Main Body
11
Patrick Patterson and George L. Israel
INTRODUCTION
DISCOVERY
2008 was the 1000th anniversary of what might be called the world’s first novel. Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in waiting in the court of the Japanese emperor known by her title, rather than her name, provided what is the final version of The Tale of Genji in 1008 C.E.. In 2008, Japan celebrated the novel, and in many ways its re-discovery, after 1000 years.
Seen by many as the oldest novel in the world, The Tale of Genji is the story of a prince in Japan’s imperial court who was born to a relatively low-level concubine of the emperor. Destined never to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne, but blessed with great good looks, conversational skill, and given an excellent education, Genji, as he is known, spends his time socializing, enjoying art and the entertainments available to people of high class in the imperial enclave, as well as meeting women. The story of Genji’s life is told through his relationships to various people, mostly women, beginning with his mother, and ending with the ascent of his secret son to the imperial throne. During this time, the reader learns how Heian society worked in the capital city of Kyoto. The aesthetics of poetry and art are on display in the novel, as are the morals of the period – particularly the ways in which people lived with and loved each other. We learn how high level aristocrats were selected for administrative jobs within the palace. The importance in early Japanese politics of writing, Confucianism, and attending the right parties with the right people are also clearly on display in the story. Later, we understand the power of rank in Japanese culture when Genji has a casual, and somewhat drunken, conversation with his male friends about the characteristics of ladies who hold different ranks in the court hierarchy – a “would you go out with her?” sort of game.
What is under the surface story of the novel is even more interesting. Analysis of the novel has led to research revealing the different marriage and family structures of the period; Genji, for instance, lives separately from his wife and daughter, who resided with his wife’s parents. We also learn that Heian era Japanese were very shy about exposing even a small bit of the human body. From the political perspective, readers learn that women in the Imperial court were key intermediaries. Impressing the right lady in waiting, who might be the wife or paramour of an important administrator, or even have the ear of the emperor, could change one’s career and alter one’s life. It was therefore worthwhile to learn the fine arts of poetry and prose to impress the court ladies. These women met with men in semi-public settings while sitting “in state” behind elaborate screens designed to prevent even a hint of misbehavior and make certain that facial expressions could not be used to pass messages. To impress each other, women and men in the court passed cryptic poetic messages across the screen, hinting at feelings, political opportunities, or traps. This subtle form of political communication developed into a fine art prized throughout Japanese history. The Tale of Genji clarifies how this worked while depicting how Genji went about his seductions and political maneuvers. In all it is a long, but brilliant story.
Murasaki Shikibu’s original novel is, in fact, very different from the novel that most people read when they pick up Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) today. Murasaki wrote her novel entirely in hiragana, a 46-character written syllabary developed in the Heian Period (784-1185), used by male officials, to write Japanese instead of the Chinese characters. Murasaki Shikibu also wrote it in archaic Japanese which is quite different from the language that Japanese people speak today. The novel has been rediscovered and translated over the last 200 years. The translations were from Japanese into…Japanese.
In 1829, a small book began to appear in serialized editions throughout Japan when it was ruled by the Tokugawa Shōguns – the last era of the samurai (1600-1868). This book was not The Tale of Genji, but it did refer to it in each annual installment. It was called Inaka Genji, or, as scholar Michael Emmerich has translated it, Bumpkin Genji. This was a humorous serialized novel, a new episode of which was published each year on new year’s day. It was based closely on Murasaki’s actual story, but may have been a parody. It was a classic detective story, and the names of characters were slightly changed. Emmerich argues that it may have been written as a way to re-introduce Japanese, particularly those from the countryside with low literacy, to the classic story by educating them about it in a simple and entertaining way. By that time, Emmerich says, the original tale by Murasaki Shikibu had not been re-published for 120 years. Very few people knew it existed.
