chinese & greek civilizations impact

7/30/2019 Chinese & Greek Civilizations Impact

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A Comparison of Ancient Greek and Ancient Chinese

Civilizations, and their Impact on Modern-Day Life

Emaan Haque

Period 4

The golden ages of ancient China and ancient Greek had a significant impact

on the world civilization at the time. This essay discusses similarities and

differences of their geography, social systems and government style, and how

these two dynasties and civilization impacted the modern world.

As for their geography, both counties had rather different geography from one

another. China was surrounded by natural barriers, so they didn't need to

make any new borders. On their east was yellow river, also called East ChinaSea. The rest of China was surrounded by mountains, like the Himalayas,

and deserts, like the Gobi desert, and high Tibetan plateaus. The Chinese

geography is unique in that large portion of its land is covered by mountains

and deserts, and only 10% of the land is irrigable. Ancient Greece, on the

other hand, was not just one big landmass, rather, it was a collection of

separate islands where Greek-speaking people lived. Neighboring seas

around the islands were the Aegan Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the Black Sea.

These seaways connected islands of Greece. Similarity of two civilizations,

however, was that like ancient China, ancient Greece had limited land for

farming because it was also covered with a lot of mountains. They are also

similar because they both were surrounded by seas, making a natural barrier.

A large portion of the landmasses in ancient Greece were covered with

mountains dividing the landmasses into different regions, similar to China.

This brought the challenge of ruling the entire country by one single central

government. As a result, in Ancient Greece, each region had its own small

autonomous governments. However, ancient China had a more organized

government system. The ancient Chinese government system was in

dynasties. A dynasty is a line of hereditary rulers of a country. The first

civilization started out as farming settlements, which eventually turned into

large cities/dynasties.



In every country, people need to have a Belief System. Earlier, the ancient

Greek believed in different myths as their Belief System. They made stories

about their gods, who they thought controlled the world, and were responsible

for any incident. During the golden age, however, great philosophers such as

Plato, Socrates and Aristotle helped Greek think with reasons and logics.Plato is known for being very strong against demoscracy and his ideas about

it influenced many people about it too.

Unlike ancient Greek philosophers, the main objective of the philosophers of

ancient China was to attain harmony and peace in their community. One of

the popular philosophers during the golden age in ancient China included

Confucious, who introduced the idea of filial piety, bureaucracy and daoists,

who believed in attaining perfect harmony. He introduced the idea of law-

makers and bureaucrats who imposed a strict rule of law in China, making thesociety more disciplined and organized. Both countries were similar in an

aspect because philosphers played a major role in politics for both countries.

It appears that the Chinese had a greater impact on the modern society, as

they helped develop a functional bureaucratic system, which is still followed

and practiced in modern-day political system. This system rolls out trained

civil servants who make policy decisions for the government for the well being

of the entire society. Chinese scholar, Confucious, is thought to be the

inventor of the idea of bureaucracy, and since then most countries and eventhe small businesses have adopted this philosophy and benefited from it. A

well organized bureaucracy helps develop rules and regulations, which are

vital for the economy of a country and for the success and growth of a

business. In short, the idea of bureaucracy as developed during the golden

age of ancient China, impacted the modern world greatly.

Confucius's philosophy and teachings was not limited to developing only the

bureaucracy. He also stressed the importance of education because he

believed only education could reform the masses of the society. Thisphilosophy and teaching of Confucius, from the time of ancient China, is so

deeply rooted to the present day Chinese society that even in modern times, it

is a law in China for kids to go to school. Confucius's stress on education led

to the creation of many technological advancements and innovations, not only

in China but outside China as well.



The isolation of people in ancient China due to the geographical reasons left

them with no choice but to depend, and make use of limited local natural

resources without travelling to other countries. This led to creating new

technological innovations like coined money, since China had limited natural

resources, they had to travel outside and get resources from other countries,and the coined money helped make the trading process easier.

In summary, both ancient Greek and ancient Chinese civilization brought

number of innovations to the modern world, but the impact of innovations

created and developed by ancient Chinese civilization to the modern world life

is more lasting and practical, and still successfully used, in one form or the

other in different walk of modern-day life.

chinese & greek civilizations impact

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