The outline of Roman History: ancient Rome did not disappear, but embedded DNA of Western civilization.

how do we "get" to Rome?

as stated in the famous proverb "all roads lead to Rome", Rome seems to be the place with smooth streets and bright lights on one side of history; more intuitive and secular: Rome is a decorative style that is still active in China's second-and third-tier urban buildings-with those empty and gorgeous pillars, European characters standing unknowingly in the fountain. Be more scientific: Rome, now the capital and largest city of Italy, was founded in 753 BC (then the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty in China), a wonderful and broken fantasy in the films of Fellini and Paolo Sorrentino A little more historical: the Rome we refer to today is a civilization rising in the middle of the Italian peninsula. Ancient Rome has gone through three stages: the Roman monarchy, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. In 476, the Western Roman Empire fell. The official name of the Eastern Roman Empire is "Roman Empire", but it is actually quite different from ancient Rome, so it is also called "second Rome".

more contemporary and contemporary: the scholar Li Yun wrote in the recently published outline of Roman History: the rise and fall of a very large Community: when the Western Roman Empire was knocked down by barbarians in 476 AD, Rome did not disappear, but feathered immortal, embedded in every base of Western civilization DNA. The medieval church still stubbornly called itself the Roman Archbishop, the medieval empire still stubbornly insisted that he was the heir to the Roman Empire, and Napoleon crowned his only son king of Rome after Napoleon became emperor. The national buildings in Washington, D.C., use a neoclassical style that pays homage to Rome. Rome cannot escape to understand the West, to understand politics, and to understand the future.

outline of Roman History, Li Yun, Boji Scrolls

the outline of Roman History, Li Yun, Boji Scrolls | Yuelu Book Society published in 2021-5

the outline of Roman History, Li Yun, Boji Scrolls | Yuelu Book Society published

the outline of Roman History, by Li Yun, Boji Scrolls

Li Yun believes that the core of understanding a great power in politics: the outline of Roman History reveals the political achievements and difficulties of civilization with more focused topics and more detailed analysis. If you want to master the essentials of the magnificent political rise and fall, the outline of Roman History is a huge ideological experiment. Rome is not only the cow of our detailed analysis but also the exercise ground for us to practice political thinking together. "

Let's look at the most important concepts and institutions that make up the world today: citizens, people, republics, empires, constitutions, heads of state, emperors, decentralization, dictatorship, legions, governors, provinces, rights, laws. These "essential words" in the field of political science are either invented by the ancient Romans or reached the perfect form in ancient times in the hands of the Romans. There is no doubt that these concepts and the issues involved are the most important to understanding Rome.

Professor Shi Zhan of the College of Foreign Affairs said: "Roman history is a treasure house of human wisdom, and there is great political wisdom horizontally. Under a given situation, the Romans can always find appropriate structural relations and settle extremely diverse and complex elements to form a balanced order; there is a successful institutional evolution vertically, and after a particular system goes into decline, the Romans find ways to patch it and re-establish equilibrium. Today's various institutional arrangements, the Romans have all developed, but also let us see the boundaries of their application. Li Yun's outline of Roman History analyzes Roman history from the perspective of super-large-scale community governance, showing both horizontal and vertical wisdom and history. " Therefore, Li Yun aims to see through the logic of the whole western political system and civilization by writing Roman history.

although the outline of Roman History has a troublesome "outline of History" and amass as thick as 500000 words, it is not a chewy work. We will discuss the writing style and characteristics of this book in detail below. First of all, let's take a look at what this book has written:

the subtitle of this book is "the rise and fall of a very large Community." around this concept, Li Yun outlines the development of Roman history. The book analyzes Rome's era of kingship (753-509 BC), Republic (509-27 BC), and Empire (27-476) in chronological order. The history of "second Rome" is written on the last 30 pages. To facilitate the index for more professional readers, there are a large number of detailed notes on each page, with more than 400 Chinese and English reference catalogs at the back of the book.

