"Seeking Roots in China", one of the exhibition halls of Shanxi Yuncheng Museum.

On May 5, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to the Yuncheng Museum to learn more about the origin of human beings and the early historical development of Chinese civilization in Yuncheng.

Yuncheng, which thrives because of the salt pond and is famous for the salt transport, is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. The earliest agricultural civilization in China was born here, and Yao Shunyu and the Xia Dynasty successively built their capital here, which plays an important role in the origin of human beings and the development of Chinese civilization——

The fossils of the "Century Ape" found here more than 4000 million years ago with the earliest origin of human beings break the theory that humans originated in Africa; The 243.<> million-year-old burnt bones and cut-off antlers found here are the earliest evidence of human use of fire.

△Exhibits of Yuncheng Museum

In the early Shang Dynasty, Qiuzhuang Fangding and Former Zhuang Yuanding, stone carved silkworm chrysalis at the site of Shicun in Xia County, Dongzhuang faience pots, and the barren curtains of the tomb of the State of Yan... One by one, the exhibits tell the historical vicissitudes of Chinese ancestral culture. The general secretary exchanged views with the staff, and he emphasized: "The museum has many valuable cultural relics and even 'national treasures', which have proved China's million-year human history, 10,000-year cultural history, and 5,000-year-old civilization history. ”

A year ago, on May 5, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a collective study on deepening the project of exploring the sources of Chinese civilization. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that the Chinese civilization source exploration project has made remarkable achievements, but there is still a long way to go, and it must continue to advance and deepen.

Why does General Secretary Xi Jinping attach great importance to this work?

In a speech, he said: "A nation and a country must know who they are, where they come from, where they are going, and if they think clearly and correctly, they must unswervingly advance towards their goals." ”

01. Let the "five thousand years up and down" be documented

On July 2019, 7, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the 6rd session of the World Heritage Conference entered the deliberation session of the inscription of the ancient city of Liangzhu. The ten minutes of deliberation evoked many archaeological pasts.

At the beginning of the 20th century, China "shocked the world with an oracle bone". Because of the discovery of oracle bones, the Shang Dynasty changed from legend to letter history. However, it is widely regarded internationally as the starting point of Chinese civilization, only 3300 years ago. The claim of "5000,<> years of civilization" that the sons and daughters of China are proud of has been questioned because there has been no evidence for a long time.

The present life of Liangzhu Ancient City in Zhejiang Province broke this deadlock. This ancient city, which appeared more than 5000,<> years ago, reveals that in the late Neolithic period of China, there was an early regional state in the lower Yangtze River around Lake Lake with a clear social division of labor and a unified belief in the region around Lake Lake with rice farming as the economic support.

But more than a decade ago, this important root of Chinese civilization was once in jeopardy. Jiang Weidong, deputy director of the administrative committee of Hangzhou Liangzhu Site Management Zone, recalled: "At that time, there were still several stone mines belonging to Deqing County in Huzhou City on the mountain on the north side of the Liangzhu site, and they had not yet been closed. A large number of rocks were blasted in the mountains, which seriously damaged the ecological environment of the Liangzhu site. ”

The turnaround happened in 2003. In July of that year, Xi Jinping, then secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, came to Liangzhu.

"The Liangzhu site is a sacred place that empirically proves the 5000,<>-year history of Chinese civilization, and it is a rare treasure, and we must protect it well!" In the conference room of the Liangzhu Cultural Museum, Xi Jinping's words hammered into the hearts of every attendee.

Knowing that the closure of the Huzhou Deqing mine, which affected the safety of the site, he rushed to Huzhou the next day to investigate and personally coordinate the closure of the mine.

By the end of 2003, several quarries in Deqing had been shut down. Since then, the protection of the Liangzhu site has not only protected the site itself, but also protected the historical environment. Jiang Weidong said.

△On July 2022, 7, Hangzhou Liangzhu Day, as an important part of the peripheral water conservancy system of Hangzhou Liangzhu Ancient City Site, Laohuling Ruins Park was opened to the public for the first time.

According to Xi Jinping's requirements, Liangzhu archaeology has not stopped:

In 2009, the ruins of large dams on the outskirts of Liangzhu Ancient City were unearthed one after another. Archaeologists also found that the Liangzhu ancestors began to use writing more than 5000,1000 years ago, and these depictions pushed the history of Chinese writing forward by more than 2011,2016 years. In 630, the remains of a large water conservancy project were discovered. In <>, <>.<> million square meters of outer city were identified.

△Tourists visit the ruins of Mojiaoshan in Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park.

Before the successful application of the Liangzhu Ancient City Site, Xi Jinping visited Liangzhu twice for investigation and seven times gave important instructions on the protection of the Liangzhu site and the application for the World Heritage Site. This is enough to see the weight of the Liangzhu site in his heart, and the weight of the empirical evidence of Chinese civilization in his heart.

The sight returned to the site of Azerbaijan's application for the World Heritage Site, and 13 minutes later, it was hammered down - archaeological experts from all over the world did not have any objections, and the site of Liangzhu Ancient City was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List. This moment marks the empirical evidence of 5000,<> years of Chinese civilization history, which is widely recognized by UNESCO and the mainstream international academic community.

