Why Didn't Rome Reunify, When China Did?

为什么罗马没有重新统一，而中国统一了？

One of the perennial questions of history is why the Roman Empire never reunified, or at least why the former region of the Roman Empire never reunified into one state, when the Chinese Empire seemingly did. So what's the reason for this? Can we offer any sort of answer? Well, possibly.

历史上一个永恒的话题，为什么罗马帝国从未统一，而中华帝国却统一了。原因是什么呢？

以下是外国网友的评论：

howareyou4400

One obvious reason: Classical China since 221BC uses a unified written system which records the meaning of the language rather than its pronunciations. Over time different parts in China may have their spoken language evolving independently but they all corresponds to the same writing symbols. Therefore in a sense they all use the same language and thus are the "same people". Roman uses multiple languages and these languages continue to evolve and split, hence different regions in Europe soon have "different people".

一个明显的原因是：自公元前221年以来，中国使用统一的文字，记录语言的意思而不是发音。随着时间的推移，中国不同地区的口语可能会独立发展，但它们都对应相同的书写符号。因此，从某种意义上说，他们都使用相同的语言，因此是“同一民族”。罗马人使用多种语言，这些语言继续进化和分裂，因此欧洲不同地区很快就出现了“不同的民族”。

speedwagon6-e1b

Speaking of Chinese history, I recommend anyone seeing this comment to dive into Chinese history. Every dynasty has something interesting and unique aspects to offer. I love Roman history too, but I personally don’t think anything comes even close to Chinese history when it comes to how interesting it can be.

说到中国历史，我建议深入研究一下中国历史。每个王朝都有一些有趣而独特的方面。我也喜欢罗马历史，但我个人认为没有什么比得上中国历史的有趣之处。

biocapsule7311

Simply put, Han Chinese identity is invested in the people and the cultural identity. Dynasties comes and goes, Chinese people have always understood that, even non-han rulers have to inte. Roman identity is invested in Rome, not the rest of the Empire, everything is about Rome. Most of the empire are not even citizens, and have no real attachment to Rome or the Empire. So when it falls apart, no one is really that attached. How can you be attached to a city you have never seen in your life. Take the Holy Roman Empire, they claim the inheritors of Roman but Rome isn't even in their Territory.

简单地说，汉人的身份是建立在民族和文化认同上的。朝代来来去去，中国人一直都明白，即使是非汉人统治者也要统一。罗马人的身份只存在于罗马，而帝国的其他部分没有，一切都与罗马有关。帝国的大多数人甚至不是罗马公民，对罗马或帝国没有真正的依恋。所以当它崩溃时，没有人依恋。你怎么会爱上一个你从未见过的城市呢？以神圣罗马帝国为例，他们声称自己是罗马的继承者，但罗马甚至不在他们的领土上。

sanneoi6323

Every time China was divided it was simply political, not along regional cultural or ethnolinguistic lines. The Mediterranean does not have same culture all over it, was only united cause conquest, and Rome lived on as some sort of cultural heritage for parts of Europe.

中国的每次分裂都是单纯的政治分裂，而不是地域文化或民族语言的分裂。地中海并没有相同的文化，只是被联合征服，罗马作为欧洲部分地区的文化遗产而存在。

chaomingli6428

I think one of the key factors is the Chinese writing system is not a spelling system, which made it possible to spread and maintain a similar culture and beliefs across time and space. That makes the Chinese civilisation unique.

我认为其中一个关键因素是中国的书写系统不是拼写系统，这使得跨越时间和空间传播和保持相似的文化和信仰成为可能，使中国文明独一无二。

lobstereleven4610

I recently listened to a podcast called "China Talk" where they interviewed Yasheng Huang, an econ professor fro MIT regarding his book "The Rise and Fall of the East" where he made a point that the imperial exam system established during the Sui Dynasty contributed a lot to the unification of multiple Chinese Dynasties in funneling competent people into an intellegenica class that was directly under the imperial system.

我最近听了一个名为“中国杂谈”的播客，他们采访了麻省理工学院的经济学教授黄亚生，关于他的书《东方的兴衰》，他指出，隋朝建立的科举制度对中国多个朝代的统一做出了很大的贡献，将有才能的人汇集到一个直接隶属于帝制的知识阶层。

dewinmoonl

There are 3 kinds of civilizations. Sea merchants, farmers, and herdsman.

If you look at Rome, it's sea merchants. Put it more harshly, pirates. You wage war and take loots as a mean to enrich the country. To keep the empire growing, it must expands outwards.

China builds on farmers, you work the land and development infrastructures, dams, bridges, roads. It doesn't need to expand outwards, thus more stable to run for long time.

文明有三种。海上商人、农民和牧民。

看看罗马，到处都是海上商人。说得难听点，就是海盗。发动战争，以掠夺为手段让国家富起来。为了保持帝国的发展，它必须向外扩张。

中国以农民为本，在土地上耕作，建设基础设施，水坝，桥梁，道路。它不需要向外扩展，因此更稳定，可以长时间运行。

卓-g6k

As a Chinese i can tell you with confidence, china is a culture more than a country, we have the agreement that we were we are and we will always a unity, we are together, we share the same language same system and all the same.

