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China's "5000 Year" History

“China” — and its 5,000 years of unified history — is a national myth, created only a century ago with a political agenda that persists to this day. China’s current leadership lays claim to a 5,000-year-old civilization, but “China” as a unified country and people, Bill Hayton argues, was created far more recently by a small group of intellectuals. Nationalist-minded scholars and activists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries took up Western concepts of people, language, territory and history, among other things, to paint a picture of a millennia-old nation-state that, in fact, never existed.

The claims of some Chinese patriots that Western Civilization is younger than Chinese Civilization, it is seen that these claims are based on very little of substance. The oldest important documents of Western Civilization date back to at least the 10th century BC and are contained in the Old Testament Bible. The oldest document of importance in Chinese Civilization is the I-Ching which dates to around the 8th century BC. The works of Homer were roughly contemporary with the I-Ching; however, the epics of Homer are far more comprehensible than the esoteric and confusing contents of the I-Ching (which was a divination manual at the time).

Western institutions like Oxford (AD 1096) and Harvard University (AD 1634) have been in continuous existence for hundreds of years. The United States' Constitution has been operating for over two centuries. However, the People's Republic of China was only founded in 1949, and almost none of China's contemporary institutions existed before the 20th century.

There are vanishingly few civilizational or institutional measures whereby the West might be regarded as younger than China. By some measures, even the "young" United States is several times older than China, especially when consideingr how little modern China resembles the Manchu Qing society of the nineteenth century.

The core "cultural area" that Chinese patriots look back to as the "original China" — along the valleys of the Yellow and the Yangtse rivers — was only a very small part of today's China. For significant periods of the past 5,000 years, there were entirely separate states and peoples living on the territory of what is now China. The idea that there's been a single state called China, a single nation going back to ancient history, isn't supported by the evidence.

It's really important for them to project continuity back from the past because it cuts down the possibility of criticizing the current situation. If you can convince people that things have always been this way, then there's no reason for them to question why they shouldn't continue to be this way in the future.

Chinese history is frequently said to reach back nearly 5000 years, but this is a claim that requires more than a little qualification. The subtext is the China is the oldest civilization [or at least that there are none older], and therefore the most senior. In Eqypt, the "Scorpion King" is directly attested by contemporaneous records dating from around 3100 BC, and Egypt has a more or less continous written history since that time. During the first period of history, the territory that "China" controlled was still quite small. Political structures were still relatively primitive and the traditional imperial pattern of government had not yet emerged. Disunity, fighting between local leaders and decentralized power were all very common.

The origins of Chinese writing are obscure and debated. The first proven uses of cuneiform to denote the sounds of the Sumerian language appear in clay tablets dating to about 3100 BC. Writing seems to have been borrowed by the Egyptians from the Sumerians shortly after 3000BC, when Egyptian hieroglyphic writing appears suddenly. The earliest known form of true writing in China dates from the Shang dynasty. These "oracle bone" inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells date from 1200 BC-1045 BC, considerably later than for Sumerian writing.

The Great Seal Style of calligraphy includes a broad range of styles which emerged during the Chou dynasty (1122-221 BC). In 221 BC the first emperor of China ordered that the writing system be standardized. This script was later known as the Small Seal Style. During the Han dynasty (207 BC-220 AD), the Small Seal Style was surpassed by another script which could be written more easily with a brush, which became known as the Clerical Style.

China's three remote dynasties Xia, Shang and Zhou, are regarded as the start of China's history of 5,000 years. But there are no primary sources of the history of the Xia, and the Shang records are fragmentary and provide essentially nothing in way of a narrative history. The earliest widely accepted date of Chinese history is BC 841, in Sima Qian's Record of History. The first half of the Chinese civilization remains a mysterious and hot topic among world historians.

The Chinese have always had a tradition of respecting and believing in the past, and they have always emphasized faith in the past. Ji Yang believed that with the growth of China's national strength, China's self-confidence has also begun to increase, so the academic community has entered a new era of doubts about the ancient West. Ji Yang further pointed out: Western academic circles often adopt double standards for Chinese history. Judging from the textual requirements of ancient Chinese history, the Western belief history 500 years ago does not seem to be too much.

Books such as "Fictitious Ancient Greek Civilization" (by Dong Binsheng ) and "Fictional History of Western Civilization" (by Zhu Xuanzhi) claim the history of Western civilization prior to five hundred years ago is fictitious. Both of these books are published by Shanxi People’s Publishing House. They belong to the first two books of the "Western History Discrimination Series" and three other books yet to be published: " Criticism of "Western Centrism: Definition of Concept", "Criticism of "Western Centrism": The Reality of Empire", "Criticism of "Western Centrism": The Weird of Civilization", plus other publishing houses a few years ago Published "Western Civilization Packaged" (Sheng Min Wu Bian) and "Greek Pseudo History" (He Xin), etc.

These books are full of skepticism, somewhat similar to the "Ancient History Bibliography" a hundred years ago, except that at that time they doubted Chinese history, and now they doubt Western history. Zhu Xuanshi’s "Fictional History of Western Civilization-Ancient and Modern Western Copying of China" quoted a large number of original foreign language materials to refute the history of Western civilization. Its viewpoints are strange and shocking, which makes people think deeply. Some of the views in the book break through conventions, and readers may not fully believe them, so they can continue to discuss them in doubt. However, the publication of this book provided a field for the authenticity of Western civilization history.

