Compare And Contrast Han China And Rome

These tools are also sold at very high prices considering their low quality. The Han government has dominated the trade of iron, controlling the quality of tools used by the people to do work, and the quality of tools the government uses to perform its public duties, such as repair work and the building of public structures.

The Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire both had a great influence not only on its people but the world as a whole. The two had similar and different methods of political control. Both ruled their people under a bureaucracy, they had civil servants to maintain their large empires, and their foundations were made of great and strong rulers. Aside from the similarities they also had several differences. Take China for example, they focused more on Confucianism and they had a Mandate of Heaven. Rome on the other hand used entertainment to distract and control the masses of its population.

Both Rome and Han China equivalently constructed similar roads, bridges, and water development systems all to strengthen their economy. Verifications of this can be seen when Rome fully realized the potential of arches and bridges in their road systems that spanned more than 400,000 km of roads that were used for trade. Correspondingly, they also built aqueducts as a form of water engineering to constantly bring in a flow of water to the cities and towns. Similarly, Han China built massive fortified roadways for trade and walls for fortification comparable to the Great Wall of China as a means of defense. Also in comparison to Roman aqueducts, Han China built water canals as means to direct water as they pleased. These similarities defined their engineering skills as these inventions and constructions were used to help strengthen their economies. Rome built and constructed roads to aid their trade systems and make easier routes of travel. Furthermore, they used aqueducts to get water into the city saving money and the need for human labor. Similarly, Han China used their fortified roads to trade much easier and as a means of safer travel. This went hand in hand with China’s water canals that also aided their economy by directing water where needed saving much money and limiting the need for human labor as well.

Documents that would help to further my analysis of these subjects would be a document from a Han and Roman common-person on the benefits of technology. This would help me to better understand the effects of technology on their lives, and how it has helped society. It would also help to show the usefulness of their technology.

Additionally, there were other distinct viewpoints, such as the different prespectives of the authors. There were two different views, one was a philosopher’s viewpoint and another was a government official’s viewpoint. To begin with, the Han philosophers and government officials always had a positive perspective. For instance, in document three, it mentions “Later on, the pestle and the mortar were cleverly improved in such a way that the whole weight of the body could be used, thus increasing the efficiency ten times.” The Chinese appear to note that innovation is of extraordinary advantage; subsequently they’re continuously making technological advancements. This Philosopher had Confucian beliefs, which swayed his judgement because Confucianism

The Han Dynasty viewed technology as essential in various ways. Documents 1 and 2 show how technology is an essential thing and that although it is great, government intervening must take place to assure everything goes to plan. Document 1 mentions some organization and order that’s needed to make sure everything works, and document 2 mentions how the workers are using crude brittle tools and need to get new tools that are in good condition so they can work more efficiently. Both of these documents may have a slight bias considering both of them are written by Han government officials and they might want to get higher positions and this may influence their writings. It was interesting that in document

The Roman and Han both found technoloy very useful and an everyday neccessary. Although the Han viewed the technology verey beneficial for their agriculture and praised the advanced tools and their inventors and well as their own work. The Romans only appreciated the product of technology and its design and craftmeship. Both civilizations technology was very imortant and helped to advance both that can still be seen in China today.

Using the information within document #3 and document #1 it can accurately be assumed that the Han dynasty was for the development of technology as in both these documents they show the government allowed and encouraged the development of technology.

According to Huan Guan, a government official from first century BCE, tools made by individuals were well made and of high quiality, but as the government started to take over and monopolize tool manufacturing, the quality of tools diminished. Many agricultural workers had to resort to wooden tools that were inferrior compared to iron tools. The monopoly over tools and the quality of tools got so bad, that even some government officials agreed that the state should stop with the monopolization and return back to how metallurgy use to be. Huan Tan, and upper class philosopher from around 20 CE, wrote about Fuxi, the inventor of the mortar and the Pestle that lead to greater innovations of the two which increased efficiency of the pieces of technology. This document shows that the mortar and the pestle was a great invention, so great that an upper class philosopher is writing about how much this invention has helped.

While not all of the Han’s and the Roman’s agreed, most of them greatly approved of technology, but the Han’s were more grateful for it, while the Roman’s just had to be better than others. Without technology it would be hard to do many jobs. Gaius Gracchus built a road for his people, which made travel much easier, and Tu Shih built an invention to lessen the workload for many peoples daily jobs. By writing a letter to the local officials a government official was able to make it known that something had to be done to lessen the damage that floods caused. And by writing Discourses on Salt and Iron, people realized that it was necessary to buy supplies and tools when the prices were low, so they wouldn’t run out again.

In the documents, it is shown that the eight authors from different societies had an opinion towards the technology during their time. Some of the opinions were based on water and how there should be a system for it, the tools of the time period and how they improved, the people who wanted to see a change in their work environment and the people who didn’t want their work environment to change. The water based documents were focused on how the water systems should be run; for flood prevention or for aqueducts throughout the city of Rome. They provide intel on the environments at the time. The documents based on the tools and how they were improved through the different people manufacturing them. The documents set on how the working class wants

They show this by hiring many workers concerned with that such subject. This government official has no reason to provide false data. If no workers were hired and the floods were to overtake parts of China, his job would be more difficult. Document 3 also conveys the Han Dynasty’s encouragement of new technologies. Through the Han’s openness to new concepts the improvement of the mortar and pestle allowed for greater food yields. The greater food yields would have come from water and animal powered mortar and pestles that would husk and dehull grain. Through these, yields the greater Chinese population must have also increased as a result. The source of this information also seems legitimate as the philosopher would gain or lose nothing as a result of false

New agricultural techniques, porcelain, metallurgy, printing, and naval technology were few of the technological elements that reinforced the established features of social order. New agricultural techniques helped in the expand of their agricultural potential, the dynasties gained reputation from porcelain technology which moderately diffused to other societies producing porcelain in large quantities, metallurgical techniques as well diffused to lands beyond China, printing produced texts quickly and popular works appeared in huge quantities, and naval technology included of the magnetic compass which soon became common for mariners to use. Population growth, patriarchal social structures, and gunpowder were technological elements reinforcing established features of political order. Population growth reflected the capacity of economy and distribution of food, patriarchal social structures included of concern to preserve family fortunes and foot binding, and gunpowder was an element used for military effectiveness. These aspects provided a fundamental change in traditions because they changed their whole concepts of how to use goods as in previous Chinese eras.

The Han and Roman empire were both built with the hard work of the laborers. The laborers being the common people of the Empire. Both the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire had different outlooks on how the common folk influenced their societies technology. The Romans thought lowly of their common people, thinking they were not as smart as the people in upper class. While in the Han Dynasty the upper class were grateful of the work the people did and knew that the common people was the base of their civilization. All of the documents given to us describes the labor the common people had to do for the uprising of technology during this time period.

In Ancient times, the Han and the Romans were two of the greatest civilizations to ever exist. Although they excelled in technology, the two civilizations had different attitudes toward it. The Han Civilization’s attitude towards technology was more open and welcoming while the Romans were very strict and believed technology would only be used for necessary tasks. The Han Dynasty were more flexible than the Romans when it came to their point of view of technology.