Why is China not a developed 1st world country after 4,000 years? What has China been doing the last 4000 years? How come China was a nation of 90% rice peasants till the 20th century?

为什么4000年后中国还没成为第一世界发达国家？中国在过去4000年里经历了什么？为什么直到20世纪还是一个农业人口占到90%的国家？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Steven Williams

There is a lot about this question that needs to be unpacked.

First of all, 1st world doesn't mean developed. It's a cold war term that talks about alliances - American allies being first world, Soviet Allies bring second world and the non-aligned nations being third world. So, by this terminology, China was never a third world country

Now, I'm going to put that misunderstanding aside because it's clear that the question refers to wealth and not alliance.

关于这个问题，有很多需要解释的地方。

首先，第一世界并不意味着就一定发达。这是一个有关盟约国的冷战术语——美国的盟友是第一世界，苏联的盟友是第二世界，不结盟国家是第三世界。所以根据这个分类，中国从来都不是第三世界国家

现在我就不谈这个误会了，因为很明显，问题中指的是财富，而非盟国。

4000 years are a long time and wealth transfers a lot over that time. Go back a few hundred years, China would have been the richest and most advanced nation on earth, although it wasn't a nation, but an empire, or some empires, seeing as nations are a modern concept and China as we know it today is just 73 years old. It was literally a collection of many different places with their own customs, culture and language all under the rulership of an emperor. The Tang Dynasty is seen as the most successful, but again, each empire has been different, different in size, some taking up different parts of the China we know today, some simultaneously in different places, some even including parts of what are different nations today.

4000年是很长的一段历史，财富流动了数次。几百年前，中国是地球上最富有和最发达的国家，尽管当时的中国不能说是一个国家，应该说是一个帝国，或者一些帝国，因为国家是一个现代概念，而我们今天所熟知的中国只有73年的历史。它其实是一个皇帝统治下的许多地区的集合，各个地区都有自己的习俗、文化和语言。唐朝是最成功的朝代，但是，每个朝代都各不一样，国土面积不同，有些朝代占据了我们今天所知的中国的不同地区，有些朝代同时占据不同的地方，有些朝代甚至占据了今天其他国家的部分领土。

So, for today, the downfall came when the Qing dynasty inherited China (at the barrel of a gun) and mismanaged her. They inherited the most advanced nation and let it stagnate while the West advanced at a fast pace. The West then bled China dry while the Qing stood there dribbling and letting it happen (OK, not quite, but they might as well have). All that wealth, transferred out.

清朝接手中国后管理不善，导致了中国的落后。清朝接手了当时最发达的国家，却让中国停滞不前，而西方却高速发展。后来西方榨干了中国的血，清朝政府无动于衷，任人宰割。中国的财富被转移到了西方。

Come 1949. China is an absolute mess, wrecked by mismanagement. Wrecked by colonial plundering. Wrecked by World War 2 and a massive civil war. The new nation is born, and given what I've just mentioned, understandably a little hostile to the West. After some teething problems, the nation is back on it's feet. They've decided not to be totally shitty towards us, but they do show their teeth when they feel, rightly or wrongly, that we're sticking our noses in their business - which, in my opinion, is totally understandable.

再看1949年。因为积年管理不善，中国已是一个被殖民掠夺、被第二次世界大战和大规模内战摧毁的烂摊子。一个新的国家诞生了，可以理解，它对西方带有一点敌意。在经历了初期的一些磨合问题之后，中国又重新站起来了。他们对我们不会完全无礼，但如果他们觉得我们干涉他们，他们也会马上反击——在我看来，这种反应也是完全可以理解的。

Nathan James

From 1840 to 1950, China suffered the “century of humiliation” at the hands of the Great Powers (Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and USA). But since 1950, China began to industrialize which brings us till today.

For most of China’s history, China was one of the most advanced nations in the world. Many great inventions and innovations came out of China over the millennia.

