On Tue, 20 May 2008 18:12:02 +0800, Ben Sharvy wrote
(in article
<53a39759-1df7-4a80-92b8-cba3b17e9db0@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
> There's not even a single Chinese language, much less a single Chinese
> culture, and certainly not a single Chinese nation extant for 2,000
years.
Lots of people say Western Civilization began in the fertile crescent. In
that scale, there has been a Chinese civilization for about 5,000 years.
Con****ius was (according to traditional dating) born September 28, 551
BCE.
He is already farther into the past than your 2,000 years. It is not a
silly
claim to say that he was a part of a culture that still exists today.
Indeed
it would be nonsense to say he wasn't.
The history of the game of wei chi also indicates a Chinese culture closer
to
5,000 years than to your 2,000.
According to Chinese history, Wei-Ch'i was invented by Emperor Shun (2255
-
2206 BC) to help develop the intelligence of his son, Shokin. A
alternative
version attributes the invention to U, who lived during the reign of
Emperor
Kieh Kwei several hundred years later. Under non-Chinese history, it is
thought more likely that the game originated in central Asia from where it
spread eastwards through Nepal and Tibet to China. The earliest written
reference is found in the works of Mencius around 400BC. The first books
were
written about Wei Ch'i during the T'ang dynasty between 618 - 906 AD and
there are enough poems and other literature written during the 10th
Century
AD to deduce that the game must have been well established by then.
--
Love, Jim
(I often delete parts of the previous post and I often remove excessive
crossposts.)
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