主题：文明古国 -- 水涓

The four ancient civilizations we Chinese often talk about should be: a. Egypt, a. Babylonia, a. India, and a. China. No ancient Rome or Greece.

I know some western scholars only recognize the first three, while others include ancient China and Greece/Rome to make it five. The cut-off line is always debatable. Personally I think the five-civilization is more reasonable.

I think both ancient Chinese and ancient Greek/Roman civilizations are still ‘alive’ based on certain reasonable criteria (language, philosophy, influences, etc.), while the other three have long before vanished. Between the two ancient civilizations that still deeply and widely influence our lives today, ancient Chinese civilization is probably regarded to have evolved to contemporary Chinese civilization in a more smooth, successive, and straight manner than has ancient Roman civilization. Ancient Greek/Roman civilization was discontinued by the barbarians for nearly a thousand years before getting restored by the descendants of those barbarians. Besides, ancient Greek/Roman civilization is not the only major origin of contemporary western civilization; Christianity civilization is the other major origin. Because of these two reasons, the evolution of western civilization is not as smooth and straight (or 'pure', if you will) as that of Chinese civilization.

My two cents...