Ancient Worlds in Comparison (Mini-Edition)

The evolution of institutions through history has proceeded through fits and starts. In those times between the collapse of one set of institutions and the rise of a new set of institutions anarchy meant far more than the lack of an overlord, it often meant war, death, destruction, depopulation, and a loss of knowledge. Taking together the cases of the hierarchical sovereignty in the Roman Empire, the feudal system in medieval France and the transborder sovereignty in the Zhou Dynasty in China, this book compare ancient world systems in order to draw out the key points for a comprehensive theory of sovereignty and systems change. Each of these historical examples suggested that nothing is inevitable and yet the unintended consequences of numerous policy decisions mount to the point where change is fundamentally required. It is a revolution by a thousand cuts. In the modern era, it seems that finally the sovereign state is being reflected as a quite effective bureaucracy without any compelling ideological underpinnings.

In recent decades, studies on the relations of the Greco-Roman world with China have been paid more attention. The studies are mainly relied on the written sources from the Mediterranean world about the Far East and those sources from China about the Far West. Following this tradition, the book will focus on the image of the Roman Empire, mainly the eastern part known to Chinese as Da-qin including the regions of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, which was conceived by Chinese from the first century to the sixth-century CE. Based on previous researchers and the ancient Chinese literature, this book will deal with the relations between the Roman empire and ancient China, with a focus on the study of the image of the Roman empire in ancient Chinese literature. Compared with Western sources, with the help of Chinese sources, the study will attempt to reconstruct the image, analyze the influential factors of the image's construction, and examine its significance for the improvement of contemporary European-Chinese relations.

The notion of philosophical freedom is the theoretical cornerstone of the history of philosophical thought. From a modern point of view, this book attempts to compare aspects of individualistic freedom in the light of Ancient Greek and Indian philosophy. Each of these systems of ethics claim to free the individual in a diverse form of self-freedom and modern theories of Western philosophy have contributed new elements within a metaphysical and epistemological perspective. By contrasting these ancient schools of philosophical thought, self-freedom is becoming a multivariable of faith, testing, knowledge, and action. Although different methods and practices are available in the journey of knowledge seeking and self-formation, a synthesis of similarities between Greek-Western and Indian philosophy is becoming crucial to understand the perplexity of human life. It is revealed that, among others, individuals as students of knowledge should find the courage to take personal responsibility for their own freedom, trust and believe in others in situations of continuous uncertainty, and cultivate perfect humility with respect to the power of truth.

There is an interesting correlation between the evolution of linguistic philosophy during the last centuries and the development of Greek philosophy during the time of Plato and Aristotle. During roughly the same historical period in China, philosophers were debating similar philosophical issues. In what ways does our use of language impact the way, we (ought to) live together? The ideas of Confucius ultimately rose to prominence, particularly after being developed and elaborated by Xunzi nearly 300 years later. Does the manner in which the Chinese approached the question resonate with the Greeks? This book begins the investigation from a Confucian perspective, and subsequently reflect heuristically on Plato and Aristotle from that vantage point. Re-introducing an element of ambiguity by finding a culturally external vantage point significantly invigorates our understanding of each philosopher. The purpose is to achieve both a superior understanding of the Confucian perspective on the relationship between language, Rhetorics and the world, and a new dynamic understanding of how the Greeks dealt with the same issue.