anyone. This shows responsibility because if the man did not tell the truth, he was responsible for not .
entering the afterlife. Knowing that they would be responsible for their actions, the Egyptians tried not to .
hurt people in their mortal lives. .
The final value that all three cultures had in common was being truthful. All three cultures .
relied heavily on the truth. In Hammurabi's laws, it says "If a man has borne false witness in a trial, or .
has not established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital trial, that man shall be put to .
death." In other words "If you lie, you die." When Confucius examined himself every day, he asked the .
question "have I been false with my friends?" In Egypt, it was important that a man be truthful when .
brought before Osiris, because if they didn't tell the truth, they would be banished from the afterlife. One .
of the lines of the Book of the Dead reads "I have not committed sin in the place of truth," which I read as .
"I have not lied." .
Each one of these three civilizations used different methods to enforce them. In Sumer, .
Hammurabi's strict punishments kept people from disobeying them. On the other hand, Egypt didn't use .
any kind of physical punishment, but they used threats. The people thought that if they went against the .
values, Osiris, god of the afterlife, would punish them after their died. In China, the values weren't .
enforced, but they were protected by the government. In the second century B.C., Confucianism became .
the official philosophy of China, thus preserving it for the future. .
I am greatly impressed by Hammurabi's ideas. His laws may sound harsh, but they had to be. In .
ancient Sumer, you had to be harsh or people wouldn't even listen. I don't agree, however, with his double .
standards. I feel that a life is worth just as much whether it's a patrician or a plebeian. I think that .
Confucius' ideas are the ones that come the closest to my own beliefs.
