Don't Be Inferior, Don't Be Arrogant: An Objective Look at the True Position of Chinese Civilization in Human History

When discussing Chinese history on the internet, conversations often swing to two extremes:

Extreme inferiors believe that ancient China was nothing special, that true civilization came from the West, and that China has almost nothing to be proud of.

Extreme supremacists believe that China has been number one in the world from ancient times to the present, that other civilizations are mere foils, and even assert that Western history was entirely fabricated later on.

These two viewpoints may seem diametrically opposed, but they share the same root cause: they are not respecting history, but using it.

History should not be a shadow of national inferiority, nor a stimulant for nationalistic self-aggrandizement. There is only one question truly worth discussing: What is the actual position of Chinese civilization in the entire history of human civilization?

1. The “Four Great Ancient Civilizations” is Not an International Academic Concept

Many people are familiar with the concept of the “Four Great Ancient Civilizations”: ancient China, ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, and ancient India. However, this is not a formal academic concept in international historiography.

With archaeological discoveries in recent decades, it has become increasingly clear that human civilization did not originate from just four sources but emerged independently in multiple regions around the globe. Therefore, the academic community prefers the term “Cradles of Civilization.”

If we use currently confirmed mature urban civilizations as the standard:

The earliest to appear was the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia (around 3500 BCE). They established cities like Uruk, created the first mature writing system—cuneiform—and built a state management system.

Ancient Egypt subsequently established a unified kingdom.

Ancient India and ancient China also gradually evolved their own independent civilizations.

In terms of emergence, Chinese civilization was not the earliest, a fact that needs no evasion. Acknowledging historical facts does not in any way diminish the true value of Chinese civilization.

2. The Greatest Value of Chinese Civilization Has Never Been About Being the “Earliest”

More important than “who was first” is the question: What did each civilization leave for humanity?

The core charm of Chinese civilization lies in its independence and continuity.

The earliest Chinese dynasty that can be fully confirmed is the Shang dynasty, with conclusive archaeological evidence from the Yin Ruins, oracle bone script, and bronze artifacts. As for the Xia dynasty, although the Erlitou site is widely believed to be highly correlated with Xia culture, the academic community still leaves room for discussion due to the lack of written materials directly proving its existence.

This means that while Chinese civilization matured later than Sumerian and ancient Egyptian civilizations, it is one of the few independently originated civilizations in the world, not a vassal or derivative of foreign civilizations.

Even rarer is the strong continuity of Chinese civilization—for thousands of years, it has undergone evolution and reshaping but has never been interrupted. This continuity itself is a miracle in the history of world civilization.

3. Writing and Thought: Irreplaceable Cultural Heritage

To evaluate the achievements of a civilization, one must look at the spiritual wealth it created.

1. A Unique Writing System

Today, the vast majority of writing systems in the world are phonetic, whereas Chinese characters, despite evolving from oracle bone script, have always maintained a system centered on logography. It is currently the only major logographic writing system in the world that is still widely used and has been continuously passed down for thousands of years.

Based on this writing system, China nurtured a unique aesthetic world: the simplicity of the Book of Odes, the romanticism of the Songs of Chu, the conciseness of Tang poetry, the elegance of Song ci poetry, and the culture of calligraphy that elevates writing to an art form. These brilliant achievements can hardly be measured by simple labels of “advanced” or “backward.”

2. Simultaneous Brilliance of Eastern and Western Thought

Around the 5th century BCE, China entered the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, ushering in a golden age of thought with the Hundred Schools of Thought:

• Confucianism explored ethics and order.
• Daoism contemplated the relationship between humanity and nature.
• Legalism studied state governance.
• Mohism advocated for universal love and non-aggression.
• The School of Military Strategy summarized the laws of war.

At almost the same time, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, ancient Greece also ignited the flame of philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle began to examine the world with logic and reason. If ancient Greece laid the foundation for Western rational civilization, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods lit the beacon of Eastern intellectual civilization. They shone together, jointly forming the wellspring of human intellectual history.

4. Qin-Han and Rome: Two Peaks of Eastern and Western Civilization

Around the beginning of the Common Era, the great unified Qin and Han empires in the East and the Roman Empire in the West stood as counterparts. This was the first time Eastern and Western civilizations truly stood at the same height.

The Han dynasty established a highly mature, centralized administrative system, built roads, developed agriculture, and opened the Silk Road.

The Roman Empire spanned Europe, Asia, and Africa, creating a brilliant legal system and magnificent engineering works.

Chang’an and Rome were two of the most prosperous metropolises in the world at the time; the Han Empire and the Roman Empire were also the most powerful states in the world. They represented the respective peaks of Eastern and Western civilizations of that era, making it difficult to declare one superior to the other.

5. After the Fall of Rome: The “Chinese Leading Period” from a Data Perspective

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, Europe plunged into a long period of political fragmentation, losing the ability to levy taxes uniformly and maintain a large state apparatus. In contrast, although China experienced periods of division like the Three Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it repeatedly returned to great unification.

