Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1830 Confidence is very important

After eating a piece of chicken, Zhou Zhi continued, "What I mean is, if we can use other methods to prove that the residents of a relic had inherited knowledge, does it mean that they had a fixed way of retaining and spreading knowledge? Although there is no evidence of the use of writing, as long as there is such evidence, can this relic be called a civilization?"

"It's not okay to be afraid of this, right?" Liang Guangping was a researcher after all, so his logic was very strict: "If that's the case, then all the relics from the Paleolithic period can be considered civilizations. The production of large quantities of Paleolithic tools could not have been done by just one or a few people in the tribe. This shows that primitive humans at that time already had ways to preserve and spread knowledge!"

"So it is not enough to judge whether a country is civilized based on just this one factor. We should also add some other factors." Zhou Zhi said: "Such a knowledge inheritance system is enough to maintain the sustainable development of a huge city-state society."

"Or let me use the Maya as an example. At its peak, the Maya included more than 40 cities, each with a population of 5,000 to 50,000. The main cities were Tikal, Uaxactun, Copan, Bonaparte, etc., with a population of 15 million at its peak. Each city had nobles, commoners, slaves, workshops, city walls, castles, temples, and professional divisions. It can be seen that the Maya had developed farming techniques and agricultural production, as well as sophisticated architectural and astronomical techniques."

"But the Maya didn't develop metallurgy or invent a practical wheel, so should they be considered a civilization?"

"For example, the Inca Empire flourished in the 15th century and was able to build a magnificent mountain city like Machu Picchu. Metal manufacturing was also developed, but they still had no written language and were still at the stage of knotting ropes to record events. So can't they be considered a civilization?"

"For example, in Chinese history, there were many ethnic groups living in settlements, such as the Xiongnu in the Han Dynasty, who were once so powerful that they gave the Han Dynasty a headache. They also had no written language, and nomadic peoples had no cities, so they were not considered civilized either?"

After Zhou Zhi said this, everyone felt that the so-called "three elements of civilization" of metal, writing, and cities were a bit bullshit.

Seeing that everyone understood, Zhou Zhi said, "So the Western theory of three elements is a weird conclusion in itself. It doesn't make sense at all. So we should come up with our own definition of civilization, which should be a fairly large social group, a stable and complex social structure, various social divisions that are sufficient to support this structural system, as well as agricultural, handicraft, animal husbandry, commerce and other production and exchange activities that can support this structural system, and a safe and effective knowledge inheritance system."

"The essence of civilization is 'advanced' social organization, so what we need to do is to start by analyzing this social organization rather than adopting a rigid definition."

"Then why did you bring up the Xia Dynasty again when you were talking about this?"

"Once we redefine the meaning of civilization, the Westerners' argument that we didn't have the Xia Dynasty won't be applicable anymore," Zhou Zhi said. "As long as we combine historical records with the large-scale human settlement remains we have excavated in the corresponding areas, and use the new definition to determine whether they belong to civilization, we may be able to come to a conclusion - within the range of activities in the Xia Dynasty recorded in traditional historical records, a civilization with a highly civilized structure and population size, and at the same time a civilization that is significantly different from other human settlement remains in the region, is it the Xia civilization?"

"I think the biggest mistake made by our country's literary and historical researchers is, why do we have to use the appearance of the word 'Xia' as the criterion for discovery, or must we use the existence of the word as the criterion for discovery?"

"Yes, because the Xia Dynasty itself did not necessarily have metal processing capabilities and writing." Liang Guangping's eyes lit up: "We only need to make a comprehensive judgment based on the various characteristics preserved in the relics that can reflect the level of civilization at that time. If we can determine that it is at the level of a dynasty, then as long as the age and scope of activities match the records in history books..." "Then it must be the Xia Dynasty!" Liu Hongtao also understood.

We are all influenced by Chinese civilization, and this way of thinking is obviously more in line with the recognition of Oriental people. Compared with the "three elements", everyone thinks that this is more scientific.

"So Grandpa Chi Ri's research results are of great merit." Zhou Zhi waved his fist and said, "It proves that the prototype of Chinese characters may have appeared ten thousand years ago, which is enough to cover most of the relics in the history of Chinese civilization. Not to mention that we cannot define the existence of characters as a civilization standard, even if we follow their standards, we now have the confidence to not lose to them."

"With this confidence, when we launch our own civilized standards, the other party won't be able to use our guilty conscience as an excuse. This is the key, isn't it, Grandpa?"

It's like two people fighting, the other party has a knife and you have a gun, of course you will win, but the other party can incite public opinion - if you have the ability, you can use a knife, what's the point of using a gun? ! The rules of our competition are to use a knife, ah you don't have a knife, right? Sorry, you are not qualified to participate!

Now the evidence from the Jiahu inscriptions has given Chinese cultural and historical researchers a sword in hand. If they propose new standards of civilization on this basis, world public opinion will not think that China is proposing to change the rules because it cannot meet the relevant standards.

This is actually very important, and it even affects the success or failure of the new standard. The country did not introduce it together with the concept of human heritage before, so it is hard to say that there was no consideration in this regard.

Now Director Song has begun to reconsider this issue and is preparing to transfer another department to promote this work. It is hard to say that this is unrelated to this matter. After all, with this, the conditions are more mature.

Chi Ri is the old Bimo. Every Bimo is actually a sociologist and psychologist, and is best at grasping group psychology. Of course, he understands what Zhou Zhi meant, and he also admits in his heart that what he said actually makes sense.

But he knew what was going on in his heart, but he couldn't say it out loud, so he picked up the wine glass and said, "You are so old and you can still make some contributions to the country. You should thank Elbow. The articles you published could not be written by the old Bimo."

"Don't dare to make such a joke!" Zhou Zhi was so scared that he quickly picked up the wine glass: "I'm just a clerk. I can only say Rezalizaamizi in Yi language. This paper is only possible because of you, the living dictionary."

"Then let's celebrate together!" Tu Liangzhi also picked up the cup and called everyone to celebrate together: "Let's celebrate together!"