Is China's history 5,000 years old or 2,000 years old?

中国的历史到底是5000年还是2000年？

以下是Quora网友的评价：

Halfman Huang

China history have four parts.

The first part was from 6000 years ago to 4000 years ago was the Legendary History, but difficult to make sure evidence to prove the authenticity, I don’t mean none evidence, but actually too many evidences. A large amount of contradictory information and discoveries have made it difficult to verify legendary stories.

中国的历史可以分成四个部分。

第一部分是从6000年前到4000年前的神话传说，但很难找到准确证据来证明真实性，不是没有证据，而是证据太多。大量信息和发现相互矛盾，所以很难证实。

The second part was from 4000 years ago to 3600 years ago was also the Legendary History, but the difference is, at least, we have proved there has a central kingdom in this time, which could match the story of ia Dynasty, but god dammit, we failed to find the capital (I personally believe that historians seem to go to the wrong place. I personally believe that the first capital of ia Dynasty should have been located in somewhere near i'an city, but currently, historians seem to have been trapped in Henan Province, and refuse to admit mistake).

第二部分是从4000年前到3600年前，也是传说，但不同的是，至少我们已经证明了这个时期有一个中央王国，应该就是夏朝，但我们没能找到夏朝的首都(我个人认为历史学家似乎走错了地方。我个人认为夏朝的第一个首都应该位于西安附近的某个地方，但目前历史学家一直坚持在河南省寻找)。

The third part was from 3600 to 3000 years ago, the Shang Dynasty, finally, we got realtime documents to find pieces of infos to match the Legendary History, Unfortunately, those documents are mostly divination and prayer texts, only provided limited infos, but at least it can help us to confirm that the legendary story of this period was not full bullshits.

The fourth part, after 3000 years ago, China entered Zhou Dynasty, and Zhou Dynasty established Court Historian System, Historian officials recorded everything of the empire in realtime documents, and been kept and spreaded very widely, since it, the Chinese history is very clear.

第三部分是3600年到3000年前的商代，我们找到了当时的文献，但遗憾的是，这些文献大多是占卜和祝祷，能提供的信息有限，但至少可以帮助我们确认这一时期的传说不全是胡说八道。

第四部分，3000多年前，中国进入周朝，周朝建立了朝廷史官制度，史官将帝国的一切记录在当时的文件中，并被妥善保管、广为传播，从那之后中国历史就非常清晰了。

XM

If “history” refers to “something written”, then, China has a history of a little over 3000 years (something between 3100 to 3200 years, and the early writings are fragmented, so there is not much to be read from that writing.

If “history” refers to archeological or fossil records, that of course goes way back, much, much more than 5000 years. Of course, this part of the “history” is not “China”.

如果“历史”指的是“有文字记载的历史”，那么，中国有3000多年的历史(大约在3100年到3200年之间)，早期的文字记录十分零散，所以这些文字无法提供多少内容。

如果“历史”指的是考古或化石记录，那中国的历史绝对可以追溯到5000多年前。当然，这部分“历史”并不是“中国的历史”。

Yugan Talovich

First let’s ask what we’re talking about by “history.” If you mean contemporary written records, it can’t go back much more than 3500 years, because before that, they didn’t have a complete writing system that we know of. If you mean the archeological record, complemented by oral traditions and written records, then you’re going back 8,000 years.

If you’re talking about the history of China, I assume you mean the nation. The geology goes back to the dinosaurs.

首先我们要先确认一下我们所说的“历史”指的是什么。如果你指的是当代的文字记录，最多不超过3500年前，因为在那之前，还没有出现完整的文字系统。如果你指的是考古记录，辅以口头传承和书面记录，那么你会发现可以追溯到8000年前。

如果你问的是中国的历史，我猜你指的是中国这个国家。从地质学上说，可以追溯到恐龙时代。

I said oral traditions because there are parts of 尙書 (Shang Shu, Documents) that date to the Neolithic, before writing was invented. The archeological record bears them out, so they must have been orally transmitted for many generations before they were finally committed to writing.

