Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
Ancestors as models for sharing common good
Print Edition
Dear editor,
With all the turmoil of recent days, I had not taken the time to tell you before this how much I enjoyed your fine column regarding the possible impact that classical Greek architecture had upon China (“Spirit of ancient Dunhuang offers model for confident exchange between civilizations,” Shanghai Daily, November 3).
Before I comment on the substantive part of your column, I do want you to know that your joy of and in life positively “bubbles out” of your writing, as when you wrote “Her findings filled me with joyful surprise, as I realized for the first time just how open ancient China once was.”
The “youth” that still resides in me smiles in response! I recognize that feeling! It is one that I frequently get when reading — often from The Shanghai Daily — and when watching one of the Great Courses from The Teaching Company.
It is a joy and wonder to discover new linkages, insights, and ideas, isn’t it? There is not much that I can do about my body aging, but — despite all of the sorrow and ugliness that we humans keep introducing into the world — my mind and spirit are kept “young” as I keep exploring our world (and universe) and all the many beautiful, stunning things in it.
I am so glad for you! May you keep that inquisitive and delicate sense of wonder and joy all of your life! What a great gift to you, and to those with whom you share it! Thanks to your article, I had a chance to learn a few things about that ancient city of Dunhuang, too! I subscribe to a digital version of the magazine Archaeology Today because I love learning about what we keep discovering about our amazing ancestors.
Just recently I learned that the “first Americans” may actually have arrived in North America before the last of the Great Ice Age’s glaciers had fully retreated — perhaps as long ago as 15,000 to 17,000 years ago — before the land bridge had become accessible between far NE present day Russia and present day Alaska, perhaps by leap-frogging along the coastline in pursuit of fish or land game.
Also, DNA suggests that those first to arrive may well have come from a region around current day Mongolia and that, once reaching “here,” also returned — at least some of them — to their place of origin. Can you imagine the courage it took to do this? The incredible beauty they must have seen? The sheer adventure of this? I believe that our use of the word “ancient” — as in ancient Rome or Greece, or China — can convey a false sense of “primitive” or “limited” when, in fact, at least for the wealthier members of those times, and for the many merchants that traded in order to supply the wants of those wealthy, that was distinctly not so.
Furthermore, many different cultures displayed remarkable knowledge about astronomy, monumental architecture, indoor plumbing, and even sophisticated mechanical devices (such as shown in that remarkable find from the shipwreck off the coast of modern Turkey that yielded an incredibly complicated machine that was built to accurately display the positions of the sun, moon and the inner planets to earth on any given date).
The famous “Silk Road” may actually have had several branches, one of which had a more southern route, hence not only Persia, but Greece and Egypt, too.
They have also come across evidence of substantial sea — even ocean-traversing — trade routes between Africa and SE Asia. Whether those people accessed China by traveling north after landing in far southern Asia, or whether they continued leap-frogging along the coast winding up to China itself, I do not think they yet know for sure, especially as to many thousands of years ago.
But I wouldn’t be surprised, for we know that people from Asia populated current Australia many thousands of years ago, somehow managing to cross vast distances of the Pacific.
Oh, if only our leaders could turn their energies to these kinds of efforts, those which yield good for all of us and which can unite us in realizing how much we have in common! There is so much more to learn, to do, to build, to preserve!
Thank you for your article!
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
