According to human thinking habits, most people always believe that the universe and the earth are constant and have no beginning or end. However, modern astronomical knowledge shows that everything in the material world has an ending, is born and dies, and at the same time, everything must undergo countless very violent changes during its existence. Everything in the material world is constantly running in a natural cycle of growth, prosperity, decline and destruction. In fact, we know enough about the conditions, environment, essence and internal causes of life. It is useless for us to dig deeper into the origin and starting point of matter and life. significance.
From the discussion in the above chapters, we know that the basis for the production of matter and life is spiritual elements such as natural laws, natural laws, gene effects, and soul effects. The essence of human civilization is the process of understanding and using these spiritual elements to improve oneself, transform the world, and ultimately achieve safety, security, freedom, happiness, and eternal life. Therefore, it is of great significance for us to dig and discover the starting point and origin of human civilization.
The results of scientific research on paleoclimatology show that the earth's climate has been undergoing drastic changes over a large time span. Perhaps these changes are related to the movements of celestial bodies such as the universe, the solar system, and the earth. Among them, the alternation of ice ages and warm periods triggered changes in the earth's climate. Dramatic changes in the environment lead to the death and rebirth of life on earth.
During the ice age, the earth was very cold and dry. Most of the water on the earth's surface was frozen in the north and south poles and plateau areas of the earth, forming vast and thick permanent ice caps. Many animals and plants lived in warm and hot areas. At the same time, cold and dryness lead to desertification in some areas not covered by ice. Therefore, the living space for living plants in natural disasters is severely compressed.
The last ice age on earth is the most recent ice age that has been scientifically measured on earth. It started about 115,000 years ago, ended 15,000 years ago, and ended completely 11,000 years ago.
During the last ice age, the earth was much colder than it is now. A very wide range of ice caps formed at the poles and plateau areas of the earth. At the peak of the last ice age, the ice caps in the northern hemisphere covered the North American continent, Eurasia and other areas at 30 degrees north latitude. Areas north of the line, as well as northern plateau areas such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and Iran Plateau.
According to the research results of paleoclimatology and paleogeology, the average temperature of the earth today is about 14 degrees Celsius. During the last glacial period, the global temperature was 6 degrees Celsius lower than the current temperature, only about 8 degrees Celsius. Ordinary people do not directly feel the changes in the earth's temperature, but the decrease in the earth's temperature during the last glacial period directly caused most of North America and Eurasia to be covered with hard and non-melting ice and snow. They are all permanent ice cap areas, and the area between 30 and 15 latitudes is in a temperate zone with cold climate all year round and frequent wind and snow. Only the equatorial areas included in the 15 degrees north and south latitudes are tropical and subtropical areas that are more suitable for the growth of animals and plants.
At the same time, the temperature of the earth has dropped, causing most of the water on the earth to be sealed in ice caps, causing the earth's environment to become very dry. Most of the earth's surface is covered with ice and snow, and areas not covered by ice and snow have become extremely arid. Wastelands and deserts, only a small amount of wetlands, forests and grasslands are possible in areas close to glacial rivers and with slightly warmer climates.
Because so much of Earth's water is locked up in polar and plateau ice caps, Earth's sea levels are lowered. According to scientists' measurements, during the peak of the last glacial period, the sea level at that time was 133 meters lower than today's sea level. Throughout the last glacial period, its sea level was also 70 to 150 meters lower than today. Therefore, during the last ice age, shallow sea areas such as the South China Sea, the Indonesian Islands, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Pacific Ocean became land.
Due to the profound deterioration of the natural environment, many animals fled ice-covered areas. Animals around the world migrated to areas suitable for survival such as temperate zones, subtropics, and tropics at that time. Therefore, alpine polar animals such as woolly mammoths, mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, ground sloths, polar bears, seals, penguins, etc., migrated to warmer southern areas in large numbers at the beginning of the last ice age; camels, horses, donkeys Highly mobile animals such as wolves, cattle, and sheep flocked to the warm areas of the Ice Age in droves.
