Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1801: There is a reward for every effort

"If, I mean if." Director Song wrote down some of Zhou Zhi's key points, and then asked: "Based on our Chinese archaeological relics and historical perspectives, how do you think civilization should be defined?"

"I think we just need to hold on to one thing - social structure. When society develops to a certain scale, management issues are bound to arise. No matter what form it takes, managers are bound to appear."

"We don't actually care whether this manager belongs to a class or a stratum. As long as it becomes a common phenomenon, we can define this society with professional social managers as a civilization."

"This kind of manager may appear in the form of a divine messenger, in which case the ritual architecture of this society is likely to be religious; or he may appear in the form of a monarch, in which case the ritual architecture of this society is likely to be palace-like."

"Society needs to support these full-time managers, and they also need to have privileges that are different from those being managed, and these privileges must be reflected, so such existence must be visible in the ruins."

"For example, the existence of privileges may be reflected in the division of special, higher-level tombs, cemeteries, and residential areas; the effect of management may be reflected in the separate establishment of agricultural areas and handicraft areas, or the construction of city walls, the existence of palace areas, the distinction between the areas of the people and the areas of the wild people, etc."

"As for the metals, writing, ritual architecture, city-states, armies, and social classes that are repeatedly emphasized in Western classifications, we cannot consider them as the core of civilization. We can only call them 'embodiments of civilization' and use them as reference points to comprehensively judge the degree of development of the society in which they exist, but they are by no means rigid standards that must be used."

"For example, even though there were no written words, we could still see the artistic level from pottery decorations and murals, and we could use musical instruments, building heights and directions to prove the level of development of human thinking and science at that time. Even though there were no metal farm tools, we could still infer the scale of farming from storage area, number of residents, and crop varieties. "

“I don’t know whether there were classes, but at least we can tell from the tombs whether private ownership already existed, whether the gap between the rich and the poor already existed, and whether a privileged class already existed.”

"After translating all the archaeological evidence, we can know the social level of the ruins at that time and confirm whether it belongs to a civilization."

"With this theory, we can draw out the areas where the Xia people were active as recorded in historical books, and then among the numerous relics, we can identify those with the largest scale, the most complex division of labor, and the most developed comprehensive strength as the core areas of the Xia Dynasty."

"In oracle bone script, there is already a word for 'qu', which means 'this place' and is often connected with a certain region to mean 'some place'."

"The Zhou people often referred to their territory as 'Youxia'. In the Yi Zhou Shu (Book of the Later Zhou Dynasty), King Wu said, 'From Luo to Yi, living in an easy place without a fixed place, it is the residence of Youxia'."

"The combination of the two is 'Qu Xia', such as in the Book of Documents: Tang Gao, there is a sentence 'Yong Zhao Zao Wo Qu Xia'. This is inherited from the usage of the Yin people, and later it was used to refer to the 'ethnic domain' of the Huaxia. It originally referred to a region."

"From this, we defined the concept of the 'Xia Dynasty', which is a large-scale human society with a highly developed and stable social structure, a capital city concept and regional boundaries within the historical area of ​​the Xia Dynasty's activities."

"Based on the current archaeological evidence, Erlitou is the most suitable." Zhou Zhi smiled meaningfully: "At least, it is much more reliable than Homer and Herodotus."

Director Song nodded: "This is a serious matter, we still need to convene all parties for discussion, but I personally agree with your point of view." "The two points you just raised are very important. The first is that all archaeological evidence can only be 'manifestations of civilization' rather than 'symbols of civilization'. The second is whether a relic is civilized or not. It should be determined after comprehensively considering all 'manifestations of civilization' and judging the level of social development."

“And I believe that these two points will definitely receive a lot of support after being put forward in the academic community, because they are consistent with our Eastern views, and at the same time they are the development of several Western views. Through such expansion, they have completed the unification of their different views, which is actually the refinement and abstraction of their views.”

"I'm not a sociology or archaeologist either." Zhou Zhi said, "I'll have to trouble Director Song for the details. I'm waiting for your good news."

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries, and Zhou Zhi stood up to say goodbye. As he walked to the door, Zhou Zhi suddenly remembered something: "By the way, regarding the discussion of this definition of civilization, I wrote a paper and published it in the Journal of Cultural Society of the Institute of History and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge. I also had several correspondence discussions with the director of the institute, Mr. Steve, and his wife, Ms. Roselin. They also agree with this point of view."

"If some help from within the West is needed at that time, Steve and his wife are a good choice."

"You have quite a wide network of contacts." Director Song was surprised. "How come you have connections with the deans of the Institutes of History and Anthropology at Cambridge University?"

"Hi!" Zhou Zhi said, "You must have heard of their daughter. She's the foreign girl who performed in the skit on the Spring Festival Gala, Fu Xia! This Fu Xia was originally an exchange graduate student at our Shu University. I needed material for writing "Sichuan Flavor Chats" and she happened to be a foodie. We went to many restaurants together in Shudu and never paid for anything!"

"Their family owes me a huge favor!"

"Yes, yes, I remember it." Director Song remembered Fu Xia as soon as he heard her name: "She is still recording that show now, the one about food detective. My children love watching it!"

"Yes, her thesis topic is also Chinese food culture. After finishing her thesis, she will continue to study for a doctorate in China. It seems that she is not after academic knowledge, but our Chinese food."

"The department has organized several trips abroad, and I've been to the UK. The food they eat there..." Director Song has been under a lot of pressure recently. After chatting with Zhou Zhi, he feels a lot more relaxed. Now he is even happier: "Haha, anyway, I understand the little girl."

During this trip to the capital, Zhou Zhi encountered many things. He purchased the body of the Dish-shaped Lei vessel and donated it to the Hunan Provincial Museum, contributed the scientific research results from the oracle bone splicing project, strengthened the confidence of the Science and Technology Commission in launching the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty dating project, reminded the country to make its own voice known to the world, and proposed a new definition of civilization. In fact, these are all contributions.

However, I also gained a lot. First of all, I verified my influence in the collecting community and facilitated the return of the Fang Lei. Secondly, I made new acquaintances with some bigwigs in academia and politics. Thirdly, I learned about a new identification method - the protein molecular clock identification method, which confirmed that the paintings of the Four Masters of the Six Dynasties are all rare editions. Among them, Gu Kaizhi's "Biographies of Women: Benevolence and Wisdom" is the second half of the Palace Museum's collection; Lu Tanwei's "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and Rong Qiqi" is a copy of the painter Li Zhaoqing in the late Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty; "Image of Ruyilun Bodhisattva" is the authentic work of Cao Buxing, the earliest existing copy by a famous artist. The scroll also has authentic calligraphy by Cai Xiang, Mi Fu and Chen Shidao, among which the calligraphy of Chen Shidao, one of the Six Masters of Su's School, is also discovered for the first time; the only doubtful one is Zhang Sengyou's "Han Wu Shooting a Dragon", but through molecular clock identification, it is also a copy of the Northern Song Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)