ROME AND CHINA OXFORD STUDIES IN EARLY EMPIRES Series Editors Nicola Di Cosmo, Mark Edward Lewis, and Walter Scheidel The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium Edited by Ian Morris and Walter Scheidel Rome and China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires Edited by Walter Scheidel Rome and China Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires Edited by Walter Scheidel 1 2009 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rome and China : comparative perspectives on ancient world empires / edited by Walter Scheidel. p. cm.—(Oxford studies in early empires) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-533690-0 1. History, Ancient—Historiography. 2. History—Methodology. 3. Rome—History— Republic, 265–30 b.c. 4. Rome—History—Empire, 30 b.c.–284 a.d. 5. China—History— Han dynasty, 202 b.c.–220 a.d. 6. Imperialism—History I. Scheidel, Walter, 1966– D56.R65 2009 931'.04—dc22 2008020445 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Acknowledgments Five of the seven chapters in this volume grew out of contributions to the international conference “Institutions of Empire: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient Chinese and Mediterranean History” that was held at Stanford Uni- versity on May 13–14, 2005, under the auspices of the “Stanford Ancient Chinese and Mediterranean Empires Comparative History Project.” It is a great pleasure to thank our generous Stanford sponsors, above all the Social Science History Institute and its director, Steve Haber, as well as the Department of Classics and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my co-organizers Mark Lewis and Joe Manning. Lai Ming-Chiu, Luuk de Ligt, Joe Manning, David Schaberg, Robin Yates, and Zhao Dingxin presented papers that are not included in this collection but greatly enriched our discussion. Finally, thanks are due to Stefan Vranka of Oxford Uni- versity Press for his interest in this project, to Brian Hurley for his assistance, and to Gwen Colvin for her work on this volume. This page intentionally left blank Contents Contributors ix Chronology xi Introduction 3 Walter Scheidel 1 From the “Great Convergence” to the “First Great Divergence”: Roman and Qin-Han State Formation and Its Aftermath 11 Walter Scheidel 2 War, State Formation, and the Evolution of Military Institutions in Ancient China and Rome 24 Nathan Rosenstein 3 Law and Punishment in the Formation of Empire 52 Karen Turner 4 Eunuchs, Women, and Imperial Courts 83 Maria H. Dettenhofer 5 Commanding and Consuming the World: Empire, Tribute, and Trade in Roman and Chinese History 100 Peter Fibiger Bang viii Contents 6 Gift Circulation and Charity in the Han and Roman Empires 121 Mark Edward Lewis 7 The Monetary Systems of the Han and Roman Empires 137 Walter Scheidel Bibliography 209 Index 229 Contributors Peter Fibiger Bang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Copen- hagen. His research focuses on the comparative economic history and political economy of early empires. He is the author of Roman Bazaar: A Comparative Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire (2008) and is working on a comparative study of the Roman state and patrimonial government. He has also published a number of articles on the comparative history of early empires and is the coeditor of the forthcoming Empires in Contention (with Chris Bayly) and The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient State (with Walter Scheidel). He chairs the management committee of the European research network “Tributary Empires Compared” that coordinates comparative study of the Roman, Mughal, and Ottoman empires. Maria H. Dettenhofer is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Munich. Her research focuses on Roman political and court history, gender, and the comparative history of Rome and Han China. She is the author of Per- dita Iuventus: Zwischen den Generationen von Caesar und Augustus (1992) and Herrschaft und Widerstand im augusteischen Principat: Die Konkurrenz zwischen res publica und domus Augusta (2000) and the editor of Reine Männersache: Frauen in Männerdomänen der antiken Welt (1994). Mark Edward Lewis is Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Chinese Culture at