Similarities Between Classical China And India

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During the years of 600 BCE - 600 CE, often referred to as the Classical Era, there was a lot of change going on. Major empires arose such as the Han and Qin Dynasties of China, Gupta and Maurya of India, Roman, Greek, and Persian. Many new religions and belief systems were created as well; Confucianism, Legalism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Greek Rationalism, and Taoism. In this time period, religions and belief systems were shaping empires and paving futures for them as well. During the Classical Era in Eurasia, both China and India had social hierarchies that were based upon their religions, Confucianism, and Hinduism, although they both shared this trait, the social hierarchy in China allowed for social mobility while the caste system …show more content…

In China, during this time period, if you were born into a poor family, but others around had good faith in you they could pay to support you in taking the bureaucrat exams. If you successfully passed these sets of exams you could become a bureaucrat and transition from the bottom of the hierarchy (merchants/peasants), toward the top (elites and scholar-gentry). In India, Hinduism, their main belief system at the time, supported and promoted the ¨caste¨ system. In the caste system, there was no room for social mobility what so ever. The caste you were born in had a specific duty, dharma. If you successfully completed your dharma you would be reincarnated after death into a higher caste, or reach Moksha which is the release from the cycle. The ability for social mobility affects China by making it so that being at the top of the social hierarchy was not something that you were born into, it was something that was earned. This caused the people of lower social classes to respect the elites and scholar-gentry far more. The result of no social mobility in India caused it so that people would work as hard as they could their entire life because they knew that the only thing that mattered in this life was fulfilling their duties so their next life could be better. Therefore everyone in India worked as hard as they could for as long as they could hoping their next life would be as a Brahmin or that they would reach moksha and not have a next life at