作为一个中国人，我可以自信地告诉你，中国是一种文化，而不仅仅是一个国家。我们都同意，我们过去是，将来也永远是一个整体，我们在一起，我们共享同一种语言，同一种制度，所有的一切都是一样的。

LP18888

I would give credit to Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor.  He was the one that instilled the everlasting message of unification of China.

我认为应该归功于秦始皇。是他灌输了统一中国的永恒思想。

WSOJ3

Roman didn’t reunite because Latin didn’t work out, but Chinese characters did. Because everyone shared the same readable pictogram in an era without telecommunications, China was able to build a unified culture; Rome couldn’t.

This was the unique advantage of a pictographic writing system vs a phonetic writing system in the era prior to telecommunications. With modern telecommunications, phonetic systems reigne supreme, and China modernized its language to adapt the telecommunication era via a combination of the Mandarin pronunciations, the Pinyin system, and the simplification of the pictographics.

罗马没有重新统一，因为拉丁文没有成功，但汉字成功了。在一个没有电信的时代，每个人都使用同样可读的象形文字，所以中国能够建立一个统一的文化；而罗马不能。

这是象形文字书写系统相对于语音书写系统在电信时代之前的独特优势。随着现代电信的发展，语音系统占主导地位，中国通过将普通话发音、拼音系统和象形文字的简化相结合，使其语言现代化，以适应电信时代。

onlyfacts4999

After Franks conquered Gaul, the local Roman people quickly became assimilated as Franks. This pattern holds for the Arabs conquests in Middle East and North Africa, Slavic conquest of the Balkans, the Turkic conquest of Anatolia, the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain etc. Even in Italy, the Lombards created a lasting legacy in the form of Lombardy.

Meanwhile the rulers of former Roman lands were eager to identify their legacies as Roman, such as the Holy Roman Empire and the Sultana of Rum. It seems that Rome did not leave behind strong cultural identity for common people to hold on to, so only the aristocracy and powerful are interested in a Roman revival.

法兰克人征服高卢后，当地的罗马人很快被法兰克人同化。这种模式适用于阿拉伯人对中东和北非的征服，斯拉夫人对巴尔干半岛的征服，突厥人对安纳托利亚的征服，盎格鲁-撒克逊人对不列颠的征服等等。即使在意大利，伦巴第人也以伦巴第的形式创造了一个持久的遗产。

与此同时，前罗马土地的统治者渴望将他们的遗产视为罗马，比如神圣罗马帝国和苏丹。罗马似乎没有留下强烈的文化认同给普通人，所以只有贵族和权贵对复兴罗马感兴趣。

jayreed9370

The Chinese proverb goes 'The empire, once divided, must unite. The empire, once united, must divide.' Have you read your Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

中国有句谚语叫“合久必分，分久必合”。帝国一旦统一，必然会分裂。”你读过《三国演义》吗？

stephenkellett7836

I think one of the main infouences would also be that Rome and China are only similar in the political sense that both are empires which dominated a large region for a long time, but the similarities breakdown after that. It's like the assumption that sweet potatoes must be related to potatoes, because both are high-calorie tubers. However, they're just superficially similar.

The geography, culture, and historical context of Rome and the Han dynasty are just fundamentally different. It'd be easier to identify all of the similarities between the two than the differences.

罗马和中国只是在政治意义上相似，都是长期统治大片地区的帝国，但相似之处再后来就消失了。这就像假设红薯一定和土豆有关，因为它们都是高热量的块茎。然而，它们只是表面上相似。

罗马和汉朝的地理、文化和历史背景根本不同。找出两者之间的所有相似之处要比找出它们的不同之处容易得多。

daveweiss5647

It crosses my mind that the city of Rome was always kind of "on the frontier" of classical age Mediterranean civilization... besides Carthage there was no other real large city until Rome created its colonies in the west... the core of Mediteranian Civilization was the east... so essentially when Rome and Carthage fell to the Barbarians the core of the civilization did survive until 1453...

我突然想到，罗马城一直是古代地中海文明的“前沿”……除了迦太基，罗马在西部建立殖民地之前，没有其他真正的大城市。地中海文明的核心在东方……所以当罗马和迦太基沦陷于蛮族之手时，文明的核心一直延续到1453年……

Leo_ofRedKeep

Grain produced in North Africa used to be the reason for its being conquered by Rome. After that production stopped, it seems that half of the empire was no longer worth warring over.

罗马征服北非的原因是北非出产谷物。在生产停止后，帝国不再值得为之战斗。

hannibalyin8853

Chinese don't differentiate people for its skin color and faces, if you speaks the same language, writes the same words as I am, you are my homies, it's that simple.

