Textual

This following passage is a little reflection I wrote last year after reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari. I think this passage is especially appropriate to put in my Humanities class portfolio, which features revolution as the main theme. In my definition of the term “revolution”, I talked about the etymology of the word. The word came from the Late Latin revolutionem “a revolving”, noun of action from past participle stem of Latin revolvere “turn, roll back”. So we can see that the word “revolution” initially means the revolving of things, not the forceful overthrow of a government that we use nowadays.

After reading the book, I believe history is full of cycles. Every civilization, without exception, experienced the process of the “cycle of life.” It is a concept in biology, used to describe the developmental stages that an organism goes through, but this concept can also be applied in history. Every culture will experience the fragility during the natal stage; rapid development and learning during the germinating stage, and achieve its heyday. After its heyday, the civilization will inevitably experience a downward trend, for corruption and inefficacy of the government were two results of a prosperous society.  Though there might be some occasional upward trends in between, this civilization will demise, after long years of struggle. In history, there have been countless examples supporting this rule. Take the Roman Empire as a great example. It started in the city of Rome. Through its rigid social system and formidable military power, it conquered countless lands, amassed a vast amount of wealth. The heyday of the Roman Empire controlled land from Britain to the Middle East. However, the Roman aristocracy gradually lost the ambition of their ancestors. They were addicted to their conformation environment and solely depended on their slaves for livelihood. The increasing conflict between the Latin-speaking part of the empire and the Greek-speaking part of the empire as a result of the development of Constantinople worsened the situation. Constantine the Great was the occasional upward trend in the fall of am empire, but his scheme on adopting Christianity to maintain his great empire failed at the end. In 410 A.D., the leader of Visigoths people, Alaric, led his people and conquered Rome, known in history as “the Sack of Rome,” adjudging the fall of the Roman Empire. 

This similar idea of Cycle of Life in history was seen in China over a thousand years ago. “This world will separate after a long time united. So will the opposite after a long time splitting” is a great theme in the Legend of Three Kingdoms and throughout Chinese history.