Conceiving the Empire: China and Rome Compared

by Fritz-Heiner Mutschler (Editor), Achim Mittag (Editor)

The essays in Conceiving the Empire explore the mental images, ideas, and symbolical representations of `empire' which developed in the two most powerful political entities of China and Rome. While the central focus is on historiography, other related fields are also geography and cartography, epigraphy, art and architecture, and, more generally, political thought and the history of ideas. Written by a collaborative team of experts in Sinology and Classical Studies, the volume focuses the attention of the emerging discipline of East-West cross-cultural studies on an essential feature of the ancient Mediterranean and Chinese the emergence of `empire' and the enduring influence of the `imperial' order.

512 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2009

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid volume of thoroughly researched essays on different aspects of ancient Rome and China. The essays are paired to draw connections by separate authors on topics that overlap--religion, ideology, historiography, art, city planning, etc. The concluding chapter does a good job of summarizing and discussing the two together, whereas the rest of the book is clearly divided between the two areas of focus. Personally, I found this made the Chinese chapters too already familiar to me whereas the Roman chapters felt too specialized for me to get into as an outsider. This is probably an indication of my lack of knowledge on Roman history and not a problem with the authors' writing. I think the volume will speak better to those who have a deeper understanding of both places rather than just one (or neither). The comparative chapter at the end of the book was inspiring to me to see that such strong and compelling comparative history can indeed still be done.