Why has Chinese civilization endured?

BEIJING, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from China.org.cn on China National Archives of Publications and Culture:

Chinese civilization has endured for 5,000 years, making it the world's only continuous civilization with indigenous origins. Why?

Writing is the vehicle of civilization. The secret to the continuity of Chinese civilization lies in the uninterrupted transmission of its written tradition. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were lost to history after successive foreign conquests. Ancient Babylonian cuneiform remained unread on clay tablets for nearly 2,000 years. The Indus script from ancient India has yet to be fully deciphered. In contrast, Chinese civilization has maintained an unbroken written tradition — from oracle bone inscriptions to words on screens. The forms of its characters have evolved along a continuous lineage, while their meanings remain connected across the ages. The cultural tradition has remained unbroken, carried forward from generation to generation.

None of this would have been possible without a fundamental foundation: the preservation of textual heritage and classic works across generations.

As early as the Eastern Zhou period (770-256 B.C.), the Chinese philosopher Mozi advocated preserving knowledge by "writing it on bamboo and silk, engraving it on metal and stone, and carving it on vessels, so that it can be passed down to future generations and known by them." This belief in passing on knowledge has been part of the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation since the dawn of civilization, becoming a deeply rooted cultural consciousness passed down from generation to generation.

Since ancient times, China has had a tradition of promoting cultural and intellectual development in times of prosperity. Laozi, the Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, was once a librarian at the royal court of the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 B.C.), where he was responsible for managing books and records. From the Han (202 B.C.-A.D.220) and Tang (618-907) to the Song (960-1279), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, imperial libraries took many forms. Yet one priority remained constant: preserving the classics and keeping the cultural legacy alive. In every era of prosperity, efforts to preserve the written heritage helped strengthen the roots of Chinese civilization.

Today, this tradition has been advanced to an even higher level.

With the establishment of the China National Archives of Publications and Culture (CNAPC) in 2022, China created a treasure trove for future generations to trace the cultural source of our nation through the collected classics. The CNAPC's collection is divided into 10 categories, including ancient books, oracle bones and bamboo slips, revolutionary documents, rubbings of stele inscriptions, local records and genealogies, engraved blocks for printing and seals, and audio-visual products and images. The latest data shows that it has collected more than 34 million physical publications and over 3.6 billion pages of digital literature.

From oracle bones and bamboo slips to printed words on paper and to today's hard drives and cloud storage, the carrier evolves, but the faith in preserving culture never wanes. The establishment of the CNAPC is our commitment to preserving our literary heritage and carrying forward Chinese civilization in the new era, so future generations can learn from the wisdom of the ancients and build a peaceful and harmonious future.

China Mosaic 
http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm
Why has Chinese civilization endured?
http://www.china.org.cn/video/2026-09/28/content_118715859.shtml 

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SOURCE China.org.cn