Ancient China and India

Differences: There was a dynastic cycle, the dynasties would rise and fall, and be taken over by a new person. India went back to independent city states when a ruler fell. China was generally able to be re-united through a ruler India was not, India was not able to be united in the north due to invasions from bordering countries. The only person to unite India was Ashoka Maurya

Similarities: Both were patriarchal societies. Major cities were built along major water ways, India (The indus river) China (the yellow river)
Both countries used forced labor (slaves, pows, etc). Used water ways for trade (religion was also able to be spread this way)
The Difference Between Classical China and Classical India
Classical China and Classical India were truly great civilizations known for their contributions to modern China and India. Yet as the two developed, they showed uniqueness. Some of the qualities shown were alike, and others were not as comparable.
The religions produced in China and India were very unique. In China, rather than developing full-fledged religions, they created more philosophical beliefs. Confucianism, the first and most popular of the philosophies, embraced moral virtues and values. For example, it taught to respect one's leaders, and for the leaders in return to be just and moral in their leadership. Confucius, the creator of Confucianism, believed that if the leaders set a good example, his people would follow it. It also stressed to delight in knowledge, delight in learning, to be polite, and to have good manners. Its teachings were recorded in the Analects. Daoism is another Chinese religion. Daoism, created by Lao-zi, was slightly more spiritual. It embraced nature's harmony and mystery and had an entirely different set of ethics. Instead of harmony with your fellow man and government, the Daoist belief harmony with nature was more compatible with frugal living and humility. India, however, was a different story. Hinduism was the major religion in India. Hinduism, unlike Confucianism and Daoism, is a full-fledged religion. It has many gods of nature like Daoism, but each god also represents something more abstract. For example, the god of wind might also be the god that "blows" someone to the right path in his or her life. Dharma is something taught by the Hindus as a guide to living in the world and still be able to obtain a higher spiritual level of thought. Also, Hinduism is not as one sided when it comes to balancing politics and government with humanly affairs. Confucianism was mainly based on a harmonious government, and Daoism, while more balanced, still leaned more to the worldly pleasures. The Hindu beliefs, like Confucianism, were recorded, too, but instead of being written like a book, it was written like a poem. A series of epics, two being the Rig-Veda and the Upanishads, keep the doctrine of the Hindu. These unique religions and philosophies are just some of the cultural distinctions these civilizations had.
Other unique ideals that came out of India and China were their political structures. In Classical China, the ruling powers were three different dynasties, or family of emperors. The "Mandate of Heaven" supposedly gave a dynasty's emperor the right to rule from God. As the dynasties changed, the Mandate of Heaven changed from emperor to emperor. The political structure in the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty was the already existing system of feudalism, which was a chain of command from the emperor down to small regional directors. They ruled through alliances and regional princes, making their government not very powerful. The Zhou work to undermine the feudalist system to obtain a unified cultural community, and were, in part, successful. Despite these attempts, the Zhou fell to the alliances' armies and the Qin dynasty arose. In the Qin Dynasty, the feudalist system was demolished. Shih Huangdi, the Qin emperor, was supposedly a very harsh ruler. He divided China into large provinces and personally chose the lords to rule them, so he would be sure he could keep his throne. This system probably would have worked well, had not the emperor been a "blood-thirsty animal," as many thought him as. The system did work, though, in the next dynasty twenty years later. The Han Dynasty kept the provinces and their lords, but didn't rule with an iron whip. With no opposition to the government, this dynasty ruled for about 400 years. India political structure was not as strong as China was. Indian religions did not usually have a concern for politics, though its rulers would claim that the gods chose them to rule, like China's Mandate of Heaven. It did, through most of its empires, use regionalism, like the Qin and Han Dynasties. The regionalist government did not work as well for India. The Indian culture was not as unified as Chinese culture. On top of that, the Caste System continued to overrule the national government. The Caste System was a chain of command one was born into, somewhat like Feudalism. For the most part, the caste system maintained order and tolerance, like a good political system would. Like China, status determined what land you received, if any at all. The similarities and differences between Chinese and Indian political structure are still only a few of the many.
The social structures of these great civilizations also had their own distinctions to them. In China, There were three main classes: the landowning gentry and the educated bureaucrats, also called Mandarins, then the peasantry, and the "mean" people. One inherited a class from his or her parents.
China and India
China and India were both very advanced ancient civilizations. Both agricultural based civilizations made various technological advances. Although China and India shared many similarities, they had differences such as the social system, politics, and the importance of trade in the economy.
The hierarchy of ancient China and India were similar with a noticeable sign of select individuals being considered “higher” then others. The caste system was strict in India and prohibited other classes from interacting with each other. China’s social system differed from India’s caste system, by not demonstrating a formal and strict social ladder. Where in India there existed over three hundred subcastes at one point, China had a simple three caste social ladder. Although the Chinese did not have as strong of a social ladder, there still existed “higher” people such as the bureaucrats. Bureaucrats and landowners were considered to be of a higher class then peasants, farmers, and merchants. Patriarchy was a very big factor in culture and social order in China and India. India’s strict caste system led to a more “flexible” and popular religion known as Hinduism. Many Indians preferred this religion over Buddhism, which the Chinese practiced, because the brahmans or priests strongly influenced the population. Brahmans and many other Indians did not like the idea of any being of any caste level achieving “peace” by their efforts, which Buddhism taught. The Chinese believed in Buddhism and reaching nirvana by finding peace within. A major difference between Indian and Chinese culture was that Indians lived to die and reincarnate to a better caste level and eventually reaching the gods, whereas the Chinese lived a good life with no rituals necessary to find nirvana. Although the Chinese and Indian culture was very different, both races strived and lived in balance to find their gift in the afterlife. A major difference between the Chinese and Indian culture was that...