Re:Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre (2...
by jcranmer on Wednesday December 05, 2018 @09:30AM
(#18608450)
> How many Western governments are trying to draw legitimacy from ancient Rome or Greece?
Overtly, very few if any. But look at the education curricula of the US--you get a large dose of Roman and Greek history. Discussion of the structure of US government literally drew parallels to the structure of the Roman Republic and Athenian democracy. Our government structures are designed in edifice to be replicas of the ruins of Rome of Athens. Even our math curriculum is derived from Greek mathematicians.
Where the difference exists is that Western countries do not claim to be an unbroken continuation from ancient Rome and Greece as China does.
> Can you think of a comparable piece of Latin or Greek writing that the average Westerner knows by heart?
The New Testament of the Christian Bible, which was written around the height of the Roman Empire after all, certainly before the Tang and Song dynasties you mention. Most people have probably read the Odyssey or the Iliad at some point (and definitely can relate the basic plots of these books). Writings of Plato are also pretty likely to be well-known to most people, but most especially philosophers. And I hear that doctors have to recite a famous passage from Hippocrates as part of their studies...
Overtly, very few if any. But look at the education curricula of the US--you get a large dose of Roman and Greek history. Discussion of the structure of US government literally drew parallels to the structure of the Roman Republic and Athenian democracy. Our government structures are designed in edifice to be replicas of the ruins of Rome of Athens. Even our math curriculum is derived from Greek mathematicians.
Where the difference exists is that Western countries do not claim to be an unbroken continuation from ancient Rome and Greece as China does.
> Can you think of a comparable piece of Latin or Greek writing that the average Westerner knows by heart?
The New Testament of the Christian Bible, which was written around the height of the Roman Empire after all, certainly before the Tang and Song dynasties you mention. Most people have probably read the Odyssey or the Iliad at some point (and definitely can relate the basic plots of these books). Writings of Plato are also pretty likely to be well-known to most people, but most especially philosophers. And I hear that doctors have to recite a famous passage from Hippocrates as part of their studies...