So if you take what we consider to be China, and trace it back, you can go back to the Neolithic, the begngs of agriculture in China, and you can see a straight line of transmission from at least 8,000 years ago to the present day.

我之所以说口述传承，是因为《尚书》中有一部分讲到了文字发明之前的新石器时代，而考古记录证实了这一点，所以在被文字记录下来之前，这些内容肯定被人们口口相传了许多代。

所以如果追溯到新石器时代，中国农业开始出现的时候，你可以发现从至少8000年前一直贯穿到现在的历史脉络。

Nguyễn Đình Quý

Neither 5000 nor 2000. It’s approxmately 4000.

Chinese civilization appeared circa 2000 BC, a contemporary to the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. However, the period from 2000 BC to 1300 BC could only be verified through archaeological excavations. From 1300 BC, we can rely on the Chinese script whose earliest examples date back to that time.

既不是5000年也不是2000年。大约是4000年。

中国文明大约出现于公元前2000年，和埃及中央王国同时代。但公元前2000年至公元前1300年的这段时间只能通过考古发掘来证实。从公元前1300年开始，我们就可以通过最早的文字追溯到那个时候的历史。

Khengchat Ng

Disclaimer : I am not a historian or an expert on China.

Chinese history which is almost synonymous with Chinese culture traces back to 5000 years or so. However the pivotal moment happened in 221 BCE when the land came under a single ruler and it's history became clear cut. It is equivalent to 1066 for the English. Legends of Beowulf's, King Canute and Knights of the Round Table turned into modern history.

声明：我不是历史学家，也不是中国问题专家。

中国的历史几乎就是中国文化的同义词，可以追溯到5000年前左右。但公元前221年是一个很关键的年份，当时这片土地开始由一个统治者统治，历史变得清晰起来。这个时期相当于英国的1066年，贝奥武夫、克努特国王和圆桌骑士的传说变成了现代历史。

Jonathan Carlson

It is in this way that China has been described as being a “Civilization State”. The Chinese culture in general has continued, uninterrupted, for thousands of years. It was the Chinese people who decided on their own to change the , just as it had done multiple times throughout the past. 1911 the Qing dynasty fell, and Republic of China was founded in 1912. It was done so, not by foreigners who changed society, but by Chinese people. It again was changed by the will of the people (or, at least, the vast majority of people), through the Chinese Civil War, and the current People’s Republic of China was established.

中国也因此被描述为一个“文明古国”。总的来说，中国文化延续了几千年，没有中断过。中国人民自己做出的决定，就像历史上多次发生过的那样。1911年清朝陨落，1912年中华民国成立。改变中国社会的不是外国人，而是中国人自己。通过内战，中国人民(或者至少是绝大多数中国人)再次用自己的意愿推番了中华民国政府，成立了现在的中华人民共和国。

To give you an idea of the continuity of Chinese history, I used to live in the city of ianyang in Shaanx province. This was the capital city of the Qin dynasty, which was the first to unify the Chinese warring states back in 221 BCE.

So we can clearly see that there is a connection between the China today and the China from 2000 years ago. It’s the reason why we say that China is so old, and not, contrary to that other answer, only 74 years old.

为了让你对中国历史的延续性有个概念，我可以简单介绍一下，我曾经住在陕西省咸阳市。这里曾是秦朝的首都，早在公元前221年，秦朝第一次统一了战国时期的中国。

因此，我们可以清楚地看到，今天的中国和2000年前的中国是有联系的。这就是为什么我们说中国很古老，而不是只有74岁。

But how far can we push this date?

The Zhou dynasty began in about 1045 BCE. As, once again, a direct line can be drawn between the China of today and the China back then, we have already reached an age of about 3000 years.

但我们能往前追溯多久呢？

周朝大约始于公元前1045年。今天的中国和过去的中国可以再次连线，我们已经走过了大约3000年的历史。

And let’s go further back. The Zhou dynasty came about when the leader of the Zhou, named Ji Chang rebelled and overthrew the king before him. In the time of Ji Chang, the Zhou state was a subject of the Shang dynasty. He was established as the new king. Therefore, we can clearly draw a line between the Zhou and the Shang. The Shang was founded in about 1600 BCE. This puts the age of China back to about 3600 years.