Li Yun, a scholar

author of the outline of Roman History is a doctor of political science at China University of Political Science and Law, professor and doctoral supervisor of China University of Political Science and Law, head of the Department of Political Science, and visiting scholar of the History Department of Columbia University in the United States. He is the author of the View of Western monarchy in the Middle Ages, the New Theory of British political thought, and the outline of Western History. Li Yun's main research directions are western political tradition and political modernization, the history of western political thought, and the theory of western countries.

the era of the monarchy: talking about

the era of the monarchy: talking about the Great cause of the Founding of the people's Republic of China the era of the monarchy the era of monarchy

author Li Yun, Professor Shi Zhan of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Foreign Affairs University, Lei Bo, assistant researcher of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Zhai Zhiyong, associate professor of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, personally play historical figures in ancient Rome or China. Through the form of debate, readers can understand the reasons for different historical figures choosing different regimes.

in the first act "the Founding of the people's Republic of Ancient Rome", Li Yun plays Romulus and King Wu of Zhou, played by Leibo. The former kills his brother and usurps the throne and goes to Rome to build the city, while the latter has just won the Battle of Pastoral Ye. So the two men of different historical times met across time and space in the middle of a sleepless night and sat in a picture. Debates began on both sides of the table. They discussed the enfeoffment system of China and the monarchy of Rome, the state-of-the-world thinking and the vertical and horizontal thinking of the sea, the Li-Yue clan system of the Zhou Dynasty, and the fraternal cannibalism of Rome.

the interest in this innovative press conference also runs through the outline of Roman History, which we can see from the first part of the book, the Age of the King.

the era of monarchy begins with the genes of Rome as if a person's origin is always explicitly or covertly doomed to certain characteristics of his character. Rome's initial start can be described as "survival in a gap": when the Romans first arrived on this "boot" in Italy, there were tall and brave Celts in the north, maritime peoples in the south, and shrewd Greeks. Rome is sandwiched in the middle. In the process of dealing with the two, an enterprising, pragmatic and strong "childhood character" has been formed.

Li Yun believes that the so-called "strong" is not a strong body, but a good system, which can integrate many forces into a stable structure. Since Romulus, the father of the founding of the people's Republic of China, the "royal era" of the seven kings has achieved a general development, and the development of this era is extremely fast and smooth, just like the male owner in the online article.

for example, the first king Romulus designed the top-level design of the "King-Senate-Civic Assembly", but with the system, how to unite the hearts of the people and make the masses not scattered. The second King Numa did these three great things: systematically establishing Roman religion, giving guidance to people's birth, old age, sickness, death, marriage, and funerals, and systematically improving the Roman calendar for 12 months. Professional groups have been established in an all-around way, allowing people to ignore their tribal identity, pay more attention to their careers, and have a social identity with their new identity. The third and fifth kings also went step by step, either expanding purposefully or focusing on the construction of Rome. When it came to the sixth king, Servius Tullius, the famous "wise king" built the city wall, counted the population, and thus naturally founded the country.

the first generation of kings established the "top-level design" and filled it up. The sixth generation of kings enriched the basic organizational framework and designed the "Roman army-tax-election" trinity system, which made civil affairs and military affairs highly combined. Wealth, military merit, the right to vote, and an official career are firmly tied together. It is easy to remind us of the Han Dynasty in China. The system of "reward for military merit" in the imperial edict of Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty, is, to redistribute the total social resources, including hierarchical identity, land property, and political power, according to the level of military merit, thus establishing a new ruling class with the death of generals and officials as the main body-- the military meritorious service beneficiary class in the early Han Dynasty.

Rome has completed its childhood so far.

"gluttonous Night: the reason for Rome", from left: Lei Bo, Shi Zhan, Li Yun, Zhai Zhiyong

how do we understand history? How to write?

when we look back at the era of Roman kingship from the perspective of God, we certainly know that there must be despotism, brutality, and killing hidden in it, and we can also guess that the early history of a dynasty (or even all its history) must be a "retrospective construction" and the shaping of their ancestors by posterity, in which there are many obscure purposes, limitations, and ambiguities. In the general writing about history, the writers are always clear about their viewpoints. They either feel that the doubts that exist in these general historical discussions can be ignored, or they are like some historical prose writings. They are completely addicted to lyricism and self-talk, and the basic historical facts can be ignored.

so the reader is trembling with suspicion: is it reliable? Can we ignore this place? Comfortably, in the outline of Roman History, Li Yun guessed the reader's skepticism and explained in advance. Li Yun did not write a single chapter on all kinds of problems in historical writing but found the problems in time by the progress of the times. and answer, there is a kind of immediacy and reflection.

