Similarities Between Han China And Rome

It is often believed and taught that from about 300 BCE to 300 CE the Roman Empire was the greatest imperial power in the world and that it was the social, economic, and political center of world. This was also the period of the Chinese Han Dynasty, which was an equal, if not more, powerful empire in all aspects. The similarities of the implementation, spread, and establishment of the Han and Roman empires’ authority is what made them both successful and dominant in gaining, maintaining, and exercising the political authority they both possessed in the pre-modern world. BOTH EMPIRES WERE SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE OF THEIR USE OF MILITARY FORCE TO CONQUER, BUT BEYOND THAT THEY ESTABLISHED LAW AND ORDER BY EITHER SPREADING THEIR LAWS AND IDEALS

The Han did not directly use force to unify the peoples of China, but the rulers of this dynasty instead took advantage of what was accomplished by its forerunner the Qin Dynasty. The Qin fought to unify the warring states of China underneath a central government before the Han emerged upon the scene of the dying Qin authority. The short lived Qin Dynasty fell in 207 BCE, preparing the way for the Han Empire to arise quickly in 206 BCE. Brute force was used only to defeat those competing to assume the authoritative mantle of China. Force implemented gained dominance, but maintenance of political authority of the Han was innate of humane rule. Like the Han the Roman Empire has its beginning rooted in violence. In disgracing the Spartan system of political and economic affairs underneath the leadership of Lycurgus, Polybius reveals that the Romans’ efforts to control the supplies and resources of conquered states allowed them to bring other regions under their rule. Each empire came to have vast regions subject to an emperor because of the use of military force, but maintaining authority took more than each imperial power brandishing their weapons towards the

Confucianism had a vital role in how the Han was able to maintain political authority for four centuries. Although the early Han rulers adopted from the Qin the harsh enforcement of law and consequences, the reign of the Han Dynasty was moral and practical. Lu Jia wrote about how the Qin failed to rule humanely placing fear of the law in those under rule. Lu Jia compared the Han to the Qin writing, “One who is rich in virtue has far-flung influence; one who is ample in brute strength may be merely overbearing,” and in the Xinyu he blames the absence of disorder on human and righteous rule. The people of China grew weary of tyranny and rebellion struck the region resulting in the Shi Huangdi dying with China in a period of warring states and his successors giving in to Han rule. The Chinese people gave the Han Dynasty a chance and the people’s respect for the Han authority was given through a change in imperial polity and ideology to humane and righteous