Yusheng
Abstract: There are six original ancient civilizations in the world: China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Mexico in Central America, and Peru in South America. Ancient Greece and Judaism are two secondary civilizations that later became the sources of Western civilization. Among these eight ancient civilizations, Chinese civilization exhibits many characteristics that are distinct from other ancient civilizations. This article elaborates on the uniqueness of Chinese civilization from eight aspects, aiming to explain that it was not accidental for ancient China to form a superpower similar to the United Nations in maintaining peace.
Keywords: superpower, civilizational uniqueness, primordial society, war civilization
Every civilization has its unique aspects, making each civilization distinctive and one-of-a-kind. This isn’t the specificity of Chinese civilization we’re discussing here. The uniqueness of Chinese civilization lies in the fact that it followed a path that other civilizations didn’t. Compared to Chinese civilization, other civilizations are more similar and alike. It is precisely for this reason that the study of Chinese classics and culture carries special significance, because most international anthropology and sociology are currently based on Western societies and smack of Eurocentrism. Therefore, understanding the uniqueness of Chinese civilization can help us break free from the powerful influence of Western sociological schools and establish our own sociological system.
The author has emphasized the uniqueness of Chinese civilization many times before, in order to explain why Taoist doctrines only appeared in China. [1] The author once pointed out that “human society is divided into the original society encoded by genetics and the artificial secondary society. Ancient China was able to maintain the original society for a long time, while Western civilization broke down the original society and reorganized the secondary society from the beginning. The main reason is that ancient China established a superpower similar to the United Nations today, which can maintain a relatively peaceful and stable social environment. Among the many ancient civilizations in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, China is the only one.” [2] This article is the first time the author has discussed the uniqueness of Chinese civilization in a special topic, but he can only choose a few important characteristics to discuss and does not intend to summarize the whole topic of the uniqueness of Chinese civilization.
There are six universally recognized, independently developed so-called primary civilizations in the world: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Mexico in Central America, and Peru in South America. None of the primary civilizations’ neighbors were of higher civilization level, with Mesopotamia and Egypt being the sole exceptions. Although they were neighbors, they influenced each other and developed into civilizations almost simultaneously. Neither can be considered a secondary civilization developed under the influence of the other, especially given their different writing systems. Ancient Greek and Jewish civilizations are secondary civilizations, but they are the origins of Western civilization, which has dominated the development of modern world civilization. This article discusses the first six primary civilizations, occasionally referencing the two secondary civilizations of Greece and Judaism.
(a) Distance from the ocean
It is generally accepted that apes are the only distant ancestors of humans, but there are some discrepancies. For example, newborn human infants can swim in water, while apes cannot. In addition, humans are born naked, so some scholars doubt that humans originated from marine mammals. Even so, the ocean and land are completely different living environments.
If we divide all human societies into genetically encoded primitive societies and artificial secondary societies, we will find many fundamental differences between the two, such as how fish evolved from ocean to land animals in the history of life. For the concepts of primitive society and secondary society, readers can refer to the previous article. (http://www.confucius2000.com/admin/list.asp?id=3672) [3]
When I first conceived the concept of the genetically encoded primitive society and the artificial secondary society many years ago, I initially thought of humans in the primitive society as living on land, grounded; and humans in the secondary society as living on the ocean, without land, needing a reference point external to their ships to determine their position. If they wanted to remain stationary, they would anchor to the seabed; if they were on a journey, they would have a destination as a reference. This destination is shared by all, and individuals have no say in it. Cao Cao, in his poem “Viewing the Sea,” wrote, “The autumn wind is bleak, the waves surge high. The sun and moon seem to rise from within it; the starry sky is brilliant, as if emerging from its depths.” When you gaze at the boundless, surging ocean, you feel its magnificent power and the mysterious unpredictability hidden beneath its surface, a feeling that the earth does not evoke. The ocean seems to better inspire humanity’s need and yearning for a secondary society.