Primitive Europe claimed to have been brought into the "civilization of the world" by China, from which it obtained writing, navigation, technology, economy, system, democracy, philosophy and history-copying Chinese history to create "world history" (classical history and ancient history) civilization). The West relies on the "oceanic geography" improved by Chinese technology, responds to the "time and place", takes the "center of civilization" and "creates miracles" at the expense of foreign land and nature. In the meantime, China suffered fatal troubles, but fortunately, the phoenix nibbled and rose peacefully. European, American and modern civilizations are essentially the temporary and dangerous "yang hyperactivity" of Chinese civilization during the "yin-yang movement".

Huang Heqing, a professor at Zhejiang University, claimed in his live lecture that ancient ruins such as the Parthenon in Athens and the pyramids in Egypt were forged by the West in modern times. Taking the Pyramid of Khufu and the Sphinx in Egypt as examples, the Yellow River Ching showed that there are solid Western book illustrations and historical photographs, which prove that it did not exist at the time. It was built with concrete in the 19th century. "Because the West has always been Suppressing Chinese civilization, this kind of denial of Chinese civilization, so I also rectify Chinese civilization to some extent."

Huang Heqing stated that from the 19th to 20th centuries, the West was rampantly forging historical and cultural relics, spending huge sums of money everywhere forging ancient relics, and elevating the status of ancient Egypt, the ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Indian civilizations. Chinese civilization is more ancient, and its intention is to use a large number of false images to disrupt the truth of world history and weaken the glory of Chinese civilization."

For a long time, many people held a skeptical attitude toward China's 5,000 years of civilization due to a lack of systematic data. Since its launch in 2001, a project to trace the origins of Chinese civilization has made significant achievements in restoring historical truth, countering skepticism, and presenting new evidence from archaeological excavations and scientific research.

The project demonstrated how China developed its own unique path toward civilization through its unyielding determination and willpower. Studies have shown that around 5,800 years ago, the development in the complexity of prehistoric societies in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and Yangtze River and the west of Liaohe River basin accelerated, showing signs of the origin of civilization. For example, the Hongshan Culture in the west of Liaohe River basin formed a ceremonial and sacrificial center with stone altars, temples, and tombs, showing clear social differentiation and a theocracy-dominated regional civilization.

Starting 5,300 years ago, various regions in ancient China successively formed early states and entered the first stages of civilization. For example, the Liangzhu culture was characterized by mature rice farming, large-scale construction projects, exquisite pottery, jade wares, ivory scepters and textiles. The vast area had common spiritual beliefs, economic forms and a unified society, which formed the centralized social structure and the initial form of a "monarchy state."

About 4,300 years ago, due to environmental changes and social evolution, the once-prosperous regional civilizations in the Yangtze River and Liaohe River basin declined, while the civilizations in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, like the one around the Taosi site in North China's Shanxi Province, embraced diversified culture and continued to develop, opening a new historical chapter led by the Central Plains. The Taosi site is a large-scale city site with a magnificent palace as well as unearthed cultural relics such as pottery dragon plates, drums, special chimes, jade wares, copper bells, and painted wooden wares. Some researchers theorize that the Taosi site was "Pingyang, the capital of the legendary Chinese Emperor Yao" recorded in ancient books.

Around 3,800 years ago, civilization in the Central Plains region further developed, becoming the core and leader of the overall process of Chinese civilization. The Erlitou site in Central China's Henan Province revealed a palace foundation composed of halls, courtyards, corridors, and gates. The site is believed to have been the capital of the middle and late Xia Dynasty (c.2070BC-c.1600BC). It is worth noting that the unearthed ritual wares of the Erlitou culture, such as jade wares, pottery wares, and turquoise-inlaid bronze ornaments show that Chinese civilization was entering a dynastic era in which Central Plains region dominated historical development while absorbing and integrating civilizations from all over.

The project has shown that early regional civilizations in China communicated with each other and gradually merged to form a common cultural gene, laying the foundation for the birth of a unified multi-ethnic country. About 6,000 years ago, the spread of painted pottery from the Yangshao Culture, the first culture in China discovered by modern archaeology, throughout the Central Plains shows that vast areas of eastern China had close cultural exchanges.

About 4,500 years ago, the Central Plains region actively absorbed beneficial cultural factors, allowing it to take the lead in cultural development. Wheat, cattle, sheep, and metallurgy native to West Asia were introduced into ancient China, greatly enriching Chinese civilization. About 3,800 years ago, a broad monarchy state centered around the Erlitou culture became the "earliest China," and this influential culture was later inherited by the Shang (c.1600BC-1046BC) and Zhou (1046BC-256BC) dynasties.

In North America, the Archaic period lasted 7,000 years, much longer than any other period of prehistory. Archaeologists have identified 8,310 Archaic sites in Illinois alone. Eventually, some of these locations became long-term settlements where Archaic people lived for an entire season before moving elsewhere. Native copper is found in the upper Great Lakes and occasionally in glacial till in Illinois. Native Americans hammered copper nuggets into flat sheets, which they folded and hammered again into different objects such as spear points. The discovery of elaborate artifacts in the graves of some Late Archaic people-but not others-suggests that some people were especially important. This period is characterized as a mobile gathering-and-hunting life and a mostly egalitarian social organization.

At Cahokia, from 20,000 to 30,000 people of the Mississippian mound-building culture lived in a 5-square-mile area. The population of 20,000 to 30,000 at Cahokia (AD 650–1400) equals that of the ancient Mesopotamian city-states of Ur or Babel. Cahokia’s neighborhoods include houses, large plazas, public buildings, and more than 100 monumental earthen mounds. Suburban towns radiate outward from the city 50 miles in every direction.