Chinese Civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chinese Civilization - Essay ExampleBoth these men were subordinate unless to their Emperors in terms of power and influence, and played pivotal roles in the events unfolding in China during their lifetimes. Li Si and Guan Deyu show marked differences in their backgrounds and personalities, but share many similarities in achievement, both of which are reflective of the particular period of Chinese history to which they respectively belonged.Li Si and Guan Deyu come from markedly different backgrounds of birth. Li Si was born to a family of commoners (Goldin, 16), and went on to become an insignificant government functionary. His vast ambition and single-minded determination to rise to a higher place his circumstances, lead him to deliberately master the skills required to prepare himself for a more glorious political career (Goldin, 16), using every means, ethical or otherwise, at bottom his reach. Li Sis political rise to the position of Chancellor, one to the two most powerful posts in Qin China, is remarkable for a man of his diminished origins, and is obviously a reflection of the tumultuous times in which he lived, in which the former nobility was divested of all its power and transplanted to the capital, leaving a vacate that many commoners, such as Li Si and Zhao Gao, came to fill. In marked contrast, Guan Deyu belonged to a family of provincial elites, who, although they were not aristocrats, were distinguished government servants, and had influential social connections. Guan Deyus rise to power is the result of a methodical rise through the bureaucracy, and is a telling example of the changing social structure in the serrated wrack Dynasty, which included prominent provincial families in the administration, and the well-regulated bureaucratic hierarchy, which was one of the significant causes of the prosperity which marked this golden age of Chinese civilization. Guan Deyu was a product of the savor Dynastys deliberate attempt to stabilize its rule by co-opting the services of the