Prehistoric megalithic cultures were mostly distributed along coastlines, both in Europe and, reportedly, in coastal areas of Shandong and Zhejiang provinces in China. It’s also worth noting that numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean are renowned for their various megalithic cultures. This seems unlikely to be a coincidence. Dragging and erecting these massive stones, weighing several tons or even tens of tons, to form monumental structures or carve them into statues would not be an easy task even today. It would require a temporary secondary social structure to coordinate the relatively long-term efforts of hundreds or thousands of people.
According to Haviland’s anthropology textbook, of the six original civilizations he listed, five occurred in coastal areas, including the coastline, with the Xia Dynasty in China being the only exception. The Xia Dynasty was clearly an inland country. [4] The Dawenkou and Hongshan cultures, which may be related to the Shang Dynasty culture, both bordered coastal areas, and their subjects had generally seen the ocean. However, the Shang Dynasty was a later development of Chinese civilization, and we should not include later developments in our calculations, so the conclusion that Chinese civilization was the only inland civilization can be established.
The civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India covered vast areas, extending deep into the interior. Secondary civilizations like Judaism and ancient Greece were situated on the coast in smaller regions, while the original civilizations of Central America (Mexico) and South America (Peru) were located along a narrow strip of coastline. One theory suggests that early humans migrated south along the coastline in rudimentary boats after entering the Americas from Asia. For example, the Olmec and Maya, among the earliest civilizations in Central America, were located in coastal areas, while the Peruvian civilization first emerged on the coastline, gathering shellfish from the beaches for food. We can say that the ocean played an irreplaceable role in the development of American civilizations. Perhaps this is why American civilizations are known for their megalithic culture: from giant stone carvings of human heads to pyramid-like structures built of stone. Whether these structures were built of stone or mud is not important; what matters is that they constructed a tall material idol as a source of social cohesion, enabling unified action in a secondary social structure.
In the late 1980s, some described Chinese culture as a “loess culture,” closed and conservative, while Western culture was described as a “blue ocean culture,” open and progressive. However, standing on the vast, boundless earth, one’s heart is at peace, needing no concern for spirits or deities. On ancient, rudimentary ships adrift on the boundless ocean, facing raging storms and towering waves, human vulnerability was laid bare, making divine protection crucial. Thus, the Western philosophy of hard work and self-discipline under divine inspiration has a long history, spanning thousands of years, leading to a closer relationship between people and the divine, and a distance from other people. It is worth noting that the adventurousness of maritime life is something lacking in land-based life.
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India were three ancient civilizations that maintained frequent maritime trade and communication. Mesopotamia, Egypt, and later ancient Greece and Judaism were all members of the Mediterranean civilization, and the Mediterranean played a significant role in their development. According to Thucydides, a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC, after the Minoan civilization emerged on the island of Correia, their kings controlled the Mediterranean around 1600 BC. For about a thousand years prior, pirates and bandits were a serious problem in the Mediterranean region. He said:
“In ancient times, when people knew how to reach each other’s settlements by sea, the Greeks living on the coast and islands, like barbarians, often relied on piracy for survival… They raided towns and villages without walls, and they sustained themselves through this plunder… The inland areas were also rife with bandits, and this remains true even today in some Greek-inhabited areas… The people living in tribes inland still carry weapons, a remnant of this ancient plundering practice. In ancient times, all Greeks carried weapons because their homes lacked sufficient defenses, and interpersonal relationships were unsafe.”
The oldest collections of poetry in humankind are the *Classic of Poetry* (Shijing) in China, the *Rigveda* in India, and the Homeric epics in ancient Greece. Generally speaking, these works reflect the thoughts and emotions of ancient peoples. The differences in the frequency of word usage reflect the different main images in the minds of these three ancient peoples, as well as the different social environments they lived in. The author has compiled statistics on the differences in word usage among these three works. To improve comparability, the author used English translations as the standard; the *Classic of Poetry* was presented in its entirety, while random sampling was used for the *Rigveda* and the Homeric epics.
