After the Agricultural Revolution, human society grew larger and larger. From the first villages, to the towns, to the empire. More and more human beings from different civilizations are beginning to merge together. When it comes to the integration of human beings, it is actually like putting all the human beings of different places, different races, and different civilizations into the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun, and the samadhi true fire at the bottom of the furnace is money, empire and religion.
There are too many possibilities in history, and many possibilities that have not come true, but why did history choose the three true fires of money, empire and religion to promote the integration and unity of mankind?
This article will take you back to the source and continue to explore the mysteries of the history of human development.
The first true fire: money
Why did humans invent money?
First, the various difficulties brought about by barter
In hunter-gatherer societies, money is useless. Every hunter-gatherer is self-sufficient, from meat to medicine, from shoes to witchcraft, hunting on their own, picking themselves, doing it themselves, and each tribe is an independent economy, often with simple barter:
"We'll give you these beautiful shells, and you'll give us the best obsidian."
It was not until the rise of cities and kingdoms that the opportunity for specialization finally began. Densely populated cities allow professional craftsmen to live in the city and provide more and better products for others.
The biggest feature of barter is barter, the exchange may be completed at one time, or it may take many exchanges to achieve the purpose of exchange, and the goods obtained from the exchange are directly used for the production and daily consumption of producers.
But then the question arises: How can different goods and services be exchanged between them?
This invisibly increases the time of circulation and increases the complexity of the circulation link, resulting in many inconveniences and irrationalities in the circulation process.
With the development of barter exchange, the problem of what ratio of goods to exchange between goods eventually made the birth of money an inevitable trend.
Second, the origin and development of money
Five thousand years ago, money was born in the plains of Mesopotamia. Since then, it has spread to all corners of the world in a unique way. It can cross rivers, lakes and seas, high mountains and peaks, or races and religions, and it can penetrate from a prosperous place into the wilderness. Where the human footprint can reach, there is almost monetary coverage.
At present, there are nearly 200 currencies in 213 countries and regions in the world.
The previous article talked about the agricultural revolution, talking about the earliest written records of mankind originated in the Sumerian civilization, the ancient Babylonian dynasty, about 3200 BC, the Mesopotamian plain washed out by the Tigris River and the Euphrates River, is a natural fertile land, when there were more than five thousand Sumerians, settled here, created the earliest cities of mankind, at the same time people in other parts of the earth, can not get rid of hunger, this fertile land has appeared surplus products, so here the earliest social division of labor, The earliest trading market was born, and the clay plate recorded the transaction situation and account transactions at that time.
The earliest record of human beings is not poetry, nor philosophy, but business, and clay tablets are like the present contracts, with clear buyers and sellers, trading goods, and these words are the earliest contracts of mankind.
Contracts are the earliest prototypes of human currency.
Economist Professor Wu Jinglian said: Money is an exchangeable intermediary that everyone can recognize, with this intermediary, the cost of transactions can be reduced, so money usually has three functions:
(1) It is a measure of value, or unit of accounting;
(2) it is the medium of exchange;
(3) It is a means of storing value.
Gold is one of the earliest metals used by humans and is also the most suitable metal as a currency. In any country and in the hands of anyone, gold has been unimpeded and has become a truly accessible language that does not require a translator.
Many cultures use other items as money, such as shells, hides, salt, grains, pearls, and so on. 4,000 years ago, gold snails were traded throughout Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Oceania, and until the beginning of the 20th century, British Uganda could still pay taxes on gold snails.
In prisons and prisoner-of-war camps in modern society, cigarettes are often used instead of money. Even non-smokers accept cigarette payments and use this to calculate the value of various goods and services.
Coinage was created about 2700 years ago, and its significance is not only that it is more convenient, but also that coinage represents power, a guarantee of value made by the authority of the king.
"The great emperor/king assures you that the value of this piece of metal is **. If anyone dares to forge this coin and insult the reputation of the king, such sins will be severely punished. ”
Even today, the most versatile currency in the world, the information on the dollar is the same. As long as the people trusted the king's authority and personality, they would trust the coins he issued.
The earliest gold coin in history was the Turkish Lydia Lion Coin, which was manufactured in a standardized manner, indicating a metal content, containing about 54% gold, 46% silver, weighing about 4.74 grams and about 11 centimeters in diameter.
The world's earliest paper money came from China, the earliest appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty - Jiaozi. Jiaozi's hometown is Chengdu, the country of China's tianfu. During the Northern Song Dynasty, it has become an important source of silk products. Before the issuance of Jiaozi, Sichuan used iron money minted with iron, at that time, to buy a silk, it was necessary to weigh 130 pounds of 20,000 yuan of iron money, carrying iron money to do business is very inconvenient, so the people printed Jiaozi, the merchant who printed and distributed Jiaozi is called Jiaozi Shop, this paper wants to let people use it as money, there must be physical goods to prepare, that physical commodity is rice and wheat cooked, the family granary is printed on the jiaozi, telling people that my family granary is here.
In ancient China, from the earliest shell to the later knife currency, the currency was gradually fixed as copper coins and iron coins on the outer circle and the inner square, and the paper money "Jiaozi" that was as thin as a cicada wing was the most complete change in the form of money, and it was also considered to be the origin of credit money.