我们可以继续往前追溯。周国的首领姬昌起义，推番了前任国王，周朝由此诞生。姬昌时期，周国人曾是商朝的臣民。姬昌被立为新国王。因此，我们可以清楚地把周朝和商朝区分开来。商朝大约建立于公元前1600年。中国的历史又延长到3600年左右。

And we can go even further back. The Shang dynasty was founded by Cheng Tang, who was the leader of the Shang state, which was a subject of the ia dynasty. The last king of ia was an absolutely horrible person by all surviving accounts - killing people at his whim, spending on frivolous things like having a lake constructed and filled with wine. We can then see that there is a direct line back from the Shang to the ia, which was founded in roughly 2070 BCE. Again, we can put the age of China back all the way to 4000 years.

So can we go back even further? Well, kind of.

我们还可以继续追溯到更早的时候。商朝是由商国的领袖成汤建立的，商国人曾是夏朝的臣民。夏国的末代国王是一个可怕的暴君—他杀人如麻，挥霍无度，建造酒池。我们可以发现商朝和夏朝之间存在着直接的联系，夏朝大约建立于公元前2070年。所以中国的历史可以一直追溯到4000年前。

我们还能继续往前追溯吗？或多或少还是可以的。

The story of the founding of the ia is all about Yu the Great, who was the first emperor/king of the ia. He was ordered by Emperor Shun to fix the problem of flooding along the Yellow river. The emperor was so impressed with the work of Yu the Great that he named him as his successor. So who was Shun? He was the last of what’s known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. One of the reasons why things are so sketchy is that the earliest decipherable writing in China is actually from the late Shang dynasty, hundreds of years later. But here’s the kicker - we know for a fact that there was writing in the ia and before the ia as well, but we just cannot decipher it (or at least, right now we can’t.

关于夏国建立的传说都有关大禹，他是夏国的第一个国王。舜帝命他解决黄河的洪涝问题。舜任命禹为自己的继任者。那么舜又是谁呢？他就是被称为三皇五帝的最后一位。中国最早可破译的文字出现于数百年后的商朝晚期。但更重要的是，我们确实知道夏朝和夏朝之前也有文字，但我们无法解读(至少现在还未破译)。

Looking at archaeology, there are groups that show a distinct connection to the ia, both in terms of style and also (proto)writing. There’s the Longshan culture, for example, which is dated to roughly 3000 BCE to 1900 BCE. And then there’s the Yangshao culture, which shares similar connections to the Longshan culture, and exsted from about 5000 BCE to 3000 BCE. Both the Longshan, and the earlier Yangshao cultures exsted over a large area, implying that it was more than just isolated cultures. In fact, going as far back as 8000 BCE, to the Peiligang culture, we have the earliest proto-writing in China, and these symbols (known as Jiahu symbols) all share similarities to the symbols used in the later neolithic cultures that I’ve mentioned. And, of course, there are similar styles of pottery used throughout all these sites, as well as similar jade artifacts. It all shows that there is a connection between them over a vast amount of time.

That said, I fully admit that it’s quite murky going back so far, so usually its referred to as 5000 years, but it could be argued to go back as far as 10,000 years.

从考古学的角度来看，有一些群体与夏朝存在明显联系，无论是在风格还是字迹方面。比如龙山文化大约可以追溯到公元前3000年到公元前1900年。然后是仰韶文化，它与龙山文化有着相似的联系，大约存在于公元前5000年到公元前3000年。龙山文化和更早的仰韶文化出现在很大的区域，这意味着它们不是孤立的文化。

早在公元前8000年的裴李岗文化，就出现了中国最早的原始文字，这些符号(被称为贾湖符号)都与新石器时代后期文化中使用的符号有相似之处。当然，在这些遗址中都出现了类似风格的陶器以及相似的玉器。这一切都表明，在很长一段时间里，它们之间一直存在着联系。

也就是说，我完全承认，到目前为止，中国的历史是相当模糊的，所以通常被称为5000年文明史，但其实可以追溯到10000年前。