Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube
While what you say is good, you give the chinese too much credit in the military department. The level of discipline found in the Roman Army around, say, 100AD certainly surpasses anything found in a chinese army of the same time. Especially once the Han Dynasty started to decline. Indeed, I'm not even sure there was a widespread use of shields large enough to create a "Fish-Scale" formation.

However, don't get me wrong. Aside from that you're totally right in regards to the Western view of chinese "Isolation" being totally wrong.
Typical