Ancient Egypt is located along the Nile River and in the downstream delta. In 5000 BC, he entered a settled life; In the -4000 s, it entered the period of stone and stone combination; The pyramids were built in 2600-2500 (the fourth dynasty); Around 3000, upper and lower Egypt were initially unified, and written records began to be reliable. In terms of literature, ancient Egyptian poems include religious poems, hymns to the past, secular poems, religious philosophy poems, proverbs of teaching metaphors, realistic travel notes and so on. In architecture, sculpture and painting, the Great Pyramid of the Ace Dynasty was the tallest building in the world before the completion of the Paris Tower in the19th century, and it was known as the miracle of the ancient world. Mathematics, geometry and astronomy in ancient Egypt were very developed, and the accurate calculation of pyramid buildings showed the achievements of mathematics at that time.
Religion in ancient Egypt originated from clan totem worship, and the worship of local gods and animals prevailed in all States. In the fifth dynasty (-25th-23rd century), a unified sun god appeared, and the Pharaoh was Phobos Apollo. Ortiz's myth was widely circulated during the period of the Middle Kingdom. At first, he was the god of plants and water, then the god of death. After his resurrection, he became the king of the underworld, judging the dead. During the New Kingdom period {-1584-1341}, many chapters of the book of death were produced. It is also equipped with a map of hades, which is very beautiful.
The content of religious creationism in ancient Egypt is: the world has a beginning and no end, and the world is in chaos. After the creation and rectification of the creator, the world began to exist. The ancient Egyptians believed that everything would go round and round and the world would never change. The ancient Egyptians' view of time focused on the future, because the endless world was waiting for them to enjoy.
A prominent feature of ancient Egyptian religion is the large number of gods. Most of these gods have images of animals and objects. Even Osiris, Egypt's most distinguished sun god and guardian of the underworld, has the image of an animal, and later gradually developed into a human form of half man and half beast. In ancient Egyptian religion, man and God were interdependent and needed each other, so God needed people to build temples and provide them with clothes and food. People need the blessing and spiritual sustenance of the gods. As a result, believers turned imaginary gods into tangible idols, providing them with places to live and worship, which led to the construction of a large number of temples.
Ancient Egyptian religion encouraged people to believe in their own gods, believing that if all people believed in the same god, God would be exhausted for others. The ancient Egyptians even thought that God would be old and give way to his son.
Ancient Babylon
Babylon is located in today's Iraq's "two river basins" (Tigris River and Euphrates River). Also known as "Mesopotamia", Greek means "between two rivers". -settled and lived for 4000 years; The earliest indigenous people of the two rivers civilization were Sumerians from 3500 to 3200 BC. Fierce nomads seized cities and land in the bloody and fierce struggle for existence and established urban gangs. Later Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Canaanites inherited and carried forward the achievements of Sumerians, making the two rivers civilization the most brilliant civilization in human history, among which the Babylonians made the most remarkable achievements, so the two rivers civilization is also called Babylonian civilization.
-Sumerians and nomadic Akkadians lived together at the end of 3,000 years; -forming a primitive country from 3000 to 2500; People call the period from 3200 BC to 2000 BC "Sumerian era". Later, it was replaced by Akkadians and unified around -2369 BC; The third Ur dynasty was founded in -2060- 1955. The earliest characters were also graphic symbols, with one symbol and one meaning, and later developed into phrases composed of phonetic symbols and signifiers. Cuneiform characters came into being in 3200. Code of hammurabi was compiled by Hammurabi, the sixth king of Babylon {- 1792- 1750}, which is the first and most complete written law of class society in the two river basins.
Most of the earliest literary works in Sumer and Babylon are religious myths and legends. Some narrated the story that Cyril invented the hoe and gave it to the world, entrusting the birth of agricultural civilization to God. Some are myths about the goddess Anna being imprisoned in hell and released, which provide religious explanations for the changes in nature. In addition, there is a legend about the flood, which tells that God drowned all living things with the flood, and only when sudra built a boat at the suggestion of her aunt Yiya could she be saved. This story is the origin of the flood legend in the Old Testament.
Ancient Babylon was well-developed in science, art and astronomy. The cultural achievements of ancient Babylon were brilliant, which had a great influence on later Greece and Rome.
Nature worship prevailed in ancient Babylon. During the Sumerian and Akkadian periods, nature was surrounded by the protectors of various cities, including the sun god, the moon god, the earth, the sky and the water. After Babylon unified the two river basins, the king of Babylon was the only god. The priests fabricated the myth that Marduk created the world and demonstrated the supremacy of the king of Babylon granted by God. It turns out that the status of Sumerian city god has been reduced. Marduk was originally a folk worship of the god of agriculture, and later became a combination of god in heaven and king on earth. Ancestor worship, star worship and astrological divination are also popular in the two river basins, and special priests observe the stars and predict good or bad luck.
