Post Classical

Essay A

Around the dawn on the first millennium the Han and Roman attitudes toward technology were both self glorifying, however the Han Empire in China placed more value upon technology and technological advances than did the Roman Empire, as evidenced by the consent concern on the part of the Han dynasty, over the occasioned indifference on the part of the Romans.
Before beginning it must be stated that every single document provided is written by somebody in the upper class, giving no insight into how the lower classes or peasants felt about technology. This provides a very limited view point into the different attitudes, as the upper class was not the majority. Plus, there are no documents from women, leaving the reader to guess what women felt about the technology they used, how it helped them, or was all technology guessed toward helping men in those patriarched societies? A document from neither of those sources would provide great insight into the attitudes toward technology in each nation.
The Han’s view of technology was predominately self-glorifying, with good reason as the Chinese invented everything from paper to acupuncture. The Han’s seemed to feel that technology was about helping the people. As demonstrated in the letter in Doc. 1, the first goal of technology is to ward off disaster, in this case a flood. This demonstrates a concern for the people, or at least the property giving the impression that technology is there to aid the Chinese. This impression is increased by the obvious concern shown by Huan Guan in the second document, where he writes about the problems the lack of technology, such as iron plans, it having on the people. Huan Guan points how technology is its usefulness. Huan Tan begins the hints of self-glorification with statements such as “the benefit was increased a hundred fold” (Doc. 3). Thins not only reiterates the Han’s concern for effectiveness, it shows some potable exestuation to the extent the water power helped the...