for example, in the era of monarchy, when talking about the first generation of kings, we also talked about "how to interpret myths"; when talking about the second generation of kings, we talked about what determined the beliefs of polytheism and monotheism in different countries; when talking about the third generation of kings, it was easier to succeed when they talked about the annexation of war; when talking about the fifth generation of kings, they talked about the tolerance and pluralism of ancient Rome. When talking about the last king, he talked about how to judge the king and how to understand morality.

in addition, considering that ancient Rome was remote and strange to most readers, Li Yun also paid attention to the comparison between China and the West in his writing, such as comparing the first king Romulus to Taizu and the second king Numa to Taizong, to explain to the readers the importance of Wenzhi.

at the same time, Li Yun also chose a more understandable and universal way of telling, for example, when discussing Roman religion, he said: Roman religion is a typical "human-human" model. This concept means that the relationship between man and God is very much like a transaction between man and man. to put it bluntly, it is an "exchange relationship" between man and God. The Roman gods are not high above and do not eat human smoke and fire, on the contrary, worship is necessary. You bless me, I worship you, and there is a mutual benefit between men and gods. This is not difficult for Chinese people who are very accustomed to the "burning incense-vow" mode.

Li Yun devoted a lot of enthusiasm to the political system of ancient Rome, even if it is such a book that discusses the political system, which is supposed to be very boring and serious, because its surging and unbridled narration is full of interest, even with an absolute sense of correctness and legitimacy.

is shaped by the writing style of "Grass Snake Grey Line" in classical literature. We like to analyze and summarize, even a considerable amount of Chinese history books. It is in every detail, to sum up, the rotten genes hidden in the previous dynasty-- such as "Jia Yi's new book", "Zhenguan dignitaries", "Zi Zhi Tongjian" and so on, all of which are "given the past, can govern Tao", so according to the script, we should step on the former dynasty well before entering a new era.

Li Yun did not play his cards according to common sense. At the beginning of the second chapter, "the Age of the Republic", he simply discussed the superiority of the Republican system compared with the previous dynasties from the three value aspects of publicity, law, and virtue. But also restrained to put forward: "the value must be injected into the system to achieve the regulation and control of people's understanding and behavior, and the value implemented in people's hearts and at hand is alive." Therefore, the system is the key. Any good value must find a proper and feasible system to realize. Otherwise, value is just empty talk, it may have lofty philosophical significance or aesthetic taste, but its political practicality will be greatly impaired. "

at the same time, he also analyzed it more rationally with the "law of entropy increase" that measures chaos in physics, which tells us that the entropy within an isolated system can only increase or remain unchanged, not decrease. It is a natural law that things always go to chaos, and all systems are bound to make the whole system more reasonable through adjustments and changes, otherwise, they are bound to decline. As a result, we may have mistakenly blamed many subjugated monarchs who have left eternal notaries. they may just happen to be in an uncontrollable and uncontrollable time of "entropy".

about the "law of history" that morally corrupt courtiers and thieves and dim and incompetent monarchs always appear in the last days, Li Yun said, "although the king is bound to be judged by ordinary morality, however, personal moral character is not the primary criterion for the interpretation of major events. The cunning, cruelty, and ambition of Takewen, the late monarch of the royal era, were deliberately arranged in a context hostile to the great interests of the Republic. Political correctness determines that he must be written as morally corrupt. But, in retrospect, isn't it the same with Romulus and Tulus as wise kings? "

"I am not saying that kings should have high immunity in the face of ordinary morality, but that the trial of ordinary morality should not be the only criterion by which we judge major historical events." of course, we should understand people's views of their ancestors from the historians' praise and criticism of historical figures, to set correct standards for their descendants. But this is only one aspect of history. If you take it all, history will become very simple, just as easy to recognize as the face of Beijing Opera, so that history will become withered.

to better understand the changes of the times and institutions, Li Yun established an "iceberg model of the system" in the second chapter: the internal structure of the system is like a pyramid. It is divided into three layers: the first layer is the formal system, the second layer is the informal system (customs), and the third layer is the people's sentiment (people's temperament). The formal system is the rule fixed by the national law; the informal system is the rule that everyone is accustomed to but has not yet been fixed by law; the sentiment of the people is the default rule in each of us.

the interaction and mutual support among the various factors of this iceberg model and the institutional changes caused by the changes of various factors can better replace moral judgment. it may be easier to understand why a dynasty and one of its institutions are in decline.

thus, the outline of Roman History provides readers with a key to understanding the key issues of the West. This key helps readers analyze the rise, prosperity, decline, and collapse of the eternal city in Western civilization, and reveals the great logic of the West and politics.

