China Vs. Rome
Essay by people • January 19, 2012 • Essay • 1,367 Words (6 Pages) • 1,692 Views
China and Rome were astonishing civilizations that managed to advance technology and civilations. Both civilizations were rapidly growing and making changes to the world. The two cultures were pretty similar, yet very different. Their religions were something to be modest about. When it came to religion it helped the decline of both societies, by religion changing. When it came to technology though, its change is what caused the societies to flourish. As for education the both leaders of China and Rome worked on making it easier, evident from the letters, for common people to gain knowledge. Changing things in their kingdom clearly took time. With politics being something of a fight in many respects; came as part living in an ancient society. Peaceful changes in power was a rare occasion in Rome but, highly common in China. Both societies treated each other differently, no matter if it was regarding slaves, or women. The underclass was not treated well not out of hate but out of a well beaten attitude that whoever they were, somehow they were always better. Both societies were similar yet highly different it's surprising how it came about. When two societies emerge like the Romans and Chinese, we would expect conflict, yet none came about, here is a look into both societies as truly empires.
The Han China and The Roman Empire were well-organized bureaucracies. In Han China their government was based on Confucian ideas a main one of which was; that a ruler should learn self-discipline, should govern his subjects by his own example, and should treat them with love and concern. An example of this is in document four when it calls a governor "he was a generous man and his policies were peaceful." This shows how clearly the people loved their emperor. While in all but the last few years of the roman rule the religion was very scattered. Due to the vastness of the Roman Empire uniting them under one religion was impossible. But one of the things that did spread was the idea that the Emperor was a god. No one ever came out and bluntly said it but a change in ideals that came with Christianity led to the famous saying of Emperor Constantine which was "I am simply the first among equals." This truly represented a new era for Rome that helped lead to its decline. The politics of Han China were all about the good of the people. Showing this is in document one where it is said "and supply enough workers to those carry out the repair work in each district." Clearly this document is showing a want of the work to be done, for the good of the people. While in Rome it seems the Emperor had less respect for his people when even one of his advisors writes "I do not believe that tools for the crafts were invented by wise men."(Document 7) This total lack of respect for the common people is rather disgusting. Even though the two had different political philosophies, both managed control over their vast empires.
In technology there is so much to be said for these two empires they managed to change the world with their developments. Rome had many technologies that gave new life to their capital. The first of which is aqueducts, "The abundance of water is sufficient not only for public and private uses and application but truly even for pleasure." (Document 8) The point of this is that they had enough water coming into the city to do whatever they wanted to do. That's how Rome ended up with so many fountains, bath houses and other water related activities. Another accomplishment of Rome is roads level, and strait. It took a long process of building to achieve what they did; making something rival to The Great Wall of China. Traditionally known to the Chinese as the "Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li", the stretch of formidable defensive structures built to ward off invasion of the Celestial Empire by barbarians from the North. If
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