Entry 5: Roadblocks and Religions
Hello everyone! After organizing all my data into a few timelines, I realized how difficult it was to find patterns. So far, I’ve found basically nothing, other than what I already said last week, about how technology serves to speed up certain aspects of culture, and the underlying cause of wars does not change, as human nature does not change. Beyond that, it’s really a case by case basis, not helped by my abysmal sample size of only two cultures. The current working plan is to keep thinking about it, but also try and figure out different angles to approach this problem from.
There’s a good chance that there’s not much else for me to find, because history is case by case. General trends I’ve seen are mostly cyclical, like how oppression eventually leads to a successful rebellion, which leads to a good ruler, and over time, a good ruler’s descendants forget the past, indulge in power, and the cycle repeats. This cycle is eligible to external influences, like being invaded externally or sudden famines speeding up revolts. The main cause for the downfall of empires, from what I’ve seen, is loss of control over the army. The king only holds theoretical power, with the army handling most of it. All empires end when their armies rebel, and seldom fall as long as the king and the army remain unharmed.
Another trend I’ve found is that technological advancements have very slight impacts on culture. Core culture, the stuff that is foundational to nations, generally doesn’t change much, like how China, even to this day, is very Confucianist in culture, despite technically not being religiously Confucianist. Surface culture, which I define as the more visible culture, such as fashion and etiquette, changes at a pretty consistent rate. This rate does change following the speed of communication, but other than that, is generally independent from technology. Technology more so influences the direction culture moves in, as opposed to the rate at which it moves. An example would be how the invention of cars led people to abandon hats and walking canes, as they had difficulty fitting inside cars. Same with trench coats being less necessary as heating, warm transports, etc became more ubiquitous.
Something else I noticed before and found interesting, but couldn’t really fit into the discussion, was that of all the top 5 wars with the highest death tolls, 4 of them are Chinese/Mongolian, with the first place being the Second World War. Looking at this, it really puts into perspective how large the Chinese population is, and how despite being less focused on killing the opponent and more on taking what you need, Chinese wars are still undeniably deadly, as all wars are. The fact that so many people die in a single war could also contribute to why the Chinese emphasize defense more than offense. When all you see after a battle is a mountain of corpses, it’s easy to get disheartened, similar to Europe after the Hundred Years’ War.
Another common trend is that nationalism and unity almost always emerge in times of crisis and war, but if the wars become too large and devastating, the unity changes from against the enemy to against the leaders. This likely also contributes to the cyclical nature of power I mentioned at the start, with China’s prominent mandate of heaven being a good example of how ingrained revolution is for the Chinese culture. European countries seem to stay unified for longer stretches of time than China, possibly because Europe can redirect anger and blame onto neighboring nations, while China, being very isolationist, only has itself.
Something else I find fascinating, that I am current researching, is the impact that China’s sophisticated bureaucracy had in everything. Chinese mythology generally viewed heaven as a large bureaucracy in charge of order, justice, and fate, mirroring the extensive Chinese government. With mythology as generally the cornerstone of national ideals and daily life, China’s incredible bureaucracy is very much linked with the common people. I’m still looking into it, but so far it seems that the bureaucracy was one of the big factors in why China was so isolationist and nationalist. The bureaucracy made sure everything was sorted and funneled together neatly, ensuring the government doesn’t break down at the seams. Even when the emperor and dynasty changes, the imperial bureaucracy remains mostly the same, with some corrupt officials swapped out for others. This consistency over an incredible stretch of time is honestly something to be admired, but the effect it has on culture and war beyond just religion is quite complex.
Speaking of religion, it plays a huge role in my research that I somehow neglected to mention until now. Christianity likes to absorb other religions into itself, seemingly having stemmed from Romans absorbing cultures of conquered nations. This ideology leads to a very aggressive attitude towards new cultures, preferring absorbing and indoctrinating over coexisting and harmony. Europe loves taking other religions, and saying it’s just christianity with a different label, like how Christian monks who studied norse mythology claimed that the norse pantheon was actually just lost Trojan soldiers from THE Trojan War, and that there was a higher heaven above Asgard, and holier light elves who came with 2 survivors to repopulate the earth after Ragnarok. Very obviously Christian. This ingrained idea that other ideas that don’t agree with you must be mistaken or misinterpreted versions of your ideas likely led to many of Europe’s more aggressive tendencies in strategy and war. Hence why Europe had so many religious wars.
China, on the other hand, had consistently 3 major religions: Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These three religions are very different from Christianity, which emphasizes control. Daosim focuses on going with the flow and obeying the natural order of things, Buddhism is a search for self harmony and nirvana, and Confucianism talks about social harmony, respect, and personal ethics. In short, Daoism harmonizes with nature, Buddhism harmonizes within yourself, and Confucianism harmonizes with others. These three religions all exist simultaneously in China despite having a state religion. This is part of why Christian missionaries were so confused when they reached China. When they tried to proselytize, the Chinese people just agreed that Jesus, who sacrificed himself for the good of mankind, was generous, filial, and kind, was in fact a very good guy and likely had some sort of divine status. Christians were used to being faced with opposition, not agreement, so Christianity struggled to get a significant foothold in China.
These differing views of the world, as shown via religion, has a great impact on both societies culturally and ideologically. It also serves to explain many of the differences between their methodologies when it comes to how they approach war and problems. China almost always chooses diplomacy and peace first, because loss of life is terrible, and religious teaches seek harmony. Nations in Europe often seek victory over agreement, and domination over compromise. This core difference in beliefs seeps into every aspect of life, culture, and war, and clearly shows the difference in thinking.
That’s all for this week. Again, I’m still working on figuring out a new methodology. I’ll probably look into making a flow chart or classification chart for types of conflicts and what causes them, rather than just patterns as a whole. I ranted quite a bit about the religions, because honestly it’s just really fascinating how these differences add up into completely different civilizations. I’ll be back next week with more insights! See you all soon.
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