Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita's teachings are similar, but differ in some aspects when compared to Zarathustra or Confucius's teachings. Both teachings instruct someone to be generous, nice, kind, honest, selfless, etc. However the teachings are different in that Bhagavad Gita's ultimate goal is for someone to follow the duty required by their caste, whereas in Confucianism - loyalty to the father is required for an ideal life. In Zoroastrianism, the goal is to be judged "good" by Ahura Mazda. Overall, the three teachings are similar because they instruct humans to behave better morally, but differ because they each have seperate goals.

Arabic Numerals

Due to the invention of Arabic numerals, and the invention of zero (which was used for aiding place value notation) mathematics was greatly facilitates.

How to Save the Han Dynasty

Several factors lead to the destruction of the Han dynasty, many of which seemed like trivial issues in the eyes of the Han emperors. First off, both the Former Han and Later Han dynasties collapsed due to internal conflict.

The growing Xiongnu established a threat, and the Han Wudi made the right choice in attacking them after failing to pacifying them. However, this constituted an enormous economic strain, and Wudi had to tax his people heavily to compensate for loss. If I were to intervene, it would have had to been a long time ago. I would have suggested Wudi, or an earlier emperor to set aside a fraction of tax collected in an effort to prepare for future threat. This way, should a future threat arrive, such as the Xiongnu, there would be sufficient tax money set aside to afford warfare.

A mistake Wudi made was confiscating land and personal property from wealthy individuals in order to pay for warfare. This discouraged investment in manufacturing and trading enterprises, which caused damage to the economy. Another way I would intervene would be suggesting Emperor Wudi not to confiscate any land or personal property. This also goes back to the earlier suggestion, had the emperor saved enough tax - there would be no need to confiscate land.

Yet another problem that arose was the social difference between the higher class and the peasants. This social difference lead to peasants rebellions. One cause of this might be nutrient deficiency. Because the higher class had access to a variety of foods, rich in vegetables in meat - whereas the peasants had a minimal amount of vegetables and meat - peasants did not get all the nutrients they needed to complete the workload required by agriculture. The malnourishment of peasants can be considered as one of the factors that lead to rebellion. To decrease the possibility of rebellion, the emperor should have decreased the taxes placed on peasants.

Wang Mang the “socialist emperor” did not make the right decision in breaking up large estates - which lead to the downfall of the Former Han. I would have asked him to instead consider making a law that set a limit on how much an individual commoner can borrow, so that they do not accumulate a heavy debt. This would decrease the likelihood of people giving up their land, or selling their family. In the Later Han dynasty, emperors made the same mistake by disregarding the issue of land distribution. A series of rebellions also lead to the Later Han dynasty’s downfall.

 

Comment your thoughts

China Map

Here's the China map!

Daoism

Daoism focuses on living a simple lifestyle, to realize why things the way they are, not argue with others, and not to enjoy an excess of something.

Confucianism Response

1) Is this a religion or not?  Why do you think so?

- To me, it does not seem like a religion. I did not see any mention of a god or gods. It just seemed like a set of rules, similar to thar of Hammurabi's code of law.

2) Does this reading support the idea that people are born good/bad/neutral? Refer to three examples (using the book, section and line number as the citations) that support your point of view.

- This reading supports the idea that people are often born with mistakes, but they can be corrected.

Examples

1. "“When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them" (Legge, Book VII, Chapter XXI).

- This interesting quote reinforces the idea that the people you are around often have bad and good qualities, majority of the times they are not perfect. They may also serve as your teachers since you can learn from their mistakes or imperfections.

2. "The Master said, 'I will not be afflicted at

men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know

men" (Legge, Book I! “CHAP. XVI.")

- I believe this quote id trying to say, "I will not be affected if other men do not know me[see my mistakes], but I will be if I know others[see their mistakes].

3. “He who aims to be a man of complete virtue in his food does not seek to gratify his appetite, nor in his dwelling place does he seek the appliances of ease; he is earnest in what he is doing, and careful in his speech; he frequents the company of men of principle that he may be rectified: -- such a person may be said indeed to love to learn.”(Legge, Book I, Chapter XIV).

- This quote illustrates the perspective of Confucius, he believes that someone can turn good by doing good.

