During the Classical Era, different attitudes were generated towards technological innovations within the societies of the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire. Although the Hans and the Romans believe that technology is a great benefit to society, the Hans view the use of technology as beneficial to the common people while the Romans saw technology as an aspect of society that is intertwined with peasantry and vulgarness, but it is useful for comparing greatness among other empires in the world. An additional voice that would be helpful in further analyzing the attitudes of the Romans and the Hans towards technology would be a laborer of physical work in either empire since all of the documents are from upper-class officials. This viewpoint would
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In the History of the Early Han Dynasty from around 200 C.E., Tu Shih was known as a “generous man” who “loved the common people and wished to save their labor” (Doc. 4). He would invent new technologies in order to “allow the people to enjoy great benefit for little labor.” Tu Shih was not the only official who was worried about the commoners; however, the descriptions of Shih may be incorrect since this document was prepared by the government. The government of this dynasty may have wanted to make sure that Shih sounded like an amazing individual to possibly hide any history that may make the Han Dynasty sound like a horrible time to live in. Round early second-century B.C.E., a Han government official wanted water conservation offices to be established by people who have previous experience. This official wanted enough workers at each district to have inspections of the waterways, but he wanted them to be treated equally with no worker being taken advantaged of (Doc. 1). He may have just wanted commoners to start working in order to receive a benefit from getting people to work on a government project although the article does not specify otherwise. Another government official named Huan Guan wrote Discourses on Salt and Iron in the first century B.C.E. He goes on about how technologies that were once made by the commoners themselves were “of excellent quality” while the technology monopolized by the government was “hard and brittle,” and “good implements were hard to come by” (Doc. 2) Huan Guan goes on about how these government-made tools led to the poorest commoners to have to plow their land with wooden plows that were difficult to use. He was worried about the quality of labor the commoners had to do with the poorly-made technology from the government which may demonstrate a bias he may have developed after witnessing
In the History of the Early Han Dynasty from around 200 C.E., Tu Shih was known as a “generous man” who “loved the common people and wished to save their labor” (Doc. 4). He would invent new technologies in order to “allow the people to enjoy great benefit for little labor.” Tu Shih was not the only official who was worried about the commoners; however, the descriptions of Shih may be incorrect since this document was prepared by the government. The government of this dynasty may have wanted to make sure that Shih sounded like an amazing individual to possibly hide any history that may make the Han Dynasty sound like a horrible time to live in. Round early second-century B.C.E., a Han government official wanted water conservation offices to be established by people who have previous experience. This official wanted enough workers at each district to have inspections of the waterways, but he wanted them to be treated equally with no worker being taken advantaged of (Doc. 1). He may have just wanted commoners to start working in order to receive a benefit from getting people to work on a government project although the article does not specify otherwise. Another government official named Huan Guan wrote Discourses on Salt and Iron in the first century B.C.E. He goes on about how technologies that were once made by the commoners themselves were “of excellent quality” while the technology monopolized by the government was “hard and brittle,” and “good implements were hard to come by” (Doc. 2) Huan Guan goes on about how these government-made tools led to the poorest commoners to have to plow their land with wooden plows that were difficult to use. He was worried about the quality of labor the commoners had to do with the poorly-made technology from the government which may demonstrate a bias he may have developed after witnessing