From the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Song dynasty, China was long one of the most developed regions in the world in terms of state governance, population size, urbanization, and administrative mobilization capacity. This lead is not an empty nationalist statement but can be verified with intuitive data and historical facts:

1. Vast Population and Administrative Capacity

During the Northern Song dynasty, the official household registration exceeded 20 million households. Modern scholars conservatively estimate the population at that time to be around 100 million. This means a single Chinese dynasty governed a population nearly equal to or even exceeding the total population of all kingdoms in Western Europe combined. The ability to register households, collect taxes, administer justice, and manage grain and provisions for 100 million people demonstrated extremely strong state governance capabilities.

2. Supercities of Astonishing Scale

The populations of the Northern Song capital, Kaifeng, and the Southern Song capital, Lin’an (Hangzhou), are estimated to have been between 600,000 and 1 million. In Western Europe around 1200 CE, London’s population was only about 40,000; even major metropolises like Paris and Venice reached a limit of 100,000.

[City Population Comparison (c. 1200 CE)]

Kaifeng/Lin’an: ▍▍▍▍▍▍▍▍▍▍ 600k - 1M

Paris: ▍ ~100k

London: ▍ ~40k

3. Well-Established Standing Army and Central Finance

In the mid-Northern Song, the standing army numbered between 900,000 and 1.2 million. Although the Song army had mixed results in foreign wars, this professional standing army, directly supported and paid by the central treasury, demonstrated astonishing resource mobilization capabilities. In comparison, Western European kings of the same period relied mainly on feudal lords’ knights and temporarily conscripted soldiers. A military campaign mobilizing tens of thousands of men was already a rare event.

4. Commercial Economy and Financial Innovation

According to historical data estimates by economic historian Angus Maddison, around 1000 CE, China was one of the world’s largest economies by GDP. The Song dynasty not only minted vast quantities of copper coins but also invented paper money (Jiaozi) and established a comprehensive system of commercial taxes, state monopolies, and a nationwide canal transport network.

It should be noted that the Song dynasty ultimately fell to the Liao, Jin, and Mongols not because it was weaker than Europe, but because it faced the most formidable nomadic military forces in the world at the time. The cavalry of the Mongol Empire not only conquered the Southern Song but also swept across Central Asia, West Asia, Russia, and Eastern Europe.

6. The Institutional Engines of China’s Long-Term Lead

The core reason China could maintain its strong vitality over such a long period was institutional innovation:

• Centralized Commandery-County System: This broke the rule of hereditary aristocracy, allowing a vast territory to be managed uniformly.
• Imperial Examination System (Keju): This is a significant contribution of Chinese civilization to the world. In an ancient world where “birth determined destiny,” China was the first to establish a relatively fair civil service system for selecting officials through examinations. It had a profound impact on the civil service systems of East Asia and, later, the West.

Recommended Reading: Ancient China, a Civilization That Once Left All of Europe in the Dust

7. How Did the West Achieve its Overtaking?

The West’s later overtaking of the East was not simply due to one Industrial Revolution but a chain of intertwined historical developments:

Renaissance > Reformation > Scientific Revolution > Enlightenment > Industrial Revolution

This process completely reshaped the standards for evaluating civilization: in the past, the competition was over agricultural output, population size, and traditional state organization; in the modern era, it is over science and technology, industrial capacity, capital efficiency, and the ability for continuous innovation.

On this new competitive track, Europe was the first to complete its modernization, while China remained mired in the inertia of a traditional agrarian empire. The gap between the two widened rapidly, leading to the backwardness and humiliation of modern China.

8. Conclusion: What is True Cultural Confidence?

Looking back at this long history, the answer is clear:

Chinese civilization is not the world’s earliest, nor has it been the leader in every era. It has had periods of unparalleled glory and periods of decline, backwardness, and struggle.

But it is undoubtedly one of the most unique, continuous, and influential civilizations in the world. It has an independent origin, an unbroken writing system, a vast and profound intellectual treasury, and the wisdom to maintain the governance of a super-large state for long periods.

Acknowledging the greatness of civilizations like Sumer, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome will never diminish the value of Chinese civilization. Similarly, affirming the unique contributions of Chinese civilization does not require denigrating other civilizations.

**True cultural confidence is not blindly believing you are “forever number one in the world.”

True historical confidence is not gained by denying the greatness of other civilizations for psychological satisfaction.**

True confidence is the courage to respect archaeology and facts, to see both the past glory and splendor of Chinese civilization within its real historical context, and to frankly accept its past limitations and shortcomings. This is the true position of Chinese civilization in the long river of human history.

Appendix Table 1: A Brief Timeline of Major World Civilizations

Appendix Table 2: The True Position of Chinese Civilization in Human History

Appendix Table 3: A Comparison of Chinese and Western Civilizational Development