1840年到1950年，中国遭受了列强蹂躏（英、法、德、日、俄、美）的“百年耻辱”。但是1950年开始，中国开始了工业化，一路发展到今天。

在中国历史的大部分时间里，中国都是世界上最先进的国家之一。几千年来，中国给世界带来了许多伟大的发明和创新。

Mac Dara Mac Donnacha

Well for much of that time China was happy being (by far) the richest country in the world. By 1820 China’s gdp dwarfed that of other countries.

在历史上的大多数时间里，中国都是世界上最富有的国家。1820年中国的GDP让其他国家相形见绌。

China was a major exporter, but imported nothing (at least until the British turned up with opium…). But the problem was that the Chinese had it too good. Making money was easy (if you wanted to expand your business, you just hired more workers, and workers China had plenty of). This meant that China didn’t industrialise, and they fell behind Britain and the other western countries.

中国历史上是一个主要的出口大国，但没有进口过任何东西(至少在英国人带着鸦片出现之前……)。赚钱是很简单的事(如果你想扩大业务，你只需要多雇一些工人，而中国绝不缺工人)。这意味着中国没能实现工业化，落后于英国和其他西方国家了。

Tony Tan

Why wasn't Co unist China a developed 1st world country after 2,000 years of history?

By first world country, do you mean that it should look like this?

为什么经历过2000年的历史后，中国没能成为第一世界的发达国家？

你所谓的第一世界国家，是这个样子的吗？

Nathan James

Related

Why is China not a developed 1st world country after 5,000 years?

China only began modernizing its economy since 1979, 43 years ago. That’s not enough time to elevate over a billion people. China was a totally impoverished nation after its “century of humiliation” which began around 1840.

Keep in mind that none of the developed countries were developed until the 20th century.

为什么经过5000年后中国还不是第一世界发达国家?

中国是在43年前的1979年才开始开展经济现代化的。这么短的时间内，是没办法提高10亿人的生活水平。在经历了始于1840年左右的“百年耻辱”后，中国沦为了一个极度贫困的国家。

大家要记住，在20世纪前，当今所有的发达国家也都还不发达呢。

Cash

Developed 1st country ? How you measure it ? Maybe by technology ? But technology advantage is different in each era, also have different meaning.

The most crucial Technology Advantage in 20–21st Century is inventing Internet, Electricity. With Internet, everything move far faster. The world got more connected than before.

发达的第一大国？你如何判断发不发达，第不第一？也许通过科技水平？但每个时代的科技优势都不一样，含义也不一样。

20 - 21世纪最重大的技术是互联网、电力的发明。有了互联网，一切都变得更快了。全世界都比以前更加紧密地联系在一起了。

17th to 19th century starting from physics concept and steam engine. With Physics a lot of things can be explain logically, reproduce, and recreate the same phenomena. That's what let to creation of what we have in 20th 21st century. And all of them starts from the west. Yes, thats how you think about your country about developed country must have those things. But you forget a lot of other things in the further past.

17至19世纪从物理学概念和蒸汽机开始。有了物理学，很多事情都可以用科学逻辑来解释和复现。这使得我们拥有了20世纪21世纪创造的一切。这些发明都是从西方出现的。是的，这就是你对自己国家的看法，发达国家必须拥有这些东西。但是你忘了更早之前的很多事情。

Let's look further back in 10th BCE — 10th CE. The one you called not a developed country had

Invented the paper

Invented the gunpowder

Invented the Compass

Invented the Printing

Abolished the Slavery Practice

Trade much more than other

Try to use paper money

And the list goes on

让我们进一步回顾公元前10世纪到公元10世纪期间，这个你所谓的不发达国家，曾经：

发明了纸

发明了火药

发明了指南针

发明了印刷术

废除了奴隶制

贸易规模比其他国家大得多

开始使用纸币

这样的例子不胜枚举

By using the PoV from the era, China was one of the most developed country, also fair to say the most developed (?). Meanwhile at the era, middle east or europe still suffering from Slavery practice, unequal status ( noble commoner ).

