Egyptian and Chinese Civilizations in Antiquity
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Egyptian and Chinese Civilizations in Antiquity
Humankind has a long-lasting history. Many societies that exist today are due to years even millennia of structuring, advancement, technological innovation leadership, and a rich penetration of religion. In essence, these are significant building blocks to many communities. Art, literature, divination, water management, architecture, kingship, and music are crucial elements that have helped establish, maintain and expand civilizations. Arguably, most of the current cultures can be traced back to larger contexts while some famous ancient societies have become extinct. Visibly, there is a connection between the survival of civilizations and the mentioned factors. In that case, it is evident that Egypt and China, being the longest surviving cultures, must have had a uniquely designed system and structured society. By comparatively analyzing the theme of kingship in Egypt and China, it is possible to illustrate how the two civilizations have continued to thrive from the ancient world to the modern-day.
Leadership is inarguably one of the essential elements of civilization. With good leadership comes prosperity, economic growth, industry, power, planning, expansion, and consequent durability. An examination of the two countries reveals empires that were a symbol of kingship and leadership prosperity even in the ancient world. China is famous for its strong cultural background, religion, values, and politics. The civilization is arguably one of the most extended-standing society, and interestingly, there is a written record of Chinese history going back millennia. The Chinese leadership has a long history of a cycle of war, stability, and expansion. Democracy has not been China’s strong suit, even in ancient history. Egypt is also an ancient civilization going back to thousands of years in the antiquity era. Similar to Chinese leadership styles, Egyptian leadership in ancient history was hierarchal and authoritative. Indeed, the presence of purposeful leaders with ambition, control, knowledge, and skill led to the expansions of these empires and gave their people purpose, something to fight for and protect. While emperors and queens have historically ruled China, Egypt was under the leadership of pharaohs. From the two civilizations, it is possible to identify these leaders’ various successes in shaping the communities to their legacy today.
Chinese dynasties have long been known for their technological advancements. According to Gill 2019, ever since the Neolithic Period dating back 12000 years before the common era, China had developed immense technological growth compared to other civilizations. Leaders such as King Fu Xi, Emperor Huangdi, and King Shun were responsible for innovating pottery and decorative jades. Arguably these were precious and must have been a significant element of trade and pride in ancient China. Additionally, the pottery would significantly aid in the preservation of the Chinese culture in later years.
Furthermore, a vital element of any leadership is to ensure that their regions do not have any food production problems. Being a mountainous region, China would have appeared unproductive, but with such ambitious leaders, the country had already invented paddy agriculture, millet cultivation, and domestication of wild pigs. The period also saw a rise in sericulture and ink production to help record events, even in the years 2800s BCE (Gill, 2019). In essence, the Chinese civilization was off to a good start. Such elements as extensive agricultural production, using silkworms to produce silk were not a common practice.
The most critical and recorded period of Chinese civilization took place in the years 1600-221BC. During this period, the Chinese culture became popularly expanded, and grew immensely under different dynasties during the Bronze Era (Roberts, 2011). During the period, different philosophies emerged and ultimately led to wars, which went on for about two centuries. Ideally, most dynasties were established along rivers, arguably a very instrumental part of Chinese growth. As Gill 2020 records, before the beginning of the Shang dynasty, irrigation, ships, and pastoral agriculture had already been invented, and King Tang made more developments to the dynasty. As indicated earlier, good leadership comes with proper planning. It is possible that most ancient civilizations collapsed because of issues such as food security and water management.
Judging from the achievement of ancient China at such an early period, such as irrigation in agriculture, it would suffice to say that the leaders were oriented to ensure long term growth. Greenspan 2017 argues that, technological innovations, population growth, and expansion do not guarantee civilization’s survival; for example, the Maya and Indus civilizations, which were not for their collapse, would perhaps be among the oldest and most thriving civilizations on the planet. However, the leaders of these two communities were not invested in sustainability and food security. The Maya civilization was wiped out by soil erosion, droughts, and uncontrolled deforestation to build empires. The Indus, on the other hand, had an expansive realm even larger than the Egyptian civilization, but a shortage of rainfall barred agricultural production. Arguably, there was poor resource management in the societies but considering China’s growth and food production to date, the two empires fell victim to poor leadership.
From the Zhou dynasty, China’s growth became unparalleled. The Chinese leaders insisted on innovation, learning, exploration, and research. Within the period, the regions had succeeded in the arts of glass making, magnetism, iron tools, and weapons, and making chariots. These were instrumental in defending the dynasties from enemy attacks, making architectural developments, and expanding their territories. Additionally, Chinese dynasties grew immensely due to education and medicine. According to Gill 2020, The Zhou dynasty from 1027-221 BC is famous for its educational exploration where the people learned astronomic, geometric, and arithmetic skills. In essence, education became significant strength of the Chinese, and using the new knowledge. They could make immense technological developments, planning engineering, and scientific innovations such as fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture. The period also saw an advancement of Chinese medicine to fight off ailments.
