapter novels, and created famous works such as "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", "The Scholars", and "A Dream of Red Mansions". The legends and dramas of the Qing Dynasty were the continuation of the development of opera in the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, many writers and different schools emerged in the fields of poetry, lyrics, prose, and parallel prose. Almost all the literary genres that have been popular in previous dynasties have been inherited and developed. However, since most writers basically did not break out of the circle of archaism and formalism, they rarely achieved newer achievements.
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China's feudal society, and the eighteenth century was the last prosperous stage of my country's feudal society and culture. With the outbreak of the Opium War in the 1840s, China entered a period of old democratic revolution, and new changes gradually occurred in literature.
Technology
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Overview
Science and technology in ancient China originated from life, and life requires various practical technologies. Inventions and creations that the Chinese are proud of, such as papermaking, printing, textiles, ceramics, smelting, and construction, all bear a distinct imprint of practicality. However, the times are moving forward, and ancient practical technologies that were once widely used have been lost or are disappearing today. We need to use modern technological means to restore and reproduce them, and to use today's scientific principles to reveal and explain them.
Ancient Chinese Astronomical Calendar
(1) Pre-Qin Period: ① During the Spring and Autumn Period, the world’s first recognized exact record of Halley’s Comet was left. "Spring and Autumn" records that in 613 BC, "a star entered the Beidou", which refers to Halley's Comet. This record is more than 600 years earlier than Europe. ② During the Spring and Autumn Period, our country's calendar had formed its own fixed system, basically establishing the principle of seven leaps in 19 years, which was 160 years earlier than in the West. ③During the Warring States Period, the world's earliest astronomical work "Gan Shi Xing Jing" appeared, which contained rich astronomical records, reflecting people's understanding of astronomy during that period.
(2) Han Dynasty: ① During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, astronomers formulated China's first relatively complete almanac, the "Taichu Calendar", and began to use the first month as the beginning of the year. ②The records of sunspots in the Western Han Dynasty are recognized by the world as the earliest records of sunspots. ③In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng made the earliest scientific explanation of lunar eclipses based on the different positions of the sun, moon, and earth. ④The seismometer invented and made by Zhang Heng can remotely measure the direction of earthquakes thousands of miles away, more than 1,700 years earlier than in Europe.
(3) Sui and Tang Dynasties: ①The "Dayan Calendar" formulated by the astronomer Seng Yixin of the Tang Dynasty more accurately reflected the laws of the sun's movement and was systematic and thorough, indicating the maturity of the ancient Chinese calendar system. ②Seng Yixing is also the founder of the world's first scientific method to measure the length of the earth's meridian. During the actual measurement, he realized that the understanding obtained in a small and limited space cannot be extrapolated to a large or even infinite space. This is a great progress in the history of scientific thought in our country.
(4) Song and Yuan Dynasties: ① Northern Song Dynasty scientist Shen Kuo made outstanding contributions in astronomy. The "Twelve Qi Calendar" that completely unified the twenty-four solar terms in the four seasons and the twelve months was more simple and had Conducive to agricultural arrangements. ②In the early Yuan Dynasty, the Taishi Bureau was established to compile a new calendar. ③ Guo Shoujing, an outstanding astronomer of the Yuan Dynasty, put forward the correct idea that "the foundation of calendar lies in testing, and the instrument for testing must be instruments first". He created nearly 20 astronomical observation instruments such as simple instruments and high meters, and presided over nationwide astronomical measurements. . ④ Guo Shoujing presided over the compilation of the "Time Calendar". The one-year cycle is basically the same as the current Gregorian calendar, but it came out 300 years earlier than the current Gregorian calendar.
Mathematical achievements in ancient China
(1) Han Dynasty: "Nine Chapters on Arithmetic" was written about in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is divided into nine chapters and introduces many arithmetic propositions and their solutions. It was the most popular book in the world at that time. The most advanced applied mathematics in the world, its emergence marks the formation of a complete system of ancient Chinese mathematics.
(2) Northern and Southern Dynasties: ①Liu Hui, a mathematician in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, used limit theory to propose the correct method for calculating pi. ② Zu Chongzhi of the Southern Dynasty accurately calculated pi to be between 3.1415926-3.1415927. This result was nearly a thousand years earlier than foreign countries. His monograph "Zhushu" made an outstanding contribution to the development of mathematics.
Achievements in Physics in Ancient China
Warring States Period: Physics made great achievements. There is a large amount of physical knowledge in the "Mo Jing", including descriptions of the lever principle and buoyancy theory, as well as records of acoustics and optics. Regarding the relationship between light and shadow, pinhole imaging, etc., it is written very systematically, and is called the "Eight Articles of Optics in the Mohist Classic" by modern scientists.
The medical achievements of ancient China
(1) Pre-Qin period: Bian Que was the most famous doctor in the Warring States period. Later generations regarded him as the "father of pulse theory". The four diagnostic methods of inspection, hearing, inquiry, incision and incision are used to diagnose the condition from the pulse. Cutting pulses is Bian Que's main achievement. The Four Diagnostic Methods have become the traditional diagnosis method of traditional Chinese medicine in my country and have been used by traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years.
(2) Han Dynasty: ①The "Huangdi Neijing" compiled during the Warring States Period and compiled in the Western Han Dynasty is the earliest important medical document existing in my country. It laid the theoretical foundation of motherland medicine. ②The "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" of the Eastern Han Dynasty is China's first complete pharmacological work. ③Hua Tuo, a famous doctor in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, was good at surgery and was hailed as a "miraculous doctor". He invented Mafei San more than 1,600 years earlier than the West. ④ Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, is known as the "Sage of Medicine". His representative work "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases" is an important classic of traditional Chinese medicine for later generations.