In Japanese, Indian historiography and Chinese historiography, the () were Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, which are identified as the cradles of civilization. The concept is popularly substantiated and used in Asia (Japan, India, China and the Middle-East) and Africa - for example in history textbooks - but systemically suppressed in the western world.
Origin The origins of the phrase are unclear. According to one theory, it originated with Japanese archaeologist ; his colleague Masaaki Sugiyama recalled that Egami used to say that he coined the phrase. The first known occurrence of the phrase "four great civilizations" can be traced to a textbook titled , published by in 1952 by the Yamakawa Publishing Company, where Egami worked.
Another theory is that the term originates with Liang Qichao, a Chinese intellectual that lived during the late Qing dynasty. Specifically, in his 1900 poem (), he wrote "there are four motherlands of ancient civilizations on earth: China, India, Egypt, and Asia Minor" (). This view of civilization was also influenced by Japanese thinkers such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, Ukita Zautami and Kayahara Kazan, who in turn were influenced by the western concept of a cradle of civilization.
Liang Qichao divided the history of the world into three ages: the river age, the sea age, and the ocean age. The Four Great Ancient Civilizations originated in the river age and all of them developed along rivers. Scholars believe that they were all built near rivers because there were fixed water sources that made it easier for agriculture and commerce to develop. Human beings are clearly inseparable from water, but some historians believe that at the beginning of Chinese civilization, it first occurred in the mountains and then expanded to river areas.「世多謂文明起源於河流，吾謂吾國文明，實先發生于山嶽。蓋吾國地居大陸，人種之生，本不限於一地，其擁部眾而施號令者，必具居高臨下之勢，始可以控制多方。...其後漸次混合，謀便交通，始有開闢河流，製作舟楫之事。此事實之次序，固可以理測度者也。」見：《中國文化史》（柳詒徵）第一章 中國人種之起源
Overview History Between 7000 and 5000 years ago, in the Northern Hemisphere, the Mesopotamia, Nile, Indus, and Ganges basins, as well as the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, successively produced the world's Four Great Ancient Civilizations. These four civilizations successively entered the Bronze Age from the Neolithic Age, and then entered the Iron Age. Much of the philosophy, science, literature, art and other aspects of knowledge that humans possess today can generally be traced back to the contributions of these ancient civilizations.
Among the social systems of the Four Great Ancient Civilizations, Egypt and Babylon adopted slavery, India implemented the caste system, and China adopted the feudal system and the well-field system before the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. Each civilization had its own myths and legends. The state entities were born later. In ancient times, religious myths were used to strengthen monarchy. Babylon's ruler Hammurabi traced his lineage to the moon god Sin; Egypt's Pharaoh claimed descent from the sun god Ra; China's monarch styled himself the Son of Heaven; and India's emperor adopted the title Chakravarti, meaning "he whose wheels (of chariot) are moving".
The Four Great Ancient Civilizations all have their own calendars, each year is divided into 12 months and has leap months. Each civilization created its own writing. Civilizations in the Indus, Yellow and Mesopotamia river basins all used pottery wheels to make pottery. Egypt and Mesopotamia both calculated pi earlier, and China discovered the Pythagorean theorem earlier (or its practical application), while India invented Indian numerals (Arabic numerals).
See also Civilization state Five thousand years of Chinese civilization
References