5.000 anni dall'invenzione della Cina

"The "5,000 years of Chinese history" rubric is based on (1) the ahistorical acceptance of traditional dates of mythical figures like the Yellow Emperor [...], and (2) the failure to acknowledge the distinction between "pre-history" and "history," where the boundary is defined as the invention of writing. K.C. Chang's statement (below) is about the origin of a culture that can meaningfully be called "Chinese," not the beginning of Chinese history:

"By 3000 B.C., the Chinese interaction sphere can properly and appropriately be called China, as it became the stage where Chinese history began to play out, with its clearly defined actors, events, motivations, and story lines."

In fact, immediately following this sentence is the heading, "The Ten-Thousand States" on the Eve of the Historical Period."

"Eve of the historical period" means BEFORE history, strictly speaking, begins. So K.C. Chang was NOT supporting the idea of "5,000 years of Chinese history."

Since the 1950s, the PRC has reinforced this intellectual sloppiness in order to advance its nationalistic agenda, which includes the claim that China was the first in everything (except baseball)."


Joseph Adler
Kenyon College