3 ms·
That is fair too, China has more history than any other country, and only few cultures can claim to be as old. When asked about democracy most Chinese I have s
by enjalot 15y ago
That is fair too, China has more history than any other country, and only few cultures can claim to be as old.
When asked about democracy most Chinese I have spoken to refer to their last hundreds years of history, which is filled with all kinds of turmoil. When thinking of managing a billion people stability is an easy concept to appeal to.
- tokenadult 15y agoChina has more history than any other country No. That would be Iraq or Egypt. Writing was invented much earlier in the Fertile Crescent and in the Nile Valley than in China. http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/writing.html http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/writing.html It always jars me (I was a Chinese major as an undergraduate) when people refer to "5,000 years of Chinese history," because that is wrong by 2,000 years. China only has 3,000 years of history, and the actual history of China, as for most countries, includes accounts of pre-historical legends that go back before accurate, recorded history. It is correct (other comments in this thread) that Chinese political philosophers mostly came up with rationales for strong central authority rather than rationales for individual liberty like the Greek and Roman political philosophers, but that was a bug rather than a feature.
- jcitme 15y agoThey're probably rounding up from the chinese lunar calendar, which is on 4xxx something now. I don't know what's the basis for year zero for that though.