The occurrence rate of the word “sea” or “ocean” is highest in Homer’s epics (0.14%, 74/53258), followed by the Rigveda (0.05%, 15/28017), and lowest in the Book of Songs (0.015%, 9/60856). This is directly related to the distance of the three civilizations from the ocean; ancient Greece, located on a peninsula, was closest to the sea. It’s worth noting that the English translation of the Book of Songs uses nine words related to the ocean, while the original Chinese text only contains seven. Six of these instances of “sea” mean distant, such as in “the four seas” or “sea nation.” Only one instance might refer to the ocean, namely the line “The flowing water of Mian River, flowing towards the sea” in the poem “Xiao Ya: Mian Shui.” However, the Book of Songs also refers to large lakes as “sea,” so the “sea” in “flowing towards the sea” could also refer to a lake. The conclusion is that the authors of the Book of Songs likely never saw the ocean and did not understand its true meaning.
The frequency of the three gods/goddesses appears highest in the Rigveda at 0.87% (244/28017), and lowest in the Book of Songs at 0.072% (44/60856). This seems inconsistent with the aforementioned idea that the ocean stimulated a secondary society, but the frequency of other words suggests that ancient Greek society was more typically a secondary society.
The frequency of the word “battle” is highest in Homer’s epics (0.13%, 68/53258), followed by the Rigveda (0.096%, 27/28017), and lowest in the Book of Songs (0.028%, 17/60856). This aligns with the frequency of wars described in the ancient histories of these three texts. Similarly, the frequency of the word “anger” is highest in Homer’s epics (0.092%, 49/53258), lowest in the Rigveda (0.018%, 5/28017), and lowest in the Book of Songs (0.025%, 15/60856). The frequency of joy (joy/joyment/joyful) was lowest in Homer’s epics, at 0.0094% (5/53258); highest in the Rigveda, at 0.14% (38/28017); and in the middle in the Book of Songs, at 0.087% (53/60856). In terms of the frequency of anger and joy, the ancient Indians had more masculine emotions, which may be related to their emphasis on religious faith and relative peace. The ancient Greeks had more feminine emotions, which is directly related to their adventurous life at sea. [5]
It should be noted that the *Rigveda* arose after the conquest of Indian civilization by the Aryans; it consists of poems praising the gods, and its authors were mostly priests. Homer’s epics, on the other hand, are poems praising heroes, and their authors were ancient Greek bards. These lengthy, monolithic works are related to the establishment of the two distinct societies of India and ancient Greece. In contrast, the authors of the *Classic of Poetry* are more representative, mostly ordinary people, and thus amateur poets.
(II) The Impact of Nomadic Peoples: Only Chinese Civilization Survived
When Mr. Zhao Lin talked about the impact of nomadic peoples on agricultural civilization, he said that the first major invasion of the agricultural world by nomadic peoples lasted for more than 1,500 years, from the end of the third millennium BC to 600 BC. Ancient civilizations in Europe, Asia and Africa were all invaded by this nomadic people, including Indian civilization and various Mediterranean civilizations: Mesopotamian civilization, Egyptian civilization, ancient Greek civilization, etc. Only Chinese civilization was an exception. The northern nomadic peoples, represented by the Xiongnu, did not conquer China, but continued to harass Chinese agricultural civilization. [6]
According to DeMeo’s research, this nomadic invasion occurred not only in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but also in the Americas, caused by the same process of arid climate and desertification. DeMeo believed that the Xia Dynasty, like Shennong, represented the civilization of the ancient southern indigenous peoples of China, in contrast to the later nomadic cultures. If DeMeo and Zhao Lin are both correct, China is the only civilization among the above-mentioned civilizations that was not conquered by nomadic peoples. Compared to agricultural culture, nomadic peoples undoubtedly represent a more violent culture. [7]
(III) Only in the early stages of Chinese civilization was there a more definitive matriarchal society phase.
