COMPARING THE DECLINE OF THE HAN AND ROMAN EMPIRES

A traditional way to organize essays often presented is the “PERSIA” method. In thinking of what to compare, or how to group material, students are encouraged to think about “p” = political, “i”= intellectual, “r” = religious, “a”=artistic, “t” = technological, “e”= economic, “s”=social, categories; hence “PIRATES” as a way to remember the categories.

The similarities and differences below may be grouped using the PIRATES method, but you should note that historians push their analysis into more sophisticated directions, which the student of history should begin to notice and emulate.

SIMILARITIES:1. Many of the later emperors were weaklings unable to wield power and restore order.2. “Neither could adjust to the increase in population, the growth of wealth, and the

development of complex institutions that centralized rule had made possible.” (Fairbank)

3. Both failed to solve financial difficulties(Ex: large landowners proved to rich/powerful to be curbed by central govt.)

4. “The centralized administration proved to be its own worst enemy.” (Fairbank)(Ex: nepotism – relatives, favorites, generals, administrators – all avaricious)(Ex: peasants – tied to land in perpetuity)

5. United government could no longer continue: China divided into 3 parts; Rome, into two (later 4) parts

6. Barbarian invasions played a role in overrunning the borders of empire:In China, the Xiongnu (along the borders, became “semi-Sinicized barbarians”); they Sacked the Han capital of Luoyang and the whole north of the empire; another group the Xianbei were also active.Rome, capital of the empire, was also overrun by various Germans tribes, some of whom became semi-Romanized barbarians

7. The Roman capital was overrun as was Loyang in 316 at the hands of the Hsiung-Nu8. Constantinople in the eastern empire survived, as did Han culture in the “flight” to

Nanjing , the “southern capital”9. The later history of Europe was an amalgam of Latin and German culture, as

in China, the barbarians of Central Asia assimilated with Chinese culture.10. As Confucianism and Roman secular systems declined, Taoism, Buddhism and

Christianity spread.11. The growing power of the great landed families and endless court intrigues fatally weakened the central state and drained its resources. (Murphy, 79)12. Each empire had depended on a free peasantry, which was undermined, signaling the

erosion of the authority of the state.

DIFFERENCES IN THE DECLINE:

1. Although the eastern Roman empire survived, the western, Roman empire collapsed more completely than did Han culture and civilization in China (investigate why, considering the degree of urbanization, markets, barbarian impact, etc.)

2. The Chinese economy was based more completely on crop agriculture.3. Cities and commerce played a lesser role in China than in the West.4. Common culture (Chinese script) prevented as drastic a collapse as in Rome

(Latin, a lingua franca, but other languages, Greek, Hebrew, demotic Egyptian continued)

5. The Han empire ended in 220, reunified by the Sui in 589; the Roman empire ended in 476, and was not reunified, despite Charlemagne’s attempts c. 800

6. The increasingly heavy tax burden on the peasantry provoked chronic banditry and rebellions (the Yellow Turbans, 184 CE); whereas major migrations primarily of Germanic tribes changed the demographic make-up of the Roman empire. (Murphy, 79)

7. The role of eunuchs, originally trusted at court, but increasingly schemed to amass power and promote their favorites had no real counterpart in the western Roman empire.

8. The role of Christianity in the West was distinctive:a. greater emphasis on Church organization (based on the structures of the Roman

empire) than either Taoism or Buddhismb. greater Christian mission activityc. greater emphasis on exclusive truth, struggle for unified doctrine, intolerance of

other beliefs, monotheismd. Constantine’s conversion elevated Christianity (Caesaro-papism)e. Pope Leo I (461) established the papacy as the supreme authority in Europef. Augustinian theology and its unifying roleg. New attitudes toward the importance of the individual

9. The imperial model of Han rule was revived in subsequent eras, but the lands of the Roman Empire never again achieved such a level of unification. (Bulliet, 169)

10. There was no Roman equivalent of Confucianism – no ideology of political organization and social conduct that could survive the dissolution of the Roman state.

Stern’s caution: decline = not a death of civilization, but a regrouping

Bulliet: In China the imperial tradition and the class structure and value system that maintained it were eventually revived, and they survived with remarkable continuity into the 20th century. In Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, in contrast, there was no restoration of the Roman Empire, and the later history of those lands was marked by great political changes and cultural diversity.

VIEWS OF EMPIRERead and consider the following excerpts as part of your preparation to write a comparative essay. You may refer to them, or not.

DYNASTIC CYCLES: The first century of a new dynasty would be marked by political, economic and cultural vigor, expansion, efficiency and confidence; the second would build on or consolidate what the first had achieved; and in the third vigor and efficiency would begin to wane, corruption would mount, banditry and rebellion would multiply, and the dynasty would ultimately fall. A new group coming to power from among the rebels would rarely attempt to change the system, only its management and supervision. Cultural was continuous, even during the political chaos following the fall of the Han.

Source: Murphy, East Asia, 119.

THE RISE AND FALL OF GREAT POWERS.Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Random

House, 1986. Although focusing on the 1500-2000 period in European history, consider his thesis and to what extent it may apply.

Nations project their military power according to their economic resources and in defense of their broad economic interests. But…the cost of projecting that military power is more than even the largest economies can afford indefinitely, especially when new technologies and new centers of production shift economic power away from established…Powers, hence the rise and fall of nations…. Over the past five centuries the superpower states have tended to achieve military pre-eminence at a time when they were beginning to lose ground economically to lesser countries.