Why has China become the only ancient civilization that has survived to this day?

<> region of ancient civilizations in the world.

China, as one of the ancient civilizations (the five ancient civilizations shown in the picture above, the Egyptian civilization, the Sumerian civilization in the two river basins, the Harappan civilization in India, the Mycenaean civilization in the Aegean Sea, the Mycenaean civilization, and the Chinese civilization), is the only one that has survived to this day and has not been broken, so why can Chinese civilization be like this?

This question should first of all, what is the basis for the statement that China is the only ancient civilization that has not been broken? Why?

One of the most obvious signs of the continuity of Chinese civilization is the continuity of writing. We can now read oracle bone inscriptions dating back thousands of years, and Chinese characters are hieroglyphs that have been used to this day, and the written text can record a clear history of a civilization and pass on its traditions, which can be said to be indispensable.

On the other hand, the writings of several other ancient civilizations are already dead and have long been abandoned. This is the biggest difference between China and them.

The Holy Prophet Confucius.

Of course, in addition to writing, China has also preserved its own traditional culture relatively completely in terms of ancestor worship, Confucian etiquette culture, customs and habits, etc.

The Qing Dynasty shaved hair and was easy to wear.

Although the Central Plains region was also a battleground in history, and dynasties changed frequently, no matter which dynasty, the foundation of Chinese culture was not destroyed, but was deliberately preserved by various dynasties. This is because of the superiority of Chinese culture, which has a strong assimilation effect and centripetal force, which is beyond the reach of force.

In the history of China, various ethnic groups borrowed from each other and oppressed each other endlessly, including Zhao Wuling's Hufu cavalry and archery, the racial classification of the Yuan Dynasty, and the shaving of hair and easy clothing after the Qing army entered the customs, but the only thing that remained unchanged was the continuity of the orthodox status of Confucian culture, and facts have proved that this advanced culture is in line with the reality of the governance of such a multi-ethnic country.

Lady of the Tang Dynasty.

Its advanced nature has spread to the entire neighboring countries of East Asia, and they have followed suit, and there is still a strong legacy in today's Japan and South Korea. This shows the strong vitality of an advanced culture.

Japanese geisha. And the five ancient civilizations mentioned at the beginning, except for the Chinese civilization, did not have such a strong culture to maintain its civilizational life. In other words, these civilizations have not established an advantage over the surrounding civilizations, the kind of civilizational advantage that cannot be replaced.

At the same time, China undoubtedly had a civilization advantage that the surrounding "barbarians" could not reach.

Another objective reason for the different fates of Chinese civilization and other ancient civilizations is the geographical environment. China's geographical location, with the Siberian ice sheet to the north, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas to the west and southwest, and the sea to the east and south, is an excellent geopolitical environment for the insurmountable terrain in the Cold Weapon Age, and in fact, Chinese civilization has also expanded to the extreme scale of its geographical environment in the later development.

Topography of China. The Nile Valley, the Two River Basins, the Indus River Basin, and the Aegean Sea region, where several other ancient civilizations are located, are open and cannot provide safe barrier protection. Before the emergence of relatively stable regional powers in these regions, the phenomenon of political change and ethnic dissipation was very frequent, which was objectively not conducive to the stable development of ancient civilizations in these regions.

To sum up, due to the cultural advantages and objective geographical environment, the continuation and stability of ancient Chinese civilization have been promoted.

The only survivor of the four civilizations?

Of the four ancient civilizations, only Chinese culture has been passed down from generation to generation. So why is China the only civilization that has not broken the generations?

1. The continuity of the development of the Chinese Chinese language

Chinese characters are the carrier of culture, from oracle bone inscription to golden script, from golden script to small seal, from small seal to official script, from official script to regular script, from traditional regular script to simplified regular script, the whole development process of Chinese characters in China is very clear and complete.

From oracle bone inscriptions to modern Chinese characters, no matter how much the glyph has changed, the structure of the character is always created with the common principles of pictogram, signifier, understanding, and shape and sound, and these principles are a bridge between ancient and modern Chinese characters, and we can identify ancient characters through the principle of the creation of Chinese characters.

The differences between ancient and modern languages are mainly manifested in phonetics, vocabulary and special terms, but the grammatical structure has not undergone fundamental changes, and all the changes in Chinese characters have occurred gradually and continuously in the course of a long period of history.

In each dynasty, scholars commented on the written works of the previous generations, and in this way, it has been passed down from generation to generation, until now, we can understand the original written works through the commentaries of the sages.

2. The tradition of Chinese history and culture has never been interrupted

The continuity of Chinese civilization is also reflected in historical records and historical writings of successive dynasties. The earliest oracle bone inscriptions and gold inscriptions are all records of historical events, and there are records of historical events in the Book of Songs and the Book of Songs, as well as the expressions of later generations about the historical events of the previous generations. Books such as "Spring and Autumn", "Zuo Chuan", "Chinese", and "Warring States Policy" record a large number of pre-Qin historical events.

Sima Qian's "Records of the Historians" was created as a general history, starting from the Yellow Emperor and ending with the Han Dynasty, especially reflecting the characteristics of the continuity of ancient Chinese civilization.

In the "Historical Records", the "Three Generations of the World" lists the lineage of the three generations of monarchs from Xia to Xia. Since then, the lineage of Chinese monarchs has not been interrupted until the Puyi of the Qing Dynasty. In the Records of the Historians, the chronology of the twelve princes begins in the first year of the Republic (841 BC); Since then, the chronicles of Chinese history have not been interrupted.

Since the "Historical Records" and below, all dynasties have broken the history of the dynasty, and they are linked to each other from beginning to end, forming a long dragon of history.

Chinese historical writers are emerging in an endless stream and continue to do so. Chinese historical works are not limited to the connection of time, and the historical books of Chinese dynasties have an internal development context from genre to content.

In the fields of literature, history, science, agriculture, etc., generations of Chinese sages have used their wisdom to build bridges. To this day, we are still using many of the methods summarized by the ancient sages. For example, Zhaozhou Bridge, Dujiangyan and the 24 solar terms. This cultural heritage has never stopped.

Chinese culture is broad and profound, and we Chinese sons and daughters must shoulder the responsibility of inheriting it.