The emergence of jiaozi predates the emergence of Western paper money more than 600 years ago.
Third, the integration and unity promoted by money
Introducing the history of the development of so much money, then return to the essential question of money: what exactly is money?
It can be said that money only exists in our imagination, and it is a fiction that people collectively imagine.
The true value of all money is "trust", and money is a system of mutual trust.
To be precise, it is the most common and effective system of mutual trust ever built by mankind, and this trend can be found in the ancient days of barley coins and in the Bible.
The money system can travel the world without hindrance because it has two principles:
1, can be exchanged for all things, the vast majority of human goods can be estimated in money;
2, be trusted by everyone, so any two people can cooperate through money to achieve their own goals.
With the development of society, different places began to use different things as money circulation.
How does money promote the integration and unity of human beings?
For example, Indians see gold as dung, while Mediterraneans find it expensive. There was a person in the Mediterranean who went on a trip, accidentally hit India, found that the gold here was almost like a free gift, so a large number of purchases were brought back to the Mediterranean region to sell at a high price. Then more and more Mediterranean people came to India to buy gold, the decrease in the amount of gold in India led to an increase in the price of gold, and the increase in the supply of Mediterranean gold led to a decline in the price, so that the gold price in India and the Mediterranean slowly came to the same level. This circulation of gold made indians also begin to believe in the value of gold, and began to use gold to trade with the Mediterranean, and the two sides began to blend cultures. This example expresses the role of money in the process of human integration and unification.
It can be seen that to this day, economic trade between countries is still a real fire of cultural integration.
【Thinking】
Just as every coin has both positive and negative sides, money has both positive and negative effects, please elaborate on a positive and negative role.
The Second True Fire: Empire
First, the rise of empires
The word empire does not really leave us with a good impression, but we still live today in the influence of empire. So, how exactly is the Empire defined?
The book gives a definition:
Empire is a political order with two important characteristics. First, it must rule over many different peoples, with different cultural identities and independent territories. Second, the territory can be flexibly adjusted and can be expanded indefinitely.
Let's look at some important empires in chronological order.
The Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great in 2250 BC, is our earliest empire with exact data;
In 550 BC, the ancient Persian Cyrus II the Great overthrew the rule of The Millines and established the Persian Empire;
In 27 BC, Octavian overthrew the Roman Republic and established the Roman Empire;
In 221 AD, Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms, completed the great cause of unifying China, and established the first feudal empire in Chinese history;
In 630 AD, the Arabs occupied East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe, spreadIng Islamic ideas around the world and establishing the Arab Empire that spanned Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Second, the promotion of the integration and unification of the empire
All of these empires were built in a brutal way. But from another aspect, it has also played a huge role in promoting the integration and unification of human beings. Many tribes, city-states, and small states, after being unified into an empire, had broader and deeper exchanges in economic, political, and cultural terms.
Next, we will take the Arab Empire as an example to see how the Arab Empire promoted the integration and unity of mankind.
The Arab Empire was founded in the 7th century AD with a well-defined hierarchy of ruling Arab-Muslim elites at the top and Egyptians at the bottom, Syrians, Iranians, and Berbers, all non-Arabs and non-Muslims. Because they belonged to the same empire, many economic, cultural, and political exchanges deepened, and the Egyptians, Syrians, and Iranians who were ruled at the bottom began to slowly accept Arab culture.
As time went on, more and more people began to think of themselves as Arabs, and many people began to put on their robes, put down their wine bottles, and began to pray 5 times a day. And the most successful part of the Arab Empire was that the culture it created was deeply loved by non-Arabs. Even today, when empires have long since collapsed, Arab culture continues to evolve and spread endlessly.
Traditional Chinese political theory emphasizes that "under the heavens, there can be no royal land; the coast of the land, there can be no royal subjects," so there will not be many independent states.
Since Qin Shi Huang first completed the cause of unification in Chinese history, in Chinese political thought and memory, the era of great unification of the empire seems to have become a golden age of order and justice.
Each dynasty is bent on pursuing unity, believing that unity can always be achieved, but it is only a matter of time.
Let's take a look at how Qin Shi Huang consolidated the unification of the various ethnic groups and promoted integration.
1. Politics: establish an authoritarian centralized system;
(1) The supreme ruler is called the emperor and holds all the power.
(2) Establish a system of three dukes and nine secretaries in the central government.
(3) Implement the county system at the local level, which is divided into 36 counties in the country, and the counties are under the county.
2. Economy
(1) Unified currency, using round square hole copper coins.
(2) Unified weights and measures.
3. Culture
Unify the script, take the small seal as the national standard script, and promote the lishu.
4. Thoughts
Burn books to pit Confucianism and strengthen thought control.
5. Military
(1) Attack the Xiongnu in the north and build the Great Wall.
(2) Build a spiritual canal to communicate the Yangtze River system and the Pearl River system.