At the beginning of the last ice age, humans also followed those animals with sensitive feelings and migrated to the subtropical and tropical areas of the ice age. Of course, at the beginning of the last ice age, those plants and animals that were not able to migrate to warmer areas must have been wiped out by the cold and dry climate.
Among mammals, humans have relatively poor natural survival capabilities. Humans are not ferocious carnivores, so the ways in which humans obtain food are very limited. Humans can only obtain food through gathering, fishing, and hunting while enduring the danger of raptors. food. At the same time, humans have very poor innate perception of nature, and humans are very slow to perceive changes in the earth's environment. Therefore, humans can only perceive changes in the natural environment by observing the changes and behaviors of other organisms to make up for the lack of humans' innate abilities. ; At the same time, humans are less hairy animals, and their natural cold tolerance is much worse than that of other hairy mammals. Therefore, humans first mastered the laws of climate change and mastered the ability to use clothing and fire to keep warm and keep out the cold. Of course, humans also follow the migration of animals. The earliest survival skills that humans understand and master.
At the beginning of the last glacial period, due to the drop in sea level, many shallow sea areas became new land during the glacial period.
According to the knowledge of geography, the largest shallow sea areas on the earth are the South China Sea (average depth is 1212 meters, maximum depth is 5559 meters), Indonesian inland sea and continental shelf waters (average depth is 2694 meters, maximum depth is 6563 meters), and around the Indian Ocean The continental shelf and shallow sea area (the average depth of the ocean is 3890 meters, the maximum depth is 7455 meters), so during the strong period of the ice age, the South China Sea, Indonesian waters, Philippine waters, Australia, Indian Ocean and other areas connected a new continent.
During the last glacial period, mainland China, the South China Sea, the Indonesian Islands, the Philippine Islands, and Australia formed a very close new continent. At the same time, this new continent was connected with the Indian South Asian subcontinent and the new Indian Ocean continent, and was connected with the African continent, perhaps at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Some smaller saltwater lakes and extensive silt areas have formed in the deep sea area.
Of course, during the last glacial period, the Mediterranean Sea (average depth is about 1,600 meters, the deepest reaches 4,594 meters) and the Atlantic Ocean (the average depth is 3,627 meters, the deepest Puerto Rico Trench is 9,219 meters deep) have basically dried up, and perhaps there are still some relatively deep areas left in this area. The small saltwater lake, the Bosporus Strait, also known as the Istanbul Strait (the shallowest point is only 27.5 meters and the deepest point is 120 meters) connected to the Mediterranean Sea, has become land, and the Black Sea has become an inland sea covered by ice all year round. .
During the last glacial period, the Bering Strait (with an average depth of about 1,600 meters and a maximum depth of 4,594 meters) had become a land bridge, thus forming a land connection between Eurasia and the American continent.
At the beginning of the cold and dry last ice age, there were not many areas suitable for human survival and development. Due to the severe salinization and siltation of the new continent formed in the shallow sea area, these new continents lacked the natural conditions and resources for the survival and development of animals and plants. Therefore, these New Worlds were not suitable for human beings, animals and plants to survive in the early stages of the long Ice Age. In the middle and late Ice Ages, after the environment of the New World was naturally improved, these New Worlds became a paradise for animals, plants and humans to survive.
According to scientists' comprehensive analysis and investigation of the earth's geology, due to human beings' poor adaptability to the environment and poor ability to obtain food, during the last ice age, humans could only live in glaciers that were rich in animal, plant and mineral resources. tropical and subtropical regions. And this area can only be the southern part of mainland China in eastern Asia, the South China Sea, the southern part of Indochina Peninsula (i.e. Vietnam, Cambodia, southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia), Southeast Asia (i.e. Indonesian Islands, Philippine Islands, Southeastern Pacific Islands, Australia, etc.) , as well as the southern end of the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, the area included in the central African continent at 15 degrees north and south latitude, and the area included in the American continent at 15 degrees north and south latitude. During the last ice age, only the plant and animal resources and natural environment in these areas were suitable for human survival and development.
