Mesopotamia And Hammurabi Comparison Essay

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The development of morality and justice in Mesopotamia, India, and China differed depending on whether the civilization was strongly religious and if they had a supreme ruler. Both Mesopotamia and China had a distinct supreme ruler, while India and Mesopotamia were very religious. Mesopotamia’s Code of Hammurabi is a collection of rulings made by the king (The Judgments of Hammurabi, 13), India’s Laws of Manu was anonymously put together and claimed to be the work of Manu (The Laws of Manu, 139), and The Analects were a collection of sayings put together by Confucius’ pupils. All three civilizations were similar in that they had defined social classes that determined privileges, but each one differed because they had different purposes. Mesopotamia’s …show more content…

Li is the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, the husband and the wife, the parent and the child, the elder brother and the younger brother, and between friends (Griffin, Presentation Day 22). Ren (when translated in this context, means “humanity”) was also important, which emphasized courtesy and the desire to not do wrong (Griffin, Presentation Day 22). From this order of relationship, one might assume that women were considered inferior to men at this time. However, this does not show that women were discriminated against; nor does any saying in the The Analects fully support the idea. “…King Wu said, ‘I have ten able ministers.’ Confucius said, ‘…and of the ten, one was a woman; it was merely nine’” (The Analects, 8.20). This may be interpreted as discriminatory, but if analyzed a bit more, has a slightly different meaning. The able ministers, according to Confucius, is only nine, while the King had said there were ten. However, this mismatch in numbers may be because Confucius views the position of minister as a role for a man. Despite being a woman, she is a minister and in a position of high authority, and there is no argument against her ability. While the position of women in China is unquestionably inferior to men, there is no evidence that supports that they were discriminated against. Although strongly influenced by Confucianism, the laws passed at this time were not directly from his sayings. It was believed that a ruler that was Ren and followed Li (the idea of “gentleman” rulers (Griffin, Presentation Day 22)) would stay in power naturally, and thus the laws passed were justified by them staying in

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