Compare And Contrast Han And Roman Technology

The Classical Romans and Hans both had fascinating views on technology. Because they were both such great empires, they managed to create a wide variety of technology. When the scholars were inventing it, they were focused on creating life much easier than it was. Technology was made important in more than one way, and attitudes toward it varied from person to person. And even though these attitudes varied, the technology was still improved to become the basis of what we have today. The Han and Romans’ attitudes toward technology were aimed at improving their tools since most of the Han technology is about agriculture and ways to decrease the workload, while the Romans sought to create an easier way of transporting goods throughout the empire, while maintaining a mathematical system to regulate it. The Hans had a lot of technology
that was focused on decreasing the workload. Tu Shih, a “generous man” who’s “policies were peaceful” invented a water powered engine to help farmers cast iron (Document 4). This blowing-engine would decrease the time needed to make tools, giving laborers a lot of free time. It would also increase the speed at which the tools are made, meaning that the farmers could have new tools constantly, decreasing the amount of work needed to be done due to broken tools.
This is demonstrating bias because he established dignity and worked to help farmers. He enjoyed helping them in whatever means necessary. Tu Shih wanted to save the common people labor, and increase the amount of food made at the same time. In document 1, a Han government official is warning about the impending floods and the need to strengthen the city’s defenses by placing more people in the vicinity to be able to make repairs quickly if needed. The government official is quite wise, because he orders “just enough workers to meet the need.” He understands that if there are more workers, they will get in each other’s way, which would increase the workload because it won’t be efficient, and that the excess workers could be saved by putting them in the city. Even if the workers lose their lives, there will be other ones that won’t need to be trained ready to take their spot, putting less strain on the teachers to teach them too quickly. Fuxi, a mythological wise emperor, saved the world a lot of work by inventing the mortar and the pestle. Later on, they were improved so that “the whole
weight of the body could be used, thus increasing the efficiency ten times.” Soon after that, the pestle and mortar were improved again so that “the power of animals was added.” And later on, “water power was applied, increasing the benefit a hundredfold.” Because of Fuxi’s invention, along with multiples of improvements, the pestle and mortar worked perfectly well to make work easier and faster. And because workers had to work less, they could spend more time in the field growing crops to feed their family, reducing their dependence on the government (Document 3). Documents 3 and 4 can be grouped together because they both show how a wise leader can impact lives by creating new technologies to do something that would have either taken longer before, or would have been irrational to continue doing that way. Document 2 shows that quality tools are needed by the workers. Because crude tools decreased the amount of salt available, prices soared. And with such high prices, the peasants “have no choice but to till the soil with wooden plows and cannot afford salt to season their food.” This meant that they had to eat bland meals, and couldn’t afford to make their own tools to get a chance to rise above the poverty. Huan Guan wants to help them, but is unable to because he has to think about the good of the government. The Romans sought for an easier way of transporting goods throughout the empire while maintain a mathematical system to regulate it. In document 8, Frontinus mentions that “all the aqueducts reach the city at different elevations. Six of these streams flow into covered containers, where they lose their sediment.” All of these streams must come in from somewhere outside the city, so they have found a more efficient way of transporting the water. The water is also “measured by means of calibrated scales.” This shows that the Romans had an advanced method of regulating the amount of water they received, so that they could keep track of how much was being spent for public and private uses throughout the cities in comparison to how much they received. This also shows bias because Frontinus compares “such numerous and indispensable structures carrying so much water with the idle pyramids, or the useless but famous works of the Greeks.” He is saying how even though the Greeks have great works of art, they do them nothing good, but the aqueducts actually help the Romans. Gaius Gracchus was “especially anxious about road building.” His roads were “carried straight through the country without wavering, and were paved with quarried stone, and made solid with masses of tightly packed sand. Hollows were filled up and bridges were built across whatever wintery streams or ravines cut the road. And both sides were an equal an equal and parallel height.” This shows that the Romans wanted to have roads that were easy to traverse and wouldn’t cause problems for carriages and horses. It would also be easy to travel through the empire because all the roads would be a standard width, and no adjustment would be necessary. Gracchus also “measured the whole road mile by mile and set up stone columns as distance indicators.” This shows that the Romans had an advanced mathematical system that they used to correctly measure the distances and regulate where the markers would go up (Document 6). Both the Han and the Romans wished to have technology that could help the population. And as these technologies became more widespread, they were improved on even more to lessen people’s work. And even though the Han focused on improving agriculture and the Romans focused on transporting their goods, they were both trying to help their citizens. And after two millennia, most of this technologies is still being used and improved on, greatly affecting our day to day lives.