Chapter 2 2. Historical mysteries

Civilization comes from barbarism. Human beings in the barbaric age were scattered all over the world to fend for themselves.They established, first of all, "cultural points".This is the "primitive group", which this book calls "the age of Eve".If this culture can survive and develop, it will grow into a "cultural side".This is the "clan", which this book calls "the era of Nuwa Fuxi".Different cultural aspects, due to their own fission and diffusion, as well as mutual influence and integration, will be connected into "cultural pieces".This is the "tribe", which this book calls "the era of Yanhuang".Different cultural films will form a "cultural circle" due to migration, alliance, merger, and war.This is the "tribal alliance", which this book calls "the era of Yao and Shun".At this time, for the sake of security, freedom, and identity, human beings living in groups began to turn settlements into cities, tribes into countries, and transition from the barbaric era to the civilized era.

Simply put, this process is called points, faces, slices, circles, and countries.A watershed is the birth of a nation.In other words, the symbol of civilization is the country, and the symbol of the country is the city.Using this as a boundary, human history has been cut in two.It was called "prehistory" before, and then it was called "history of civilization". The time has begun.Success and setbacks, glory and humiliation, sublimation and depravity, also began. Please see the historical chronology. This year, human beings have a total of 7,000 years of civilization history, divided into three generations.The first generation arose directly from primitive society, and Western academia called it "ancient civilization".The oldest of these are Egypt and Sumer, both occurring more than 5,000 years ago.Sumer, together with later Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria, collectively referred to as "Mesopotamia".Mesopotamia is Greek, meaning "between two rivers", that is, between the Euphrates and the Tigris River, so Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria are also called "two river civilizations".

Sumer and Egypt are the "forerunners" of human civilization.When the first light dawned between the two rivers and in the valley of the Nile, most of the world was still wild.It will take about a thousand years before the Harappan civilization will appear in the Indus River Basin; after another 500 to 800 years, the Crete and Xia civilizations will not appear in the Aegean Sea and the Yellow River Basin.Harappa and Crete are basically at the same time as us and are "peers".At that time, the Egyptians had already built the pyramids and the Sphinx, and the Sumerians had been singing their epics.

As a civilization, Crete is also called Minos, and Harappa is also called the Indus.The Indus civilization and the Indian civilization are two different things, and they are completely incompatible.The former was created by the Dravidians, the latter by the Aryans, and there is a gap of several hundred years between them.Sumer, Egypt, Harappa, Crete, and Xia, plus the Olmec of unknown origin in Central America, are known as the six ancient civilizations.

The second generation is called "classical civilization".Among them, the Indian civilization in the Indus and Ganges river basins, the Mayan civilization in Central America, as well as Greece, Persia, and Rome, all occurred in BC, and they are "later people"; Byzantium, Japan, Arabia, and Russia are "young people" after AD. people".The third generation is called "modern civilization", which mainly refers to the West.This is a "new new human being" in the history of civilization, its merits and demerits have yet to be evaluated, and its future is unlimited.

This is called "Three Generations of Civilization". The three generations of civilization have three representatives.The first generation represents Chinese civilization, the second generation represents Islamic civilization, and the third generation represents Western modern civilization.Because in the second generation of civilization, Maya, Greece, Persia, Rome, and Byzantium have all withdrawn, and India, Japan, and Russia are not cosmopolitan.The first generation of civilization, the forerunners Egypt and Mesopotamia, disappeared, and their peers Crete, Harappa, and Olmec disappeared.From ancient times to the present, there is only China.

Of the six ancient civilizations, we are the only ones left. It's a miracle, but it's true.In fact, from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, to the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, to modern times, we have always had only one nation and one civilization.It's just that this nation is constantly growing, and even mixed blood; this civilization is also constantly developing, and even plastic surgery.However, there is neither a generation gap nor a gap.Some of the most important and fundamental things have not only existed long ago, but have basically remained unchanged.The unity of the family and the country, Xia is; ancestor worship, Shang has; the patriarchal system lasted from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties and even the Republic of China; language, living habits, interpersonal relationships, and cultural psychology are either consistent or ever-changing.And no matter who you are, as long as you belong to this civilization, even if you cross the ocean, leave your hometown, change your nationality, or marry a foreigner, you will still be Chinese.

