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Liu, Yanxing

University of British Columbia

Using comparative approach, this present thesis explores the potential of comparison in the study of ancient capital cities and their residents’ living experience. Although Rome and Chang’an have received a great deal of attention respectively, little work has been done to compare these two capital cities. This neglect is intriguing given the fact that scholars were enthusiastic about comparing the Roman Empire and the Han Empire, two powerful regimes siting on the opposite ends of Eurasia. While most scholarship has been focusing on comparing the rise and fall of empires, the military systems, and the management of territories, the thesis analyzes the capital cities and their differences. Another similar problem that this thesis tries to tackle is the neglect of marginalized people’s living experience in great cities. Non-elite people made up most of the urban population, but the scarcity of evidence prevents us from understanding their daily life. Therefore, the thesis applies Henri Lefebvre’s theory of spatial triad to access the non-elite people’s living experience in two selected places: the Porta Esquilina in Rome and the Xuanping Gate in Chang’an. City gates could offer best available material evidence for the purpose of this thesis. The research carried out in the thesis reveals that non-elite people’s living experience in these two distinct cities might be surprisingly similar.

Text

2022-08-29

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82573

Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/