How to understand the initial economic life form of Chinese and western nationalities

Almost all the ancient and developed nations in the world have their own epics, such as Homer's epic in ancient Greece and The Book of Songs in China before Qin Dynasty.

Homer's epic is an epic of the ancient Greek nation, while the Book of Songs is an epic of the ancient ancestors of China. Comparing the eastern and western economic forms reflected in Homer's Epic and The Book of Songs is of certain significance for understanding the characteristics of early human social and economic forms.

First, the economic forms in the two history books.

1, Homer's epic

The period from 12 century BC to the 9th century BC is called "Homer's Age" in ancient Greek history, because Homer's epic is an important legacy left by this era to future generations and a precious material for studying this historical stage.

Homer's epic began to take shape in about 10 century BC. It consists of two works, Iliad and Odyssey. According to the content described in the epic, the writing time is at least 50 ~ 100 years apart.

The Iliad should describe an earlier era. According to preliminary statistics, the whole poem mentions bronze weapons 278 times, and iron weapons only 7 times. The Odyssey describes a later era, mentioning iron weapons 14 times. It can be judged that the epic represents the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, which has already begun.

By the time Homer's epic was compiled, archaeological excavations had proved that ironware had become quite popular and smelting had made great progress. Homer's epic is not only a literary work, but also an important document to study the history of ancient Greece after Mycenae civilization from 65438 BC to 065438 BC to the 9th century BC.

According to Morgan's division of historical periods, the ancient Greek society reflected in Homer's era is roughly in the heyday of the advanced stage of barbarism, that is, the transitional period from the late clan society to the civilized society. In Engels' words, it was an era from barbarism to civilization:

"In the heyday of the advanced stage of barbarism, we can see it in Homer's poems, especially in the Iliad. Perfect ironware, bellows, hand mill, Potter's pulley, oil exploitation and wine making, the transformation of advanced metal processing into handicrafts, carriages and chariots, shipbuilding with logs and boards, architecture as an art bud, cities surrounded by battlements and turrets, Homer's epic and all myths-these are the main heritages of the Greeks from barbarism to civilization.

Homer's era is in the transitional period from primitive commune to slavery. A large area of land belongs to commune, but private ownership of land has emerged. In this historical period, clan society began to divide and inequality between the rich and the poor appeared. For example, the nobility "has so many dense orchards and fertile land rich in wheat."

2. The Book of Songs

The Book of Songs also describes the commercial activities in the Western Zhou Dynasty. For example, "Chen Feng Dongmen Zhi" describes the business activities at that time and says, "No, the city also shakes." City refers to the market, indicating that all countries in the Western Zhou Dynasty had fixed commodity exchange places. There is a saying in Daya that "a gentleman is three times as knowledgeable as Jia".

Triple refers to triple profits, and gentleman refers to aristocratic politicians and "positions", which reveals that nobles have made huge profits in business activities. In Gu Feng, "Jia Yong doesn't sell" is used to describe the feeling that a dissatisfied woman accuses her husband of liking the new and hating the old, but she is like a commodity but can't sell it at will.

Jia refers to the person who lives in the goods for sale. "Jia uses them without selling them" means that the goods cannot be sold. This shows that the concept of commodity exchange in the era of The Book of Songs has penetrated into the concept of family life. Feng Weimeng is considered to be a poem "Abandoning a Wife" written in the Wei Dynasty (718 BC ~ 700 BC), which directly describes the commodity exchange in the market at that time.

The poem tells all the experiences of a folk woman who was abandoned from love to marriage. It begins with the following words: "Self-protection flies, silks wear clothes. The bandits came to trade silk, just to ask. " It means that this young man looks honest and took a piece of cloth in exchange for my silk. Actually, he didn't come to exchange my silk, but to seduce my heart.

This woman's lover is a silk merchant, and the woman is a silk reeling woman. Businessmen exchanged cloth for women's clothes. The "cloth" mentioned here was considered by Zheng Xuan in the Eastern Han Dynasty as the currency at that time. He quoted a scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty as saying solemnly: "Cloth, printed on a book, is two inches wide and two feet long, and is the currency and the object of transaction." .

Second, the comparison of economic forms between the East and the West.

1, human economic development

In Homer's time, animal husbandry played a dominant role in the economic structure. Slaves are mostly engaged in animal husbandry, and judging a person's wealth mainly depends on how many livestock he owns.

When Omeos listed the property of his owner Odysseus, he detailed the number of cattle owned by Odysseus. "There are twelve herds of cattle, the same number of sheep, the same number of pigs and widely scattered goats on the mainland"; There are 1 1 large herds of goats and hundreds of pigs on Itaka Island, not to mention any agricultural production.

This shows that the wealth at that time was mainly calculated by herds. The agricultural economy in Homer's era was not dominant because of its unique geographical environment. Different from Homer's time, according to the description in the Book of Songs, farming should occupy a dominant position in the economic structure. Sima Qian said in Records of the Historian Biography of Huo Zhi that the Guanzhong area where Zhou people lived was "fertile land".

Since Yu Xia paid tribute, I thought I was going to other places. Gong Liu, on the other hand, is suitable for Zhai, the king of Qi, the king of Qi in chaos, the king of Wen in charge of Feng, and the king of Wu in charge of picks. So its people still have the legacy of the former king, good crops, good crops. "The Zhou Dynasty was already an agricultural society. When the Book of Songs is opened, there are many scenes describing and praising agricultural labor from Guan Ju at the beginning to Yan Wu at the end.

For example, as emphasized in Shang Fu, the Emperor of Heaven at that time took the effort of "crops" (sowing and harvesting, generally referring to agricultural labor) as the primary criterion for assessing the political achievements of governors.

The word "harvest" frequently appears in Feng Wei's altar and in July. For example, The Altar denounced the aristocrats who had no harvest for living a parasitic life, while July in Qi Feng reflected that Zhou people cultivated, reclaimed wasteland and sowed hundreds of species according to solar terms.

2. National spirit

Homer's epics and The Book of Songs have a wide range of themes and rich contents, which vividly show the main aspects of social life in ancient East and West, such as politics, economy and culture, and have important historical value. Homer's era is a period of transition from the late clan society to the slave society.

According to epic data, in the early Homer era, the overall production level of society was lower than that of Mycenae era, and the natural economy was absolutely dominant. In other words, in every village, everything needed for daily life is basically produced locally.

Most slaves were engaged in animal husbandry. Agriculture does not occupy a major position in the epic, and handicrafts are not as developed as Mycenae's time, but there are also craftsmen separated from agriculture. Homer's gold and silver technology and other handicraft skills have not reached Mycenae civilization, but they have also made considerable achievements, and commercial trade has been developing.

The Western Zhou Dynasty reflected in The Book of Songs is generally in the stage of the Zhou clan from primitive tribe to the establishment of patriarchal country, and also reflects the historical period from the late clan to civilized society.

Many descriptions of economic activities at that time in Homer's Epic and The Book of Songs vividly reflect the same law of economic activities in the early days of mankind, but also reveal the differences of social and economic structures in the early days of the East and the West. These differences are closely related to their geographical environment. Homer's epic originated in ancient Greece, where the islands are the living conditions of the earth and the eastern ocean.

abstract

It is these geographical factors that influenced and restricted the export-oriented economy in ancient Greece and the inward-oriented economy in ancient China.

The shortage of agricultural land brought poverty to the ancient Greeks, and the ocean was the survival support of the marine nation. In order to survive, many necessities of life of the ancient Greeks must rely on maritime trade activities, and the economic form must also be dominated by overseas trade and handicrafts, thus forming an export-oriented economic form.