Many scholars believe that there was a relatively relaxed and peaceful culture before the emergence of human civilization. Demeo believed that the desertification of a vast area from North Africa, Arabia to Central Asia due to drought occurred between 4000 BC and 3000 BC, which led to a fundamental transformation of human culture from a relaxed and peaceful culture to a severe and violent culture. Demeo called these two completely different cultures Matrism and Patrism respectively. I will translate them here as maternal culture and paternal culture. Demeo believed that the Americas also experienced desertification and the emergence of paternal culture at roughly the same time. The paternal culture that emerged here conquered the original maternal culture and became the ruling class of the world’s important ancient civilizations. [7]
In matriarchal cultures, men and women are equal, creating a egalitarian society without class distinctions. Therefore, it’s difficult to categorize it as either matriarchal or patriarchal. If we define a society as patriarchal (children taking their father’s surname) and matriarchal (children taking their mother’s surname), anthropological research indicates that patriarchal societies are more common than matriarchal societies worldwide. Ancient Chinese texts clearly document a peaceful transition from matriarchal to patriarchal societies, and patriarchal societies, from the outset, exhibit characteristics of patriarchal societies—essentially a two-tiered society.
Wang Yuzhe listed seven detailed pieces of evidence to show that there was a relatively definite matriarchal society stage in the early period of Chinese civilization. [8] This matriarchal society in ancient China had a unique form: when two clans formed a marriage relationship, the man would stay overnight at the home of the woman from the other clan, and would still work in his own clan during the day. The children were raised by the mother and the maternal uncle.
We can imagine that the interaction between villages and tribes is the social space of men, and they often meet and establish relationships when they hunt. Due to the aforementioned custom of visiting marriage, the interaction between villages also becomes the social space of men. This social activity space between villages and tribes has the nature of a secondary society, and the power structure of men is established on the basis of this new activity space. In this way, there may be a stage in which a primitive society centered on women and a secondary society centered on men coexist. After men form a power network at the secondary social level, they penetrate into the primitive society and are resisted by the feminist society. The situation in the prehistoric West may be different from that in China. The Western patriarchal society conquered the feminist society by force and assimilated them. Lao Tzu both opposed the secondary society interfering with the primitive society and had a clear tendency to praise the qualities of women, which may reflect the historical reality of the aforementioned social changes. [9]
The above-mentioned original society of women and the secondary society of men coexisted and formed the unique Chinese surname and clan name. In ancient China, women were once called surnames and men were called clan names. The Zuo Zhuan, Duke Yin, Year 8, said, “The Son of Heaven establishes virtue, and bestows surnames based on birth, and grants land and names clan names.” There were also clan names based on towns, official positions, or the posthumous title or courtesy name of grandfathers. Therefore, only nobles had clan names, and commoners did not. Obviously, clan name was a cultural construct of the secondary society, while surname was the name of the matrilineal clan in ancient times, that is, the maternal society of Demetheus. The secondary society here is still based on the original society, that is, the quasi-original society. [9]
The *Records of the Grand Historian*, in its “Chronological Tables of the Six States,” states that “Yu arose in the Western Qiang,” and in recent years, the theory that Yu’s hometown was Shiniu in Beichuan has gained traction. Considering the shared origins of the Han and Tibetan languages, and given that Demetrius, mentioned above, believed the Xia dynasty, like Shennong, represented a matriarchal society in the south, in contrast to the patriarchal society of the grasslands, the Zhou people shared the same ethnicity and origin as the Xia people. Furthermore, the late Zhou dynasty was a pivotal period that laid the philosophical foundation for Chinese civilization; therefore, the clearly defined matriarchal society in prehistoric China had a crucial influence on the formation of Chinese civilization.
(iv) Preservation of early human migratory behavior
Among the world’s major ancient civilizations, only ancient Chinese civilization preserved the migratory nature of its hunter-gatherer ancestors until very late, likely disappearing only during the Axial Age of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. This contrasts sharply with the urban civilization of the West.
