The four ancient civilizations actually correspond to the four birthplaces of the world. Civilization refers to the two river basins, ancient Egypt, ancient India and China, where human civilization was first born, but the Aegean civilization in the same period is not included. The significance of the four ancient civilizations lies not in the chronological order, but in the fact that they are the birthplace of modern civilization.
The four major civilizations are all built near the easy-to-survive river platform. In the northern hemisphere, the Nile, Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, as well as the Indus River and Ganges River basins, have successively produced four major civilizations in the world.
Ancient civilization entered the Bronze Age from the Neolithic Age, and then entered the Iron Age 7000 -4000 years ago. The social system mostly adopts slavery, and the state power was born late. Nome in ancient Egypt is the earliest civilization in the world.
Extended data:
Of the four ancient civilizations, why is only China's civilization unbroken? Some studies have pointed out that the specific geographical environment has contributed to the expansion and extension of Chinese civilization. The specific factors are as follows:
1, ecological factors
Its ecological factors include three characteristics:
(1) First of all, the widely distributed water network not only becomes a natural transportation network, but also connects people with the same culture but scattered in different places.
(2) Secondly, the vast land provides a guarantee for the farming economy that carries a large number of people, prompting more and more nationalities and people to join Chinese civilization.
(2) Finally, the climate in China's ancient inhabited areas (northern China) was relatively cold, so people here needed to work harder than those in warmer areas at the same time, such as ancient Egyptians, Indians and Babylonians.
In order to resist the cold winter, people in China need to build houses, prepare clothes and firewood. Chinese civilization originated in the colder north (Yellow River Basin), and then gradually moved to the warmer south, from the Yangtze River Basin to the banks of the Pearl River.
In contrast, western civilization started from the warm south (Greece and Rome) and gradually extended to the north, first Spain and Portugal, and then Western Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, France, Britain, Germany, etc. ) finally to Russia.
2. Cultural, religious and institutional factors
In ancient China, there was a secular religion closely related to "Heaven". Although the word "Tian" in modern Chinese is translated into "Heaven" in English, for ancient China people, "Tian" is transcendent, the embodiment of kindness and prophet, with supreme power, controlling the order in the universe, including ruling human society.
Although "Heaven" is incarnated as a God and worshipped by people, it is called God, but it is not the only God. As a result, China people have been instilled with a non-exclusive worldview (just as heaven does not exclude anyone) and formed an inclusive culture. ?
Therefore, it is considered that "heaven" is not limited to a certain nation, which is different from the Bible-Old Testament that Christ God is limited to Jews (Christianity was not allowed to spread to pagans until after Jesus).
It is this feature that makes it possible for ethnic groups in non-Han areas to integrate into Chinese civilization. In view of this, in addition, there is no institutionalized church organization in China as in the West, and there is no religious war in the history of China, which may be one of the reasons why Chinese civilization has never stopped.
References:
People's Network-Why is China the only one among the four ancient civilizations that has not been broken?