The four major ancient civilizations of the world that we are familiar with are ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient India and China, and it is not difficult to see from the names that only China does not have the word "ancient". Next, let's take a look at it from the perspective of American scholars.
Egypt and Ancient Egypt
Everyone knows that one of the four ancient civilizations is the Egyptian civilization. In addition to being known for building pyramids, sphinxes, and mummifications, the ancient Egyptians had many inventions that had an impact on later generations.
Ancient Egyptian culture was very rich. The hieroglyphs created had a great influence on the later Phoenician alphabet, and the Phoenician alphabet was born with the current Greek alphabet. Reflecting the excellent architectural and mathematical knowledge of the Egyptians, there are the pyramids, the lighthouse of Alexandria and the temple of Amun, which we are familiar with, and great achievements in geometry and calendaring. However, today's Egypt and ancient Egypt are actually very different, as evidenced by:
1. Different cultures and languages.
Cultural heritage is a big difference between ancient Egypt and modern Egypt. The religious beliefs of ancient Egypt were multi-faith and water protection civilizations, with the sun god being the center of the gods. The current Egyptian faith belongs to the Arab civilization and is also known to us.
2. Different nationalities.
The main constituents of Egypt today are predominantly Arabs, but they are not recognized by the public for inheriting the title of descendants of the ancient Egyptians, because since the time of the Ancient Roman Empire, outsiders have often invaded ancient Egypt, and outsiders have a decisive influence on the destruction of ancient Egypt, because under the rule of foreigners, the customs of ancient Egyptians have changed, and religion and language have gradually become fragmented. In fact, most of the ancient Egyptians were not really Egyptians, but Copts.
3. Geographical areas vary.
Ancient Egypt is located in what we now call the Middle East, which is in northeast Africa. It was originally located on the Nile river and did not reach the territory of present-day Egypt until its national strength was strong. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea to the east, and Nubia (now Ethiopia and Sudan) to the south.
Egypt currently covers an area of 1,014,500 square kilometers, spanning a large area of territory in Asia and Africa. A large part is in north-eastern Africa. The Suez Canal as we know it is actually only to the east, and only the Sinai Peninsula is located in southwest Asia. The land is a bit irregular but square.
Ancient India and India
First of all, let's give a geographical definition of ancient India: it is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-national collection.
First of all, ancient India was not a country. Ancient India consisted of countless small states, which is somewhat similar to the politics of the small states of ancient Greece. Secondly, ancient India is not a country, which can be compared to the fact that China has 56 ethnic groups, and ancient India is also a country composed of different ethnic groups, and different national cultures were tolerated and respected in ancient India.
In fact, ancient India was not really united, because ancient India was so dispersed that even the historically famous Peacock Empire failed to unify the entire territory. If you want to use the analogy of China, the Peacock Empire is like the Qin Dynasty at the end of the Warring States period, very powerful, but several countries have not given up the struggle and still guard their own small territory.
We can see that ancient India was a gathering of many countries and nationalities, and ancient India has become a melting pot of nations and cultures, burning for thousands of years before it finally formed an ancient Indian civilization, which is sung by contemporary people.
Ancient India was a shining historical country, which is understandable, like ancient China, it belongs to one of the four ancient civilizations, but it is different from China's constant civilization model. The civilization of ancient India was flawed.
India and ancient India are two completely different concepts: the former does not have the inheritance of the latter's "memory" heritage. Naturally, we wonder if the title of ancient civilization can fall on India today, and that's a question of breadth.
Ancient Babylon and present-day Babylon
It is not difficult to know that there is no country like Babylon today. According to the data, ancient Babylon was located on the plains of Mesopotamia, which is what we know today as Iraq. Around 3000 BC, someone established a state here, and the ancient Babylonian kingdom emerged in the 18th century BC.
Named after the ancient Greek word "Mesopotamia", meaning "this place is in the middle of two rivers", the Euphrates River and the Tigris River are the two rivers recorded here, so it is also called the Two Rivers Valley. It is the unique geographical culture of ancient Babylon.
Ancient Babylon is one of the birthplaces of human civilization and one of the world-famous ancient ruins. Located on the right bank of the Euphrates River, 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, is the birthplace of ancient Babylon, a country built more than 2350 years BC, ancient India, ancient Egypt, China and other places with it as the birthplace of human civilization, now known as ancient Babylon is one of the four ancient civilizations.
These are probably familiar to us, but when it comes to the origin of ancient Babylon, are you a little strange, in fact, in a long time ago, ancient Babylon was translated as "Gate of God", due to its location on the main road of transportation, the scope of "Gate of God" gradually expanded, and the two rivers of the Gredes River and the Euphrates River were the two main rivers of the "Gate of God". From 2000 BC to 1000 BC, it was the political, economic, cultural and commercial center of West Asia, and the most prosperous area at that time was the capital of the ancient Babylonian kingdom and the Neo-Babylonian kingdom.
China's brilliant achievements
Looking at these countries, do you wonder why China has always existed? In fact, this is mainly because Qin Shi Huang, although the act of burning books and pit slaves was spurned by the world, his behavior of unifying the world and regulating the currency seems to be very wise today, and the formation of these settlement organizations began to disperse to the surrounding areas with the Central Plains as the center, and has experienced several ethnic blends and dynastic changes, and finally formed a situation of great unification of multi-ethnic countries.
There are four specific reasons why Chinese civilization has lasted for a long time, the first of which is because China has geographical advantages. Looking at the origins of other ancient civilizations, Egypt, Greece, and Rome were strung together by the Mediterranean Sea, and they invaded each other and fought continuously. The Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia hug each other tightly around the Indian Ocean, and until now they have been in constant friction with each other. The second reason is depopulation. Today, China has a population of 1.3 billion, although our country is huge at the prefecture level and rich in resources, it seems to be a little too big. Recall that in the early 16th century, the Portuguese first landed in China. We have a population of more than 100 million, and the population of Europe as a whole cannot be compared with our country.
The third reason lies in the long-standing culture. The history of Chinese characters in China is also very long, and the most formal written language appeared in the Shang Dynasty. Every subsequent dynastic change, such as Qin Shi Huang and Liu Bang, will issue a unified written decree. Although the accent is different when oral communication is carried out in different places, this kind of trouble can be solved when encountering paper and pencil, that is, as long as you can write it down, everyone can recognize it, which greatly promotes communication and communication and commercial trade exchanges.
The last and most important reason is the war. Our country has never been ruled by foreign countries, and even in the darkest period of the late Qing government, it was reduced to a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. The ideology and culture of this country still exist, and we have not forgotten our Chinese spirit, which has always inspired us, which has driven us away the invaders and revitalized the nation.
The land of China, where we live, is not only one of the four ancient civilizations, but also the only ancient civilization that exists today, and when our feet step on this 9.6 million square hectares of land, we can't help but feel proud of the unity of our country and the integrity of our territory. I believe that every descendant of Yanhuang firmly believes that China's history has been precipitated for a long time and will not and cannot be easily replaced. As the poet Ai Qing said: I love this land.
Reference: "Thesis Ming Ancient Kingdom"
The Present State of Ancient Babylon
Why China Has Been Able to Continue?