The religious situation in Babylon is similar to that in Egypt. In ancient Mesopotamia, the alien forces of nature were personified as gods, but they often showed inhuman images. Later, in Sumerian-Babylonian religious mythology, the image of God changed obviously, and then became a human being. Every god has his own temple, and god lives in it. In ancient China, the image of this kind of god, who is half man and half beast, can be found everywhere in Shan Hai Jing, which shows that the ancient religion of China and the development of the Near East have quite universal consistency in folk beliefs.
Medy gueilan
Yilan people are distributed in southwestern Iran, and Medes are distributed in eastern Iran. In 4000 BC, Yilan people had their own writing and language, and a powerful country was formed in the second half of 2000 BC. -From 900 to 800 AD, the Medes began to settle down from semi-nomadic people; -Became a country in the second half of 700, conquered Persian tribes and became independent from Assyria. -6 12-605 Assyria was defeated. After the rise of Assyrian Empire, Yilan began to decline, and in the 6th century BC, Yilan became a province of Persian Empire. The kingdom of Mitis was later conquered by the emerging Persian Empire.
-During the period of 3000-2000, some Iranian residents used primitive Yilan and Akkadian. Yilan started with hieroglyphics, and later it was a combination of lines. -After the 6th century, the hangscript of East Iranian residents was replaced by Akkadian cuneiform.
There were no idols and temples in the religious worship of nomadic tribes in ancient Central Asia and Iran. The worship of the god of war is of special significance. The Persian classic Avista began to form and became a holy book, which was formed in the sixth century BC or earlier. The early religions in Central Asia were primitive religions and polytheistic beliefs. In Ahur Mazda, the god of a certain tribe became the god in the early days of the country's formation, and the primitive nature worship still exists. Zoroastrianism combines the belief of Ahura Mazda with the worship of fire.
Gubos
Ancient Persia spanned Asia and Africa, including Iran, Central Asia, West Asia and Egypt. In 550 BC, King Ju Lushi of Persia destroyed the Medes and established the Ahmen Dynasty, which was conquered by Alexander in 330 BC.
-For 550 years, ancient Persia has been using cuneiform, which is a further development of cuneiform of Yilan and Medea. Because Syrians {Aramaic} speak Semitic language from Hebrew and Phoenician, and are good at business, they are spread all over West Asia, and their culture has developed and mastered commercial power, forming the original phonetic alphabet, which was formed in 1000 BC and became the common language of all countries in West Asia. Egyptians use Egyptian, while Babylonian, Yilan and Akkadian are used in the two river basins, and many languages coexist. Official documents and business documents are written in Arabic, which is spread all over Central Asia and India.
Zoroastrianism was founded by Zoroaster, an ancient Persian. He lived from 628 BC to 55 BC1year and was born in Transcaucasia. {Said in eastern Iran} has now been confirmed as Bactria. Born in the Spimada family. Its teachings are preserved in the Persian classic Avesta. He believes that there are two opposing origins in the world. One is the good God Ahura Mazda, and the other is the evil God Ahriman. These two brothers ruled the eternal struggle between good and evil in Er Shen, and finally the good god won. Fire is the representative of kindness and light, and is the son of Ahura Mazda. So worship fire, the opposite is darkness. Tevas is a demon, an evil god and the source of suffering, so Tevas must be eliminated. Zoroastrianism became the Persian state religion in Darius I at the end of 6th century BC. The worship of Mithra, the sun god, has a certain position in Zoroastrianism, which is similar to Christianity in many aspects.
Ancient India
Ancient India is roughly in today's India and Pakistan. In 3000 BC, bronzes appeared in India and river basins, and agriculture developed, forming an ancient urban culture. The representative of the prosperous period is Harappa culture {-2500- 1500}. Harappa culture was created for the indigenous Indian-Daropi tea people (Meilanruo-Indians), whose race is unknown. In the middle of 2000 BC, Aryans invaded the Indus valley from the northwest, and later Persians, Greeks, Dayue people and other races invaded one after another, which is called the "Vedic Age". BC 1000 years into the Iron Age, that is, into the slave society. There are no historical materials for centuries after A.D. 1000. It is said that the upper reaches of the Ganges belonged to the Moon Dynasty, and the middle part of the Ganges Valley belonged to the Japanese Dynasty. In the 6th-4th century BC, Mojeto was a big country at that time.
Ancient Indian civilization has two sources:
First, the indigenous Harappa civilization in the Indus Valley;
Second, foreign Aryan civilization developed from the Indus River to the Ganges River.