China’s capital only had a relatively stable location after the Shang Dynasty moved its capital to Yin during the reign of Pan Geng. There were as many as fifteen capital relocations by the Shang Dynasty that can be found in the literature, not to mention those that were not recorded in the literature. The Xia Dynasty probably moved its capital even more, but the early historical records were not as complete. So many capital relocations could not be for political reasons, but can only be explained by the preservation of the migratory nature of the early hunter-gatherer era. Wang Yuzhe believes that the frequent capital relocations in ancient China were due to the needs of extensive agriculture. After a few years of slash-and-burn farming, the land’s productivity was exhausted, and they had to move to a new place. Wang Yuzhe also set the last such capital relocation during the reign of Pan Geng as the dividing line between primitive society and class society. [10] As for ordinary farmers, they migrated even more frequently. He Xiu’s commentary on the fifteenth year of Duke Xuan in the Gongyang Commentary says, “The land was changed and the dwelling was moved every three years.” Such land did not need to be concerned about the size of the area, so according to Wang Yuzhe’s research, the land measurement unit “mu” appeared in China during the Western Zhou Dynasty, but it was not used as a measurement unit. The use of “mu” as a land measurement unit only appeared in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. [11]
The other five original civilizations all had fixed capitals from the beginning, and these capitals served as social centers with massive brick and stone monuments. This was true of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the secondary civilizations of ancient Greece and Judaism also built enormous altars within their capitals. Although the Mesopotamian civilization initially used adobe bricks, these four civilizations gradually adopted stone more extensively as a building material. Ancient Indian civilization lacked the brick and stone monuments of other ancient civilizations, but it did have massive ablution structures related to religious rituals.
The earliest civilization in Central America, particularly in Mexico, is the Olmec civilization. Generally considered to be in the chiefdom stage, before the establishment of a state, the Olmecs built massive earthen altars and sculpted colossal stone statues as the social center. In South America, the earliest civilizations in Peru appeared along the coast. These people subsisted on seashells and were also in the chiefdom stage, not yet a state. They built enormous stone altars. As for the later state-based civilizations in Central and South America, the Maya and the famous Inca Empire are renowned for their massive stone monuments, which remain iconic landscapes attracting numerous tourists.
Consistent with this, ancient China lacked the massive brick and stone monuments found in the capitals of other ancient civilizations. Even after the Shang Dynasty moved its capital to Yin, the palaces remained earthen and wooden structures with mud walls and thatched roofs. This likely reflects a continuation of the architectural style of palaces built during periods of capital relocation. It’s worth noting that for over three thousand years thereafter, stone was rarely used as a building material, from royal palaces to ordinary people’s homes. This doesn’t mean the Chinese were unaware of the longevity of stone; they used it for tombs because tombs didn’t need to be moved.
(V) The phenomenon of bipolar disorder seems to be unique to Chinese civilization.
In 1976, American psychologist Julian Jaynes proposed the bicameralism theory (Julian Jaynes, 1920-1997, bicameralism, the author’s tentative translation)[12], believing that human subjective consciousness only appeared about three thousand years ago. Before that, humans were bicameral, with the right brain hallucinating and hearing the voice of God, which was then transmitted to the left brain, and the left brain carried out the command. Jaynes believed that there are subjective consciousness dreams and bicameral dreams. The former is the mental journey of subjective consciousness, which can be recalled later; the latter is like animal dreams, which is just a kind of mechanical memory of intention, just like we can’t remember how we learned language but can speak. Homer’s epics and the early Bible only have records of so-called bicameral dreams, in which people dream that God speaks to them and issues commands to them. Jaynes cited this as evidence that people at that time did not have subjective consciousness.
Johnny believes that humanity developed the concept of God 10,000 years ago, followed by the bipolar world of the next 7,000 years, and then the era of subjective consciousness over the last 3,000 years. Johnny argues that after the invention of agriculture, society expanded, and people could no longer readily see their leaders and obey orders as before. The bipolar phenomenon arose, with people hallucinating divine voices to achieve a coordinated social effect. Johnny draws extensively on various sources, believing his theory applies to Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Jewish, Greek, and Indian civilizations, as well as to the civilizations of North and South America.
