不同的地理特征对汉英习语影响(7)

3.2.3The differences of the Chinese and English civilizations
(i) The Chinese agriculture civilization
From 7000 years to 5000 years ago, the Chinese people had begun to deal in the tillage. In the remains in Banpo village in Xi’an; Wang Quan county in Shanxi, we discovered the earliest tools, such as: stone axe, stone shovel, bone uproot, pottery knife. From these, we could see, that at that time, they grew the valley and vegetables in the middle areas of the Yellow River.
From 5000 years ago, the “Long Shan Civilization”, the agriculture and stock breeding became the most important way to make a living. In the earliest literal records, we can see that before 1600 B.C., in Shang Dynasty, the agriculture was the most essential way to live.[50]
After the Zhou Dynasty was founded, the agriculture became the center matter of the economic creation in China at that time. As the agriculture became more and more important in the public economic creation, the agriculture tools and skills developed very fast. The plough, uproot, sickle and so on, are made of iron, and the animals like the horses and the cattle are used in the tillage.
(ii)The English sea civilization
Because of the lacking of inland, the agriculture production in the England couldn’t meet the needs of the population, the people had to make a living in the sea. For these reasons, to develop the stock raising, fishing and sailing, to conquer the transmarine land is the main way to keep the pot boiling.
 From the New Stone Age, the people who lived in the island in the Aegean sea had set up  the relationship with the Egypt, Anatolian and so on.
With the development of the skills of the handwork and sailing in the Bronze Age, their businesses with the countries which around them were more and more closely. They set the commercial base in the coastal area of the Egypt, Asia, Phoenicia, and Cyprus.
The Crete Island became a commerce country, because of the developing of the handwork and the more broaden of the scope of the business. [51]
    Because of small inland area, if the English people want to improve their living, the only way is to do business with other countries. This makes the English develop the sea civilization.
The Chinese civilization and the English civilization are completely different. The Chinese people depend on the land, and develop the agriculture civilization. The Chinese people do the tillage generation by generation. Because of these, the Chinese culture is related to the land, especially in the idioms, there are so many idioms about the land and the cattle.
In English, because of small inland area, and they face the Atlantic Ocean, this sea is peace and rich, they can make their living in the sea, so the English people depend on the sea. In the English idioms, there are many idioms about the sea, the boat and the fish.
So because of the different geography, the idioms in Chinese and in English are quirt different. The Chinese idioms are full of the idioms about the land. And in English, most of their idioms are about the sea.