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The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

historians.org

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Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#21

Post by jacobush »

amriksohata wrote: post #18
bra4you wrote: post #14

"Until the Opium War of 1840–42 the European merchants and voyagers who reached the distant land of China had looked upon the Chinese with a good deal of awe as a people of superior culture." Bullshit and Chinese Propaganda with their "5000 years old culture". 5000 years ago we are talking about bones inscribed with precursors of the Chinese writing system. Not bad, but compare this to the Pyramids at the same time?…

Continuous civilisatiins can exist for that long if they aren't targetted by the greed of invaders, in this case there weren't large scale invasions big enough to topple it

That's a very fluffy definition. Also "China" was invaded all the time. You could argue that Europe and some kind of continuum over the Middle East / North Africa also preserved a civilization.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#22

Post by jacobush »

ars wrote: post #4
docdeek wrote: post #2

I was taught as a child in Australia that the Indigenous Australians were the world’s oldest living/surviving civilization.

They are probably excluded for not having any sort of symbolic communication system (writing, hieroglyphics, knot patterns, stuff like that).

Which I understand, but it's also wrong. The dream songs are a symbolic communication and very stable at that, for millennia.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#23

Post by peteretep »

> Even a poor Chinese with no education is likely to have the instincts and bearing of an educated man. He sets great store by such things as personal dignity, self-respect, and respect for others.

I get the impression that Taiwanese and Hong Kong people might not agree with this point to describe the mainlanders.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#25

Post by brailsafe »

bra4you wrote: post #14

"Until the Opium War of 1840–42 the European merchants and voyagers who reached the distant land of China had looked upon the Chinese with a good deal of awe as a people of superior culture." Bullshit and Chinese Propaganda with their "5000 years old culture". 5000 years ago we are talking about bones inscribed with precursors of the Chinese writing system. Not bad, but compare this to the Pyramids at the same time?…

Are you saying that China isn't a civ because economic centres move from time to time? I'm also fairly sure you're not quite characterizing either western or eastern fairly during the years 0 to ~1500.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#26

Post by INTPenis »

Iv wrote: post #3

Does it make sense to talk about the Chinese civilization like a single continuous civilization? That's a bit like saying Italy's civilization dates from the first Etruscan settlements or that French civilization is as old as the megaliths in Brittany. I am a bit suspicious of these claims as they are central to Chinese nationalism. In order to hold them you have to disregard the several periods where the country was…

I was thinking the same thing, but not the Romans, rather the egyptians would be the oldest civilizations still there.

I mean this measuring stick is basically determining if an area has been continuously civilized.

Chinese civilizations have gone through many changes, including being overrun by Mongols and having their entire government replaced by mongo officials.

Just like the Egyptians have been overrun by Nubians from Sudan.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#28

Post by brailsafe »

jacobush wrote: post #21
amriksohata wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuous civilisatiins can exist for that long if they aren't targetted by the greed of invaders, in this case there weren't large scale invasions big enough to topple it

That's a very fluffy definition. Also "China" was invaded all the time. You could argue that Europe and some kind of continuum over the Middle East / North Africa also preserved a civilization.

It certainly could be. That's how history works.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#29

Post by H_Pylori »

peteretep wrote: post #23

> Even a poor Chinese with no education is likely to have the instincts and bearing of an educated man. He sets great store by such things as personal dignity, self-respect, and respect for others. I get the impression that Taiwanese and Hong Kong people might not agree with this point to describe the mainlanders.

The article was written before communism. I've heard from different accounts that communism has had a deleterious effect on people's manner. I don't know if this is true or not, but it's a reasonable explanation.

Re: The Oldest Living Civilization (1944)

#30

Post by dingle_thunk »

analyst74 wrote: post #10

> Until the Japanese invasion her conquerors have been barbarians who looked up to the higher civilization of China and eagerly adopted it. I always thought this is uniquely Chinese thing, but recently learnt that Athens had a similar history. Many of Athens architectures are actually built by its conquerors who admired its culture.

Look up Rajasthan architecture.
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