According to the results of archaeological research, during the last glacial period, southern mainland China, the South China Sea, southern Indochina Peninsula (i.e., Vietnam, Cambodia, southern Thailand, and Peninsular Malaysia), Southeast Asia (i.e., the Indonesian Islands, the Philippine Islands, the Southeastern Pacific Islands, Australia etc.) and other areas (we call this area Southeast Asian Human Civilization Central Area, referred to as the Human Civilization Central Area), were the areas with the best natural environment and the richest animal and plant resources during the last ice age, and were the most suitable for human survival and development on earth. Area. At the same time, archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered a large number of ancient human skeleton fossils and traces of activities in the area.
Therefore, we can affirm that the southern part of mainland China, the Indochina Peninsula, Southeast Asia and the South Asian subcontinent are the core areas of human survival and development, the cradle and home of the birth and growth of modern Homo sapiens, and the cradle of the birth and development of human civilization.
Current scientific research still cannot explain whether the earth's climate and environment changed suddenly 115,000 years ago, at the beginning of the last ice age. Is it violent? We know that when the climate and environment suddenly change, the vast majority of animals will starve and freeze to death before they have time to react! Only birds and animals that can sense the signs of climate and environmental changes can escape to warm equatorial areas. Humans are not animals that are sensitive to climate and environmental changes. Therefore, many humans living in high latitudes should have been frozen at the beginning of the ice age. Dead and starved. The only humans who survived the Ice Age were those living in and near the equatorial regions of the Earth. Therefore, after the outbreak of the last ice age, not many humans survived. According to scientists’ calculations, the total number of direct ancestors of humans, namely Homo sapiens, at the beginning of the last ice age would not exceed 3,000. These Homo sapiens basically lived in human civilization in southeastern Asia. Central District.
According to the research results of paleoclimatology and paleogeography, during the last glacial period of the African continent, except for river areas and some coastal areas, the inland and northern areas of the African continent were very dry. Desertification was very serious in these areas. Therefore, at that time Humans living on the African continent had a very difficult living environment. They relied on gathering and hunting to eke out a living. Therefore, the population in Africa was very sparse at the beginning of the last glacial period.
During the early and middle stages of the last glacial period, due to the basically continentalized seabed mud and lakes at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, as well as the isolation of the vast desolate areas of the New World, human exchanges and exchanges between African humans and the center of human civilization in southeastern Asia were very limited, and each maintained its own development trajectory.
Therefore, Africans still maintain the physical and genetic characteristics of black people to this day, and the African race is the purest. Asians obviously have yellow, red and white people living there. Since the center of human civilization in southeast Asia is closely connected to the Eurasian continent on land, and the southern part of the Eurasian continent has a good natural environment and relatively rich natural resources. , therefore the reproduction and development of human beings in this area is relatively rapid, so this area can ensure the full development of yellow, red, white and other races. At the same time, due to the connectivity of land routes, these races can integrate and communicate. This laid the foundation for the birth and development of modern human civilization.
According to anthropological research results and the current basic situation of human race distribution, yellow people first lived in southwestern China, the southern part of Indochina, and the mainland of the Indonesian archipelago; red people first lived in the southern tip of the South Asian subcontinent, all over Indonesia. region, northern Australia; Caucasians initially lived mainly in the northwest of the South Asian subcontinent and the Indus River Basin, the western foothills of the Tibetan Plateau, and the southern Arabian Peninsula. These areas were subtropical and temperate during the last glacial period. These areas The climate is relatively cold, with alternating hot and cold climates.
According to archaeological results, the earliest time humans appeared on the American continent was between 27,000 and 25,000 years ago. During the early and middle stages of the last glacial period, there were no traces of human activities on the American continent. This shows that between 27,000 and 25,000 years ago, 25,000 years ago, humans did not leave habitable areas such as Eurasia and Africa and migrate to the American continent.
