The Human Family: Thoughts on the Ancient World
Written: February 2015
Prompt: Compare and contrast two ancient civilizations.
Every civilization on Earth, no matter the distance in space or time, has commonalities with every other civilization. This should come as no surprise, for humans, despite what they may think, are more alike than different. Consider two civilization in particular: China and Rome. Roman civilization came into being in the seventh century B.C. with the founding of the city by the same name, and Chinese civilization developed in the seventeenth century B.C. China and Rome, sharing the same continent of Eurasia, had comparatively similar religious and political systems, but differing economies.
Universal among civilizations is religion. The religions of China and Rome were related, not necessarily in content, but in form and history. Historically speaking, both followed the progression of (1) primitive, ill-defined religious systems, replaced by (2) sophisticated, comprehensive religions. In China, the second of these two was Buddhism. In Rome, it was Roman Catholicism. Addtionally, the beliefs of primitive religions themselves were nearly identical across both cultures; namely, polytheism (i.e., multiple gods who could bring good or ill fortune). In Rome, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto were primarily worshiped. In China, Heaven itself was the supreme god, among other gods (e.g., Dumou, etc.). On the other hand, a point of difference between the two religious systems is that the gods of China were far less anthropomorphic than their Roman counterparts. They weren't really gods in the sense of personal individuals. They are better represented as manifestations of the "energy" of the universe.
A second universal among civilizations is politics and government. The political systems of ancient China and Rome were very much alike. For example, both included absolute monarchies. In China, these monarchies took the form of dynasties: the Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties. In Rome, monarchical rule centered around individual emperors (e.g., Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, etc.). Secondly, in both civilizations, the emperor was worshiped as divine. This created terrible persecutions for the early Roman Christians who refused to comply with this belief. Of course, Rome was only a monarchy for part of its history (it was a Republic originally), while China was monarchical throughout.
Unlike politics and religion, the economic systems of our two central civilizations were very different. For instance, China had a barter-based economy, while Rome had a currency-based economy. The typical goods traded in China were crops or foreign items. Roman currency consisted in gold and silver coins. Moreover, given that China did not have currency, taxes were not given, whereas taxes were an expected phenomena for the Roman citizen. Of course, taxes in a more general sense occurred in the feudal-type economy of China, but they were very different from Roman taxes. Roman taxes, because they consisted in coins, could be used directly for improving the empire. Chinese-type taxes were more akin to a tenth of that season's harvest; one cannot improve an empire directly with crops. All this being said, the economies of China and Rome had one commonality. The foundation of both was the farmer and his produce.
In summary, ancient Chinese and Roman civilizations overlapped in the areas of politics and religion, but diverged from one another in their economic systems. All this goes to show that the civilizations, cultures, and peoples of the ancient world shared much between them. Given this, present cultures should approach each other, not as different people with only differences to speak of, but as equally important members of the same human family. Perhaps then, war may fade away to be replaced by mutual understanding and eventually, love.
Prompt: Compare and contrast two ancient civilizations.
Every civilization on Earth, no matter the distance in space or time, has commonalities with every other civilization. This should come as no surprise, for humans, despite what they may think, are more alike than different. Consider two civilization in particular: China and Rome. Roman civilization came into being in the seventh century B.C. with the founding of the city by the same name, and Chinese civilization developed in the seventeenth century B.C. China and Rome, sharing the same continent of Eurasia, had comparatively similar religious and political systems, but differing economies.
Universal among civilizations is religion. The religions of China and Rome were related, not necessarily in content, but in form and history. Historically speaking, both followed the progression of (1) primitive, ill-defined religious systems, replaced by (2) sophisticated, comprehensive religions. In China, the second of these two was Buddhism. In Rome, it was Roman Catholicism. Addtionally, the beliefs of primitive religions themselves were nearly identical across both cultures; namely, polytheism (i.e., multiple gods who could bring good or ill fortune). In Rome, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto were primarily worshiped. In China, Heaven itself was the supreme god, among other gods (e.g., Dumou, etc.). On the other hand, a point of difference between the two religious systems is that the gods of China were far less anthropomorphic than their Roman counterparts. They weren't really gods in the sense of personal individuals. They are better represented as manifestations of the "energy" of the universe.
A second universal among civilizations is politics and government. The political systems of ancient China and Rome were very much alike. For example, both included absolute monarchies. In China, these monarchies took the form of dynasties: the Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties. In Rome, monarchical rule centered around individual emperors (e.g., Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, etc.). Secondly, in both civilizations, the emperor was worshiped as divine. This created terrible persecutions for the early Roman Christians who refused to comply with this belief. Of course, Rome was only a monarchy for part of its history (it was a Republic originally), while China was monarchical throughout.
Unlike politics and religion, the economic systems of our two central civilizations were very different. For instance, China had a barter-based economy, while Rome had a currency-based economy. The typical goods traded in China were crops or foreign items. Roman currency consisted in gold and silver coins. Moreover, given that China did not have currency, taxes were not given, whereas taxes were an expected phenomena for the Roman citizen. Of course, taxes in a more general sense occurred in the feudal-type economy of China, but they were very different from Roman taxes. Roman taxes, because they consisted in coins, could be used directly for improving the empire. Chinese-type taxes were more akin to a tenth of that season's harvest; one cannot improve an empire directly with crops. All this being said, the economies of China and Rome had one commonality. The foundation of both was the farmer and his produce.
In summary, ancient Chinese and Roman civilizations overlapped in the areas of politics and religion, but diverged from one another in their economic systems. All this goes to show that the civilizations, cultures, and peoples of the ancient world shared much between them. Given this, present cultures should approach each other, not as different people with only differences to speak of, but as equally important members of the same human family. Perhaps then, war may fade away to be replaced by mutual understanding and eventually, love.
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