Chapter 4

I enjoyed reading about the creation of the different empires and the similarities they had to one another. I have summarized the differences and similarities between the Roman Empire and Chinese Empire. They both controlled such a large portion of the world population and produced political and cultural legacies that still endure in the modern era.


The similarities of the Roman Empire and Chinese Empire
1. They both felt that they were universal or governed most of the world.
2. They both invested in public works.
3. They both claimed supernational approvals.
a. The Romans believed that their deceased Roman emperors were gods.
b. The Romans persecuted the Christians for not participating in their cult
c. The Chinese emperor was called Son of Heaven
d. The Chinese governed with a mandate from Heaven
e. If tragedy occurred, it was believed that the Chinese emperor governed poorly and it was a punishment.
f. The Chinese emperor was to perform rituals to strengthen the relationship between heaven and earth.
g. Confucius and his followers wrote the moral government that was to be followed.

The Chinese Empire and Roman Empire both absorbed a foreign religious tradition.
1. Christianity developed in the Roman Empire and became the dominant religion of Europe and Buddhism came from India and developed in China. Buddhism was introduced by Asian traders and received little support from the Han Dynasty. Sui dynasty emperor Wendi 581-604 C.E. reunited China and Buddhism became popular.

Differences:
1. Roman’s beginnings were small as a city-state which meant that Italians/Romans were a minority in the empire.
2. The Chinese Empire grew from a much larger area which was already ethnicity Chinese.
3. When the Chinese spread south, they assimilated non-Chinese or barbarian people.

In 212 C.E. Roman citizenship was given on almost all free people of the empire. The advantages of being a citizen were: right to hold public office, to serve in the Roman military units (legions), to wear a toga and it conveyed a legal status.

Latin, an alphabetic language depicting sounds, gave rise to the following languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian whereas Chinese did not. Chinese characters which represent worlds or ideas were not easily transferred to other languages. Chinese could be understood by all literate people so cultural identities could not be maintained as in Roman Empire.

The Han emperor Wudi established an imperial academy with the writings of Confucius to train officials for their immerging bureaucracy. This was the beginning of the civil service system with examinations and selection by merit.

Romans developed an elaborate body of law which was applied equally dealing with matters of justice, property, commerce and family life.

What made for good government? For those who inherited the Roman tradition, it was good laws and for those who inherited the Chinese tradition, it was good men.

End of the Han dynasty empire – 220 C.E.
End of the Roman Empire is 476 C.E. Only the western half of the empire collapsed while the eastern part, known as the Byzantine Empire, continued with the tradition of imperial Rome for 1,000 years longer.

Reasons for the end of imperial states:
They got too big, too overextended, and too expensive to maintain with available resources and there were no fundamental technological breakthrough was prevalent to enlarge these resources. Also, the growth of large landowning families with huge estates enabled them to avoid paying taxes.

The reasons for the end of these states very much remind me of the problems that are happening today in our world. It’s kinda scary!