中国人自称是最古老的文明，但在语言形成的时期他们甚至还不存在。中国人只存在了两千年。他们是如何维持这么久的呢？-网帖翻译-龙腾网

以下是全球网友评论：

Kate Alwyn
I have to say, this question reveals a certain ignorance and prejudice, and seems to be yet another leading question aimed at China.

我不得不说，这个问题透露出一定的无知和偏见，似乎又是一个针对中国的引导性问题。

What were humans like in the early days when language first appeared? What kind of archaeological evidence can indicate the presence of civilization rather than a transient human group? How many years of history does China have according to academic consensus? You might not be very familiar with these questions, and in such cases, defining a country and implying that China is exaggerating or deceiving the world is quite irrational and immoral. Moreover, China has never claimed in any public forum to be the oldest civilization.

在人类语言刚刚出现的早期，人类的生活状况如何？什么样的考古证据可以表明文明的存在，而不仅仅是一个短暂的人类群体？根据学术界的共识，中国究竟有多少年的历史？你可能对这些问题并不熟悉，而在这种情况下，贸然定义一个国家，并暗示中国夸大或欺骗世界，这是极其不理性且不道德的。此外，中国从未在任何公开场合宣称自己是世界上最古老的文明。

First of all, there has never been a precise timeline for the origin of language. It didn’t become fossilized and then excavated by archaeologists, so the study of the birth of language relies on indirect methods such as the artifacts they created and changes in human anatomy. Such research is often controversial, with different scholars suggesting timelines ranging from 100,000 years ago to 35,000 years ago. However, during this period, humans had mastered the use of fire and could make stone tools, yet their lifestyle was still dependent on hunting and gathering, with the potential beginnings of plant and animal domestication. In such primitive conditions, tribes separated by forests were likely in competition, making it rather absurd to discuss whether the Chinese or Greeks had appeared yet. If we must lix early humans with today’s civilizations, then the existence of Peking Man in China 500,000 years ago would predate the appearance of language by hundreds of thousands of years.

首先，语言的起源从未有一个精确的时间线。语言不会像化石一样被保存下来并由考古学家挖掘出来，因此研究语言的诞生依赖于间接方法，例如人类创造的工具以及解剖学上的变化。这类研究通常存在争议，不同学者给出的时间范围从10万年前到3.5万年前不等。然而，在这一时期，人类已经掌握了用火并能制造石器，但他们的生活仍然依赖于狩猎和采集，并可能开始尝试驯化动物和种植植物。在如此原始的条件下，被森林隔开的部落之间可能处于竞争状态，因此去讨论当时中国人或希腊人是否已经出现，显得相当荒谬。如果我们必须将早期人类与今天的文明联系起来，那么50万年前的北京猿人的存在，已经远远早于语言的出现。

Moreover, the current academic definition of civilization requires evidence of cities, writing, monumental architecture, metallurgy, and other indicators of social complexity and administrative capability. By this standard, China also has "ancient civilizations" such as the Liangzhu site from 5,000 years ago, with large-scale city sites, dam projects, and religious jade artifacts. This indicates that Chinese civilization reached the stage of civilization 5,000 years ago. However, Western countries are unwilling to acknowledge this fact, recognizing Chinese civilization only from the appearance of mature writing systems like oracle bone scxt, which still dates back at least 3,600 years. In comparison, while the earliest Minoan civilization in Greece appeared around a similar time, their Linear A scxt remains undeciphered, whereas Chinese oracle bone scxt has been discovered in over 5,000 forms, with more than 1,000 of these decipherable by modern scholars. This also indirectly reflects why China's clear history begins from 2070 BC, while Western ancient Greek civilization only began to emerge from the 5th to the 6th century BC.

此外，当前学术界对文明的定义要求具备城市、文字、纪念性建筑、冶金术等社会复杂性和行政能力的证据。按照这一标准，中国也拥有“古代文明”，例如距今5000年的良渚遗址，其中包括大规模的城市遗址、水坝工程和宗教玉器。这表明中国文明在5000年前已达到文明阶段。然而，西方国家不愿承认这一事实，仅从甲骨文等成熟文字系统的出现才承认中国文明的存在，而甲骨文至少可追溯到3600年前。相比之下，希腊最早的米诺斯文明大约在同一时期出现，但其线性文字至今未被破译，而中国的甲骨文已发现超过5000种，其中1000多种可被现代学者解读。这也间接反映出为什么中国有确切的历史可追溯至公元前2070年，而西方古希腊文明直到公元前5-6世纪才开始崭露头角。

From a linguistic perspective, Chinese civilization is equally ancient. Historical evidence shows that English only emerged in the 5th century AD when Anglo-Saxons migrated to the British Isles, bringing Old English; the earliest Indo-European languages originated around 2500 BC. According to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Paris Institute of Mathematical Research, Chinese language origins can be traced back to about 7200 years ago in northern China, long before the advent of English.