The author’s research found that China is an exception. For example, China had clear records of subjective consciousness as early as 1400 BC, which is the material provided by the Book of Documents. There are clear records of subjective consciousness dreams in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty. In addition, there is archaeological evidence of divination using animal bones in China as early as 6,000 years ago. Jennis explained divination as a phenomenon in the transition of bipolar humans to subjective consciousness. They could no longer listen to the voice of the gods and had to consult the gods to seek their voice. Therefore, the author proposed that human subjective consciousness appeared 40,000 years ago, when humans first made a large number of tools and created a large number of rock paintings. The bipolar phenomenon was produced by humans to adapt to an unfamiliar secondary society. At that time, humans lacked the theory and technology to build a reasonable secondary society and could only rely on blindly following the will of the gods to coordinate and unify their actions. There was no typical secondary society in China before the Warring States period. [13]
(vi) Differences in water conservancy projects
The four ancient civilizations—Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China—all emerged in river valleys, leading to the concept of water conservancy projects promoting state formation, or the theory of water conservancy engineering in the emergence of civilizations. Karl August Wittfogel (1896-1988) was a key figure in expounding this theory. While this theory has many shortcomings, the role of water conservancy projects in the early development of ancient civilizations cannot be denied. Of the four ancient civilizations, three relied on irrigation systems, while China’s only significant contribution was the control of the Yellow River’s floods. Modern archaeological discoveries show that Central American civilizations, beginning with the Olmec civilization, had irrigation systems; South American civilizations, initially inhabited by coastal shell-gatherers, naturally did not require water conservancy projects, but later, with the emergence of states, they all incorporated canals and irrigation systems, with the Inca Empire possessing large irrigation canals. To some extent, among the six original civilizations, China is the only one that did not have major irrigation projects for a long period after the emergence of a state.
Controlling the Yellow River’s floods differs significantly from irrigation projects. Irrigation projects require continuous collaboration and unified management, while floods are occasional occurrences. If the state existed before irrigation projects, and these projects contributed to the state’s strengthening and longevity, then the low probability of Yellow River floods in China is insufficient to justify their beneficial effect on the state. The first recorded change of the Yellow River’s course occurred during the time of Yu the Great, around 2200 BC, while the next historically recorded change occurred in 602 BC. Consistent with these accounts, numerous ancient texts rarely mention the management of Yellow River floods.
The difference between irrigation and flood control lies in the fact that irrigation is a production necessity, while flooding is a threat to life. In the absence of a secondary social management mechanism, the latter is more appealing.
(vii) Chinese civilization appears to be the only civilization without geographical limitations.
Robert L. Carneiro (1927-) first proposed the theory of natural barriers to the development of human civilization, that is, the role of geographical limiting factors in the development of civilization. This theory holds that war is a way to drive humans to spread in all directions, that is, if you do not spread to distant places, I will attack you. When humans have nowhere to spread, the social reasons for the long-term existence of war-like violence are that the state emerges. Another expression of this theory is that those who want to escape state control and migrate to the surrounding areas suffer great losses, resulting in a significant decline in living standards. People endure state control and the inequality brought about by the state in order to avoid suffering losses. [14]
The civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and Mexico in Central America were all characterized by irrigation systems. The presence or absence of irrigation could result in agricultural yields differing by several times. However, the Nile River in Egypt was flanked by deserts, meaning those fleeing could lose their lives. The Peruvian civilization originated in coastal areas, subsisting on shellfish; leaving this environment meant losing their livelihood. Therefore, they all possessed what are known as natural barriers. Chinese civilization, however, lacked natural barriers, resulting in constant migrations. Even during the Spring and Autumn Period, vast tracts of wasteland existed between different states. Mencius, during the Warring States Period, advocated unifying China through benevolent governance, a proposition that required the free migration of farmers. Natural barriers are what are known as circumscriptions.
