What is “civilization”? There is no universally accepted definition, even within Chinese academic circles. In the Chinese scholarly tradition, “civilization” is generally understood as a holistic description or designation of culture, and it is essentially opposed to “barbarism”. Modern scholars of civilizational history tend to share certain views. For instance, Fernand Braudel notes that treating “civilization” as a subject of research in the humanities and social sciences is relatively recent—originating in the mid-nineteenth century and spanning roughly 160 years to the present.