Japanese people living in the 1800s did not speak the archaic form of the Japanese language used by Murasaki and her contemporaries. For general readers, Murasaki’s works, as well as those of other poets and writers of the Heian period including Sei Shōnagon (Makura sōshi – The Pillow Book) were translated to modern Japanese. Only scholars and devotees of Heian Era literature read and understand Murasaki’s original sentences. The act of translating The Tale of Genji in Japan from about 1829 to today has been a process of rediscovery. Japan and the world have learned anew about ancient Japanese culture, literature, and aesthetics. Translation into modern Japanese also made it possible to translate Genji into other world languages so that non-Japanese speakers can access this classic of world literature.
The original story was partially translated to modern Japanese in 1882 by Suematsu Kenchō and probably went on to influence the work of later English translators such as Arthur Waley. But the first full version translated directly from Heian-era Japanese to modern Japanese was done by Yosano Akiko between 1912 and 1913. Yosano Akiko, one of Japan’s most influential modern poets and feminist writers, also worked on classical Japanese texts in her early career. She is often not given credit for her importance in the rediscovery of the ancient text, overshadowed by male translators Masamune Hakuchō, and Tanizaki Jun’ichirō,.
When Yosano Akiko translated the book, she made some important contributions; a number of scholars claim that her translation has been the most influential in terms of the rediscovery of the story for the Japanese and for the renaissance of Japan as a culturally important part of world history. Yosano emphasized the drama of Murasaki’s story, translating it so it read much more like a modern novel. The idea that aesthetics and natural beauty played a key role in Japanese classical culture and politics at the imperial court in Kyoto came from her work. Yosano also pioneered research into the centrality of women within the political and literary processes of Heian society. We can say, in fact, that her translation of Genji is as historically important as Genji itself. She helped the world recognize the value and beauty of Japanese culture. She also showed the importance of women within that culture in a time when men dominated the literary world and often dismissed the work of women. Yosano Akiko helped to make Japan’s rediscovery of The Tale of Genji and of its own ancient cultural richness, a complex, exciting, and continuing field of research and a subject of interest the world over.
OVERVIEW
After the fall of China’s Han Dynasty in 221 CE, China became political divided once again, and then coalesced into the Sui Dynasty in 581. This reunification was short-lived, but was followed very soon after by the establishment of the even larger, better-organized, and more powerful Tang Dynasty in 618, then the Song Dynasty in 1279. Such a long period of unification gave China the opportunity to develop its culture, political philosophy, economy, and international influence. Because of its economic success and cultural influences in the period from 581-1279, historians often refer to the period as China’s “Golden Age.”
During this time, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese societies also began to form coherent, unified states, all of which were influenced to some degree by Chinese cultural, legal, and political ideas. Chinese written language, already well-developed by the beginning of the Sui Dynasty in 581, provided a writing system, despite linguistic differences, for the Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese languages. Confucianism became a foundational philosophy in all three societies. Chinese law, music, drama, and art provided templates from which to draw, or against which to create, new forms in all three cultures. Korea was developing a series of independent states during the Han Dynasty, while Japan and Vietnam began to form their own political and legal systems based on indigenous ideas, as well as systems imported from China adapted to local conditions. While all three of these states were influenced by China, the degree of that influence differed, and the primary ideologies and organizational patterns remained Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese in origin and nature.
Chapter Objectives:
- Describe the period of disunion between the end of the Han Dynasty and the beginning of the Sui Dynasty in China.
- Explain the process of Sui unification.
- Explain the reasons for the failure of the Sui Dynasty and the success of the Tang Dynasty.
- Describe the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism during the Tang Dynasty.
- Explain how Korea and Japan adopted and adapted parts of Chinese philosophy and culture.
- Describe the differences between Japanese and Chinese worldviews.
- Describe the differences between Korean and Chinese worldviews.
Chapter Terms:
Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu, Equal Fields System, Tang Code, An Lushan, Song Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism, Silla, Baekje, Goguryeo, Jomon Period, Yayoi Period, Yamato, Nara Period, Shinto, Heian Era, Fujiwara no Michinaga
China’s Political History – From Three Kingdoms (220–280 CE) and the Western Jin (265–317 CE) to the Northern and Southern Dynasties (317–589 CE)
Think about it…
- In what ways is the period between the Han Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty similar to the Warring States period discussed in Chapter Four?
