1.1.1Japan as recorded in ancient Chinese classical works
China and Japan enjoy a long history of contact, but history does not imply the synchronous development of civilization in the two countries. Mainland China has a longer history of civilization than the Japanese islands. Indeed, even the starting point of the history of Japan has to be explored from Chinese classical works of history.
Extant Chinese ancient classical works of China have shown, and archaeological findings in Japan have confirmed, that Chinese contacts with Japan as early as in the Eastern Han Dynasty of China. For example, The Book of the Han Dynasty (Han Shu) Geography Records (Di Li Zhi) by Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the first century presented a concrete record of Japan’s relations with China in this period: “In the Lelang Sea (today’s Sea of Japan) are the Wa people, who live in many states and pay tribute to us annually.”1 These records provide a general sense of social development in the Japanese islands at that time. According to The Book of the Eastern Han Dynasty (Han Shu) Records of Dongyi (Dong Yi Zhuan), by Fan Ye, who wrote during the Song State in 445 during the Southern Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, in the second year of Jianwu Zhongyuan Period of Emperor Guangwu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, 57 CE: “The Wa State (Japan) paid tribute to the Han government. The envoy called himself Dafu (a senior rank of official) and described his state as the southernmost in the Islands. Emperor Guangwu bestowed his seal and its silk ribbon on him,”2 indicating that there existed contacts between China and Japan in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and a small state on the Japanese Islands dispatched envoys to have an audience with the emperor of China. This historical case record was later verified by the discovery of a gold seal engraved with “King of Wanu State of Han,” unearthed on Shiga Island, Hakata Bay, Kitakyushu, Japan in 1784. For many years, this unearthed gold seal was questioned as a fake, but eventually the seal’s authenticity was accepted after various appraisals and by comparisons with other seals unearthed from Han Dynasty tombs. On the basis of this research, in 1981, the Japanese government confirmed the seal as a national treasure, and it is now kept in the City Museum in Fukuoka, Japan. Similar history records state that the king of Wa State returned to China to pay tribute to the imperial court of the Eastern Han in 107 CE.
After the late Eastern Han Dynasty, official Chinese histories began to include special records concerning Japan. For example, the Records of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi), written by Chen Shou in 289, contains a special section entitled the Records of Wei·Wa People (Wo Ren Zhuan), which gives a systematic account of the situation and events on the Japanese Islands, and records that in 239, the queen of small state “Yamatai,” located approximately on today’s Kyushu, Japan dispatched envoys to pay tribute to the Wei State, and the imperial government of Wei ruled by the Cao family conferred the title of “Pro-Wei Wa King” on her and bestowed to her a gold seal.
Over the following 300 years, when China experienced a turbulent period characterized by rule by the Western and Eastern Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, official history books by governments of different dynasties kept records on Japan. This includes records in The Book of Song (Song Shu): Records of Ethnic Minorities (Man Yi Zhuan) completed in 488 and The Book of the Southern Qi Dynasty (Nan Qi Shu): Records of Ethnic Minorities in Southeast China (Dong Nan Yi Zhuan) completed in 514. However, due to social turbulence in the period, official contacts between China and Japan declined. These official records mentioned Japan but gave no more detailed information. Generally, the official histories provided only brief, repetitive introductions about Japan on a few words from prior historical records, and some contents derived from legends and sayings.
At the end of the third century when the Chinese society entered a turbulent period, Japan also experienced a period of social turbulence. Several small Japanese states began a series of annexation wars. The relatively powerful Yamatonokuni state rose in the region centered on Nara-ken in the west of today’s Honshu Island. After a series of wars for annexation, Yamatonokuni unified the Japanese Islands at the end of the fourth century, and unity lasted to roughly the beginning of the fifth century. During this period of over 100 years, there were fewer records of exchanges between China and Japan. Chinese histories only recorded the turbulence in Japan after this period, based mainly on legendary stories. Even during the periods of relative unrest, however, cultural exchanges between China and Japan continued. Indeed, the spread to Japan of many Chinese written characters, Confucianism, The Analects of Confucius and Buddhism took place during this period.
1.1.2Japan accepted Chinese culture in an all-round manner
In the late sixth century, after nearly three centuries years of internal strife, Chinese society entered a period of stability and unity. The Sui and Tang Dynasties, which both featured a unified China, ruled in succession during this period. The Sui Dynasty was founded in 581 and it unified China in 589, ending the long division between the South and North and bringing about a flowering of social life. At around the same time, the Japanese islands experienced political unification, with power monopolized by several aristocrat groups. The power of the Mikado as the ruler was unstable and social life subject to rapid shifts.
