埃及、印度、波斯与中国并称世界四大文明古国,前三者的文明皆经中断,惟独中国文明一脉相承。然而中国文明的长寿似乎伴随着一个悖论;中国人一方面尊崇古代的精神与道德观念,另一方面对过去的物质遗产往往冷漠,忽略,乃至破坏。在中国到处能感受古代的存在。今天使用的汉字与两千年前的几乎没有差别;幼儿园里的儿童熟练地背诵唐诗,考古学家前不久在一座 The three civilizations of Egypt, India, Persia and China, the four ancient civilizations in the world, are all said to be interrupted. Only the Chinese civilization has the same strain. However, the longevity of Chinese civilization seems to be accompanied by a paradox. On the one hand, the Chinese honor the ancient ideas of spirit and morals while on the other hand, they often indifference, neglect and even destruction of the material heritage of the past. Can feel the ancient existence everywhere in China. Chinese characters used today are almost the same as those two thousand years ago; children in kindergarten proficiently recite the Tang poetry and the archeologists were not long ago