When a nation falls into the abyss, the moment it gets up again is most likely to produce National Awakening.
However, if we can not only produce National Awakening, but also become strong again, we must have the most basic foundation, that is to have our own culture with national characteristics.
Any nation has its own culture, but the culture is also divided into levels.
"As far as I know, there is a Western civilization called Greece, which is the strongest country in Europe?" Huan Wen knew that Greece was not uncommon. He even had a very detailed understanding: "it is rumored that all western civilizations came from Greece."
Of course, Liu Yan also knows Greece, but he doesn't know much about it.
As Huan Wen said, Greece is indeed the cradle of Western civilization. It can even be said that Greek civilization is still the highest level in the West. The difference is that the Greeks have declined, and the Romans are at the top of the civilization level created by the Greeks generation after generation.
The Greeks have made great achievements in many aspects. Seriously, they studied astronomy more than a thousand years earlier than Zhuxia. At the same time, they also gave birth to thinkers and philosophers earlier.
As for which of the Greek civilization and the Zhuxia civilization created words earlier, it's really a little hard to say. There are too many controversial places.
"There is another civilization called Egypt." Huan Wen has ignored a group of colleagues with an increasingly strong smell of gunpowder: "it is said that it existed more than 5000 years ago, was brilliant for thousands of years, and was finally conquered by the Qin people."
There is a view in the historical circles that ancient Egypt created characters as early as 5000 BC. Whether the historical circles admit that there was a Xia Dynasty in Zhuxia or not, the first nation in the world to have characters is Egypt.
Huan Wen began to talk about some rumors he didn't know whether they were true or not. He found that Liu Yan listened very attentively and spoke very vigorously.
Liu Yan was really listening. He wanted to know what Huan Wen said was different from his understanding.
At first, there are really many different places. For example, some achievements of Mesopotamian civilization are missing, or simply the achievements of some civilizations are transferred to another civilization.
The so-called Mesopotamian civilization is the civilization produced by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The most brilliant is the civilization created by the Sumerians.
Sumerian civilization made amazing achievements around 3200 BC. Later archaeologists found that when most nationalities were still primitive, they had 39 "the best in the world".
Liu Yan waited for Huan Wen to stop and asked, "did Yuanzi ever hear of a civilization called Babylon?"
"Is it the one who perished a long time ago in Western Persia?" Huan Wen really knew that, with a relatively uncertain attitude, he said, "I heard that the Babylonian Empire was very powerful and created the sky garden, but the sky garden was destroyed in the hands of a country called Assyria?"
Liu Yan was a little surprised at Huan Wen's wide knowledge.
"It is said that they (Babylonians) also built a building called the tower of heaven." Since Huan Wen was curious about Babylon, it became normal to know that the sky tower: "they want to build a high tower that can reach the sky. I heard that it was destroyed by the flood before it was completed."
Huan Wen's understanding of Babylon is that a civilization that has developed architecture to a high level can never build an aerial garden. At the same time, he has no confidence to build a high tower that can reach the sky.
"The Babylonians did not exterminate the nation, and the Iraqis thought they were the descendants of Babylon." Liu Yan thought of Lao SA, a man who constantly vowed to restore to the height of Babylonian civilization: "they first became a member of the Persian rule and were once ruled by the Daqin people. Now they are seeking the independence of one people, one family and one independence."
"I think that if there were no accidents, Greece, Iraq and Egypt would be independent again." Seeing Liu Yan waiting for an explanation, Huan Wen said, "their ancestors all created words, which carry ideas (Culture). A nation with its own past and inheritance, even if it is a temporary decline, as long as others do not forget, it must be able to revive again."
Liu Yan admits this, but there is a pre key, that is, the nation must first have heroes who have not been forgotten, and then have been thinkers.
A national hero is an encouragement to boost the courage of future generations.
The key is how many thinkers the nation has been born. If more thinkers are born in the nation, the culture will inevitably become rich again and again with the increase of thinkers, and the traces will be more difficult to erase.
With the core values, thoughts are basically shaped. Then it depends on how many heroes there have been in this nation and what kind of deeds those heroes are considered heroes.
Fighting against the invasion of other races, doing what is considered to be extremely meaningful, and someone becomes a national hero. Usually, when there are more such heroes, they will be a conservative nation.
If we continue to open up to the outside world and constantly appear heroes who command the army to destroy the country and the nation, the nation will tend to be offensive.
The only thing that can be confirmed is that the nation that can give birth to heroes is qualified to stand in the forest of nations in the world. The more they respect their heroes, the higher the centripetal force of the nation will be.
Similarly, once one day a nation no longer respects its heroes? No matter how powerful this nation was at that time, as long as it encountered challenges, even if the challenger was weaker than itself, the Challenger could win and stand on the head of the nation that did not respect its heroes.
Generally speaking, when the country is about to die, there must be demons. Generally, it refers to the characters who can turn the tide. They are repeatedly made difficult by the so-called "own people" and even killed. This is the best manifestation of disrespect for our heroes. In fact, many Central Plains dynasties died in their own hands.
If Liu Yan had not appeared, the Central Plains would have been a Hu Lu amusement park for 265 years.
The time of enemy occupation is too long. Even if the Han people once had any glory, with long-term humiliation and suppression, generation after generation are afraid that they are used to becoming second-class... Even a few trillion. Even if they know that their ancestors have been extremely glorious, they will not feel how honored, but how glorious their ancestors have been, They will have equal resentment.
From Wuhu chaotic China to the fall of the Central Plains several times, if you look up the historical books, you will find that those people north of the Yangtze River are more and more used to being ruled by foreign nationalities. They are also willing to serve foreign nationalities. They often act as the vanguard of the southern expedition and kill their own compatriots, which is far more cruel and cruel than foreign nationalities.
