Chinese Civilization - Essay Example

Both these men were subordinate only 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 above 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, within his reach. Li Si’s political rise to the position of Chancellor, one to the two most powerful posts in Qin China, is remarkable for a man of his humble 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 void 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 Deyu’s 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 Tang 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 Tang Dynasty’s deliberate attempt to stabilize its rule by co-opting the services of the