Halapa culture died in the middle of 2000 BC, and the reason for its death is unknown. Harappa script has not been interpreted so far, but it is the predecessor of Indian culture. The most representative are two ancient underground cities. With Punjab, including Halaba, as the center, it is 1.500 km long from east to west and 1.600 km long from north to south. The city has a complete drainage system, and its perfection level may not be achieved even if it is one of the best modern cities in the world today. The human bones unearthed here all died under very strange circumstances. Some scientists infer that there was a nuclear war here in ancient times.
The representative of Aryan civilization is Vedic culture. The characters in the Vedic era belong to Indo-European language family, which was called Vedic Sanskrit in history. The oldest Rigveda was formed from the middle of 2000 BC to the beginning of 1000 BC. In the early vedic era. The late Vedic period is the first half of 1000 BC, and there are three Sanskrit Vedas, namely Samovida, Yeroveda and Avina Veda.
In the early Aryans, nature worship prevailed. People don't understand the laws of natural changes and think that everything is dominated by nature, so they worship gods, such as Vulcan, Sun God, Raytheon, Rain God, Wind God and so on. After the paternal family appeared, there was ancestor worship. In the 65438-0000-7th century BC, slavery society was formed, Brahmanism prevailed, and Buddhism came into being in the 6th-5th century BC.
Brahmanism retains and makes use of polytheism in primitive religion, but the nature of God has changed. Indra, once regarded as the god of lightning and harvest, has now become the patron saint of royalty and nobility. Brahmanism takes the Vedas as the classics, and writes Brahma Books, Forest Books and Upanishads. They put forward a new theory in their interpretation, which is mainly manifested in the following two interrelated aspects: First, "Brahman" or the soul of the universe is the only truth, the soul of self or individual comes from Brahman, and the whole objective material world is just an illusion. Second, start your own business, and after death, you will be reborn as Lower Varna, even an animal. Only by following the dharma can we return to Brahma in the higher Varna cycle. Brahmanism sanctifies slavery, Varna system and slavery state power.
The founder of Buddhism is Sakyamuni, whose original name is Gautama Siddharta. He belongs to the Sakyamuni tribe on the border between Nepal and India. He was born in Lumbini, Nepal, and was later called "Sakyamuni", which means "the hermit of Sakyamuni people". Jainism and Buddhism came into being at the same time. According to legend, its founder was Valdamana, later known as Daxiong (about 528-468 BC). Like Sakyamuni, Jainism was born in Khrushchev. Jainism means "conqueror of lust" and Ni Jian means "beyond the world of mortals", hence the name Jainism. Neither Buddhism nor Jainism recognizes the Vedas as a classic, denies the necessity of the existence of Brahman priests, and opposes the privileged position of Brahman in the hierarchy. Jainism also accepted the idea of Brahmanism's visit, karma and reincarnation. The difference between Jainism and Buddhism is that Jainism emphasizes asceticism and even advocates giving one's life in exchange for the joy of the soul. Buddhism takes suffering as its starting point, but it covers up the suffering of class oppression, and seeks nihilistic nirvana with the aim of relieving suffering.
Due to the popularity of nature worship in the early Vedas in ancient India, Rigveda is a hymn and prayer to the gods in the sacrificial ceremony. Many of the gods mentioned in it are from the sun, the moon, stars, wind, rain, lightning, mountains and vegetation. All the gods are divided into heaven and earth. The etymology of Teutonic God is the same as that of Zeus, who is the father in heaven and is represented in the shape of a bull in mythology. Valera is the most influential among the gods. Its root symbolizes the sky and contains all things. It should be a deification of the sky. The worship of gods in ancient India is quite similar to that in ancient China. In the early Vedas, the relationship between God and man was close and intimate, which was completely different from the relationship between God and master and slave in Judaism. At that time, Indians worshipped gods, but there were no idols of gods, nor did they build many temples for them. By the time of Brahmanism, there were three main procedures that formed the relationship between man and God in religion: Vedic apocalypse, universal sacrifice and Brahman supremacy. By the 6th century BC, when we entered the Upanishads era, ideology and culture changed again. In China, although Heaven was the supreme god in the Zhou Dynasty, it had been ethicized and established a close relationship with the people. The so-called heaven is far away and human nature is gentle, which prepares space for the development of humanistic thought.
ancient Greece
The geographical scope of ancient Greece, in addition to the present Greek peninsula, also includes the whole Aegean region and northern Macedonia and Thrace, Apennine Peninsula and Asia Minor. Ancient Greek civilization is the mother of western civilization, and ancient Greek literature is the source of western literature.
In 2000 BC, ancient Greece appeared as a country. 2600-2000 BC is the early Minoan culture, which belongs to the era of stone and stone combination; 2000- 1 125 BC was the middle and late Crete culture, belonging to the Bronze Age. Around 2000 BC, the earliest slave country appeared in Crete. At the beginning of 17- 16 BC, the unified kingship of Crete was established to achieve economic and cultural prosperity. In the early Minoan culture period, agricultural villages were established, and pictures and characters developed into hieroglyphics, reflecting the influence of Egypt; The linear character B appeared in 1450- 1400 BC, and hieroglyphics were replaced by the linear character A in the period of unified kingship. It has not been interpreted so far. 1 1 century BC-the first 8th century was Homer's era. The main achievement of early Greek culture is Homer's epic.