Persia Map (reuploaded)

Had to re-upload since it would not show up in the earlier post

Persia Map

Zarathustra on Good and Evil

“What assumptions does Zarathustra make about human nature and the capacity of humans beings to make morally good choices out of their own free will?”

Zarathustra creates an interesting assumption regarding human nature and human beings' abilities to make morally good choices. First off, around this time - the belief in moral values was confusing, but influential to many. Zarathustra asserts that those who do good will recieve good, and those who do evil and follow evil will be of the worst existence. Zarathustra's belief emphasized that people are able to make morally correct choices out of their free will, but can often make wrong choices. At the end of his song, Zarathustra mentions salvation and eternal bliss for those who do good and long punishment for those who do evil.

Comment on Peer's History Head

Hi,

I commented on Hiren's poster for the second part of the History Head assignment. Here is the link to his blog: http://hirenpatelapworld.blogspot.com/

Here is the post --

Hi Hiren,

I liked your project, so I decided to post on your blog.

First off, One thing that was very well done was the drawing that represented the Aryans and the Dravidians fighting against each other (the two castles and the barrage of arrows). I also noticed that you provided excellent examples for each theme.

Next, although the poster looked good to me, some things could be improved. For example, it could have been slightly more organized, maybe the internal/external connecting, layout more organized? Anyways, the next thing that could have been improved is some of the descriptions of your images, for example - number 3 could have been more descriptive.

One similarity that really struck out was the similarities in theme 4 between India and Latin America (what I was assigned). In Latin America, agriculture was extremely important to the development of societies (as it was in many other regions of the world). Your description of your image mentioned the farming of money. In Latin America, Agriculture helped the growth of society and trade, for example,  Cacao beans were used as a form of currency.

One difference I noted was that the growth of religion in India. In India, religion was strongly influential - and your picture showed people working on a community service project for karma. In Latin America, (since the time frame for the project was 8000 B.C.E. - 600 B.C.E.) religion was just  getting into its early stages. For example, the Olmec commoners would gather around ceremonial centers to watch priests perform rituals (not the bloodshed, that was after 600 B.C.E.) - however their motives were unknown.

My question to you is: Do you think the caste system is justified?

History-Head Assignment

Welcome to my History Head assignment! My group (Hammad, Harsha, and Prateek) and I have Latin America. I apologize for my below-average artistic ability, also for the key, the themes are in order (1-5).

Theme 1: This theme shows how humans interact with the environment. This first internal image representing the harvesting of various crops by an average commoner, especially maize which was a staple crop. The external image represents the population boom due to food surplus from agriculture (also resulting in overweight people as opposed to underweight).

Theme 2: The internal image is the building of the ruler's head using various tools made from obsidian and jade. This represents art and architecture (culture). In the external image is the ruler, who is being complimented from the art.

Theme 3: Theme 3 is based on conflict, for the Olmec society, they destroyed themselves through civil conflicts. The image inside the head shows a individual contemplating rebellion and destruction of the ceremonial centers, and possibly killing the rules, which is represented through the angry mob with pitchforks and swords. The outside image shows the ruler being killed.

Theme 4: This theme focuses on the interaction of economic systems. For the inside of the head, a metal smith is shown forging a sword (most likely made of obsidian or jade) The outside image is him trading that sword for a bag with a money symbol on it, to represent currency, which would be cacao beans during the time.

Theme 5: The last theme focuses on the social structure of the society. For Latin America, developments in society occurred mainly after 600 B.C.E., however before that, there was generally a higher class (rulers, nobles, elites, etc.) and a lower class (commoners) consisting of the majority of the population. The internal image is a commoner man building a head (similar to image 2) for a noble or ruler, how this represents a common task for the average person. The external image is the noble or ruler whom the art is dedicated to. This represents the wealth and luxury of the higher

class.

Test aftermath

 Test Reflection (Chapters 1-6) 

The test was relatively difficult. Most of the questions were pretty specific: some easy ones, some hard ones, and some in-between. I was expecting the test to be a bit easier, but my guess was a little off. Because I took the pleasure of saving the textbook work until the last week of summer, I had to go through a chapter a day, and the information was a lot - so I did not get a chance to study the material well. If I read maybe 8-10 pages a day, I would have been able to absorb the information better. Also, I had no idea what kind of questions to expect, or how to effectively study for the class. Hopefully, I can improve and do well on the future tests.