Wanggu Jianghe: The Turning Point and Development of Chinese History and Culture

Author: Xu Zongyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The River of a Thousand Years is the crystallization of Xu Zongyuan's lifelong wisdom and an innovative interpretation of the development of Chinese culture! This book uses the expansion of river basins to metaphorically describe the progress of culture, starting from the geographical space where Chinese culture originated. It discusses the diverse development and fragmentation of Chinese culture in prehistoric times, then details the gradual expansion of Chinese culture into the world system through continuous conflict and integration. Finally, the book concludes with the "century of stumbling" that Chinese culture faced under the pressure of Western capitalist imperialism. The River of a Thousand Years spans nearly 270,000 words, covering a vast range of topics such as folk life, beliefs and thoughts, literature and art, the evolution of economies and societies, the development of science and technology, and cultural exchanges. The text alternates between high-altitude, macroscopic insights and detailed descriptions of everyday life.
The book uses the expansion of river basins to metaphorically describe the progress of culture, starting from the geographical space where Chinese culture originated. It discusses the diverse development and fragmentation of Chinese culture in prehistoric times, then details the gradual expansion of Chinese culture into the world system through continuous conflict and integration. The book concludes with the "century of stumbling" that Chinese culture faced under the pressure of Western capitalist imperialism. It covers a vast range of topics, including folk life, beliefs and thoughts.
More importantly, the book not only breaks free from Sinocentric cultural bias but also emphasizes the perspective of ordinary people and comparative studies of large regional cultures. It often interprets the diverse and complex development of Chinese culture from a global cultural viewpoint. The breadth of its perspective and the width of its thinking are unparalleled in related works. The book primarily introduces the natural geography that gave rise to Chinese culture, human activities during the Paleolithic era, and comparative studies of ancient Chinese and Mesopotamian cultures.