从语言学的角度来看，中国文明同样古老。历史证据表明，英语直到公元5世纪才随着盎格鲁-撒克逊人迁徙至不列颠群岛而出现，形成古英语；而最早的印欧语言大约起源于公元前2500年。根据马普学会人类历史科学研究所和巴黎数学研究所的研究，中国语言的起源可以追溯到大约7200年前的中国北方，远早于英语的出现。

Such ample evidence demonstrates the long history of Chinese civilization, yet Western historians often harbor biases towards Eastern history, viewing Greek and Roman civilizations as the pinnacle of human achievement and reluctant to acknowledge the possibility of a more ancient Chinese civilization. However, no amount of denial can change the obxtive fact: China possesses a rich and ancient cultural tradition and has made significant contributions to human progress. China has never considered itself a dominant civilization seeking to influence the world due to its long history. Instead, it respects the importance of ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Mesopotamia and maintains an open and inclusive attitude towards cultural differences, actively strengthening international cooperation and exchanges.

如此大量的证据充分表明了中国文明的悠久历史，然而，西方历史学家往往对东方历史存有偏见，将希腊和罗马文明视为人类成就的巅峰，而不愿承认中国文明可能更加古老。然而，无论如何否认都无法改变客观事实：中国拥有丰富而古老的文化传统，并为人类进步作出了重要贡献。中国从未因为自身悠久的历史而自视为主导文明，试图影响世界。相反，中国尊重埃及、两河流域等古代文明的重要性，并始终保持开放包容的态度，积极加强国际合作与交流。

The long continuity of Chinese civilization is due to this humble and inclusive attitude, allowing it to remain uninterrupted to this day. Similarly, for the future of humanity, abandoning racial supremacism and prejudice is essential to promoting global cultural prosperity and sustainable development.

中国文明的长期延续，正是由于这种谦逊和包容的态度，使其能够绵延至今。同样地，为了人类的未来，摒弃种族至上主义和偏见，是促进全球文化繁荣和可持续发展的关键。

Yugan Talovich
Congratulations on packing so much ignorance into three sentences!

恭喜你在三句话里塞进了如此多的无知！

First, I have never heard Chinese claiming they are the oldest civilization. There is still a great deal of controversy about when language was developed, but it was certainly in the Paleolithic, long before the appearance of any civilization. You do know the difference between civilization and culture, don’t you?

首先，我从未听说过中国人宣称自己是最古老的文明。关于语言何时发展仍然存在巨大争议，但可以确定的是，语言肯定起源于旧石器时代，远远早于任何文明的出现。你应该知道文明和文化的区别吧？

I have no idea where you got the idea that “the Chinese lasted only 2,000 years.” Do you really not understand what you are talking about, or do you work on it?

我不知道你从哪里得到“中国仅延续了2000年”这个想法。你是真的不了解自己在说什么，还是故意在胡说？

Goodi Shang
In Chinese schools, we will study world history. But the learning content is relatively limited. After visiting international networks, I discovered an interesting thing. Chinese and foreigners have different cognitive standards for the review of history.

在中国的学校里，我们会学习世界历史，但学习内容相对有限。在接触国际网络后，我发现了一件有趣的事情：中国人和外国人对历史的认知标准是不同的。

China's history has been rigorously verified through various historical evidence. And foreign history is speculation, fantasy, and mythology. I cannot see historical evidence when reading foreign history. But according to Chinese habits, I believe in these histories. When foreigners look at Chinese history, according to their habits, they do not believe in Chinese history.

中国的历史经过了各种历史证据的严格验证。而外国的历史则充满了推测、幻想和神话。当我阅读外国历史时，我看不到历史证据。但按照中国人的习惯，我仍然会相信这些历史。而当外国人看待中国历史时，根据他们的习惯，他们却不愿意相信中国的历史。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

As neighboring countries of China, South Korea and Vietnam are luckier than Western countries as they can access historical materials written in Chinese. However, these historical materials are still relatively scarce, so historians from South Korea and Vietnam have written many false stories to fill in their history.

作为中国的邻国，韩国和越南比西方国家更幸运，因为他们可以接触到用中文书写的历史资料。然而，这些历史资料仍然相对稀少，因此韩国和越南的历史学家编写了许多虚假的故事来填补他们的历史空白。

Khengchat Ng
They are not and had never claimed to be the oldest civilization. The Indus Civilization was far older. It went off the radar in 1900 BC, about the time of the Shang dynasty. And it must have existed for a long time before that. However, China is the longest continuous civilization still existing today.

