The turn of the millennium is upon us.

Y2K, Armageddon, New Year's parties, Year 2000 books and exhibits. wherever there is civilization-or, at least, wherever there is TV-you can't help but be swept up in expectation.

The writer and scholar Stephen J. Gould of Harvard University ascribes the heightened popular expectations surrounding the turn of the millennium to the "base 10" mathematics of mainstream popular culture. Humans have 10 fingers, and most civilizations have used a base 10 numbering system. This would also explain why everyone-from individuals to department stores to nation-states-lends extra importance to anniversaries that are multiples of 10.

Gould notes that the Maya, who achieved a high level of civilization by the 5th century AD, were different, using a base 20 system. He suggests, amusingly, that they also counted their toes. He says that if the Maya had conquered Europe, instead of the West conquering the world and establishing its culture as "mainstream," we might not find the passage of 1000 years sparking any particular excitement at all! Of course, history can't be replayed-Western civilization has swept over the globe, and adoption of a uniform dating system has proven necessary to play in the global economy. Consequently the coming New Year is no longer exclusively meaningful for Christians, but is a time of great expectation for all the world's people.

In fact, people are so excited that they are ignoring repeated admonitions that the next millennium won't officially start until January 1, 2001. After all, how many people get the chance to witness the arrival of a new millennium? Who wants to wait another 365 days?

Obviously, people aren't being completely rational about all this. Which brings to mind the question of what happened and how people lived back in the years 1 and 1000. What earth-shattering events occurred? How have we changed for the better since then? How about for the worse?

Of course, people in Asian civilizations like China were completely unaware of any so-called years 1 or 1000. Yet we may well wonder, if there is any truth to the notion that these years have some uncontrollable cosmic impact, what Chinese were going through.

Here at Sinorama, this question came to us from a foreign visitor, Edward A. Reno, Jr., vice president for international publishing at the National Geographic Society of the US. He asked us, in the course of a discussion of what his magazine was planning for its third millennium issue, what China was like at the beginning of the previous two. The question was not immediately answerable for us, since in Taiwan we don't use the Western dating system for studying Chinese history. So it inspired us to look back at "millennial China"-the history, culture, society, and personalities of 1000 and 2000 years ago.

Naturally, it is impossible to see the broad sweep of history by taking two small slices of the past cut across the grain of time. But since in this century everyone has the millennium in common, there is still much to be gained by using it as a springboard to examine China's past.

We discovered that China in the Year 1 was in the Han dynasty, which established the foundations of Chinese systems in many areas. It was an era also of dynastic struggles, filled with heroes and striking personalities. At the Year 1000, the Song dynasty had reunified China. Its weakness forced it into a form of "economic diplomacy" to fend off the peoples of the north, yet at the same time this demilitarization of external relations led to splendorous achievements in culture and wealth for society as a whole.

These two moments mark two strands that make up modern Chinese culture-the rigorous intellectual, political, and other systems of the Han, and the gentility, elegance and refinement of the Song.

As we enter 2000, perhaps you will enjoy taking a cruise back on the river of time to some scenic vistas from "millennial" Chinese civilization.