试论亚洲文明发轫于旱粮农业区

Why Did Asiant Civilizations Originate in the Grain-producing Region?

亚洲是人类文明的重要发祥地,旧大陆四大文明摇篮有三个分布在西亚、南亚和东亚,一些地区在距今5000年前突破氏族制度的羁绊脱颖而出,率先迎来了文明的曙光。研究这些地区的历史进程,人们不难发现,新石器时代“农业革命”奠定的物质文明基础,是人类创造历史新纪元的关键。历史学家把“农业革命”誉为“文明之母”是相当有见地的。

About 4,500 years ago, the dry grain agricultrual districts of the Mesopotamia, the Indus River valley and the Yellow River valley took the lead in entering civilized societies. However, the rice districts of the Ganges River valley and the Yangtze River valley, which were on an equal level with the previous three districts in respect to productive power development, were backward comparatively and unable to smash the bonds of Clan system. Tracing the reasons, we think that human civilization had been founded on the base of dry grains cultivated easily at first.