在当时那个时代看，中国是最发达的国家之一，或者可以说是最发达的国家。当时中东或欧洲仍然还处于奴隶制时期，社会阶层不平等(分为贵族和平民)。

Don't look down on Peasants, they can kill you even you are the king. That's what happen throughtout some dynasty in China, example Han and Ming Dynasty. What Chinese wants usually is LIFE related, able to eat well, sleep well

How about let's turn this question to “what the west has done for last 300 years to become the so called developed country and superpower ?”

不要瞧不起农民，就算你是国王，农民也能杀了你。这种情况在中国的一些朝代都发生过，比如汉朝和明朝。中国人往往只追求和生活有关的事，吃得饱，睡得暖。

如果我们把这个问题改一改，变成“为了成为所谓的发达国家和超级大国，西方在过去300年里都干了些什么?”

Jim Mooney

Have you ever been to China? China’s 3rd tier cities make America’s 1st tier cities look like 2nd world cities. The US should be ashamed of how it’s let its major cities deteriorate.

你去过中国吗？中国的三线城市足以让美国的一线城市相形见绌，沦为第二世界国家。美国应该为美国大城市的衰败感到羞愧。

Amen Ra Ankh Hotep muh Dykkk the III

Related

Why is China still a develo country when it looks quite developed?

Hahahahaha, most of it is abject poverty. They have great spin doctors. 800,000 million people live on less than $500/year. Surprisingly many food staples, rice, flour, cooking oil, pork, cost more in China than in Canada. China has failed, most rural people have seen little to no increase in standard of living.

中国看起来很发达，但为什么还是发展中国家？

哈哈哈哈哈，中国大部分地区还很穷呢。他们有很棒的公关顾问。中国有8亿人每年的生活费低于500美元。令人惊讶的是，大米、面粉、食用油、猪肉等许多主食在中国的价格都高于加拿大。中国没救了，大多数农村人的生活水平几乎没有提高。

Nathan James

Related

Why is China not a developed 1st world rich country after 2,000 years?

Originally Answered: Why is China not a developed 1st world country after 2,000 years?

Jain Patel, why do you keep asking the same question over and over and over again? Weren’t any of the previous answers satisfactory? Your questions are begng to look like spam.

为什么2000年后中国还没能成为第一世界发达国家？

Jain Patel，你为什么一遍又一遍地提问这个问题？之前大家的回答都不够让你满意吗？你的问题都快变成垃圾邮件了。

To repeat myself…

Today’s developed economies did not start to become developed until the 20th century. Since 1840, China suffered a “century of humiliation” as the Great Powers of the era (Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and USA) descended on China like vultures and carved her up like a turkey.

It wouldn’t be until 1950 that China (PRC) would begin to recover. After a few fits and starts, China began her spectacular rise in 1979 after Deng iao ushered in his swee reforms that totally transformed China.

我再说一遍……

现今的发达经济体是20世纪才开始变成发达经济体的。自1840年以来，中国遭受了“百年屈辱”，当时的大国(英国、法国、德国、日本、俄罗斯和美国)像秃鹫一样扑向中国，把中国像火鸡一样瓜分了。

直到1950年，中国才得以复苏。

So China’s development is only about four decades long, not enough to lift over a billion people out of abject poverty. China will complete her development within the next few decades.

However, it’s worth pointing out that for most of the last 2,000 years, China and India were alternately the largest economies in the world…

因此，中国仅仅发展了大约40年的时间，这么短的时间不足以让10多亿人摆脱赤贫。中国还会在未来几十年里继续发展。

但是我必须说一下，在过去2000年的大部分时间里，中国和印度互相交替获得全世界最大经济体的头衔……

Plamen Galabov

May be because of this:

也许是因为这个原因：

Or may be because they have several thousand years written history.

Most probably because of the transfer of technology mistake. They passed the cannon powder to the European savages who used it to conquer and loot almost all of the world including China.

也可能是因为他们有数千年的文字记载历史。

最有可能是因为科技转让的错。中国人把火药传给了欧洲的野蛮人，欧洲人用火药征服和掠夺了包括中国在内的几乎全世界。