In fact, once they were ruled by other nationalities, those who accepted the status quo would not take the southerners as their own people. They would no longer regard the southerners as their own people, whether to draw a line or to please their masters.
Usually, those people in the enemy occupied areas, on the contrary, how much humiliation and humiliation they have encountered in the north. Counting the humiliation and humiliation on those in the south, it is probably "Lao Tzu is so unfortunate. Do you want to be better?" Something like that.
In the matter of culture, in fact, there are differences whenever and wherever. The north of the Yangtze River has its own distinctive cultural characteristics, and the south of the Yangtze River also has very easy to distinguish characteristics.
Take a look at those poems handed down in history. The North must be golden, iron and heroic, while the south is dominated by scenery and human feelings, accounting for the vast majority.
Of course, it has something to do with the living environment. The North has been under the threat of alien races for a long time, but the South can participate in the national war only when it is time to subjugate the country.
However, don't think that the southern folk customs are really weak. In fact, we should say that where the resistance is the most resolute after repeated alien aggression, we can find that although the southerners are relatively weak in war, they are not counselled at all.
The south is not without generals, but compared with the north, the geographical environment and social environment will make the probability of generals in the south lower.
The small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was under the pressure of the north for a long time. Although the so-called elite class was generally rotten, there were still some characters destined to shine.
At present, there are many people who can be called famous generals in the Han Empire. Huan Wen and Xie an are two of the famous generals in the land war. If we count the Shanghai army, the number will be more. The representatives are Li Mai and Wang niche.
Liu Yan has always believed that human growth is related to the environment. It is not that a person's fate has been determined from the moment he was born. Only animals are born from the womb. There is no variability in the fate track.
Carnivores always only eat meat, herbivores only eat plants, omnivores eat everything, but they never wonder why they don't wear clothes.
As human beings who have wisdom and can rely on learning, what kind of destiny they have is only related to how much knowledge they master. Otherwise, how can there be a saying called "knowledge changes destiny"?
The current intellectuals are generally called scholars.
The reason why we use the name "Scholar" is that we don't have certain assets. Otherwise, even if we can have the opportunity to learn knowledge, we don't have enough wealth as support. It's extravagant to want to learn knowledge.
The stratum of "scholars" is "gentry". In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the aristocrats had another name called aristocracy. No matter how poor they were, they must be richer than ordinary people.
Liu Yan was not surprised that Huan Wen took the initiative to understand the world.
Huan Wen was the man who commanded the army to cross the sea and destroy the country. Among the many generals, he went the farthest and came into contact with many new things than others. If he had not been curious about the outside world, Liu Yan would doubt whether he would embark on the journey of conquering the world island.
"Yuanzi." Liu Yan kept walking. Only Huan Wen and Xie an were left behind. The rest stayed there and continued to watch the excitement. He went to the periphery and asked, "I ask you, do you have any idea that there are so many countries besides big men?"
"I naturally have ideas." Huan Wen's eyes at this moment were full of ideals: "the world is far beyond Chen's imagination. Chen knew that this was the true face of the 'world', and he was drunk that night."
Xie an interjected, "like Yuanzi, I was drunk after knowing it."
Even if they didn't say the latter words, Liu Yan probably could understand.
"You are happy, but some people are afraid." Liu Yan is talking about people who don't want to see the country go to war all the time. He looked at the very busy square, reached out to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky, glanced at the children around him, and said slowly: "since the ninth year of Yuanshuo, foreigners have been coming from thousands of miles away, but some people live in their own world forever and are unwilling to open their eyes to see the world."
Huan Wen and Xie an can certainly understand what Liu Yan is saying.
Take a look at those so-called scholars in the square who have had a heated debate.
Listen to what those scholars are talking about. At least nine of the ten people always say "so and so".
Among the nine people who have been talking about "so and so who said", at least five of them don't know what "said" at all. They know to use the "said" of one sage to refute the "said" of another sage according to the routine.
"Ha ha." Huan Wen didn't look down on those so-called scholars who died of reading at all. He said, "in the view of officials, most of them have become disabled. Even literate soldiers in the army have higher plasticity than them."
That's what Liu Yan is depressed about!
Those so-called elites can't compare with the soldiers trained in surprise?
The elite of a nation don't know anything except being a repeater, and don't even have the ability to do it yourself? Such a nation has a moment of glory. How brilliant it is, it will encounter the same tragedy. And when it comes to resistance, the so-called elites will only bury their heads in the land and pout their hips high.
Without exaggeration, Liu Yan has found that the current real situation is similar to any period in history, probably similar to the late Northern Song Dynasty, the late Southern Song Dynasty and the late Ming Dynasty. The vast majority of people who are considered to be elites can't do anything except being drunk and dreaming of death and being a repeater.
"At least I have some hope." Liu Yan is talking about the soldiers: "they can't write poetry and Fu, they just know the daily words, but at least they don't have a full head of 'Yue'."
Huan Wen and Xie an looked at each other quietly. After they looked at each other, they had their own ideas.
"I mentioned the imperial examination..." Liu Yan was no longer in dialogue with him. He said that it was easier for him to follow up his thinking: "then what is the imperial examination? The examination of the four books and five classics is a cycle of history. Without the examination of the four books and five classics, let them answer."
Huan Wen and Xie an were more knowledgeable, but followed silently without answering.
"If you don't take the four books and five classics, test grid things and mathematics, you can imagine that those scholars should be crazy." Liu Yan suddenly stopped, faced the two people behind him and asked, "is it appropriate to ask policy, grid, mathematics and geography?"
Huan Wen saluted and said, "you are the Supreme Master of the ninth five year plan."
Xie'an hesitated. He knew that once he did that, he would be abandoning people of at least one era. If he did that, something would happen!