Chapter Four traced early Chinese history leading up to the Period of Division. After the collapse of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE. China divided into independent, short-lived kingdoms until 589 CE, when the Sui (zway) Dynasty reunited most of the territory once controlled by the Han.
By the late 6th century, CE, Emperor Wen had dissolved the Chin Dynasty, one of six successors in northern China to the Han. He then consolidated the northern territories and united them with the Yangtze River region in southern China for the first time since 220 CE. The Sui administration increased its power through both military might and improvements to its legal, economic, and land ownership systems. Historians of China identify this period of the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties, between 589 and 607 CE, as the point of transition in China from the “Middle Ages” to modern social institutions and states. Beginning this process, between 580 – 618 CE, Sui emperors crushed rebellious regions, unified the military and reinstated a centralized Confucian bureaucratic system.
The Sui Dynasty did not last long (581–618 CE) and only had two emperors: Emperor Wen and Emperor Yang. Their policies and initiatives demonstrated a remarkable consistency in goals and strategies. Both envisioned recapturing the glory of the Han Dynasty; hence, they engaged in many construction projects and military campaigns. Immense walled capital cities were built on planned grid patterns at Chang’an and Luoyang and, in order to supply them with sufficient grain, a canal system was created to connect the Yellow River to the Yangzi River: the “Grand Canal.” This massive construction effort linked the Yellow and Yangtze river valley societies and trading networks together, resulting in long-term economic benefits. It was also an engineering marvel, connecting these two great rivers which flow at different geographical heights, successfully avoiding problems with conflicting currents and depths between the distant rivers.
Both Sui emperors believed that Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula were properly Chinese territory. For that reason they launched enormous military expeditions to attack the most powerful Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, in 598, 612, 613, and 614 CE. The logistics alone are evidence of the advanced and complex capabilities of the Sui Empire’s administration. Emperor Yang’s ground and naval campaign in 611 CE, for instance, required enlisting over one million combat troops and hundreds of thousands of additional men just to transport supplies. All of these campaigns met defeat at the cost of the lives of the Chinese peasants drafted into the army and to provide supplies. Emperor Yang gained a reputation for harsh authoritarianism and military folly which new historical research shows that he did not deserve – at least no more than other famous and celebrated Chinese emperors. In fact, it is a common trend in Chinese histories of this period to look for the failure of a dynasty in its last emperor, so most last emperors are presented as little more than punching bags for the problems that led China to political collapse. Such seems to be the unfortunate lot of Sui Yangdi (Emperor Yang).
On top of these expensive and unsuccessful military expeditions against Koguryo, the Yellow River flooded in 611 CE, and rebellions broke out along its banks. Natural disasters, combined with the emperors’ heavy demands, led to widespread loss of agricultural production as well as loss of lives, loss of livelihoods, and government loss of taxes. This combination of problems contributed to social unrest, including among the Sui nobility. Local bandits, religious leaders, and even Sui administrators used their local power to set up local militias and defenses against outsiders, and occasionally against the empire itself. Eventually, the Sui Dynasty unraveled. After the emperor took flight to the south, General Li Yuan [lee you-an], who was stationed along the northern border to defend against the steppe nomads, marched into Chang’an, where he declared the founding of the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 CE). Emperor Yang’s life came to an end when he was assassinated by his own men. The Sui Dynasty was the beginning of a period of change and growth that led China into its modern era and did much to inspire the growth of other Asian states around it. The period from 618CE to 1279, which includes the Tang (tong) and the Song (soong) Dynasties which followed and built on Sui achievements is often seen by historians as China’s “Golden Age.”
THE EARLY TANG DYNASTY (618-756 CE)
Think about it…
- In what ways was the Tang Dynasty like the Han Dynasty? In what ways was it different?