(VIII) The Primitive Nature of Ancient Primitive Societies, Superpowers, and Religious Culture
For all these reasons, the ancient primitive society-style superpower based on human nature as its operating pillar only appeared in China and not in other civilizations. The author has also written articles about the ancient primitive society-style superpower[2], which will not be repeated here. Here we will talk about the primitiveness of my country’s religious belief culture.
Two- or three-year-old children believe that everything around them is like them, with the same thoughts and needs, and that it is a warm world full of childlike fun. This is animism. They will put their small pillows together with their big pillows and say, “The pillow wants to find its mother!”, that is, they see the big pillow as the mother of the small pillow. Under such an understanding, children have an emotional connection with the things around them. But children will never imagine a god that they need to carefully serve, like adults in secondary societies. Consistent with this, primary societies and secondary societies have different religious beliefs and cultures. In primary societies, humans and gods are similar, that is, humans and gods are on the same level, while secondary societies emphasize that humans and gods are different. [2]
The religions of primitive societies and those of secondary societies are fundamentally different, with ancient Chinese religions exhibiting more characteristics of primitive societal religions. In other words, art, religion, and philosophy all originate from humanity’s wonder at the inner and outer worlds, but differ in their direction and methods of expression, all ultimately reaching a state of perfection that transcends reality. Primitive societal religions, like art, remain at this level of expression and self-transcendence. The integrative function of religion in primitive societies can be understood as an expression of the holistic nature of the deep consciousness within those societies. Secondary societal religions, on the other hand, fulfill many different functions, deriving numerous meanings from the individual to all aspects of society.
Both Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi discussed the phenomenon of the coexistence of humans and gods in primordial society. Lao Tzu, in Chapter 60 of the *Tao Te Ching*, said, “The spirits are not divine,” “The spirits do not harm people,” and “The sage also does not harm people.” Zhuangzi, in his chapter “Cultivating One’s Nature,” said, “When Yin and Yang are in harmony, the spirits do not disturb.” This can be understood as the coexistence of humans and gods, meaning that gods are not superior to humans. Lao Tzu further stated, “When neither harms the other, virtue returns to both.” This can be understood as an emotional connection between humans and the spirits of their surroundings, meaning that the primordial society, at a deep level of psychological and emotional consciousness, encompassed the surrounding world. The rational thinking of secondary societies has caused us to lose this emotional connection with our surroundings.
Because early Chinese civilization lacked a typical two-tiered society, Chinese religions largely remained at the primitive stage, exhibiting significant primitiveness. This serves as strong evidence of the absence of a typical two-tiered society in ancient China. For example, Christianity believes in a God who oversees all things on earth; Buddhism teaches how to escape human suffering; and collective religious rituals teach people how to rediscover the sense of unity at the deeper level of consciousness in primitive society—these are characteristics of religions in two-tiered societies. Ancient Chinese religious beliefs lacked these characteristics. For instance, the Chinese people still lack the kind of collective religious rituals found in Christianity, such as weekly worship services. The ancestor worship still prevalent in my country today is a remnant of prehistoric totem culture.
During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties in China, people worshipped heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, clouds, rain, wind, snow, the sun, the moon, and stars. Two thousand years later, the Qing dynasty capital of Beijing built the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth, the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Moon in four directions to worship heaven, earth, the sun, and the moon—all manifestations of animism. The long-standing Chinese worship of mountain gods, land gods, and city gods is simply a form of respect for one’s own dwelling place, treating them as equals to oneself. It is said that when Europeans first arrived in the Americas and asked Native Americans to dig in early spring, they replied, “The land is pregnant; how can we disturb her?” This is similar to the Chinese worship of the land, stemming from the same concept. Most Chinese people do not distinguish between Buddhism and Taoism, simply believing that all deities are worthy of respect; and temple worship is mostly a personal act, lacking the collective religious rituals of the West. This indicates that the Chinese, influenced by animism, have not completely lost their deep-seated emotional connection with their surrounding society and natural environment. Zhuangzi believed that even excrement and urine contain Dao, which means that Daoist philosophy inherited this tradition and did not divide the world into two different levels of society.
