Question

What are some similarities between Egypt's culture and China's culture? Give 5-7 similarities and differences of the two cultures.

Answer 1

1. Difference between Egypt and China.

Religion

The religion of ancient Egypt was polytheistic and centered around the divinity of the ruler and the eternity of the soul. The Chinese were polytheistic with the addition of ancestor worship. Over time, these beliefs were sometimes blended with Taoism, Buddhism or Confucianism.

Funeral
 
Customs In Egypt, people were buried with thought to preservation, as they believed that the dead would be able to use their bodies in the afterlife. Chinese burial style depended on the province as well as the main religion of the person. People would be buried in the ground, in water, put in a hanging coffin or cremated.

Martial Arts

Chinese martial arts include kung fu and tai chi. The Egyptians practiced tahtib, a form of stick fighting. Sticks were four feet long and the fights were often more of a dance and display than an actual fight.

Medicine

The ancient Egyptians believed that most non-physical ailments were caused by spells and curses. Overall treatments included amulets, potions and surgery depending on what was wrong. Chinese medicine was based on the idea of the balance of the energies yin and yang. Illness was the result of an imbalance and was treated with herbs, acupuncture and exercises.

Money
 
Egyptians did not have proper currency until 1000 B.C. Instead, goods and services were exchanged for other goods and services deemed of comparable value. In contrast, the ancient Chinese used cowrie shells and metal beads. Coins and even paper money were used as well.

2. Similarities between Ancient Egypt & Ancient China

They are both one of the oldest continuous civilizations,
 
Both cultures economies were based on agriculture.

Both had an early system of writing.
 
Both had an inherited system of rule, Emperors and Pharaoh's alike were seen as Gods and had absolute rule.

Both cultures had invented paper at an early stage.
 
Both couture's buried their dead with items of value and practiced ancestor worship.
 
Both cultures had elaborate systems of Bureaucratic systems of administration.
 
Both cultures had rudimentary concepts of Mathematics and Medicine.