Chinese history

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
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Okay, I am going to cut to the chase of this debate.

First what is the difference between history and civilization?

Second, and this is really the important point that I wanted to get to eventually, can anyone tell me how long English history is? French? Japanese? Russian? etc.

Third, why is it that the Chinese endlessly preface everything with 5,000 years of history/civilization, which in turn has been picked up indiscriminately by journalists, businesspeople and even academics? What is the “cultural” significance of this (as far as I know) unique behavior? I just returned from Iran and no one ever said in 5,000 years of Persian history and I do not recall this being the case in Egypt or other ancient civilizations either.

Is this a recent trait or has 5,000 years always been emphasized in Chinese history? Or did it begin with the Western incursions? the Communist regime? the ROC moving to Taiwan? when? and if a discernible date can be identified, why did this spawn this 5,000 year tag?

Thanks again for any and all serious replies.

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quote[quote] First what is the difference between history and civilization? [/quote]

Civilisation is society with a certain developed level of culture, probably written records, laws etc. teh word is closely related to ‘city’.

History on the other hand I find harder to define despite being a history graduate. It is certainly not restricted to the study of written records or ‘civilisations’. A standard dictionary definition will say ‘the study of past events’ and I would say that this is fair enough if you qulify it a little to apply to peopel and societies.

quote:
Second, and this is really the important point that I wanted to get to eventually, can anyone tell me how long English history is? French? Japanese? Russian? etc.

No. It’s a meaningless question.

quote[quote] Third, why is it that the Chinese endlessly preface everything with 5,000 years of history/civilization [/quote]

Probably so they can look good.

bri

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This forum is replicating itself. To respond to the above, please go to the original forum.

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I’m closing this duplicate thread.
Please respond here.

–the moderator