author Li Yun, Professor Shi Zhan of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Foreign Affairs University, Lei Bo, assistant researcher of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Zhai Zhiyong, associate professor of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, personally play historical figures in ancient Rome or China. Through the form of debate, readers can understand the reasons for different historical figures choosing different regimes.

in the first act "the Founding of the people's Republic of Ancient Rome", Li Yun plays Romulus and King Wu of Zhou, played by Leibo. The former kills his brother and usurps the throne and goes to Rome to build the city, while the latter has just won the Battle of Pastoral Ye. So the two men of different historical times met across time and space in the middle of a sleepless night and sat in a picture. Debates began on both sides of the table. They discussed the enfeoffment system of China and the monarchy of Rome, the state-of-the-world thinking and the vertical and horizontal thinking of the sea, the Li-Yue clan system of the Zhou Dynasty, and the fraternal cannibalism of Rome.

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the interest in this innovative press conference also runs through the outline of Roman History, which we can see from the first part of the book, the Age of the King.

the era of monarchy begins with the genes of Rome as if a person's origin is always explicitly or covertly doomed to certain characteristics of his character. Rome's initial start can be described as "survival in a gap": when the Romans first arrived on this "boot" in Italy, there were tall and brave Celts in the north, maritime peoples in the south, and shrewd Greeks. Rome is sandwiched in the middle. In the process of dealing with the two, an enterprising, pragmatic and strong "childhood character" has been formed.

Li Yun believes that the so-called "strong" is not a strong body, but a good system, which can integrate many forces into a stable structure. Since Romulus, the father of the founding of the people's Republic of China, the "royal era" of the seven kings has achieved a general development, and the development of this era is extremely fast and smooth, just like the male owner in the online article.

for example, the first king Romulus designed the top-level design of the "King-Senate-Civic Assembly", but with the system, how to unite the hearts of the people and make the masses not scattered. The second King Numa did these three great things: systematically establishing Roman religion, giving guidance to people's birth, old age, sickness, death, marriage, and funerals, and systematically improving the Roman calendar for 12 months. Professional groups have been established in an all-around way, allowing people to ignore their tribal identity, pay more attention to their careers, and have a social identity with their new identity. The third and fifth kings also went step by step, either expanding purposefully or focusing on the construction of Rome. When it came to the sixth king, Servius Tullius, the famous "wise king" built the city wall, counted the population, and thus naturally founded the country.

the first generation of kings established the "top-level design" and filled it up. The sixth generation of kings enriched the basic organizational framework and designed the "Roman army-tax-election" trinity system, which made civil affairs and military affairs highly combined. Wealth, military merit, the right to vote, and an official career are firmly tied together. It is easy to remind us of the Han Dynasty in China. The system of "reward for military merit" in the imperial edict of Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty, is, to redistribute the total social resources, including hierarchical identity, land property, and political power, according to the level of military merit, thus establishing a new ruling class with the death of generals and officials as the main body-- the military meritorious service beneficiary class in the early Han Dynasty.

Rome has completed its childhood so far.

"gluttonous Night: the reason for Rome", from left: Lei Bo, Shi Zhan, Li Yun, Zhai Zhiyong

how do we understand history? How to write?

when we look back at the era of Roman kingship from the perspective of God, we certainly know that there must be despotism, brutality, and killing hidden in it, and we can also guess that the early history of a dynasty (or even all its history) must be a "retrospective construction" and the shaping of their ancestors by posterity, in which there are many obscure purposes, limitations, and ambiguities. In the general writing about history, the writers are always clear about their viewpoints. They either feel that the doubts that exist in these general historical discussions can be ignored, or they are like some historical prose writings. They are completely addicted to lyricism and self-talk, and the basic historical facts can be ignored.

so the reader is trembling with suspicion: is it reliable? Can we ignore this place? Comfortably, in the outline of Roman History, Li Yun guessed the reader's skepticism and explained in advance. Li Yun did not write a single chapter on all kinds of problems in historical writing but found the problems in time by the progress of the times. and answer, there is a kind of immediacy and reflection.

for example, in the era of monarchy, when talking about the first generation of kings, we also talked about "how to interpret myths"; when talking about the second generation of kings, we talked about what determined the beliefs of polytheism and monotheism in different countries; when talking about the third generation of kings, it was easier to succeed when they talked about the annexation of war; when talking about the fifth generation of kings, they talked about the tolerance and pluralism of ancient Rome. When talking about the last king, he talked about how to judge the king and how to understand morality.

