Chapter Five: Eurasian Cultural Traditions

Chapter 5: Eurasian Cultural Traditions

The Classical Era was also known as the thinker era. In this chapter there seminal ideas that helped create and perseverate ideas. This Chapter dealt with China seeking order. Zhou’s Dynasty may have been big at one point to have one ruler but was eventually weakened. Confucius had a “Humanistic Society” point of view he believed in inequalities among family member. He was for education. He believed that people that were superior than other depended on inferiors. It was a cycle that led to a much “tranquil society”. Confucius’s way of thinking led to social stability it kept everything living in harmonies.  Siddhartha also known as Buddha formed a religion. What was different about him was that he was born a prince. Although his religion didn’t take well in India, where he was from, his beliefs spread out and were practiced in many countries primarily in Asia and China. He believed anyone could seek enlightment/nirvana in their lifetime. Buddhism brought social change. Hinduism was not one person but an idea it ran on a caste system. Socrates was not a religion but he was a philosopher. He created a system of rational learning. Plato wrote his books. Many of his ideas are still practiced and taught today. His questioning like Buddhism led to social change. The Catholic Church was so upset with his challenging idea they burned his books with hope that people would stop this certain way of thinking. Socrates was known as a threat to society. The Greek welcomed his way of thinking. Jesus had the Roman has his followers. The Roman Republic were antimonarchical. They were tired of being ruled and were anti king. The political union grew from 300 B.C. to 450 A.D. It had expanded so much it had become an empire. Jesus had formed a religion. His ideas were social change. The image of Christ was a king ship that was very scary for many. I believe these five thinkers plus Hinduism had many ideas that in one way or another relate to each other. These ideas and belief are still practiced today they have formed change and have taught us in order to survive there has to be changes. Taking sides and choosing what beliefs to go by have shaped Eurasian cultures and traditions.