Toynbee was, after all, British, and like most European and American historians, his scholarship centered on the Western world. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The original edition of "Historical Research" started in England and gradually expanded to Europe and the United States, and finally to the whole world. Moreover, when discussing ancient India and ancient China, Toynbee was prejudiced and prejudiced, and his thinking was not small.

For example, Toynbee forcibly transferred the theory of the great unification religion of Europe to ancient China. His exact words are that it was through a church, Mahayana Buddhism, that ancient Chinese society became the parent society of today's Far Eastern society.

This is a bit of nonsense, including some of Toynbee's expositions on Chinese pre-Qin thought, which are also plausible.

Zhou Hexuan must revise and add some of his own ideas while the overall framework of the original work remains unchanged.

Zhou Hexuan wrote Toynbee's name on the blackboard and began to narrate: "There is a British historian named Arnold Joseph Toynbee, who used to be a reporter for the Manchester Guardian, and then turned to history. In 1925 he became professor of international history at the London School of Economics and director of research at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He has published several papers in the last year on the study of the world's major civilizations, proposing some definitions of research fields and terms. These papers inspired me a lot, and what I am going to talk about next is based on the theory proposed by Professor Toynbee......"

"When we come into contact with civilized society, we will ask, why did civilized society arise? How did it come about? Professor Toynbee summarized the civilizations of history into 21 societies. In my opinion, these 21 civilizations can be divided into two categories, of which 15 civilizations are the descendants of the other 7 civilizations, and those 7 parent civilizations are directly generated from primitive societies. What are the seven parent civilizations? They are Ancient Egypt, Sumer (the civilization of the two rivers), Minoan (the bronze civilization before Ancient Greece), ancient China, Maya, Andean (ancient civilization of South America), and ancient India ......"

Most of the people present belong to the top students of the history department, and when Zhou Hexuan said this, someone immediately raised his hand and said: "Teacher, aren't they the four ancient civilizations?" How did you come to become one of the Seven Great Civilizations? Where was ancient Greece? ”

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "The Minoan civilization is the precursor civilization of ancient Greece, and we will discuss the two together." ”

Another student asked, "Teacher, what kind of civilization is Minos?" ”

"Ancient civilizations in South America that grew on their own." Zhou Hexuan explained.

Immediately, some students raised their hands and said, "Teacher, but modern historians agree that the ancient civilizations of the Americas originated in some places in Central America and Mexico. It was only after the Mayan civilization spread to South America that it triggered several Indian civilizations in the Andes. According to your theory, the Andean civilization should be considered a descendant of the Mayan civilization, right? ”

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "What you said was the archaeological historiography of seven or eight years ago, and now more and more archaeological discoveries show that the ancient civilization of South America developed independently." From a geographical point of view, we can see that the Andes were naturally isolated from Mesoamerica, and it was difficult for ancient societies to spread over long distances. Moreover, from some archaeological remains in South America, it can be found that the ancient civilizations of South America and Central America had very different artistic styles in their early years. ”

The student asked, "Is this a new perspective in Western historiography?" ”

Zhou Hexuan shook his head with a smile and said, "No, it's my new point of view." ”

As soon as these words came out, the classroom was in an uproar.

Zhou Hexuan was actually telling them a new viewpoint, a new viewpoint that is not recognized by today's historiography.

"If you are interested and have the opportunity to go abroad, you can try to do some relevant research, maybe you can prove my point." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile. Nowadays, historians and archaeologists are still in a very primitive stage of studying South American civilizations, and as long as they are determined to do fieldwork, they can easily produce results.

Zhou Hexuan went on to say: "What is the difference between primitive society and civilized society? The difference between them is not whether there is an institution or not, because the institution is a means of expressing personal relations between people and people, and it is found in all types of society. The social division of labor is also not a fundamental difference, because primitive societies also have a division of labor among chiefs, shamans, craftsmen, etc. In my opinion, the fundamental difference between primitive and civilized societies is the direction of imitation. In primitive societies, the object of imitation is the older generation, the ancestors who have died, and tradition occupies the strongest position. In civilized societies, people imitate creative and successful figures, and society moves along a path of change and growth......"

As Zhou Hexuan spoke more and more, many students in the audience were already dizzy.

Because the content of Zhou Hexuan's lectures is not linear history, nor is it a conventional historical research, but a philosophical perspective to think and analyze history and human civilization.

Some students are confused and drowsy; Some of the students had their eyes lit up and they listened with renewed energy.

This is a non-mainstream history lesson, unlike any research in the current field of history, it is like a lightning bolt slashing out of the dark night sky.

"Okay, it's almost the end of class," Zhou Hexuan finally smiled, "It doesn't matter if you don't understand it, anyway, this is an elective course, and you just treat me as nonsense." If you are interested, you can go back and think about it slowly, maybe it will inspire your academic research. ”

After class, Zhou Hexuan left directly.

But several students surrounded him, and one of them said, "Mr. Zhou, can you borrow your handouts and copy them?" When I was in the lecture just now, I couldn't remember a lot of the content. ”

"Yes, I'll pay it back in the next class," Zhou Hexuan handed over the handout and asked, "What's your name?" ”

The student replied, "My name is Wu Jinding, from Shandong. ”

Zhou Hexuan: "......"

Damn, it's awesome to ask casually.

Wu Jinding, the discoverer and naming of China's "Longshan Culture".

The most terrifying thing is that although Wu Jinding was still studying at Tsinghua University at this time, he had already used the time of winter and summer vacations to investigate and study Longshan culture.

Wu Jinding said: "Mr. Zhou, in April this year, I passed by a site in Longshan Town, Zhangqiu County, Shandong Province, where I found a lot of black pottery. The pottery is jet black in color, smooth on the surface, and extremely beautiful in style, I think it should be a prehistoric relic, but it is different from the known Yangshao culture. ”

Zhou Hexuan said casually: "Perhaps, like Yangshao culture, it is another source of ancient Chinese civilization." ”

"I think so too," Wu Jinding said excitedly, "My mentor, Mr. Li Ji, is applying for archaeological funding from the school, and as long as the funds are approved, large-scale excavation work can be carried out." ”

"Good luck to you!" Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

Longshan culture, that is an earth-shattering discovery in the Chinese archaeological community, and Zhou Hexuan can be regarded as witnessing history.