China was not built in a day

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

In our western culture the Roman Empire has always been the standard by which all other empires have been compared. In the scale of its geographical expanse and its longevity it shares similarities with some of the Chinese Dynasties we have been examining. Its legacy has had an enduring impact right up to modern times, also the case with its Chinese counterparts. These are empires that lasted centuries, probably due to similar reasons, some of which I attempt to enumerate here. The Romans tolerated different religious practices and traditions, allowing for various national, ethnic or tribal groups to freely worship their preferred deities. The academics and some politicians did not necessarily subscribe to any superstitious belief, but they saw in these beliefs a way to keep the population satisfied. With Augustus a reign of peace was heralded as the desire for continued imperial conquests was checked. Barring a few exceptions thereafter, Rome had recognized natural geographical boundaries to limit the extent of its political influence, still a good three thousand miles wide. Constant warfare is expensive, stressful, and does not easily allow for consolidating gubernatorial and economic institutions. Walls were built to keep out Barbarians in the north. Roads were built to move troops quickly when necessary. Taxes were collected from provinces. Agriculture was improved. Slavery existed and the more easily accepted because displays of loyalty or merit could earn a slave freedom. The meritocracy element meant that non-Italians could also be prosperous and successful; a cosmopolitan society was nurtured. The Pax Romana, by maintaining favorable conditions for all the conquered territories, meant that there was less cause for rebellion. A unifying language, Latin, was disseminated. The “legalist” spirit runs deep in ancient Rome.

[Anonymous]

Recently, I was happy to find a nice old abridged version of Edward Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. This epic historical opus from the last quarter of the eighteenth century has long been venerated for its academic, philosophical and literary value. I wonder if such a work exists that has presented the tale of the Chinese Dynasties in such depth and in such a way as would have influenced or inspired generations of subsequent scholars and other readers. Granted, recent archaeological studies and the analysis of more recently discovered authentic texts will have amended the authority of a book published 230 years ago, but there will always remain the psychological impact on a vast segment of the population that learns of the great deeds or thoughts of the world from the trickling down of the content and style of “great” books. The King James English translation of the Bible, for example, has had a huge impact on the psyche of the western mind in all English speaking domains and their subsidiary colonial territories.
In his day Gibbons was publicly vilified and his character denigrated because his objectivity may not have presented a view that was overtly favorable to Christianity. Sima Qian, you might remember him, he was the first official historian of the Han Dynasty in the first century BCE, who was castrated for daring to write the truth. The following notes are stolen from a BBC news magazine article from 7th October 2012. See the link below for more.
In today's China, Sima Qian's book, The Records of the Grand Historian, is regarded as the grandest history of them all. What Herodotus is to Europeans, so Sima Qian is to Chinese.
· Born between 145 and 135 BC to a family of court astrologers
· Father, Sima Tan, is prefect of grand scribes to Emperor Wu of Han
· Sima Qian becomes grand historian three years after his father's death in 110 BC
· Creates an advanced form of calendar in 104 BC
· In 99 BC he offends the emperor - he later becomes a palace eunuch
· The Records of the Grand Historian cover a period of 2,500 years
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19835484
edited by rjessel on 12/18/2012

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