Chinese Southwest Grotto Art

Author: Liu Changjiu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: "Civilization" and "Culture" are often used interchangeably, not only in Chinese but also in Western languages, both referring to the high development of human capabilities. British Grenn Daniel divides world civilization into six major civilizations, German Spengler lists eight major cultures, British Toynbee enumerates 26 civilizations, and there are also different claims of 7, 9, 11, and 12 civilizations, among others. American Samuel Huntington believes that there are seven major civilizations today, namely Chinese civilization, Japanese civilization, Indian civilization, Islamic civilization, Western civilization, Latin American civilization, and African civilization (potentially existing). He points out: "The history of humanity is the history of civilizations. It is impossible to think about human development in any other way." "Both civilization and culture involve the comprehensive way of life of a nation. Civilization is an amplified culture, and culture is actually the common theme of all civilization definitions." Clearly, politics, economics, ethics, religion, folklore, literature, art, and even technology all involve cultural issues. Therefore, experts and scholars in humanities and science disciplines today are increasingly paying attention to deepening the research in their respective fields by approaching it from a cultural perspective.