[OT] Restoring Empires was: Frog Bashing

Edward Lipsett schrieb:
> I can't speak for most of these, but I think you could

This answer illustrates precisely why I said that a worthwhile discussion of
this would require a precise definition of 'people' and 'empire'.

Can you say they were all Chinese and spoke Chinese? Depends on your
definition. Speakers of the various dialects of Chinese are, AFAIK, not able
to understand each other, but we tend to think they all speak Chinese.
Compare, say, Dutch, English and German. Or French, Spanish and Rumanian. You
could claim, they all speak "Germanic" or "Romance". The Chinese DO have a
common written language, though (which also covers, to some extent, Korean and
Japanese).

On the other hand, you say the nation was destroyed and a different one was
built, which is an equally valid point of view. But why don't we say, for
example, that Ancient Egypt and Modern Egypt are the same nation (another
possible candidate, BTW). Or Rome and Italy?

Greetings Karl Heinz