As the second true fire that promotes the integration and unity of mankind, it burned from the 20th century BC to the 20th century AD. Imperialism has brought a lot of evils and crimes, but it has brought new systems and modes of production to the world, and after entering the 20th century, the few remaining empires have collapsed one after another, and this real fire has slowly burned out.
How does listing any empire or dynasty at home and abroad, expounding from multiple dimensions such as politics, economy, culture, ideology, and military, has promoted the integration and unification of mankind (nation)?
The Third True Fire: Religion
Even in the modern society of the 21st century, religion continues to shine and affect the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings.
You may not have finished reading the Bible, but you have certainly seen churches large and small;
You may not have been in a mosque, but you also know that those who wear white coats and little white hats are Muslims;
You may not have worshipped the Buddha, but you have also said Buddhist phrases such as "The sea of suffering is boundless, and the return is the shore."
If money solves the problem of human material transactions, and the empire solves the problem of human cultural similarities and differences, then what is the problem of human beings that religion solves?
I. The Origin of Religion
Human religion may have appeared as early as 30,000 B.C., but religion at that time was still limited to small tribes and had no substantial impact on the great integration of human beings. The origins of religion come from the need to explain the confusing natural phenomena, people's worries and thoughts about themselves are projected into primitive imaginations in nature, the core of rituals revolves around appeasing the gods who may be angry, and people offer sacrifices for favor and mercy. There are also religions that have a large number of adherents, but they are only spread within their own peoples.
For example, Jews-founded Judaism, Chinese Taoism, Indian Hinduism, some of these religions have even continued for more than 2,000 years, but not many other ethnic groups have been incorporated. To this day, there are only three religions in the world that incorporate people of different countries, different races, and continue to this day. The three religions are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
Buddhism was founded by Shakyamuni, about the 6th to 5th centuries BC, the Buddha's teachings were originally oral, the basic teachings of primitive Buddhism are the "Four Noble Truths", "Noble Eightfold Path" and "Twelve Causes", the core content of which is to talk about real-world suffering and ways to solve suffering.
Christianity was born in the middle of the first century in Palestine on the Mediterranean coast, the founder is Jesus, the classics of Christianity are the Bible, and the Bible records the revelation of God, which is the general outline of Christian faith and the norm of life.
Islam was born in the Arabian Peninsula at the beginning of the seventh century AD, it was created by the Prophet Muhammad of Islam, believers are mostly distributed in Arab countries, Islam was founded at the beginning, put forward the prohibition of usury, "charity to help the poor", "peace and tranquility" and other ideas.
The role of religion
Today, religion is often seen as a force for strife and division, but outside of money and empire, religion is the third force that unites humanity. As we said before, because all social order and hierarchy are the product of the human imagination, it must be very fragile. The role of religion is to give a fragile social order superhuman legitimacy. With religion, it can be said that order is not just our human imagination, but comes from absolute divine power, so that order in the name of the saints cannot be shaken, and thus the fragile order becomes more stable. So we might say that religion is a system of human norms and values, built on an order that transcends human beings.
There are two main elements in this:
The first is the belief that there is a superhuman order in the world that is not in the human imagination.
The second is to establish binding norms and values on top of this transhuman order.
Religion has both "universal qualities" and "promotional qualities".
With this superhuman order, it is possible to give the divine power of law, to claim that law is not merely the design and imagination of man himself, but comes from an absolute, divine supreme law, and therefore certain fundamental laws cannot be shaken. For example, India's Manu Code and Babylon's Code of Hammurabi are all propaganda revelations of the gods, while the modern United States Declaration of Independence and declaration of human rights declare legitimate rights according to God's will.
Iii. Integration and unity promoted by religion
When it comes to religion promoting human integration and unity, the book gives an interesting example:
"If you make a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1300 AD, you may find Mesopotamians around you, their robes fluttering in the wind, their eyes blazing with ecstasy. Just ahead, you might also see a weather-beaten, Turkish patriarch from Asia, faltering with crutches in his hand. On the other side, there are gold jewelry shining on dark skin, probably a group of Muslims from the African kingdom of Mali. As soon as you smell the aromas of cloves, turmeric, cardamom and sea salt, you know that this group of brothers is probably from India, or the mysterious spice islands further east. “
From this interesting example, it is not difficult to see the ability of religions to integrate human beings.
Why does religion have such a great magic power to attract people?
Earlier we mentioned that the human problems solved by money and empire are secular, while the problems that religion solves for human beings are ultra-secular. Money and empire are more concerned with the development of humanity as a whole, while religion is more concerned with the individual, even to the human heart.
Religion answers the world after death, seeking spiritual liberation. It's the same for everyone, whether you're a commoner or an emperor, black or white, American or Iraqi, no one knows what the world will be like after death, and no one will have no worries because of their position of power. So, even though technology is so advanced today, our understanding of the world still does not exceed 5%, and those questions that no one can answer still have to seek religious answers.
Briefly describe one of the most impressive religious quotations and talk about the philosophical wisdom that this quotation brings to you.
History has too many possibilities, and many possibilities have not come true, but history has chosen the three true fires of money, empire and religion, which are inseparable and promote the integration and unity of mankind.
However, the wheel of history never stops, it always rolls forward silently.