Like the Han Dynasty, the Tang was one of the most dynamic and long-lived dynasties in China’s history. That dynamism was made possible by effective early Tang rulers who consolidated the empire internally, then engaged in military expansion. Consolidating the empire required first re-establishing solid political, economic, and military institutions. Fortunately, Tang rulers could draw upon nearly a millennium of historical experience going back to the Qin Dynasty, when a centralized monarchical political system governing all of China was first established. The early period of the Tang Dynasty was enormously beneficial for peasants due to substantive tax and land reforms which eased their burdens. In fact, the Tang law code, first compiled in 624 CE, was comprehensive, logically cogent, and very sophisticated in the way it dealt with crime and punishment as well as land distribution, taxation, and fairness. To administer that code successfully, the Tang also had to have a bureaucratic apparatus capable of an extremely accurate census. Evidence shows that this bureaucratic system was put into regular practice and sought to maximize agricultural production and economic activity through advancing equal land distribution and beneficial trade practices.
At the capital, Tang emperors had at their disposal sophisticated ministries that oversaw a vast provincial and county administrative system. To serve in high office, a man usually had to come from one of a small number of highly prestigious families with illustrious family pedigrees. These families took pride in their superior education and manners and maintained their exclusiveness by intermarrying. Thus, the Tang Dynasty was dominated by an aristocracy.
Nevertheless, some men from a larger pool of locally prominent families entered the civil service based on merit, by graduating from colleges located at the capital or succeeding at civil service examinations. During this period, upper-class women enjoyed more opportunities than at any time before 618 or after 1279. China even experienced rule by a woman emperor – Empress Wu.
In earlier times, empires rarely flourished without a solid agricultural foundation and revenue base. To ensure sufficient grain and labor service, Tang rulers believed that land must be equitably distributed to farmers. So they implemented the equal fields system. In this system, each family was to receive an equal plot of land (adjusted for terrain and productivity) for life, as well as a smaller plot as a permanent possession. The former was for growing grain, and the latter, for hemp and mulberry trees. In exchange, each farming family had to pay a tax in grain and cloth and provide twenty days of labor service. To make this work, officials carried out censuses and land surveys and periodically redistributed land. Of course, this system was quite onerous and difficult to carry out in practice, but it did function well for about a century.
The Tang also flourished because special attention was paid to molding an orderly society through the promulgation of sophisticated law codes. From ancient times, in China, law was viewed as an expression of the will of the emperor whose pronouncements defined illegal conduct and proper punishments. Law was also critically important to maintaining order, not only in the social but also the natural world. Crimes committed by subjects and the state could disturb the cosmos and lead to natural disasters. Thus, law maintained social and cosmic harmony. That is why codes were so important.
Reading the Past – The Ten Abominations
Read: “Selections from the Great Tang Code: Article 6, ‘The Ten Abominations’ by Zhangsun Wuji”. From Sources of Chinese Tradition, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999). Posted by Asia for Educators, Columbia University.
Link: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/zhangsun_wuji_great_tang_code.pdf
Use the ‘Longer Selection’ on page 3.
Questions to answer:
- What were the differences between plotting rebellion and plotting great sedition?
- What was the meaning of treason in this law code?
- What did it mean to commit the abomination of ‘what is not right’?
The Tang Code contained twelve sections, one addressing general principles, and the rest, administrative and penal law. Most of the statutes defined criminal offenses and the punishment for each of them. The magistrate’s role was primarily to investigate and determine precisely the nature of the crime so that the proper punishment could be assigned. In Tang times, people believed that the severity of punishment should be based on the relative status of the perpetrator and victim. For instance, a crime committed against a family member was more serious than one committed against a stranger, and a crime committed against an official was more serious than one committed against a commoner. Within families, too, the status of members mattered. Whereas a father could flog his son without consequence, a son faced capital punishment should he beat his father. In brief, Tang laws encoded the status hierarchy and values of imperial Confucianism. The most serious crimes were those committed against the emperor, country, senior family members, and social superiors. Nevertheless, those of higher status were held accountable for their actions; a magistrate who failed to justly administer the law faced punishment. In fact, Tang monarchs were so concerned that justice might fail to be upheld that they often proclaimed amnesties, nullifying the sentences of all but the worst criminals.