The so-called "interruption of Chinese civilization", where do we start? However, there is no interruption, but there is attenuation and variation.The Battle of Talas in 751 AD and the Anshi Rebellion four years later may be a dividing point.The Tang Empire was defeated externally by Arabia and internally by the separatist rule of feudal towns. The Chinese civilization has since withdrawn its gaze from the outside world.The simplicity of Xia, the splendor of Shang, the elegance of Zhou, the power of Han, and the openness of Tang have all become obsolete.The ethos of the times ranges from the slenderness of the Song Dynasty, the etherealness of the Yuan Dynasty, to the secularism of the Ming Dynasty, and the official tone of the Qing Dynasty.The contention of a hundred schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and the emancipation of the mind in the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, naturally also faded away.After the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and before the Opium War, there were no thinkers in China, and no decent contributions to human civilization.People talk about self-indulgence, such as Hezhou Ji, Bingmei Pavilion, snuff bottles, and three-inch golden lotus.Only He Nalan Ci sang the elegy of the last days sensitively.It was a kind of helplessness of "sleeping is boring, drunk is boring, and dream has never been to Xieqiao".

On the downhill road, no one can stop the car. Of course, this downhill road has been going slowly for more than a thousand years, during which there were setbacks and turning points. At a time when the Chinese civilization was ups and downs, flourishing and declining, the Islamic civilization was thriving.From 830 to 930 AD, that is, during the late Tang and Five Dynasties in China, under the great funding and advocacy of the Caliphate of the Arab Empire, large-scale, organized and long-term translation and promotion activities for the achievements of other national civilizations were carried out with Baghdad as the center. , known as the "Hundred Years of Translation Movement".It was this feat that allowed the ancient Greek classics to be preserved intact and provided a guiding light for the rise of Europe.In other words, the great men of the Renaissance were able to look forward and push the boundaries of knowledge forward because they stood on the shoulders of giants in the Islamic world.

Islam is the leader of the second generation civilization. However, the elusiveness of history lies in this.That's right, when Islamic civilization spread its wings and flew freely, the European continent was still in a state of ignorance in the Middle Ages, and the kings and nobles were even illiterate.However, when the Western modern civilization was in full swing, the Islamic world, like us and most nations in the world, was at a loss, even ignorant.Perhaps, at that time, no one thought that the Western world, which took over the ancient Greek fire through the Renaissance and ignited the torch of the new era, would later dominate the discourse power of global civilization.Is there really a saying in the world that "Feng Shui turns around"?

It's a mystery. An accounting may be required.Counting from the Erlitou ruins, the Chinese civilization has been 3,700 years; from the founding of Medina, the Islamic civilization is 1,400 years; from Dante and Boccaccio, the modern Western civilization is 660 years.The more rising star, the more rapid and abnormal.This is really "the waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead", but it does not mean "slapping the waves ahead on the beach", it can only be called "passing the baton and the latecomers prevail". In other words, China, Islam, and Western modern civilization also represent three eras. May wish to briefly review. As we all know, the emergence of world civilization began in more than two hundred years BC.At that time, Rome dominated the Mediterranean, and Qin and Han ruled Greater China, forming the two largest civilization circles at that time.But during the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, Roman civilization fell.So the two heroes of Han and Rome stood side by side, and became the champion of Tang civilization.In Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, everyone was looking forward to it, the world was watching, and all directions came to court.Therefore, the seven hundred years of the Han and Tang Dynasties can be said to be the Chinese era of world civilization. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the civilization of Tang and Song Dynasties and the Islamic sun and the moon shine together, but our "sunset is infinitely beautiful", and others "the new moon is just at the right time".The voice of Allah and the Prophet is like a green spring, which nourishes the whole of West Asia, most of Africa, and part of South Asia, and then travels across the ocean to Indonesia.This unprecedented grand occasion lasted for hundreds or even thousands of years, and the length of time was no less than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties.The entire Middle Ages was the age of Islam. In fact, Islamic civilization did not really decline until the Ottoman Empire ceded Crimea in 1792.It was also in this year that Emperor Qianlong wrote "Shi Quan Ji" to show off his "Shi Quan martial arts".In fact, at this time, Britain had already carried out the Glorious Revolution, and the United States and France also successively issued the "Declaration of Independence" and "Declaration of Human Rights".Obviously, if it is said that before the rapid rise of the West, Chinese civilization was still active and Islamic civilization was still in its infancy, then there is no dispute about the era of modern Western civilization in the years since then. Talented people come out from generation to generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years. Three generations of civilizations have gone on and on, and the three major civilizations have been brilliant in succession. Is there no article in it?As a global civilization, Rome is dejected, and China has a long history. Is there no mystery in it? Of course there is. Then ask what happened.