According to scientific reasoning and judgment, during the period from 115,000 to 7.5 years ago, the southern region of mainland China, the southern region of Indochina Peninsula, the South China Sea Islands, the Indonesian Islands, etc. formed the "New Continent of Southeast Asia", which was a piece of the earth at that time. The continent most suitable for human survival and development. Therefore, the main body of human beings after development and expansion basically concentrated on living in the "New World of Southeast Asia" during the Ice Age. After 30,000 years of transformation and nourishment by nature, the "New World of Southeast Asia" has become a mild and humid climate, with crisscrossed rivers, dotted lakes, and very rich freshwater resources. It is the region with the richest and most luxuriant flora and fauna in the world. The "New World of Southeast Asia" "It is the main home of modern Homo sapiens in the middle and late stages of the last ice age, and it is the largest and most prosperous center of human civilization on the earth!"
As the natural environment of the new land becomes increasingly perfect, the vegetation of the New World thrives. New grasslands and forests have fully covered this area, which has become a paradise for animals and birds. This change has greatly improved the human living environment and expanded the world. Human living space provides humans with richer resources for survival and development.
Due to the increase in food supply and the improvement of living environment, the population in the area increased rapidly and formed the earliest human race and society. Due to rapid population growth, it has become the most densely populated area in the world. The prosperity of society has led to very frequent contacts and exchanges between groups. Due to the inevitable interest disputes between people and between ethnic groups, conflicts and frequent struggles have resulted. In order to coordinate and regulate the behavior of groups and maintain peaceful coexistence, the earliest systematic and standardized human language was produced in this region. ——An early ancient saying in Southeast Asia!
Due to the completeness of language, society can be effectively coordinated and managed, and all kinds of human information, knowledge and technology can be fully communicated and transmitted. This has enhanced human beings' ability to obtain food and daily necessities, and also promoted the development of human intelligence.
In order to solve population and social problems during this period, human elites began to think systematically about nature and human society. They were looking for various factors that restricted their own survival and development, and explored and practiced various methods and methods to solve problems. means. In order to obtain more food, they invented and improved various production tools, and gradually transitioned from primitive gathering and hunting to agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery. At the same time, they developed food processing, grain storage and commerce, ensuring stable food supply and smooth circulation.
In terms of community and social management, they describe and define the soul according to the universal spiritual needs of mankind, develop primitive religion, and establish human norms of good and evil and moral standards; in order to coordinate and regulate interpersonal relationships and communication, they formulate personal cultivation content and Code of conduct and the formulation of primitive laws such as family mottos, clan rules and township covenants. At the same time, the original social management system and its organizational structure based on the matrilineal clan have gradually taken shape, and social management has developed in the direction of systematization, refinement and rigor.
During this period, in the densely populated inland settlement areas of the New World in Southeast Asia, such as the Indochina Peninsula, southern China and other Ice Age tropical and subtropical areas, as the population continued to increase, people relied solely on natural economic methods such as gathering and hunting. No longer able to meet the food needs of the group, people here began to develop the earliest human agriculture and animal husbandry based on mastering plant seed and seedling cultivation techniques, animal domestication and breeding techniques. They gradually got rid of their dependence on gathering and hunting. Here Becoming the most developed region of human civilization at that time, they laid a solid and reliable foundation for the great development of human civilization!
The history of the development of human society has proven that solving the problem of food and clothing is the most critical material basis for the continuation and development of human civilization. The total amount and stability of food supply determines the population, and the population determines the scale of society. Only a large society can promote the great development of human civilization. Therefore, only those nations that have fully mastered advanced production technologies such as agriculture, animal husbandry, navigation, and fishery can assume the important task of developing human society and civilization. However, those races and groups that are threatened by hunger, cold, and disease will inevitably lose their The conditions and foundation for their survival and development must be submerged in the long river of history.