Lastly, Tang rulers established a formidable military. At first, the army consisted of 600 militias stationed at headquarters located near the capitals and throughout the countryside. A large standing army was located at the capital, and frontier garrisons were strung out along the northern border. These forces were largely maintained by drawing men from a military population; Tang rulers relied on a large number of families that maintained military traditions and provided sons for periods of service in lieu of paying taxes and providing labor service. As necessary, these men could be assembled into expeditionary armies consisting of heavy cavalry and marching infantry.
Under Tang leadership, Buddhism truly flourished. In many regions, Buddhism coexisted with native ideas of Daoism and a blending of Chinese (Daoist) and Buddhist traditions gave rise to new Buddhist ‘paths’ including the Pure Land Sect, Chan Buddhism, and the Tian-tai sect. Although Chinese civilization was enriched by the spread of Buddhist influences, the Chinese were also faced with the need to balance new ideas with existing traditions. This tension continued throughout Chinese history.
Having laid these solid institutional foundations, the Tang Dynasty followed with military expansion. Offensives waged to the north divided up and subdued powerful Turkic khans and their confederations of steppe nomads. Tang imperial power was then projected deep into Central Asia, Manchuria, and northern Vietnam, making China the most dominant country in East Asia in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Tang capital city Chang-an was an immense and sprawling city drawing merchants and travelers from Asia, the Near East, and even the Mediterranean. This was one of China’s rare eras of cosmopolitan interchange. The stability and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, combined with influences brought in by the Silk Road trade, resulted in a flowering of Chinese scholarship as well as achievements in fine arts, advances in working with porcelain, and sculptures and paintings. The greatest achievement in the eyes of many historians was Tang literature, in particular the much-beloved poetry of this period. Poets such as Li Bo (Li Po) and Tu Fu (Du Fu) are still considered by the Chinese their greatest writers. These poets blended traditional forms dating back to the Shang period but also incorporated influences from other cultures in Central Asia and even farther away that filtered into China through Silk Road links.
Reading the Past – Poetry in China’s Golden Age
Read: “Climbing West of Lotus Flower Peak” – Li Po (701-762)
Link: https://mypoeticside.com/show-classic-poem-22519
Questions to answer:
- Why are the images Li Po chose mostly about nature?
- What does Li Po think of the activities of humans compared to the events in nature?
The poem above by Li Bai (Li Po) is one of the most famous examples of a change in the traditions of poetry, art, and literature of China identified with the transition usually identified with the Sui, and especially the Tang and Song dynasties (the period between 589 and 1279 CE). The change that occurred was from the classical ideas of the Han Dynasty period during which poetry was very political or military oriented and followed specific rules;visual art was seen as a craft performed by artisans for decoration. This shifted to the idea of poetry treated as an art involving self-expression and style.
Between the late Han Dynasty and the beginning of the Sui, new artistic and literary trends grew up that ignored many of the classical cultural norms of China. Poets, writers, and philosophers as well as visual artists adopted new ideas that were related to Daoism, including a love of nature and ideas of non-action, but adapted them into new philosophies of art that were apolitical, individualistic, abhorred ritual and formalism, and celebrated art for art’s sake and the appreciation of beauty without reference to morality. Painting also began in this period to be seen as an artistic pursuit rather than as a craft. Artists used multiple perspectives and planes in their paintings and utilized more colors with greater saturation and varied levels of brightness. They frequently chose their subjects because of the beauty they perceived in them, rather than for educational or moral edification. Eventually, as Buddhism grew in importance, so did its influence on literature, philosophy, and the visual arts. Writers also made new attempts at literary and art criticism, inventing new methods or modifying classical ones to meet their new philosophy on the purpose and meaning of art.
The poem above, is an example of several of these trends. It is not a political poem, though it does mention the battlefield and soldiers (Li Bai was once a soldier himself). Instead, it seeks beauty in an everyday setting and laments the smallness of humans in the face of the events of nature. There is no pretense at teaching history or morality; it is simply an appreciation of nature’s beauty and grandeur. Li Bai (also known as Li Bo or Li Po), who was born in 724 CE at the beginning of the decline of the Tang Dynasty, would be celebrated despite his many romantic adventures in and out of marriage, and his tendency to live an unproductive and wandering life. His most famous poem may be “Drinking Alone Under the Moon,” which is about exactly what the title suggests. Li Bai was interested in showing the loneliness of a man with no companions and no lover who looks longingly at the moon while drinking, and feels even more lonely because he realizes the moon is not really his companion, either. Li Bai in this poem is not attempting to teach the reader anything, nor is he making a political point. He is discussing his own feelings, and sharing them with others who might well understand.
