For a long time, countless Western scholars have questioned China's "5,000-year history of civilization", and even many domestic scholars agree with the Western view, believing that China only has a history of civilization for more than 3,000 years since the Shang Dynasty.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Western world was incomparably strong, Chinese scholars had little say, and relying only on historical records could not prove the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization, or even the existence of the Shang Dynasty, which was widely questioned. Suddenly, Chinese fell into extreme inferiority and extreme lack of self-confidence, so "Chinese civilization in the West" became popular.
However, with the continuous emergence of underground cultural relics, the prehistoric sites excavated by archaeology may slowly reveal the truth, and the history of Chinese civilization is not only 5,000 years, but also may be beyond imagination.
In 1934, in Rizhao City, Shandong Province, archaeologists discovered the ruins of two towns, with a total area of 1.12 million square meters. The "Handbook of World History" of Oxford University in the United Kingdom records that the two towns from 2800 BC to 2000 BC are the earliest cities in Asia. In this site, in addition to stone tools and bone tools, there are also a large number of exquisite jade and pottery, and the shapes of the utensils are amazing.
In 1936, in Liangzhu Town, Yuhang County, Zhejiang Province, archaeologists discovered the Liangzhu site, which dates back about 5300-4300 years. This year, after the successful application for the Liangzhu ruins, there is such a sentence in the official report: The Liangzhu Ancient City ruins are an example of the early urban civilization of mankind, which empirically proves the history of China's five-thousand-year civilization, and the successful application marks that the five-thousand-year history of Chinese civilization has been recognized by the international community.
In 1987, near Jiaojia Village in Jinan, Shandong, archaeologists discovered an ancient site, which is the "Jiaojia Ruins", which is more than 5,000 years old. Professor Lu Guoquan of Shandong University pointed out that this is "a city of kings ... There was a very strict system of etiquette, and a large number of exquisite jade artifacts."
Such prehistoric sites, large or small, have also been found in China. Judging from the archaeological findings, it can be fully explained that Chinese have entered the civilized society at that time, but why is it generally not recognized by Western scholars? Even after more than 80 years from its discovery to this year, the Famous Liangzhu Site has barely recognized that it is a civilization site.
In fact, this is related to the definition of civilization standards in Western academia.
The four criteria of Western civilization: city, writing, bronze, temple, and altar.
If measured by this standard, the history of Chinese civilization is indeed not very long, and it should be difficult to reach 5,000 years. The reason is simple, in the Majiayao site (belonging to the Yangshao culture) more than 5,000 years ago, archaeologists dug up a bronze knife, which is the earliest bronze artifact in China.
In other words, the earliest bronze ware in China is only more than 5,000 years old, and if the three cities, writings, temples and altars are strictly measured, then the sites that meet the standards can only be the sites of Yin Shang.
However, China during the Shang Dynasty was already a highly mature civilized society, and it was not normal for China to jump from a primitive society to a mature civilized society of the Shang Dynasty. Therefore, according to common sense, before the Shang Dynasty, China must have had a relatively developed civilization, but according to the standards of Western civilization, China before the Shang Dynasty was a primitive and barbaric society.
Obviously, there must be a problem with the civilization standards defined by Western academia.
The reason is very simple, this standard is defined according to Western civilization, and Eastern civilization and Western civilization are not necessarily the same, using this standard to measure the history of Chinese civilization, it is naturally easy to deviate, such as writing and bronze.
First, Chinese characters and Western pinyin characters are completely different development paths, and the inscriptions in Chinese prehistoric sites, especially those that are ligatures into sentences (such as the tomb site of Zhuangqiao in Zhejiang), can fully explain the origin of Chinese characters, but they are not recognized by Western scholars.
Second, Eastern civilization attaches importance to the spirit, and jade is the most critical expression of the spirit, just like the bronze in the standards of Western civilization. Therefore, although China excavated many prehistoric and exquisite jade objects, Western scholars do not consider jade to be a symbol of civilization.
Therefore, many Chinese scholars have proposed that the civilizations in different regions are different, and the oriental civilization represented by China should be adjusted to: the national government (emperor), the document records (graphic and literary badges), the etiquette norms (ceremonial jade), the calendar or regulations.
Perhaps, it is precisely because it is difficult to justify the chinese civilization by the standards of Western civilization, so the Western academic circles reluctantly recognize the Liangzhu site as a civilization site. Because the cultural relics excavated from the Liangzhu site are too brilliant, even if there is a lack of bronze and mature systematic writing, it cannot hide the fact that it has entered civilized society.
If the standards of civilization are redefined according to the characteristics of Eastern civilization, then the history of Chinese civilization is not only 5,000 years, but may also be far more than 5,000 years, and may even be as high as 8,000 years.
Regrettably, there are still many Chinese scholars who firmly believe in the civilization standards of Western scholars, and rigidly copy Western standards, believing that the history of Chinese civilization is only more than 3300 years (as evidenced by the archaeology of Yin Ruins, the Shang Dynasty moved the capital to Yin), while ignoring the huge differences between Eastern and Western civilizations and many archaeological facts.