Another significant element of Chinese civilization’s growth is the end of the war and governments’ centralization. In essence, no country can move forward or survive if it does not function as one unit. Roberts, 2011 argues that the Chinese dynasties were under threat from the fourth century to the second century BCE because of the Warring States Period. Due to Daoism and Confucianism’s conflicting philosophies, the regions were at constant war, and it took the authoritative rule of the Qin and Han Dynasties in the subsequent years to unite the Chinese states under imperial rule. The Qin dynasty is responsible for the onset of China’s military prowess with building the renowned Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army (American Historical Association, 2020). The dynasty established a standardized form of governance, Chinese weighing scales, measurements, and even united the different writing styles. The subsequent Han Dynasty is famous for introducing the silk road trading route, which enhanced the Chinese economy and opened it to the western world. China never looked back after the onset of trade, and it was united under one leadership until the Dark ages in the years 220-581 AD where the country fell into chaos after it split into three dynasties. However, the dynasties’ unification under the Sui dynasty restored China’s glory in growth and expansion in the antiquity period.
The Egyptian civilization followed a similar path. Just like the Chinese regions and dynasties, at the heart of Egyptian culture is the Nile river. From History.com 2009, ancient Egypt dates back to over 30 centuries before the common era, and it was among the most dominant empires in the Mediterranean region. Even before that period, Egypt existed as two Kingdoms in the north and south but was later united by King Menes under one central governance. The king in Egypt was revered as a god, and they ruled in an authoritative leadership style. The Egyptian civilization survived mostly on agriculture (Yildirim, 2014). As mentioned earlier, the cities were built along the Nile River, which served as the primary water source for the dynasties. The Egyptians under Pharaonic leadership developed intricate irrigation systems that ensured constant food production even in the land’s desert conditions
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The pharaohs’ significant contribution was their leadership in all aspects, as religious leaders, politicians, military leaders, planners, and architectural innovators. For instance, Atkins 2018 argues that Khufu, an Egyptian pharaoh who reigned for over two decades, was responsible for constructing the Great Pyramid of Giza. Egyptian leadership was also similar to China’s due to women’s significant role in the empires. Hatshepsut, who was among the few female pharaohs in Egypt, is famous for her successful reign in a period characterized by substantial trade and Egyptian economy and peaceful interaction with its neighbors. Atkins 2018 comments that Thutmose the third, an Egyptian pharaoh, never lost a battle, and his military prowess made him immensely infamous and ensured the preservation of the Egyptian heritage. Thus, just like many Chinese emperors, some Egyptian pharaohs maintained significant military leadership responsible for keeping the peace, protecting their society, and ensuring the constant expansion of the Egyptian territory.
As seen from the Chinese era, one of the essential elements of leadership pursued by almost all the leaders is unity and standardization. Arguably, ancient civilizations were far from the modern-day definition of civilization; most were barbaric, overambitious, selfish, and greedy for power. For that reason, many communities failed on account of poor and corrupt leadership and the extensive disunity in the regions. After a long cycle of success and failures of pharaohs to unite Egypt, Cleopatra, also the last pharaoh of Egypt, made a final attempt to unite the country. Though after her death, the Egyptian empire began to disintegrate. During her era, Cleopatra managed to ensure stability and restore the Egyptian glory in the antiquity period through established trade and peace (Atkins 2018). In essence, Cleopatra, like many leaders before her, used her leadership skills as the building blocks to ensure the Egyptian empire’s survival in antiquity.
Ideally, Egypt and China are famously recognized as some of the longest standing civilizations of antiquity because of their leaders. As seen from the two cases, the civilizations have millennia of history dating back centuries before the common era. Throughout their development, the two civilizations immensely grew due to their high regard to technology, architecture, food security, water management, and unity, all of which were instituted by their leaders across the different periods. The empires were not perfect, but after every failure, the subsequent leaders worked hard using their intellect, military power, trade, authoritarian rule, and diplomacy, to ensure their civilizations withstood the test of time and emerged as some of the most successful even to this day.
References
American Historical Association. (2020). The oldest living civilization. https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-42-our-chinese-ally-(1944)/the-oldest-living-civilization
Atkins, H. (2018,). 10 famous Ancient Egyptian pharaohs. History Hit. https://www.historyhit.com/famous-ancient-egyptian-pharaohs/
Gill, N. S. (2019). Accomplishments of the ancient Chinese. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-the-ancient-chinese-accomplished-117658
Greenspan, J. (2017,). Here’s why these six ancient civilizations mysteriously collapsed. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/6-civilizations-that-mysteriously-collapsed
History.com. (2009,). Ancient Egypt. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-egypt
Roberts, J. A. (2011). A history of China. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Yildirim, E. (2014). Concept of Leadership in the Ancient History and Its Effects on the Middle East. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Sciences, 137.