Chapter 1505 Culture and Civilization
Send He Shiqing off the next day, and after seeing her romantically at the airport, Zhou Zhi finally got his car back.
There are quite a lot of things to move, and they are very important, including six-hand scrolls that were bought from overseas and waiting to be restored, as well as those collected by Su Huaxuan in his elder generation. Zhou Zhi once suspected that they were fakes, but he went to the capital to have them authenticated. Ten masterpieces by Chen Xu and Zhu Shi that are authentic works.
Among these ten paintings, Chen Chun's "Autumn Birds in the Willow Pond", "Hibiscus Algae and Ducks", Zhu Da's "Eagle Perching", "Double Ducks in the Lotus Pond", Xu Wei's "Ink Lotus" " are all on paper. When Rongbaozhai showed off his restoration skills, he had already used other people's materials to do his own work and repaired them all.
But for the remaining silks, Xu Wei's "Picture of Banana Stones", Shi Tao's "Picture of Peach Blossoms", "Picture of Hanging Sail to Help the Sun", "Picture of Female History", Zhu Da's "Picture of Penglai Landscape", Zhou Zhi's I feel that my craftsmanship is still a bit rough, and some materials are not ready yet, so I haven't repaired it yet.
These five large paintings plus six hand scrolls are enough to keep you busy for this semester.
After dragging all the things to the Hongqi Village studio and putting them away, Zhou Zhi went to report to Mr. Gu on the results of his trip to Japan and South Korea and the trip to the Three Gorges.
Mr. Gu was quite appreciative of Zhou Zhi for doing all these great things. He felt that Zhou Zhi had lost weight in the past two months, so he didn’t even have time to ask him to strengthen his knowledge. He said with a smile: "There is no separation between literature and history. People from the Three Gorges Cultural Belt Of course, the rescue work is very important. If these big discoveries are not found in time, we may not have another chance in the future.”
“So we are still lucky and we have gained a lot of time. Zhou Zhi said: "This time I also found dozens of symbols used by the Ba people, and I copied them back for Grandpa Shi to play with.”
“Similar symbols were found once in the Yi area of Xichang, and they were carved on. on oracle bones, but it is also related to the oracle bone inscriptions of Yin Ruins in the Central Plains Very different. At that time, Guo Moruo interpreted it as Jiuli characters, and the three meanings were 'Tian Lei Zhen'." Mr. Gu said: "There is a book on the second floor of my study about this kind of character symbol. You can take a look at it. Let’s have some experience in this regard.”
"This time I went to the Three Gorges, I had a doubt and wanted to ask Grandpa Shi for advice." Zhou Zhi said.
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"It is the difference between culture and civilization in archeology." Zhou Zhi said: "The definition currently recognized by everyone is that of Western Britain The view put forward by scholar Gordon Childe is the mainstream. "
"That is culture, it is the relationship. For nature, when humans began to know how to use tools, culture was formed, so they were often divided by the form of tools, such as Paleolithic culture and Neolithic culture. "
"Civilization requires three things. Elements, that is, the emergence of metal, writing, cities and countries.”
"Well, what's the problem with this?"
"The problem lies in why metals, writing, cities and countries need to appear."
"First of all, we say Metal, the emergence of metal, only the production efficiency reaches a certain level Symbol of, after society developed to the use of metal tools, social productivity has been greatly improved, some large-scale projects can be carried out, and some ritual vessels for sacrifices can be processed, and these methods require strict division of labor and organization, triggering management class and ruling class The birth of kingship and class. "
"Therefore, the emergence and use of metal tools is a symbol of civilization, but this is only the appearance, not the essence." "For example, many obsidian civilizations in South America. They didn't use metal but still built the same They have built huge city-states, various magnificent temples and sacrificial halls, have strict division of labor and organization, and have royal and theocratic classes. There is no doubt that they are a kind of civilization, and such a civilization does not have the attribute of metal. ”
"Let's talk about writing. The West believes that the emergence of writing represents the recording and dissemination of knowledge, and can define universally knowable and provable rules, that is, law and order. These two attributes of writing determine an orderly, fixed , there is the possibility of knowledge inheritance and iteration of society, which determines a Effective management of large settlements of more than 5,000 people became possible, so it was possible to create a country on this basis."
"But is writing necessarily the basis for effective management and knowledge inheritance, at least in the urban period? , I can’t see it,” Zhou Zhi thought: “It’s also from South America. Take the Obsidian Civilization as an example. They have no writing.”
“Another example is the Yong Kingdom and the Ba Kingdom, which are the focus of the Three Gorges archaeology. They also have no writing.”
“Historically, they have no writing. Many countries were established first, and then writing appeared later, such as Tubo , such as Xixia. "
"Until before liberation, many ethnic minorities in our country did not have written language, but the chieftains still managed the vast territory, fully equipped with urban form, large population, and tight and efficient management. It cannot be said that they are not civilized.”
"The same is true for the inheritance of knowledge. For example, the Miao people turn their history into patterns and embroider it on their clothing. Although they have no words, they also have their own way of recording history."
"Also Even ancient songs, many ethnic groups have their own long and unique songs. These songs are all knowledge passed down by word of mouth.”
“In other words, the spread of knowledge does not necessarily require the existence of words. In fact, it is enough to have language. Traces are in historical relics and can only be found through the writing left behind. It’s just expression.”
“In fact, in addition to writing, there is also another kind of evidence of knowledge transmission and inheritance in historical relics, that is, the tomb format system, the shape of the artifacts, the decoration, the processing methods, and the shape of the tools, style, the span of a cultural site is often on Thousands, or even thousands of years, I think as long as the above-mentioned obvious inheritance relationship can be seen, it is enough to show that the formation and inheritance of the knowledge system already has the attributes of civilization."
"The last point is that. The Emergence of Cities and States ”
"This concept is also very abstract. Now the West will be able to accommodate more than 5,000 people, have processing areas and trade areas, and have large-scale projects such as city walls and drainage systems. Large-scale human settlement sites are called cities."
"If there are religious sites, sacrificial sites, and palaces in such sites, and the excavated remains or artifacts can prove the existence of royal and divine power, it can almost be defined as country.”
“But this definition is really biased. According to this definition, does it mean that there is no civilization among nomadic people?”
It is obviously wrong. The old man did not show any inclination and asked Zhou Zhi: "If these three articles are overturned, how do you think civilization should be defined?"
(End of Chapter)