Factors Accounting for the Evolution of Chinese Civilization
4 min readThe Chinese nation is one of the oldest and most civilized nations in the world.
Chinese civilization is among the most time-honored, dynamic, cohesive and inspiring civilizations in the world.
Unfold the world map to locate the ancient civilizations, and you will find one thing they share in common is that the cradles of the splendid ancient civilization are all in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere, which is by no means a coincidence, but was determined by the low level of productive forces at that time.
Just imagine should people inhabit the extremely cold or hot zones in the remote antiquity, what a huge chunk of energy on the part of the inhabitants had to be devoted to coping with the hostile living condition? If not for the comfortable living conditions people couldn’t have subsisted and there would have been no civilization to speak of.
Actually the temperate climate plus the favorable temporal and geographic conditions gave rise to the civilizations. In other words, the civilization is nurtured in the harmony of the environment which enjoys the temperate climate, boasts lush plants and rushing rivers. Another significant factor accountable for the birth of the splendid civilizations in the Northern Hemisphere is that the said area boasts vast expanses of plains which are nourished by the major rivers. The world-renowned four ancient civilizations were originated from around the ma jor rivers of the Northern Temperate Zone, namely, India in the reaches of the IndiaRiver and the Heng River, Babylon in the drainage area of the Euphrates and the Tigris, Egypt nourished by the Niles and China enjoying the benefits of both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Generation upon generation of people have lived and procreated by those rivers, carrying forward, creating and upgrading the civilization.
In the Pre-historical period, the agricultural development played a decisive role in the whole society. With the low level of the productive forces, it was hard to establish industries distinct from agriculture, such as those of the handcraft and the textile. Hence agriculture was of overarching importance in the evolution of civilization during that period. Furthermore, food is essential for human beings and the role of agriculture can never be taken less importantly in whatever circumstances. As a matter of fact in China only the drainage areas of the Yangtze River and the YellowRiver are most favorable for the agricultural development, in other words, the two areas are the hotbeds of agricultural development. The two rivers, distinct from but complementary to each other, are closely connected, which is unique in the world. The development of the two river reaches exert profound influences upon the Chinese civilization’s origin and further development as well as the molding of its unique features. They are the cradles of Chinese civilization as wel1 as the sources of power and momentumof the Chinese civilization.
Another factor cannot be overlooked is the comparatively isolated geographicalenvironment of China. With its vast territory almost equal to that of the whole European continent, China stretches into the Pacific Ocean in the southeast and has the natural blockades of the Qinghai -Tibetan Plateau and the Pamirs in the southwest while beyond the north latitude 50 degrees it is frozen area, which sets the birth and evolution of Chinese civilization in a relatively independent and isolated environment. This results in the fact that the Chinese civilization is less influenced by the foreign cultures, thus keeps its uniqueness. Such environment also enables Chinese civilization to be developed continuously which is a rare phenomenon in the world history since nearly all of the other civilizations once discontinued or went into oblivion for ever, such as the Greek civilization and the Maya civilization. Only the Chinese civilization enjoys consecutive development, whichfully proves that the Chinese civilization is of unquenchable vitality, on whichscore we should be proud.
China enjoys an advantageous location in the Northern Temperate Zone looking out to the Pacific Ocean in the east. Blessed with an agreeable climate, China is diversified in physiognomy as reflected in the plateaus, the knaps, the plains, the basins, the rivers and the lakes, which prove to be favorable for people’s subsistence and development. On the vast territory of China, there are numerous species of plants and animals as well as rich mineral reserves, which afford abundant natural resources for the evolution of the Chinese civilization and facilitate the common growth of the cultures in China; despite the fact that fewexchanges were carried out between China and the outside world, the constant and consecutive communications between and among Chinese internal cultures provide unfailing motivation for the evolution of the Chinese civilization. Thanks to its excellent natural environment China stood in the ranks of advanced civilizations in the early days and for quite a long period.