In contrast to the superpower-like, primitive society of ancient China, other civilizations were primarily characterized by warfare. If we consider the Vedic civilization that arose after the Aryan conquest of India, and including the two secondary civilizations of Greece and Judaism—the ancestors of Western culture—the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Mexico, and Peru were all characterized by war. The early stages of war-driven civilizations required an all-powerful god as a source of social cohesion, and also a terrifying hell for those who challenged divine authority. Massive altar-like structures centered on the god became the hallmark of these war-driven civilizations. In the intense religious atmosphere, humans, manipulated by the secondary social machinery, could only worship and praise—this is precisely the social environment that fostered the so-called bipolar personality disorder. During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties in China, the dynasties served a function of peace and stability, alleviating the threat of war and allowing religious culture to remain at a primitive stage.
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literature
[1] You-Sheng Li (2005): A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoist Philosophy. London, Canada: Taoist Recovery Centre. p2-4, 104.
[2] You Sheng (2008): The Five Degrees of Mourning and Early Literary Thought in the East and West. *Xuedeng*, Issue 8. http://www.confucius2000.com
[3] Yu Sheng (2008): A New Perspective on Examining the Differences Between Eastern and Western Cultures. *Xue Deng*, Issue 7. www.confucius2000.com
[4] William A. Haviland (2003): Human Evolution and Prehistory. Belmont, USA: Wadsworth. p303.
[5] All the poems studied are in English translation. A full text was used for the Book of Poetry but a random selection of 94 out of 1026 hymns was used for the Rig Veda and a random selection of five out of 24 books for the Homer’s epics: Iliad and Odyssey. Their sources were as follows:
a). Book of Poetry: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/chinese.
b). Vig Veda: http://www. sacred-texts.com/
c). Iliad and Odyssey: http://www.sacred-texts.com/
[6] Zhao Lin (2006): Clash of Civilizations and Cultural Evolution. Beijing: Oriental Press, 2006, pp. 1-21.
[7] J. DeMeo(2004): Saharasia. Orgone: Orgone Biophysical Research Lab.
[8] Wang Yuzhe (2004): Ancient Chinese History. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House. pp. 75-80.
[9] Li Yousheng (2006): A New Interpretation of Chinese Taoism. London, Canada: Taoist Rehabilitation Centre. p. 346.
[10] Wang Yuzhe (2004): Ancient Chinese History. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House. pp. 223-240.
[11] Wang Yuzhe (2004): Ancient Chinese History. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House. p. 687.
[12]Julian Jaynes(1976): The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
[13] Li, You-Sheng (2008): Julian Jaynes’ Theory of the Bicameral Mind and the Different Path Leading to Subjective Consciousness in China. www.taoism21cen.com.
[14] Robert L. Carneiro (1970): A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169: 733━738.
(This article was edited by the author on June 22, 2009)
FROM A READER:
After Wu Mi and Chen Yinque, the study of traditional Chinese learning almost ceased. Subsequently, the intellectuals of New China gradually fell into an era of cynicism and “Confucian merchants.”
The inability of Chinese traditional learning to occupy an independent position in international anthropology and sociology—is this related to the “sick plum blossom pavilion” phenomenon in the development of China’s own social system and culture?
I once read some of Jin Guantao’s articles and was greatly inspired! Today, I reread a series of papers by the author You Sheng, and I found them captivating. They answered some of my long-standing questions. If I have the opportunity, I hope to consult with him. 😀
I admire the author’s tireless efforts in the study of traditional Chinese culture even in such a commercialized society.
I am honored to read such a high-quality article here.
Thank you very much, Yusheng! (from: http://www.artssalon.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=3470)
author By Dr. You-Sheng Li
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