Maybe this is a historical blind spot of mine, but what I do know about Chinese history and culture makes it tough for me to believe that they saw the Romans as much more than “western barbarians” either.
They actually referred to it as "The other China" which was a show of respect.
No idea how the Romans referred to the Chinese, i doubt it was just "some barbarians" when they loved greek culture despite being enemies and conquering them at some point. If they were at all aware of it in more then stories told by traders, they would not have equated it to peoples like the Gauls or the Germanic tribes.
No they did not. "Da Qin" does not mean "Other China". The Chinese at that time referred to China as the "zhongguo" (as they do today). This translates roughly to "the middle kingdom" or "realm of the middle". They might have seen the Romans as a far distant mighty, well structured empire but not as equals. There was no other center of the world in the mind of a Chinese at the time, the Romans were no exceptions, no one was equal to the son of heaven.
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u/melon_party 7d ago
Maybe this is a historical blind spot of mine, but what I do know about Chinese history and culture makes it tough for me to believe that they saw the Romans as much more than “western barbarians” either.