Against this background, the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the reunification of China served as a model for Japan. Contacts between China and Japan became more frequent during this period. In 593, after a series of palace struggles, the Japanese royal family appointed Prince Shotoku, one of the princes, as the Crown Prince and regent, and Prince Shotoku acted for the Mikado in handling government affairs. After coming into power, Prince Shotoku launched comprehensive reforms, imitating the political systems of the Sui Dynasty in China, with a view to building a centralized nation with the Mikado at its core. In 603, the new government chaired by Prince Shotoku formulated the Twelve-Level Cap and Rank System, which stipulated honorary peerages by levels of virtue, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith advocated by Confucianism, and conferred peerages in line with officials’ abilities and contributions. This enabled selection of talented officials and encouraged the loyalty of officials to the Mikado, and thus helped break the power of the once despotic gentry class. In 604, the new government instituted the Seventeen-Article Constitution as the code of conduct for Japanese officials and subjects. Most of its contents referred to the hundred schools of thought such as Confucian, Fa-School, Taoist, and Buddhist thought of China, and emphasized following the tenets of Buddhism, submitting to the Mikado, serving dutifully, keeping promises, and kindness to ordinary people.
Prince Shotoku also made great efforts to popularize Buddhism in Japan by publishing Buddhist classics and constructing Buddhist temples. The famous Horyuji Temple in Nara-ken and its Five-Storied Pagoda were built in this period, and have come to symbolize Japan and its culture. Japanese histories of the period such as Records of the Mikado and the National Records make extensive use of Chinese characters. This series of measures targeted national unification through thought, by enhancing the authority and idea of the royal family and nation while strengthening the centralization of the Mikado, and by weakening the aristocratic power. These policies played a major role in the formation and consolidation of the Japanese nation.
All of the above-mentioned actions can be viewed as a result of the influence of the Sui and the subsequent Tang Dynasty of China. In 607, Prince Shotoku dispatched Ono no Imoko as the first envoy to the Sui government in Chang’an with a letter from the Mikado to the emperor of the Sui government. In 608, the Sui emperor reciprocated, sending an official envoy to Japan, Pei Shiqing. In September, that same year, Ono no Imoko returned to Chang’an accompanied by dozens of Japanese monks and students, initiating a campaign of comprehensive Japanese study of China. Over the following years, the Japanese government dispatched several such delegations of envoys, monks, and students to China. These monks and students studied returned to their country with a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and institutions, and played a role in major historical events and in promoting cultural development in Japan.
Prince Shotoku’s reforms weakened the local aristocracy and laid a foundation for the Tenno System of central national government, but the reform was ultimately incomplete. After the death of Prince Shotoku in 622, aristocratic forces sought to regain lost power, leading to political instability. During this period, however, monks and students who had been dispatched to China gradually returned to Japan, bringing cultural, political, and other social influences. In 645, members of the royal family and some officials carried out a palace coup, eliminating the aristocratic forces that had intervened in government affairs, and establishing a new government. Imitating the Chinese imperial court practice, the new government declared the first year of Taika, and placed returned monks and students in positions to implement further reforms modeled on the Tang Dynasty.
In 646, the first year of Taika in the history of Japan began. On New Year’s Day, the royal family issued the Imperial Edict on the Taika Era Reforms, imitating various systems of the Tang Dynasty. These measures included seizure of aristocratic land holdings for public use, establishing a registry of permanent residents for land allocation, collecting land rent from farmers and distributing labor to farmers based on land grants, and imposing other taxes and levies. The new system was similar to the Zuyongdiao System employed by the Tang Dynasty. To consolidate the centralized Mikado state, the new government also imitated the Tang government’s Three Departments and Six Ministries System for officials, and established a central organization with Eight Departments and Officials at Various Levels, and different administrative levels of state, shire, and county for local government, with all officials appointed by the imperial court. Thus, the reforms created a relatively complete top-down ruling body known as the Tenno System of ancient Japan.
In the process of learning from and imitating the Sui and Tang government organizations, Japan dispatched envoys to the Sui and Tang capitals initiated a long practice that lasted for more than 200 years, right up to 838. This included 19 named delegations of which 12 actually traveled to China. With time, the delegations included more senior personnel and grew more diverse, growing in size from 200 in the early years to 500–600 in later periods. The members included government officials, craftsmen, doctors, artists, monks, and priests as well as students. From these delegations, notable figures in the history emerged, such as Abe no Nakamaro, Kibinomakibi, and Monk Kukai. During the period, a famous Chinese monk, Jianzhen (Ganjin), departed from Yangzhou, China to Japan intending to popularize Buddhism, but his initial voyage proved unsuccessful. Undeterred, he set out six times in 11 years, successfully arrived at the Japanese Islands in 754, interpreted the Buddhist Sutra into Japanese, delivered a sermon in Toshodaiji Temple constructed in Nara-ken in 759, and finally died in Japan, becoming a touchstone and symbol of ancient Sino-Japanese cultural exchange.
These large-scale co...
