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Civilization is a product of history. Scientifically understanding the origin of Chinese civilization has always been the goal pursued by humanistic scholars in modern times. The rise of Chinese archaeology has provided a rare opportunity and informative evidence for the realization of this major goal.
▲Yangshao Village National Archaeological Site Park (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ang Lee
One hundred years ago, the Swedish scholar Anderson and the Chinese Geological Survey Yuan Fuli and others began to excavate in Yangshao Village, Shichi County, Henan, thus opening the prelude to Chinese archaeology and marking the birth of modern Chinese archaeology.
▲The exhibit "Faience Pot" in the Yangshao Culture Museum. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ang Lee
Excavations of Yangshao cultural sites have overturned the old Chinese theory of the Stone-Free Era, which western archaeologists have always insisted on, but Anderson made serious mistakes in explaining the origins of Yangshao culture. Anderson simply compared the large number of exquisite faience pottery found in Yangshao Village with the faience pottery collected at the Anno site in Central Asia and the tripoli site in southeastErn Ou, and rashly concluded that the Chinese faience culture originated in the West. This is the so-called "Chinese civilization in the west". The early sites of the Yangshao culture are about 7,000 years old and about 5,000 years later, and the Atlas of Chinese Historical Manuscripts edited by Guo Moruo marks a total of 173 relevant important Yangshao sites.
After the founding of New China, with the continuous development of Chinese archaeology and the continuous enrichment of archaeological data, China's "cultural roots of more than one million years, the beginning of civilization in tens of thousands of years" have gradually been known. From the cultural roots of more than one million years to the beginning of civilization in tens of thousands of years, from the transformation of clans to countries five thousand years ago, archaeology has revealed to the world a typical route of the formation of the Chinese state and the origin of civilization. It is a powerful proof that Chinese civilization has indigenous origins and has a solid foundation for development. Chinese civilization is a real native civilization.
Archaeology proves that around 10,000 years ago, China entered the Neolithic age. In the late Neolithic period, there was a series of prehistoric cultures with independent development, different styles and strong regional colors in the land of China, which Mr. Su Bingqi summarized as "full of stars". Chinese civilization is not only of indigenous origin, but also not a single center, but also a multi-source concurrency. The highly developed prehistoric culture exists in the Central Plains and is also distributed in western Liaoning, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the lower reaches of the Yellow River, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and other regions, initially forming a Chinese cultural circle with distinct regional characteristics.
Studies of world history show that civilization is a negation of barbarism, while the state is a "generalization of civilized society." The state is a product of historical development and an important manifestation of civilization. The age of civilization was marked by the emergence of the state.
▲The ruins of the Yaoshan altar of Liangzhu culture located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Weng Xinyang
About 5,000 years ago, the famous Liangzhu civilization was born on the land of China. The Liangzhu civilization dates back from about 5300 to 4300 years ago, and there are palaces, cities, altars, complex peripheral water conservancy systems, and cemeteries with different burial levels, which belong to the typical ancient civilization. Archaeologists have shown in recent years that the influence of Liangzhu culture extends far beyond Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as far as Shandong, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Guangdong and other places.
In the "Longshan Era" from about 2600 BC to 2100 BC, with the advent and development of the Bronze Age, people's production capacity has been greatly improved. The scale of the central settlement was further expanded, and the tao temple in Linfen, the stone temple of the sacred tree, and the Wangchenggang in Dengfeng all appeared in a large city with a relatively strict design, relatively neat planning, an area of millions of square meters or even millions of square meters, and also a large palace for the use of the ruler. People have significantly improved their management level and organizational ability, and the gap between the rich and the poor has intensified. The threshold of civilized society has been crossed.
▲The base site of The No. 2 palace in the Erlitou Archaeological Site Park. Xinhua News Agency
Tang YuXia Shang Zhou, people generally call it the initial period of Chinese civilization. Scholars have spoken of the necessary conditions of civilization, such as cities, metal smelting, and class differentiation, all appear in the Erlitou culture. The Erlitou site was the largest central city at the time, with an area of about 3 million square meters; there were bronze casting workshops, bronze weapons and bronze ceremonial instruments. The influence of the Erlitou culture extended beyond the previous ancient kingdoms, and had crossed the Yellow River and entered the Qin River in Shanxi (Pingyao region) in the north; yuncheng and Linfen in the southwest of Jinxi in the northwest; shangzhou in the upper reaches of guanzhong and the upper reaches of the Danjiang River (southern Shaanxi) in the west; the junction of Henan and Hubei in the south; and the Kaifeng area in eastern Henan in the east, which seemed to be the most powerful and influential political force in the Central Plains at that time. Therefore, many scholars believe that the Erlitou culture is most likely the Xia culture.
At the same time, the once glorious prehistoric cultures of the surrounding area continued to exist, and have since survived as a minority in the classics of the Central Plains Dynasty. For example, Dongyi should be related to the late Neolithic Dawenkou-Haidai culture in Shandong, although its cultural system is different from the Central Plains civilization, but they have long been attached to the Central Plains Dynasty and deeply embedded in the dynastic political system.
The evolution of Chinese civilization is actually a process of mutual integration of multiple civilizations. Archaeologists call it the "heavy-petaled flower pattern", Huaxia is the core, is the flower center, the core radiates and spreads to the periphery, and the periphery converges to the core. The core and the edge are intertwined with each other, blending with each other, and gradually forming a pattern of pluralism and integration.
The Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties belonged to the dynastic civilization, and there was a close political and cultural inheritance relationship between the three generations. The so-called "Chengtang Gexia", "Yin Ge Xia Life", "Zhou Ge Yin Life", "Yin Jian is not far away, in the life after the Summer", and "Yin because of the Summer Ceremony, the profit and loss" and "the Zhou cause of the Yin Ceremony, the profit and loss", are the important manifestations of this inheritance relationship. The three generations were not city-states, let alone imperial states, but xia, shang, and zhou already had considerable unity. The kings of Xia, Shang, and Wednesday were in the position of co-lord of the world, and the royal palace was the center of political decision-making. At this time, blood ties were an important means of dynastic governance.
From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was a pattern of "one family under the heavens". During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Great Unification Dynasty was established, the county system became an important organizational form of local power, the central government established a strong centralized power system, and the system of compiling households and qi people was implemented. "Zhuxia" and "Zhuyi" were deeply integrated, and gradually formed the Han nationality. The opening of the Sea and Land Silk Road promoted the exchange of civilizations between the East and the West. The nuclear family has replaced the family as the basic unit of the grass-roots organization, and completed the transformation of the grass-roots level of society from a blood organization to a geographical organization. With the unification of writing, Confucianism became the dominant ideology, which had a major impact on people's thinking and behavior.
The Sui and Tang dynasties were known for their grandeur and splendor in the history of Chinese civilization. At this time, China's economic pattern changed slightly, and the south was constantly being developed, but China's economic center of gravity was still in the north. The accumulation and development of ancient Chinese civilization reached new heights during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Inheritance and innovation, openness and enterprising, and absorption and integration coexisted, which constituted an important feature of civilization in this period. The examination system that adapts to the renewal of the social structure and promotes social mobility, the organization of a unified state with multi-ethnic and multicultural integration, and the spread of social ethics centered on Confucian thought have fully demonstrated the world significance of Chinese civilization.
The Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, the Western Xia, the Jin Dynasty, the Yuan, the Ming dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty were a period of further development of Chinese civilization. China's economic center has completely shifted southward, and the area of rice cultivation has increased significantly. In the Ming Dynasty, the introduction of food crops such as corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes contributed to the growth of the population. According to statistics, by the middle of the 19th century, the Chinese had exceeded 400 million. At the same time, exchanges, exchanges and blends among various ethnic groups have been deepening. Culture was more widely spread because of the invention of printing, and new cultural landscapes continued to emerge. The nearly thousand-year development from the Song Dynasty, the Western Xia Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty to the Yuan, ming, and Qing dynasties not only accelerated the great integration of the Chinese nation, but also promoted a new leap in Chinese civilization under the great integration of the nation.
The British scholar Paul Kennedy once confessed in his book The Rise and Fall of Great Powers:
"Of all the civilizations of the pre-modern period, no national civilization is more developed and advanced than the Chinese civilization. It had a large population (100-130 million in the 15th century, compared to 50-55 million in Europe at the time), splendid culture, particularly fertile soil, and irrigation-laden plains connected from the 11th century by an illustrious canal system, and a unified, hierarchical administrative apparatus governed by well-educated Confucian officials, which made Chinese society experienced and cohesive, and envied by foreign visitors. ”
After the Opium War in 1840, China gradually degenerated into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the Chinese nation suffered unprecedented disasters, and Chinese civilization was challenged as never before. In 1917, the October Revolution brought Marxism-Leninism to China with the sound of a cannon. In 1921, the great Communist Party of China was born on the land of China, and the face of China has since been renewed. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, China emerged from the humiliation of the modern century and established the People's Republic of China, where the people are the masters of their own affairs.
Today, our party has led the Chinese people to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way on the land of China, historically solved the problem of absolute poverty, and is marching with great vigor toward the second centenary goal of building a socialist modern power in an all-round way. We have adhered to and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics, promoted the coordinated development of material, political, spiritual, social and ecological civilizations, created a new path of Chinese-style modernization, and created a new form of human civilization. We are closer to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than at any time in history, and Chinese civilization is greeting a more brilliant tomorrow with a new attitude.
In short, Chinese civilization has been diverse and integrated since its origin stage, with deep soil and rich roots. Many prehistoric cultures converged and blended with each other, giving birth to a rich and colorful Chinese civilization. In history, the continuous exchanges, exchanges and blends between various ethnic groups have greatly enriched the core connotation of Chinese civilization. History has eloquently proved that our vast territory was jointly opened up by all nationalities, that its long history was jointly written by all nationalities, that its splendid culture was jointly created by all nationalities, and that the great national spirit was jointly cultivated by all nationalities. The Chinese nation is an inseparable community in which you have me, I have you, and are linked by blood.
(The author is a researcher at the Research and Cultivation Base of Beijing Normal University's Casting Awareness of the Chinese National Community.) The content of this article comes from the guided reading materials that the author was invited to make at the reading activity of the members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on the "Correct Road to Solve Ethnic Problems with Chinese Characteristics". ）
Source: China Nationalities Daily
Editor: Li Kunyu
Review: Yan Guoqiang
Preliminary: Yang Xin
Final Judge: Li Jun