What are the eight major civilization systems in the world?

The eight major civilization systems in the world are Christian civilization, Islamic civilization, Orthodox civilization, "Confucianism" civilization/Chinese civilization, Japanese civilization, Latin American civilization, Buddhist civilization and African civilization (possible).

The idea of dividing the world's eight major civilization systems was put forward by samuel huntington, an American political scientist, and contained in his book Clash of Civilizations. Among them, the basis of the division of civilization system is religion.

In this book, samuel huntington divides the world civilization into eight parts by taking religion as the boundary, that is, the eight civilization systems in the world now. They are: Christian civilization, Islamic civilization, Orthodox civilization, Confucian civilization, Japanese civilization, Latin American civilization, Buddhist civilization and African civilization (possible).

First of all, Christian civilization

Christian civilization is mainly concentrated in western European countries, where Christianity is the main belief. The concepts of "God" and "atonement" are deeply integrated into daily social life, which affects the cultural development of a nation. Christianity can be divided into Catholicism and Protestantism For example, France is dominated by Catholicism and Germany is dominated by Protestantism. However, although there are differences between the two branches, their basic teachings are the same, which can be said to be similar, so they are still unified into Christian civilization.

Second, Islamic civilization.

Islamic civilization is mainly concentrated in Arab countries.

Third, orthodox civilization.

Now the core country of orthodox civilization is Russia. In fact, the Orthodox Church originated from Christianity. Historically, there were two holy see in Christianity, the Holy See and the Greek Holy See, which was located in the well-known Constantinople. At first, the two Holy See lived in peace, but later, with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the two Holy See were opposed for various reasons and eventually split. The Greek Holy See calls itself the Orthodox Church, which was called the Orthodox Church in history. The Christianity of the Greek Holy See, which the Eastern Roman Empire believed in, was changed to the Orthodox Church.

Later, the center of the Orthodox Church moved to Russia. The countries with Orthodox civilization mainly include Greece, Turkey and Russia, and some parts of Turkey belong to Islamic civilization.

Fourth, "Confucian" civilization/China civilization.

Samuel huntington believes that China and some countries in Southeast Asia belong to Confucian civilization, but in the view of Wang Defeng, a professor at Fudan University and a modern philosopher in China, Confucianism cannot be classified as religion, because religion has the highest "leader" to dominate everything, whether it is the God of Christ or the God of Islam.

But Confucianism is an exception. Confucianism is just an idea that constitutes China culture. Therefore, Wang Defeng called Chinese regional civilization "Chinese civilization" rather than "Confucian" civilization. On this issue, the author agrees with Professor Wang Defeng that China and some countries in Southeast Asia call it "Chinese civilization".

Verb (abbreviation for verb) Japanese civilization

Japanese civilization is a "lonely" civilization. There is only one country with the only civilization in the world, and Japan is the only civilized region.

Although Japan began to learn from China in 300 AD, learning from Confucianism in China and Buddhism in China, it did not take away Taoism in China, so it is incomplete as a Chinese civilization system. Later, he studied western Europe, but retained the inherent national thought. Japan is a country that strives for continuous progress and survival. It can learn from any nation, and at the same time it is its own, so samuel huntington called it "one country, one civilization" and "lonely civilization".

Intransitive Verb Latin American Civilization

Latin American civilization originated from the combination of Christianity and Latin American indigenous religions, mainly concentrated in Latin America.

After European immigrants arrived in Latin America, they mainly spread Catholicism there, but Latin America has local primitive religions, which combined to produce a unique Latin American civilization. For example, magic realism literature originated from this civilized system, which is in sharp contrast with the literature of western European countries and China, and has also become the object of imitation. Mo Yan read Marquez's novels and opened a new path of creation.

Seven, Buddhist civilization

Buddhist civilization is mainly concentrated in India and other countries. It should be noted that Buddhism is atheistic, and there is a saying in the doctrine that "Buddha has experienced man, and man is the future Buddha", that is, Buddha has thoroughly understood all beings, and all beings are Buddhas who have not fully understood them, and Sakyamuni is also man-made, meaning that Tathagata is also a man who has fully understood them. This is different from other civilizations.

Eight, African civilization (possible)

The word "possible" was added after African civilization. This is because whether Africa can be classified as a civilized system remains to be discussed. The religions of African tribes are very different, and there is no unified civilized area. It may be produced in the future, but it is difficult to draw a conclusion at present. Under the background of globalization, the intersection and collision of various civilizations become inevitable, and "cultural conflict" is also inevitable. When the inherent cultural traditions are impacted, we can't stand still and stick to the rules, but we can't sell ourselves short.

As far as Chinese civilization is concerned, although we can't criticize samuel huntington's understanding, the division by religion is really imperfect. There are many followers of various religions in China, including Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and Christ, but Chinese civilization is still Chinese civilization. The window of this civilization is not opened by religion, but by words.

Chinese characters and Chinese embody the basic paradigm of Chinese people's understanding of the world and getting along with it, and are the embodiment of a civilization. All Chinese words that represent China culture cannot be translated by any language in the world, such as "fate", "love" and "truth". Among them, there is a deep-rooted inherent value system of the Chinese nation.

However, there can't be only one civilization in the world, and the homogeneity of civilization means the demise of human thought. So again, in the face of cultural conflicts, we can't stand still and stick to the rules, but we can't sell ourselves short.