中国并不是最古老的文明，也从未宣称自己是最古老的文明。印度河文明要古老得多，它在公元前1900年消失，大约与中国商朝同期，并且在此之前必定已经存在很长时间。然而，中国是今天仍然延续至今的最长久的文明。

If the Indus Civilization still exists today, then it will be the oldest. A lot of the Middle Eastern and Mesopotamian cultures were far older than that of China.

如果印度河文明仍然存在至今，那它就会是最古老的文明。许多中东和美索不达米亚的文化都比中国文明更为古老。

Wei Bai
It turns out that the questioner is Korean, so there's no question about it. As is well known, Koreans are a bunch of lowly and inferior creatures. In ancient times, they were dogs of China, in modern times, they were dogs of Japan, and now they are dogs of the United States. They seem to think that by following their new masters and constantly denigrating their old masters, they can escape the nightmare of wagging their tails in submission to their old masters in history, and even look down upon their old masters.

原来提问者是韩国人，那就没有疑问了。众所周知，韩国人是一群卑贱的生物。在古代，他们是中国的狗；在近代，他们是日本的狗；现在，他们又是美国的狗。他们似乎认为，通过追随他们的新主子并不断贬低他们的旧主子，就能摆脱在历史上摇尾乞怜的噩梦，甚至可以看不起他们曾经的主子。

Nagging big Guy
To me, it really doesn't matter how long what civilization maintain.

对我来说，一个文明维持了多久并不重要。

America only has a history of 200+ years, but it doesn't seem to have side effects for them to be the most powerful country on earth.

美国只有两百多年的历史，但这并不妨碍它成为世界上最强大的国家。

When America has the power to unite earth, it's their choice to write in history how many years they maintain, it could be 10,000 years, and like it or not everyone must buy it, then maybe several generations later it becomes the real history.

当美国有能力统一地球时，他们可以选择在历史书上写下自己延续了多少年，哪怕是1万年。无论你喜欢与否，所有人都得接受它，然后过几代人后，这可能就真的成为了历史。

Kirigawa Yoshikuni
Good question and China as political entity only started in 1949, previously unrecognized Republic of China became independent only after 1911 from the Manchu control.

这个问题很好，中国作为一个政治实体，实际上是从1949年才开始的，而之前的“中华民国”在1911年才从满清统治下独立出来。

So called ancient Chinese civilization is flimsy as it only really dates back to 3000 years ago, even the oldest scxt from Shang's oldest survive Oracle bone only dates back to 3000 years which wasn't even fully developed but in primitive form.

所谓的古代中国文明并不牢固，因为它实际上只追溯到3000年前，即使是商代最古老的甲骨文也只是3000年前的遗存，而且当时的文字还处于未完全发展的原始阶段。

Kirigawa Yoshikuni
If you add up all these so-called Han Chinese-controlled nations, then it comes down to just 900 years. So what happened to 4100 years of history?

如果你把所有所谓的汉人统治国家加在一起，总共才900年的历史。那么另外4100年的历史去哪了？

That's when the ancestors of the Chinese were in space looking to settle down on Earth, and once they landed in the plain of the Yellow River, they called it the center of the Earth. That's their story so far.

那时候，中国人的祖先还在太空中寻找落脚点，直到他们降落在黄河平原，并称其为“世界的中心”。这就是他们至今为止的故事。

So you can imagine how they're less convincing than the Biblical events.

所以，你可以想象，他们的故事甚至比《圣经》里的事件还要不可信。

Musa Meyer
They conflate many things due to the linguistic surface; for if they are named as “Earthers” and China is named as “The People’s Republic of the Earth,” they will think the age of the Earth is the age of their entire ethnicity, and the civilizations on Earth are all theirs.

他们由于语言表面的影响，混淆了许多概念；如果他们被称为“地球人”，而中国被称为“地球人民共和国”，那么他们就会认为地球的年龄就是他们整个民族的年龄，地球上的所有文明都是属于他们的。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

This is what “China” is about. It is a concept invented in the late 19th century as a distortion of the social context in the Far East; but the word “China” is one of the many names for this distortion.

这就是“中国”这个概念的本质。它是19世纪末被创造出来的，用来扭曲远东地区社会背景的一个概念。而“China”这个词只是众多扭曲概念中的一个。

It also adapts some classical words such as (in Mandarin) Zhong Hua, Zhong Guo, and Hua xia, etc. They then conflate the meaning of these words in the classical context and claim that their ethnicity and civilization are old enough because of that.

它还借用了许多古典词汇，比如（普通话中的）中华、中国、华夏等。他们随后将这些词汇的古典含义混为一谈，并以此来声称自己的民族和文明足够古老。