in addition, considering that ancient Rome was remote and strange to most readers, Li Yun also paid attention to the comparison between China and the West in his writing, such as comparing the first king Romulus to Taizu and the second king Numa to Taizong, to explain to the readers the importance of Wenzhi.

at the same time, Li Yun also chose a more understandable and universal way of telling, for example, when discussing Roman religion, he said: Roman religion is a typical "human-human" model. This concept means that the relationship between man and God is very much like a transaction between man and man. to put it bluntly, it is an "exchange relationship" between man and God. The Roman gods are not high above and do not eat human smoke and fire, on the contrary, worship is necessary. You bless me, I worship you, and there is a mutual benefit between men and gods. This is not difficult for Chinese people who are very accustomed to the "burning incense-vow" mode.

Li Yun devoted a lot of enthusiasm to the political system of ancient Rome, even if it is such a book that discusses the political system, which is supposed to be very boring and serious, because its surging and unbridled narration is full of interest, even with an absolute sense of correctness and legitimacy.

is shaped by the writing style of "Grass Snake Grey Line" in classical literature. We like to analyze and summarize, even a considerable amount of Chinese history books. It is in every detail, to sum up, the rotten genes hidden in the previous dynasty-- such as "Jia Yi's new book", "Zhenguan dignitaries", "Zi Zhi Tongjian" and so on, all of which are "given the past, can govern Tao", so according to the script, we should step on the former dynasty well before entering a new era.

Li Yun did not play his cards according to common sense. At the beginning of the second chapter, "the Age of the Republic", he simply discussed the superiority of the Republican system compared with the previous dynasties from the three value aspects of publicity, law, and virtue. But also restrained to put forward: "the value must be injected into the system to achieve the regulation and control of people's understanding and behavior, and the value implemented in people's hearts and at hand is alive." Therefore, the system is the key. Any good value must find a proper and feasible system to realize. Otherwise, value is just empty talk, it may have lofty philosophical significance or aesthetic taste, but its political practicality will be greatly impaired. "

at the same time, he also analyzed it more rationally with the "law of entropy increase" that measures chaos in physics, which tells us that the entropy within an isolated system can only increase or remain unchanged, not decrease. It is a natural law that things always go to chaos, and all systems are bound to make the whole system more reasonable through adjustments and changes, otherwise, they are bound to decline. As a result, we may have mistakenly blamed many subjugated monarchs who have left eternal notaries. they may just happen to be in an uncontrollable and uncontrollable time of "entropy".

about the "law of history" that morally corrupt courtiers and thieves and dim and incompetent monarchs always appear in the last days, Li Yun said, "although the king is bound to be judged by ordinary morality, however, personal moral character is not the primary criterion for the interpretation of major events. The cunning, cruelty, and ambition of Takewen, the late monarch of the royal era, were deliberately arranged in a context hostile to the great interests of the Republic. Political correctness determines that he must be written as morally corrupt. But, in retrospect, isn't it the same with Romulus and Tulus as wise kings? "

"I am not saying that kings should have high immunity in the face of ordinary morality, but that the trial of ordinary morality should not be the only criterion by which we judge major historical events." of course, we should understand people's views of their ancestors from the historians' praise and criticism of historical figures, to set correct standards for their descendants. But this is only one aspect of history. If you take it all, history will become very simple, just as easy to recognize as the face of Beijing Opera, so that history will become withered.

to better understand the changes of the times and institutions, Li Yun established an "iceberg model of the system" in the second chapter: the internal structure of the system is like a pyramid. It is divided into three layers: the first layer is the formal system, the second layer is the informal system (customs), and the third layer is the people's sentiment (people's temperament). The formal system is the rule fixed by the national law; the informal system is the rule that everyone is accustomed to but has not yet been fixed by law; the sentiment of the people is the default rule in each of us.

the interaction and mutual support among the various factors of this iceberg model and the institutional changes caused by the changes of various factors can better replace moral judgment. it may be easier to understand why a dynasty and one of its institutions are in decline.

thus, the outline of Roman History provides readers with a key to understanding the key issues of the West. This key helps readers analyze the rise, prosperity, decline, and collapse of the eternal city in Western civilization, and reveals the great logic of the West and politics.