History has proven that only those races with sufficient food supplies, comfortable moods, broad-mindedness, and cultural heritage can cultivate their personal temperament and moral character, and they can have exquisite and profound thinking about heaven, earth, people, and gods. Only they can change and sublimate human thoughts, behaviors and civilization.
According to archaeological discoveries, during this period, the ancients who lived in this area observed and remembered many natural phenomena in nature. They mastered the laws of the cold and hot seasons, and mastered the correspondence between astronomical phenomena and seasons. On the basis of these understandings, They developed the earliest astronomical calendar of mankind, namely the solar calendar and other calendars, which improved security and convenience for human production and life.
At the same time, the ancient people of this era in this area learned from the observation of natural mountain fires and the phenomenon of friction and heating of objects, the use of fire (for heating, burning food), making fire (including drilling wood, scraping wood, knocking stones, etc.) to stabilize the environment. Fire methods), preservation of fire and other methods. Mastering the use of fire marks the entry of human beings into the true industrial era. It lays the foundation for human future ceramics, metallurgy, material manufacturing, etc., and at the same time, its use improves human survival and development. The environment, baked food improves and improves human hygiene and physical fitness, and also provides conditions for human survival and development in cold areas. With the invention of bone needles and silk threads, humans began to sew leather clothing, shoes and hats, and these living conditions improved. Make it safe and convenient for humans to live in cold areas!
As the population in tropical and subtropical areas increased, conflicts and struggles intensified, races that mastered cold-proofing technology and equipment began to migrate to northern areas. In these areas, they lived in natural caves that were warm in winter and cool in summer, or dug under soil slopes. They lived in caves and developed early agriculture and animal husbandry in an orderly manner for their survival.
In the long-term use of fire, the ancients understood the sintering technology and craftsmanship of pottery and porcelain, and produced the first batch of rough and simple pottery daily necessities. Pottery is an industrial product with real significance for mankind, and it is the first step toward industry for mankind. With one step, the development of human manufacturing has never stopped and continues to this day.
With the deepening of human understanding of metal ores and the development of stove technology, the ancients began the earliest exploration of smelting. Humans first smelted some metals with lower melting points, such as gold, silver and other metals, and began to explore the manufacturing of metal tools.
In the tens of thousands of years of exploration that followed, humankind's kiln technology achieved revolutionary development. New kilns were able to produce stable and sustained high temperatures, allowing the production of copper, iron and other metals that require high-temperature smelting. At the same time, the improvement of kiln technology has allowed mankind to produce porcelain that is more exquisite than pottery through the shaping and firing of kaolin. The advancement of kiln technology has brought mankind into the fast lane of civilization development.
As the population increases, society becomes more complex and difficult to control, as the output and variety of materials increase, and the living infrastructure such as housing and villages increases, human beings have already Unable to meet the needs of social management, humans began to invent words with more precise meanings and definitions, and the ability to express abstract concepts and complex meanings, as well as writing, recording and ideographic systems of words.
The emergence of writing and writing systems has enabled unprecedented inheritance and development of human lifestyles, production technologies, thoughts, religions, and philosophies, which has also led to the emergence and development of human education and enabled human beings to understand major issues such as nature and human beings. Carry out quite profound and complex, rational, philosophical, and scientific thinking and exploration. These ideological works have laid a solid foundation for mankind to escape from the era of chaos and ignorance.
However, nature cannot make human beings' survival and development smooth sailing. Human beings, who have just gained a certain foundation for civilization, are faced with an extremely tragic and major natural disaster during the last ice age. As a result, the development of human civilization has been ruthlessly interrupted, and human beings have been disrupted. Pushed into an almost irreversible abyss!
very lucky! Humanity did not completely collapse in the face of this major disaster. After this disaster, humans rose rapidly on the ruins of the original civilization. They pushed human society and civilization to a more radiant peak at a higher level!
