Chapter 1800 New Definition
As for the definition of civilization, academic circles have always used Western archaeological methods. However, this method is not only unscientific, but also has double standards among users.
They have very high requirements for Eastern archeology. There is no archaeological evidence, only the history circulated in classics. The West will question it as pseudo-history, but their own history regards oral epics like the ancient songs of the Yi people as Trusting history, this time it doesn’t matter whether the archaeological evidence exists or not.
Such a double standard practice turned into a boomerang hitting their own faces decades later, which is the much-talked-about "Western pseudo-historical theory."
To be fair, those who advocate Western pseudo-historical theory are also two-handed. Their habit is to use one point to deny a large area. In fact, this is also a kind of double standard.
If we follow what the proponents of pseudo-historical theory say and measure Chinese history in reverse, then basically every book of Chinese history contains unnatural phenomena such as the "Huanglong view" and "blood rain from the sky", which would also be false. History.
In fact, neither of these is desirable. What Zhou Zhi wants to do is to redefine the archaeological concept of civilization clearly and accurately and use it to guide cultural and historical work.
The last time Zhou Zhi raised this issue was along with the classification of cultural heritage. However, in order to concentrate its firepower, the country only recommended the classification of cultural heritage to UNESCO and was eventually adopted as the world's material and cultural heritage. We have made programmatic contributions to the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
But Zhou Zhi now believes that the topic of definition of civilization is actually more important than the definition of intangible cultural heritage, which is directly related to the issue of the right to speak.
"In addition to this absurd 'three principles', there are actually two more recognized classification methods. One is that metal smelting technology, bronze smelting technology, and the emergence of social classes are the signs of civilization." Zhou Zhi expressed his opinion.
"But this classification also has problems. Let's take South America as an example. For example, the Mayan civilization did not have large-scale metal smelting technology, but it developed obsidian tools to the extreme."
"Similarly, China's Neither the Liangzhu ruins nor the Erlitou ruins It has metal smelting technology, but the size of its city-state has reached a level that far exceeds the size of ancient Greek city-states, and its scope of farming, fishing and hunting is also far larger than the standards of ancient Greek city-states."
"Westerners hold it. Legend has it that a big problem in trusting history is that it cannot To explain the size of the Greek city-states in the history of the letter, how to support the poor land, Western archaeological evidence has not found evidence of large-scale farming around these city-states."
"They interpreted it as the ocean. Trade developed, but without great Before the emergence of archaeological evidence of large ports and shipyards, this was obviously even more untenable."
"The only possibility is that they regarded the exaggerated legends as historical facts and the true scale of the Greek city-states. , much smaller than the legend.”
"Another example is the birth of class. The three-level divisions of 'group', 'class', and 'class' in society are inherently at different levels and often overlap. It is difficult to find such a clear division in the ruins."
“This is not only true in Eastern ruins, but also in Western ruins.”
“There is another way of dividing it, based on the invention of writing, the establishment of monogamous families and the emergence of classes.”
“ I think these classifications are particularly biased.”
“For example, in our country, the so-called feudal dynasty actually has feudal system, county system, slavery, and even slavery. The military lord system, the nomadic tribal system, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the proletarian wage production system, etc., unified the country with a large territory, and the development of various regions cannot be balanced. It has always been a complex society in which various systems coexist. ”
"And monogamous families are also not applicable to Chinese history, because although monogamous families are common, the dignitaries who can leave their names in history books are often not purely monogamous." "Even if the wife is good, Just one of the queens of King Shang."
"Elbow, why do you spend so much effort researching this problem?" Director Song asked with some confusion: "Is this directly related to our work? ”
“Of course there is. "Zhou Zhi said seriously: "Director Song, have you ever thought about it. In the many sites where the Xia people lived in the historical records of our country, there is no metal or writing so far. According to Western definitions, they can only be called at best. 'Culture' rather than 'civilization' ', if we want to use their theory, the Xia Dynasty was still before civilization."
"This is related to the establishment of the "family world" ruling model in China as the beginning of civilization. Huge difference.”
Director Song suddenly came to his senses and said in deep thought: "If we follow the classification of China, the Three Emperors period is the beginning of civilization, the Suiren clan began to learn to use fire, the Fuxi clan learned to fish and hunt, and the Shennong clan began to farm."
< br>"Yes. "Zhou Zhi said: "After entering the Five Emperors period, we can regard it as the divisions and mergers between tribes into large tribal alliances, and finally the formation of single-leader large regional tribal alliances." Yu passed on the position of the leader Giving his son Xia Qi is the beginning of his family’s world.”
“It is actually very appropriate to incorporate archaeological remains into this system,” Zhou Zhi said: “The Three Emperors period is actually the old age. Stone Age and Early Neolithic Period, The Five Emperors period is the middle and late Neolithic period. "
"Civilization should actually be the effective formation of human society and the establishment of social operation patterns, which is the key to the distinction between culture and civilization. Zhou Zhi continued.
"Just like the relations of production match the productivity. The social model also matches the degree of social development."
"Although the Mayans had no writing, no metal, and no wheels, as long as there is some kind of evidence that can prove that their society It must have developed to a considerable height, and it can be said to be a civilization, and there is no need to stick to the classification rules that only existed in the 18th and 19th centuries."
"The Western philosophical system tends to hold dualistic oppositions. , like to set Meaning, simplification, either/or. ”
“This kind of thinking is easier to quantify, classify, and solve problems in a simplified way. But there is one thing to note, that is, this method is suitable for solving problems. "Oriental culture holds a pluralistic interaction theory, likes chaos and richness, and believes that the emergence and transformation of contradictions are caused by the joint action of multiple factors with different proportions and can be transformed into each other. .”
"This kind of thinking often takes many detours when solving point-like and line-like problems. However, when solving more complex problems, especially the problem of neuron network structure where multiple elements interact, there are often more problems. Good results.”
“So back to the definition of civilization, we can only believe that civilization is the product of the development of human society to a certain stage. It is the beginning of human beings living in groups and the emergence of social division of labor and specialization. It is a phenomenon that began to appear after the prototype of society was basically formed. "
"Although the criteria for judging civilization in archeology and history have their own reasons, they are all only. There is no one-size-fits-all standard for commenting, so why don’t we put forward our own standards to guide our work? ”
(End of this chapter)