The Roman Empire and Han
China: A close comparison
Imperial Rome and Han China
• Both lasted approximately 400 years
• Both had population of about 50 million
Origins of empire
Han China built on earlier
imperial traditions started by
the Qin and Zhou
Rome was built on controlling
aristocratic landlords and a
certain element of democracy
Both emphasized territorial expansion
Roman Empire
Han China
Integrating the empires
• Massive road
building projects
linked crucial parts
of the empires
• Roads facilitated
communication,
economic activity,
access to resources,
and movement of
military.
Mechanisms for political integration in China
• Confucianism identified
principles necessary for
political and social order
• Emphasized the
emperors divine majesty
• Developed a
sophisticated
bureaucracy with gov
representatives in the
provinces
Mechanisms for political integration in
the Roman Empire
• Literature – writers were
eager to sing the praises of
the emperor and the
imperial system
• Bureaucracy less complex
than Han, but greater
emphasis on the legal
system
• Monuments and triumphal
processions played up the
glory and grandeur of the
empire itself and its rulers
The power of the central
governments in Han
China and Imperial Rome
Both systems expanded the
functions of government,
using considerable powers of
bureaucracy and taxation to
provision major cities. Both
governments were actively
engaged in a certain level of
economic activity designed
to ensure a stable social and
political order.
Han China worked harder at integration
than the Romans
• Large colonies of
northern Chinese
were planted in
newly conquered
territories
• Use of Mandarin
language required by
the elite and
bureaucrats and
pushed heavily on all
classes
Rome also used colonies to foster unity and
integration throughout the Empire
• Colonies were smaller,
basically military outposts
not intended for
population integration
• Latin was encouraged but
never supplanted Greek in
the east
• Expansion of Roman
citizenship was emphasized
• Rome was content to
establish looser control on
provinces and rely on local
autonomy
Territorial expansion
Han China
• Pushed boundaries far
beyond Middle
Kingdom, but when they
reached a sustainable
point, did not feel the
need to compensate for
cessation of expansion
Imperial Rome
• Rome’s appetite for expansion
was unbounded
• A more militaristic culture
• Romans needed additional
territory to reward generals and
soldiers
• They needed a continuing supply
of slaves for their labor system
• Rome began to fade after 180 CE
when expansion became
impossible
Han China was more culturally
creative than Rome
• Rome’s literature,
art, and
architecture was
derived from the
Greeks
• Classical China
was more creative
in the area of
technology (e.g.
gunpowder)
Before Han, China created
religious and philosophical systems in ways that
Rome did not
• Han emphasized
Confucianism and Rome’s
emphasis was on civic
religion
• Both emphases called
attention to rituals and
themes that would bring
loyalty to the empire, but
neither was intensely
spiritual
• Both are exposed to new
religions late in the Classical
Period
Military activity
• Military was encouraged
by both, but more so by
Rome
• Rome known for tight
discipline and
organization of the
infantry known as the
legions
• China known more for
military philosophy: Sun
Tzu’s The Art of War still
considered one of the
great works on military
strategy
The decline of Imperial Rome and Han China
• A series of
weak/incompetent
emperors and invasions
• Once the western
portion of Roman empire
falls it will be
remembered and
borrowed from but never
restored
• Han dynasty was
destroyed, but its
institutions and
traditions were revived
by later regimes