The first issue of "Why China" has been launched on major genuine ** platforms. I also made some comments on the first issue of "Qin and Han". In my personal opinion, I put forward the concept of "Great China", which is of course not a novel content, and the academic community has long reached a consensus. I saw the comment area of the article, and some readers didn't agree with it, or didn't know the concept of "Great China" at all. So, I'd like to talk a little bit more about this today. 
In my analysis of "Why China", I believe that this documentary talks about "why China" from an archaeological point of view, although it is a small way, but it also has a certain amount of value, but this documentary has omissions or debatable points in the narrative perspective - "Why China" still talks about Chinese history from the perspective of the traditional Central Plains, which is contrary to the concept of China's grand history. What is the perspective of Greater China?My view is that, at least in terms of the area of the field, it should be based on the current 9.6 million square kilometers, or even a wider sea area. To put it simply, China's historical geography should be divided into four major plates, the Central Plains plate, the Western Regions plate, the grassland plate and the plateau plate. Together, these four sections form the geographical map of Chinese history, and they interact with each other to ultimately achieve "Why China". 
I criticized "Why China" for its small narrative perspective, and this is based on this. In the first issue of "Qin and Han", when describing the struggles between the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, these wars are still talked about as wars against foreign invasion. Even our princess went to the Western Regions to make peace with her, and changed her husband three times in a row, the purpose of which was also to unite the Western Regions and resist foreign invasion together. This narrative lacks the overall perspective of "China's great history". The ancient Chinese civilization has always been a joint effect between the nomadic civilization and the agricultural civilization. If we check some information, we will find that during the period of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, many of our ancestors lived a nomadic life. And many of the wars that took place in the era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors were also wars between nomadic tribes and farming tribes. The migration of the Yellow Emperor tribe actually has a transformation from nomadism to farming. 
Since the Three Emperors and Five Emperors have been recorded in Chinese history, the nomadic civilization of the steppe has not been a civilization other than the Chinese civilization, and it is not a foreign race. Therefore, even in the Qin and Han dynasties, the telling of the story of the Xiongnu should be from the perspective of conflict and integration between ethnic groups, and not as a matter of resisting foreign invasion. In our ancient history, the Central Plains civilization and the grassland civilization have the most blending, and they always come and go. The ancients talked about this, from the standpoint of the Central Plains Dynasty, no problem. But we're not a good fit right now. This is like, in the Warring States Period, the people of Handan must have stood in the position of Zhao to talk about the conflict between Qin and Zhao, can we still use this position now?Of course not. 
The four plates of the Central Plains, the Grassland, the Western Regions and the Plateau work together to create the appearance of Chinese civilization. The content of the integration between these four sections is actually more worth talking about. For example, in "Why China", the first issue of "Qin and Han", instead of wasting a lot of space on how the Han Dynasty united the Western Regions, how to get married, and how the princess married three men, it is really better to talk about the communication between the Western Regions and the Central Plains. Why did the Western Regions finally become one with the Central Plains?It is precisely because of the interconnection between these two plates that the inseparable whole of Chinese civilization is finally constructed. It's a matter of you having me, I having you, and ultimately you and me becoming one. In fact, the same thing happened between the Central Plains and the grassland, and between the Central Plains and the plateau. Nomadic civilization and agrarian civilization have always interacted with each other in ancient China. This is visible to the naked eye. Between the Central Plains and the plateau, there is also a great integration, of course, ordinary people for this information, too little, need some professional popular science content. 
A very old way of telling history is that the Central Plains Dynasty finally became strong, united, and beat away who was around it, and the Central Plains Dynasty weakened again, and could only be peaceful, and so on. This backward way and method of telling history is to make China smaller. For example, the chapter "Qin and Han" also talks about the relationship between the Central Plains and the grassland, and it is not very interesting to just talk about the Han Dynasty beating the Xiongnu away. What's next?What about the exchange and communication between the Central Plains and the grassland?The main event is to come. If the documentary is not told, the average viewer may not really know. Again, between the Central Plains, the grasslands, the Western Regions and the plateau, it is not war that is greater than exchange, but communication that is greater than war. It is precisely because of this exchange and integration that China's current big family has finally been built. Of course, how everyone communicates and integrates needs a lot of examples, which requires the hard work of those who do China's great history. This hard work, doing documentaries, is probably unwilling to do it. After all, how simple it is to follow the old way and tell the history of the Central Plains.