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Where China fits in history

翻译,不止于翻译 | 翻译活龙活现

Where China fits in history

Narrow-mindedness might be a problem for people who don’t read history. Or, if they do, they might still have a provincial historical world view if their only history-reading experience has been in one single version of history, like history textbooks in Chinese schools. In both cases, they tend to be intolerant of other people who they think are “different”. And, by looking only inwardly, they run the risk of losing the historical threads where their own world fits.

Instead, if people understood the historical contexts in which the world has existed, they would have a much clearer and different view on almost everything. Reading history gives people a revealing historical perspective.

We the Chinese are justifiably proud of only our long history that has extended for thousands of years running. For most of our history, China was a world leader in science, technology, economy, and military power and maintained a regional hegemony dynasty after dynasty.

This, in fact, is a mixed blessing and was precisely why China’s leading advantage began to disappear when the people in West Europe were forced to revolutionize their technological, scientific, cultural, social, political, economic, and military systems under the huge pressures of invading nomadic tribes. After their land routes to the East had been cut off by roaming barbarians, they started to open up sea routes that they hoped would lead them to their trading partners in the faraway East. While being self-sufficient and self-centered, China, a haven tucked away in a safe Eurasian corner, was strong enough to repel or assimilate any invading nomads from only the north and didn’t feel the need to change at all.

Time went by, as it ever did.

Finally, when a static, agricultural China came into contact with a dynamic, industrialized West whose opium cargos and gunships arrived by sea from the other end of the Eurasian landmass, its world soon crumbled.

Then, it took China more than a century to gather itself and stand on its feet again only less than 60 years ago, which we should remember.

 

12 Responses

  1. James Kang says:

    just want to let you know, I support you. Keep it up!

  2. 活龙 says:

    thank you very much! i will.

  3. Wahoo says:

    Thank you for sharing!

  4. Guohua says:

    You’re welcome!

  5. O_HELLNOY_O says:

    Yo all the information are very useful to me! It can help me with the study of History of China and also can let me understand better about China

  6. Guohua says:

    Thanks for coming! Where do you study?

  7. justrecently says:

    As the thread here is about keeping it up, there haven’t been too many new posts here recently…

  8. Huolong says:

    Sorry about my laziness, JR.

    Let me think up some topics before getting started…there should be lots of them.

  9. […] 好几年前我从首都图书馆借过一本英文原版的历史书草草看过,让对世界历史不是十分了解的我颇为感慨——经过在学校那几年的历史教育,我终于可以从另外一个角度来透视世界历史以及中国和世界。书送到后,我打开一看,原来就是三年以前没有仔细研读的那本书!跟《围城》一样,真本书也是我的老朋友了。老友再访,不亦乐乎! […]

  10. 西贝博客 says:

    We can’t be that again..

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