中国人不会以肤色和长相来区分人，如果你和我说同样的语言，写同样的字，你就是我的朋友，就这么简单。

basileus_angelos_v

"Because China still exsts, and Rome does not"

中国还存在，而罗马已经不存在了。

TurkishDebater

Short answer: because the Turks, Germans, the Slavs, and the Arabs didn't allow it to happen. Long Answer: Rome was destroyed by the Huns and conquered by the Germanic tribes. After this, the idea of unifying Rome became impossible because no one actually wanted to unify it, but they just used it as a justification for conquering former Roman territory.

简短回答：因为土耳其人、日耳曼人、斯拉夫人和阿拉伯人不允许这种事发生。详细回答：罗马被匈奴人摧毁，被日耳曼部落征服。在此之后，统一罗马的想法变得不可能了，因为没有人真正想要统一罗马，他们只是用它作为征服前罗马领土的理由。

hwasiaqhan8923

Roman was entirely a citizenry idea while China and Chinese is a cultural and ethnic one, unified China was also founded on the combination of many Chinese states, these people share similar culture and language. Rome is much more diverse demographically.

罗马人完全是一个公民概念，而中国是文化和民族概念，统一的中国也是建立在许多诸侯国的合并上，这些人有着相似的文化和语言。罗马的人口结构更加多样化。

TempAcct-e6k

I would argue against this viewpoint, pretty vehemently. China has a cultural unifying force, the Tang, Song, and Ming all followed the Sui and stand in very stark contrast to his argument.

中国有统一的文化力量，唐、宋、明都跟随隋朝。

chenmacro

It is because of the core Chinese culture - Confucianism. Confucianism is not only the ideology but also the main stream education system since Han dynasty. Successful Confucianism scholars then run the country government, especially after Sui Dynasty when the Imperial examination was introduced to select the scholars every year to be the officials.

In the history, China falls few times due to the internal collapse and the invasion from northern nomadic groups, similar as Germanic barbarians invades the Roman empire. When the nomadic groups entered into China, they needed the Confucianism scholars to help manage the massive agriculture civilization. Sooner or later, they converted themselves to be Chinese or fully adapted the Chinese culture.

Confucianism focus more on the collectivism vs. the western culture focus more on the individualism. Chinese knows how important it is to unite together to form the power. Some times China split into many pieces, but they always reunite again and rise up. The unity of the nation is hard-coded in Chinese mindset, that's the reason China can't let go Taiwan.

是因为中国的核心文化——儒家思想。儒家思想不仅是汉代以来的意识形态，而且是主流的教育体系。成功的儒学学者随后管理国家政府，特别是在隋朝之后，引入了科举考试，每年选拔学者担任官员。

历史上，中国有几次因为内部崩溃和北方游牧民族的入侵而灭亡，类似于日耳曼蛮族入侵罗马帝国。当游牧民族进入中国时，他们需要儒家学者来帮助管理庞大的农业文明。他们迟早会汉化，或者完全适应汉文化。

儒家文化更注重集体主义，而西方文化更注重个人主义。中国人知道团结起来聚集力量是多么重要。​国家的统一在中国人的思维中是根深蒂固的，这就是中国不放弃台湾的原因。

alexcheng1560

the empire, long divided, must unite

帝国分久必合

lianghao7128

According to my humble point of view, I think the biggest reason is only one, because Emperor Qin Shihuang not only unified China, but more importantly, he unified language, currency, weights and measures, driveway, vehicle specifications and so on. This has created people's cultural and economic mutual recognition. Rome can't be unified because a Frenchman will never consider himself an Englishman, because their language, culture and economy are completely different.

依我拙见，我认为最大的原因只有一个，因为秦始皇不仅统一了中国，更重要的是，他统一了语言、货币、度量衡、车轨等等。促使人们在文化和经济上的相互认同。罗马不可能统一，因为法国人永远不会认为自己是英国人，因为他们的语言、文化和经济完全不同。

slizzysluzzer

Maybe the real question we should be asking is, 'how did Rome manage to unify the Mediterranean basin at all?'

也许我们真正应该问的问题是，罗马是如何统一地中海盆地的

linshitaolst4936

Qin Shi Huang unified China and established the first feudal monarchy in China. Although this dynasty only exsted for 15 years before splitting, his greatest contribution was to create a concept for various ethnic groups and regions in later China that China must be unified and inherit the mandate of the previous dynasty

秦始皇统一了中国，建立了中国第一个封建君主政体。虽然这个王朝在分裂前只存在了15年，他最大的贡献是为后来的中国各民族和地区创造了一个概念，即中国必须统一并继承前一个王朝。

Vermilion2049

Simple answer. The Roman’s did not assimilate the population under one culture with one language enough for the people to identify themselves as one people.

答案很简单，罗马人并没有用一种语言同化一种文化下的人口，不足以让人们认同大家是同一个民族。

JoySeekingDisciple

China is not yet unified without Taiwan.

台湾还没回归，中国尚未完全统一。

pchaneyo

The main point is not the political reunification or not. Main question is : why has roman civilization disappeared and why has Chinese civilization not disappeared after invasions by Mongols and Mandchous.

问题的关键不是政治统一与否。主要问题是：为什么罗马文明消失了，为什么中国文明在蒙古人和满洲人入侵后没有消失？

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