Chapter 29 Civilization

How high the level of civilization is cannot be judged by appearance alone. In the time and space before Ying Yi traveled through time, many people tended to equate the level of technological development with the level of civilization, which is wrong.

Literature, generally speaking, can be regarded as culture. And Ming is wisdom. Everything external, such as technology, is an extension of wisdom on the material level.

And wisdom is not limited to material things. People say that understanding the world is knowledge, and being knowledgeable about people is writing. This is culture and wisdom.

The moral and spiritual levels are also part of civilization, or the most important part.

In Ying Yi's view, the level of civilization in the time and space before traveling may not be much higher than that time and space hundreds of years ago. The external, material thing is developed, but the inner, spiritual thing is not.

As for the inner and spiritual aspects, it does not mean that if all people become saints, civilization will be high. Whether it is love or hate, they are part of human nature and part of civilization. If they are removed, humanity will be incomplete, humanity will not be complete, and civilization will not be a civilization.

The same goes for war and killing. They are also part of civilization, an indispensable experience for the advancement and development of a civilization, and a driving force.

The human world is colorful. It is precisely because of them that it is colorful. Without them, there would be nothing but stagnant water.

During the one thousand years of development of the Yuanqi civilization of the Great Xia Empire, expansion and war were only part of it.

From the satisfaction of human needs on the material level to the prosperity and development of spiritual and cultural levels, the degree is no less than expansion and war.

In this millennium, with the establishment and development of new core ideas, at the cultural level, the early retro-style gradually returned to the Han and Tang Dynasties. Then on this basis, based on the material characteristics of the Yuanqi civilization, in the Zhuxia Dynasty In the soil of thousands of years of ancient civilization, the culture and ideas characteristic of the Bactrian era were further born.

There is never peace inside, there are fights, confrontations, and sins. But whether it is fighting, confrontation, or sin, as long as it is orderly, limited, and controllable, it is acceptable.

Unless human emotions and desires are eradicated, fighting, confrontation, and sin will never disappear. It will only become more controllable and orderly as the level of spiritual civilization increases.

To describe it in one word, it is ‘surrender’.

For an individual, such as a monk, he has to subdue his heart - what does it mean to be subdued? Self-control. If people can control their uncontrollable desires and know what is excessive and what is not excessive, then that's pretty much it.

If everyone can do this, morality will be supreme.

Benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust are not used to obliterate human nature, but are used to subjugate the deepest nature of human souls.

To obliterate is to obliterate, and to surrender is to surrender.

If it is erased, it ceases to exist. If it is subdued, it is still there and can be controlled.

Therefore, it is said to be moderate.

That is to subdue the uncontrollable and achieve the controllable.

Take war, for example. People are against war, but war is an indispensable part of the development of civilization. Abandoning all wars is actually contrary to the healthy development of humanity.

So it needs to be controllable - at what stage can we go to war and when can we have a truce? This is controllable. It's not like hitting the head as soon as it hits, or retreating as soon as the egg shrinks.

Nothing is too much or too little.

Kindness is a good thing, but kindness that does not distinguish right from wrong and does not ask why is a holy mother bitch, which is too much.

Order is the foundation of human existence. In terms of civilization itself, order represents peace. In terms of heaven and earth, order means the smooth flow of the five elements and the balance of yin and yang.

On the other hand, the same is true in civilization itself. To balance yin and yang. There is no such thing as erasing everything that is uncontrollable. Where there is good there is evil, and where there is guilt there is merit. As long as a moderate balance between the two can be maintained and the requirements of order can be met, that's right.

Divide the way of heaven into two parts, one part is non-human and the other part is human. Non-human things, as big as the world and stars, or as small as a grain of dust, they have no emotions and six desires, everything is passive. Humans, on the other hand, have seven emotions and six desires, and humans are active. If heaven and earth are yin, humans are yang, which is also a manifestation of the balance of yin and yang in heaven and earth.

The principle of yin and yang can be so great that it encompasses the whole world. It can also be small and subtle, and it can be reflected in any person.

Being between heaven and earth, civilization itself must abide by the fundamental principles of heaven and earth.

Anything that defies the heavens or breaks the heavens is all bullshit, it’s just two ratios.

It is a part of heaven and earth. To go against heaven is to go against yourself.

In myths and legends, it is often said that the way of heaven is irreversible, and this is the truth.

Man can conquer heaven, not go against heaven. It's just a circle of yin and yang formed by 'human beings' and heaven and earth. In a small corner, yang overwhelms yin. But in the invisible corners, there are countless places in the world that are pressing down on people. At all times, a relative balance is maintained.

If a civilization dies, a civilization must be born or grow; if a star dies, a star must be born. One level of the universe was wiped out by the void storm, but in the void, there are still countless new levels of universes being nurtured or born.

Heaven and earth have their own laws, and the ultimate goal of civilization is to use active control to control passivity, so that civilization can regulate heaven and earth.

Or the birth of every cosmic level contains a kind of expectation. I hope that she will give birth to a civilization that can operate this cosmic level in a more orderly and reasonable manner.

They say rules are meant to be broken. As for the rules of heaven and earth itself, heaven and earth cannot break them because they have no initiative, so there are people. Heaven and earth require human initiative to achieve a purpose beyond themselves.

Yes, Yin and Yang are the ultimate principles. The chaotic universe must also operate according to this principle. It is born, develops, grows, becomes glorious, and finally dies, over and over again.

Perhaps the universe itself wants to break this truth. So He needed an initiative and conceived man.

A civilization develops in accordance with the fundamental principles of the universe, and finally grows to the point where it can control the order of the chaotic universe, and through its initiative, it can forcefully lift the chaotic universe out of a dead circle.

However, Ying Yi had doubts.

The great characters in his mind, even with his current Immortal state, he still can't get to the root of them. But there is no doubt that it must come from a deeper truth in heaven and earth. As his realm gets higher, his understanding of the great character becomes deeper. Occasionally, when exploring its secrets, he will fall into a mysterious state.

He has clearly understood the ultimate goal of humane civilization, but he has more doubts about whether humane civilization will truly transcend after achieving its ultimate goal.

The universe circulates in the balance of yin and yang. Can it really transcend this cycle of balance? If an ant evolves into a human, it can be said to be transcendent. But in fact it just enters a larger equilibrium cycle.

The chaotic universe, which contains countless cosmic levels, may not be part of a larger existence.

But in any case, progress and transcendence are the ultimate goals of initiative. Having initiative, consciously or unconsciously, is actually moving towards that goal.

As for what the scenery will be like after reaching the end, Ying Yi can't guess.

What's more, the end of civilization and the end of the universe, such profound things, are still far away from the current Daxia Empire.