About 800 years before the rise of ancient Greek civilization, the splendid Crete civilization and Mycenae civilization were bred in the Aegean region. About 1200 BC, the Dorian invasion destroyed Mycenae civilization, and Greek history entered the so-called "dark age". At the end of Homer's era, ironware became popular, replacing bronze ware. Maritime trade has also been re-developed, and new city-states have been established. The Greeks created their own characters with Phoenician letters, and held the first Olympic Games in 776 BC. The Olympic Games also marked the prosperous period of ancient Greek civilization.
Around 750 BC, with the population growth, the Greeks began to colonize abroad. In the following 250 years, new Greek city-states spread all over the Mediterranean coast, including Asia Minor and North Africa. Among these cities, Sparta and Athens are the most powerful.
In the 5th and 6th centuries BC, especially after the Greek-Persian War, the economic life was highly prosperous, resulting in splendid Greek culture, which had a far-reaching impact on later generations. The ancient Greeks had profound attainments in literature, drama, sculpture, architecture, philosophy and many other aspects. After the destruction of ancient Greece, this cultural heritage was destructively continued by the ancient Romans, thus becoming the spiritual source of the whole western civilization.
Greek religions and myths originated from Mycenae culture. The Trojan War took place in12nd century BC, and both sides lost in the ten-year war. Under the wave of Dorian invasion, Mycenae country perished. In Homer's Epic, religious legends have formed a systematic myth, the biggest feature of which is "the theory that gods and people are alike". But there are also traces of primitive totem worship and nature worship. For example, Zeus marked a bull or an eagle, Sheila marked a cow, Athena marked an owl, and the gods of mountains and rivers, the monsters of the forest, and the monsters of half man and half beast. The gods live on Mount Olympus.
Ancient China
The state appeared in 2 1 century BC, and entered the bronze age in1century BC-6/BC. It entered the feudal society in the Western Zhou Dynasty in 1 1 century BC or in the Spring and Autumn Period in 770.
2600-2200 BC is the legendary heroic era, that is, the era of three emperors and five emperors from Huangdi to Yaoshun. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor invented writing, temperament, medicine, arithmetic, sericulture, boats and cars, and so on. The establishment of the Xia Dynasty in the 2nd/kloc-0th century BC marked China's entry into the slave society. The history of authentic written records in China began in Shang Dynasty, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Shangshu with inscriptions on gold are important documents. The structure of Chinese characters, such as pictographs, pointing things, knowing, pictophonetic characters, loanwords, etc., is already available. There are many bronzes and the silk weaving industry is developed. From 65438 BC+065438 BC+0 BC to the 8th century BC {7765438 BC+0 BC}, the thought of "respecting heaven, protecting people and being wise" was formed in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was the main content of the ruling thought of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Book of Changes in The Grand Book of History represents the earliest germination of simple materialism and dialectical factors, which indicates that China people are the first nation in the world to break away from theocracy. Zhouyi can be called cosmic mathematics, which reveals the inherent laws of the movement and change of everything in the universe and is the standard to distinguish everything.
Shamanism appeared in China during the matriarchal society, and a full-time priest-wizard appeared. Shaman wizards are common among all ethnic groups. Witchcraft was very popular in Shang Dynasty. In religious concepts, the authority of ghosts and gods is supreme, and wizards are regarded as communicators between people and ghosts and gods. In Zhuan Xu's era, people were divided into gods. "Nan Zhongzheng" was a full-time wizard in charge of matters related to gods, and "Huo Lizheng" was a "civil affairs teacher" in charge of underground civil affairs, and it was forbidden to "infringe" the gods in heaven. Shang dynasty, Xia dynasty and Zhou dynasty changed their fate successively. The rulers of the Western Zhou Dynasty emphasized the importance of personnel on the premise of not shaking their destiny. The emperor should not only "respect heaven", but also "protect the people". In order to protect the people, he must also "be virtuous". During the Spring and Autumn Period, it developed into the idea of "valuing the people and neglecting the sky".
The Book of Changes was written in the early Zhou Dynasty. It is said that Fuxi drew eight diagrams, and Zhou Wenwang deduced sixty-four hexagrams and made them. The Tao Te Ching written by Lao Zi at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period established the first atheistic philosophy system in the history of China. It is full of dialectical thoughts, which is more scientific and reasonable than the theories of ancient European materialist philosophers Thales, Anaximan, Heraclitus and Democritus.