Since then, "up and down five thousand years" has been well documented, and it is no longer a fictional romantic imagination.

02. Chinese definition of "civilization"

Behind the successful application of the Liangzhu ancient city ruins, it is inseparable from an important project - the Chinese civilization source exploration project.

In the spring of 2002, the national science and technology research project - "Comprehensive Research on the Origin and Early Development of Chinese Civilization" (that is, the Chinese Civilization Source Exploration Project) was established. This is the largest comprehensive multidisciplinary research project to date to study major issues in the humanities, revealing the origin and early development of the Chinese civilization in the past 5000,<> years.

Over the past 20 years, more than 20 experts and scholars from more than 400 disciplines and dozens of units have carried out key excavations around four Tuyi sites between 3500 BC and 1500 BC, as well as other central sites such as the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Liao River Basin, and carried out large-scale archaeological surveys of surrounding settlements.

They are in the fields, in the study room sorting out ancient books, in the computer room, exploring the roots of our nation. With the deepening of the project of exploring the source of Chinese civilization, the sites of Liangzhu, Shiji, Taosi and Erlitou have proved irrefutable that the Chinese nation entered a civilized society more than 5000,<> years ago.

In the long historical process, the Chinese nation, with its unceasing determination and will for self-improvement, has traversed a course of development different from that of other civilizations in the world.

The global archaeological community has long regarded the three elements of "metallurgy, writing and city" as the standard of civilization. In May 2018, the China Source Exploration Engineering Expert Group issued Chinese criteria for judging entering a civilized society – first, production development, population increase, and the emergence of cities; The second is the social division of labor, class differentiation, and the emergence of classes; The third is the emergence of royal power and statehood.

When presiding over the 39th collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping said: "The Chinese Civilization Source Exploration Project proposes the definition of civilization and the Chinese plan for identifying it to enter a civilized society, which has made original contributions to the study of the origin of world civilization. ”

03. Why China

A few days ago, China and the leaders of the five Central Asian countries "joined hands in Chang'an".

Among the gifts given to the heads of state of Central Asia is a "He Zun". The Western Zhou He Zun inscription "Zhai Zi China" is the earliest source of the word "China" ever discovered.

Why China? It is precisely the answer that the Chinese civilization source exploration project aims to explore - we must gaze at the roots and soul of the Chinese nation and find the cultural genes of Chinese. It comes from the pluralism, eclecticism and continuity of Chinese civilization.

Many people in the West are accustomed to seeing China as a modern nation-state from the perspective of Western modernization theory. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that without the perspective of China from the perspective of more than 5,000 years of civilization history, it is difficult to truly understand China's past, present and future.

△ Zhu Xi sculpture at the gate of Zhu Xi Garden in Wuyi Mountain, Fujian. Zhu Xi Garden is the core part of the Wuyi Mountain World Cultural Heritage and is also known as the "cradle" of Zhu Zilixue.

Under Wuyi Mountain, Zhu Xi Garden, General Secretary Xi Jinping said: "If there is no Chinese civilization of 5,000 years, where is there any Chinese characteristics?" If it were not for Chinese characteristics, how could we have such a successful path of socialism with Chinese characteristics today? "Based on the past and knowledge, the general secretary profoundly pointed out that we must unswervingly follow the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

At the site of Yinxu in Henan, the general secretary stressed that the excellent traditional Chinese culture is the "root" of our party's innovation theory; At the opening ceremony of the seminar on studying and implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the general secretary stressed that "Chinese-style modernization is deeply rooted in the excellent traditional Chinese culture" and "it is a brand-new form of human civilization."

In the Sansu Temple in Meishan, Sichuan, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "we must be good at absorbing the concepts and thinking of governing the country from the excellent traditional Chinese culture."

From the general secretary's inspection footprint, we can see that China's firm confidence in the road, theory and system is essentially derived from cultural self-confidence based on more than 5000,<> years of civilization inheritance.

Cultural self-confidence is a more basic, deeper and more lasting force in the development of a country and a nation. The purpose of deepening the project of exploring the sources of Chinese civilization is to "deeply understand the development history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years, promote the in-depth study of the history of Chinese civilization, promote the whole party and society to enhance historical consciousness, strengthen cultural self-confidence, unswervingly follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and unite and struggle for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country and the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

△On October 2022, 10, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the Yinxu Museum in Anyang City, Henan Province.

In October 2022, after the 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he left Beijing for the first time to investigate, and General Secretary Xi Jinping came to the site of Yin Market in Anyang, Henan.

"I have been yearning for Yin Wu for a long time, and this time I want to learn and understand Chinese civilization more deeply, use the past for the present, and provide reference for better building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation." While affirming the archaeological work, the general secretary stressed the need to continue to deepen the project of exploring the source of Chinese civilization: "Chinese civilization has a long history and has never been interrupted, shaping our great nation, and this nation will continue to be great." ”

This is the significance of our exploration of the source of Chinese civilization today, and it is also the endless pursuit of the Chinese nation.