ABUT the same time that Gautama was starting Buddhism in India， a man in China， a great wise man named Cnfucius， was teaching the peplef China what theyught t d and what theyught nt t d. His teachings filled several bks and frmed what came t be a wayf life fr the Chinese and manyther peple in Asia.
Cnfucius taught that peple shuld be lyal andbey their kings and als that rulers had a duty t take caref their peple. He believed that this wuld bring peace and harmny in China. He taught peple tbey their parents and teachers and t hnr their ancestrs. This sunds smething likenef the Ten Cmmandments： "Hnr thy father and thy mther."Cnfucius als taught the Glden Rule， the same Glden Rule that yu are taught tday，nly insteadf saying， "D untthers as yu wuld havethers d unt yu" he said， "D nt d tthers what yu wuld nt wantthers t d t yu."China hadnef the earliest civilizatins in the wrld. Maybe yu remember the namef the river that was the cradlef Chinese civilizatin. It was the Huang River，r Yellw River， thatverflwed with thick yellw mud.
Huang River ( 黄河 )
This mud fertilized the sil where peple grew theircrps. Peple settled first alng theHuang and then als alng the Yangtze River， als called the Lng River.
China is very far away frm all thether places we have been talking abut. It was islated frm the restf the ancient wrld. The Himalaya Muntains lie t the west and the Gbi Desert t the nrth.n the suth are mre muntains and seas.n the east lies the great Pacificcean that stretches all the way t the west castf the United States. In the days befre large sailing ships and way befre airplanes， the Chinese had very little cntactYangtze River ( 长江）21 All the Way Arund the Wrld in China 101with anyther peple. S Chinese culture develped all by itself.
We knw the Chinese had a written language as early as 1500 B.C. at a time when the Shang dynasty ruled nrthern China. Yu can see that Chinese writing is still very different frm the writing in anyther cuntry. The Chinese never switched t an alphabet but cntinue t use characters-a different character fr each wrd. It must be very hard t learn t read and write Chinese.
We have t learnnly twenty-six letters. Bys and girls in China have t memrize abut six hundred characters befre they can d even basic reading and writing.
Many inventins were made and used in China befre the restf the wrld ever heardf them. Arund the timef Christ， the Chinese were making silk， prcelain， and paper. By this time， the Chinese did trade with smef thether peple we have read abut. Chinese silk was in great demand by Rmans and their neighbrs arund the Mediterranean.
By 600 A.D. the Chinese had invented printing and used printing presses. A few centuries later， they were making the magnetic cmpass， which was such a great help t the sailrs. D yu knw what a cmpass is？ It"s a little gadget with a needle that always pints t the nrth. Knwing which way was nrth made it pssible fr sailrs t knw which way they were sailing-even when they were wayut in thecean， t far frm land t be able t see the shre. Maybe smene in yur classr neighbrhd has a cmpass and can share it fr everybdy t see.
The Chinese als figuredut hw t immunize against the dread disease smallpx. They als were first t discver hw t make explsive pwder， the kind that we use bth fr gunpwder and fr firewrks.
Frm all this， yu can see that the Chinese may have been relatively islated， but they were very busy making things that the restf the wrld fund really exciting when peple learned abut them.
【中文阅读】
和乔答摩在印度创立佛教差不多同时，中国有位叫孔子的智者正在教他的人民 应该做什么和不该做什么。他的教导记载在几本书中，逐渐成为中国人和其他许多 亚洲人的一种生活方式。
孔子教导人们应该忠于和服从他们的君主，同时认为，统治者有责任爱护自己 的人民。他相信这样做会给中国带来和平与安宁。他教导人们要听从自己的父母和 老师，并敬奉自己的祖先，这听起来有点像圣经"十诫"中的一条："当孝敬父母"。 孔子还教导了一条如何为人的"金科玉律"，和你在圣经中学过的那条"金科玉律"意思相同，只不过说法不同，圣经说"你愿意人怎样待你，你也要怎样待人"， 而孔子曰："己所不欲，勿施于人"。
中国也是世界上最早的文明发源地之一。也许，你还记得那条孕育中华文明的 河流叫什么吧。它叫黄河，里面充满着大量黄色的泥沙。这种泥沙可以使土壤肥沃， 有利庄稼生长。人们最初在黄河沿岸定居下来，后来又有人在扬子江沿岸定居下来， 扬子江又叫长江。
中国离我们前面说过的那些文明古国很远。它和古代世界的其他地方隔离开了。 中国的西边是喜马拉雅山，北边是戈壁沙漠，南方有崇山峻岭和茫茫大海，东临广 阔的太平洋，太平洋一直延伸到美国的西海岸。在没有大型航船和飞机的古代，中 国人和世界上其他民族没有什么接触。因此，中华文明完全是独立发展起来的。
我们知道，早在公元前 1500 年中国人就有了文字，当时，商王朝统治着中国的 北方。你能看出中国的文字现在仍然和其他国家的文字很不一样。中国文字从来没 有转变为字母，而是继续使用文字--每个文字的字符都不一样。学习读写中国文 字肯定是很难的。
我们只需要学习二十六个字母。中国的孩子们甚至在会基本的读写之前就要记 住大约六百个汉字。
有很多发明，世界上其他地方的人还听都没听说过，而在中国早就产生并开始 使用了。大约在基督时代，中国人已经在制造丝绸、瓷器和纸张了。那时，中国人 确实和我们前面谈到过的一些国家有了贸易。中国丝绸远销罗马和地中海沿岸，大 受欢迎。
到了大约公元 600 年，中国人已经发明了印刷术，还使用了印刷机。又过了几 个世纪，他们就在制造"磁针罗盘"（俗称"指南针"）了，为航海人提供了极大的 帮助。你知道指南针是什么吗？它是一种小巧装置，里面有个指针总是指向北方。 只要知道哪个方向是北，航海人就可以知道他们正在航行的方向--即使他们航行 在远离陆地的海洋上，远得无法看见海岸线。可能你的同学或邻居家的孩子谁有指 南针，可以请他（她）拿出来给大家看一看。
中国人还想出了接种预防天花的办法，天花是一种让人恐惧的传染性疾病。也 是他们最先发现了怎样制造火药，现在我们用火药做弹药和烟花。
从以上所述，你可以知道，中国人也许相比较而言与世隔绝，但是他们忙于发 明制造各种各样的东西，这些东西传播到世界各地，极大地引起了人们的兴趣。