Stan- ford University. He specializes in the history of ancient China and is the author of Sanctioned Violence in Early China (1990), Writing and Authority in Early China (1999), The Construction of Space in Early China (2006), and The Flood Myths of Early China (2006). He has recently completed a series of three books on the history of early Chinese empires, The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han (2007), Between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties (in press), and a forthcoming sequel on the Tang period. Nathan Rosenstein is Professor of History at Ohio State University. He specializes in Roman military, political, and social history, and is the author of Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and x Contributors Late Republic (1990) and Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic (2004), and coeditor of War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1999, with Kurt Raafl aub) and A Companion to the Roman Republic (2006, with Robert Morstein-Marx). Walter Scheidel is Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, History at Stanford University. His research focuses on ancient social and economic history, premodern historical demography, and comparative and transdisciplinary world history. He has authored or (co)edited nine other books, including Measuring Sex, Age, and Death in the Roman Empire (1996), Death on the Nile: Disease and the Demography of Roman Egypt (2001), Debating Roman Demography (2001), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (2007, with Ian Morris and Richard Saller), and The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium (2008, with Ian Morris). He is currently editing The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies (with Alessandro Barchiesi), and The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient State (with Peter Bang), and working on monographs on ancient empires and ancient demography. Karen Turner is the Rev. John Brooks Chair in the Humanities and Profes- sor of History at the College of the Holy Cross. Her work focuses on comparative law, Chinese legal history, Vietnamese history, law and human rights in Asia, and women and war. Her publications include Even the Women Must Fight: Memories of War from North Vietnam (1998) and The Limits of the Rule of Law in China (2000), as well as numerous articles on comparative legal history, women and war, and women veterans in Vietnam. She produced and directed the documen- tary fi lm Hidden Warriors: Voices from the Ho Chi Minh Trail and is currently working on a book on the origins of law in China. Chronology China c.1600–c.1045 b.c.e. Shang Dynasty c.1045–771 b.c.e. Western Zhou Dynasty 897 b.c.e. Enfeoffment of Qin Ying (conventional date) 770–256 b.c.e. Eastern Zhou Dynasty 770–481 b.c.e. Spring and Autumn Period 770 b.c.e. Ennoblement of Qin Xiang 551–479 b.c.e. Life of Kong Fuzi (Confucius) (conventional dates) 403–221 b.c.e. Warring States Period 361–338 b.c.e. Reforms of Shang Yang in Qin 316 b.c.e. Qin conquest of Sichuan 247–210 b.c.e. Reign of King Zheng of Qin (221–210 b.c.e. as Qin Shi Huangdi) 230–221 b.c.e. Qin conquest of the other Warring States 221–206 b.c.e. Qin Dynasty 206 b.c.e.–9 c.e. Western Han Dynasty 141–87 b.c.e. Reign of Han Wudi 9–25 c.e. Xin Dynasty (reign of Wang Mang until 23 c.e.) 25–220 c.e. Eastern Han Dynasty 220–589 c.e. Period of Disunion (Six Dynasties Period) 220–265 c.e. Three Kingdoms Period 265–316 c.e. Western Jin Dynasty 304–439 c.e. Sixteen Kingdoms Period 386–534 c.e. Northern Wei Dynasty 535–581 c.e. Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties 581–618 c.e. Sui Dynasty 589 c.e. Sui conquest of southern China xii Chronology 618–907 c.e. Tang Dynasty 907–960 c.e. Five Kingdoms Period 960–1276 c.e. Song Dynasty 960–1126 c.e. Northern Song Period 1127–1276 c.e. Southern Song Period 1271–1368 c.e. Yuan Dynasty (Mongols) 1368–1644 c.e. Ming Dynasty 1644–1911 c.e. Qing Dynasty (Manchu) Rome 753 b.c.e. Foundation of Rome (conventional date) 753–510 b.c.e. Roman regal period (conventional dates) c.650–600 b.c.e. Emergence of Latin city-state culture 509–27 b.c.e. Roman Republic (conventional dates) 396 b.c.e. Conquest of Veii (conventional date) 338 b.c.e.