Sino-Roman World-Conquering Thearchs
« previous post | next post »
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-sixty-second issue — “Divine Support and World Conquest in the Stele Inscriptions of Qin Shi Huangdi and the Res Gestae of Augustus,” by Dan Zhao.
ABSTRACT: This paper comparatively examines the propaganda of the first emperors of China and Rome, Qin Shi Huangdi and Augustus. Focusing on the interplay between divine support and claims of world conquest and utilising the Qin stelae and the Res Gestae Divi Augusti as case studies, this paper will argue that both early imperial Chinese and Roman propaganda shared extremely similar rationales and methods. Divine support and military victories were intimately linked and mutually dependent. As such, the emperors' claims to unprecedented levels of divine support also impelled them to claim successful world conquest, lest the very ideological foundations of their regimes be called into question.
Selected readings
- "Hu Shih and God: thearchs across Eurasia" (12/28/24)
- "The transcendent, cosmic language of the Book of Changes" (12/28/24)
- "Latin oration at Harvard" (5/9/24)
- "Alexandrian Motifs in Chinese Texts", by E. Bruce Brooks, Sino-Platonic Papers, 96 (June, 1999), 1-14.
- "Cratylus Sinensis—Reading Plato with Dong Zhongshu on ‘Correctness’ in Naming", by Martin Svensson Ekström, forthcoming in Sino-Platonic Papers.
AntC said,
January 5, 2025 @ 7:51 pm
Thank you Mr. Zhao; an interesting comparison.
Is "the whole world" a faithful translation? Both empires and both emperors were well aware of peoples (and indeed threats) beyond the empires' borders. Indeed Qin set about filling in the gaps along the Great Wall. Both empires continued to devote significant military resources to defending the borders and/or making deals with those beyond, to mitigate threats. (I'm not so concerned with threats of revolts from those already within the Empire.)
Augustus would have been well aware of Britain, with Julius Caesar invading in 54BCE, but he never quite got round to setting foot there.
Then does "All under Heaven" mean something more like 'the whole civilised world'? We don't count barbarians beyond the reach of our divinity?
The notion of Son of Heaven/Divi filius is also a legitimizing claim repeatedly in the Old Testament, and through to the status of Christ, of course.