Both of these poems borrow a love of nature, and perhaps a sense of being resigned to the chance workings of the world, that come from Daoism, but they are not Daoist poems. They have no references to balance, or to the magical worldview of religious Daoism. They instead document the experiences of individuals as tiny parts of a bigger natural whole, able to appreciate, but not to affect, their own destinies. In many ways, this reflects the Tang and Song worldview in general. As the Tang Dynasty expanded to include many ethnicities and languages that were not formally Chinese, so did their recognition that culturally China was only one of many societies in a much larger world. This did not lead to a sense of loss but to a kind of excitement at the great variety of people and things in the world and a desire to experience them. This may be the source of historians’ talk of the Tang Dynasty as perhaps the most cosmopolitan place in the world during its time. Certainly, Chang’an, its capital city, was one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the world in the 1st millennium CE.
The Decline and Collapse of the Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty reached its zenith during the 8th century under the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756 CE), but then went into decline. At first, the problem was over-expansion. Tang rulers had expanded the empire’s boundaries in nearly every direction, including far into Central Asia. To defend the northwestern border, a system of regional frontier commands was established, each with its own commander and professional army. The earlier system of militias and garrisons manned by hereditary military families declined. This decline turned out to be dangerous. After one general, An Lushan, butted heads with the emperor’s chief minister, he marched his frontier army of 100,000 soldiers south to the capital, forcing the court to flee. An was eventually executed by his own men, and a Tang emperor returned to the throne, but the turmoil unleashed by this rebellion rendered the Tang Dynasty ineffective. During the ensuing turmoil, the empire shrank and Central Asia was lost. Also, both Tang supporters and pardoned rebels were granted military governorships, giving them control over provinces. Many then chose not to remit tax revenue to the central government, appointed their own subordinates, and designated their successors. They had, in effect, become warlords with their own loyal, regional bases.
Furthermore, as the political system decentralized in this way, the system of equitable land distribution collapsed. Thus, much like during the end of the Han Dynasty, landlords used their power and influence to build great estates. Large numbers of farmers ended up without land and survived only by joining bandit gangs or the ranks of warlord armies. When droughts and famine hit in the late 9th century, a massive rebellion broke out. The last Tang emperor was turned into a puppet by military commanders and eventually, in 907 CE, abdicated. China then entered yet another period of division until the Song Dynasty restored order in 960 CE.
THE SONG DYNASTY
Think about it…
- What conditions led to prosperity during the Song Dynasty?
- How did urbanization and the Examination System change the opportunities available to common Chinese during the Song Dynasty?
Like every Chinese dynasty before it, the Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE) was born out of turmoil and warfare. After the Tang Dynasty fell, China was once again divided into numerous, contending kingdoms. The founder of the Song, Zhao Kuangyin [j-ow kwong-yeen], was a military commander and advisor to the emperor of one of these kingdoms, but after the emperor died and his six-year-old son came to the throne, Zhao staged a coup. He and his brother, the succeeding Emperor Taizong [tie-dzawng], ruled for the first forty years of a dynasty that would last over three hundred years, laying the foundations for its prosperity and cultural brilliance. The Song Dynasty saw a total of 18 emperors and is most notable for the challenges it faced from northern powers, for its economic prosperity, the civil service examination system and educated elite of scholar-officials it created, its cultural brilliance, and for footbinding.
During the Song, China once again confronted tremendous challenges from conquests by military confederations located along the northern border. So threatening and successful were these that the Song Dynasty counted as just one of many powerful players in a larger geopolitical system in Central and East Asia. The first two northern conquest dynasties, the Liao and Jin, emerged on the plains of Manchuria when powerful tribal leaders organized communities of hunters, fishers, and farmers for war. As their power grew, they formed states and conquered territory in northern China, forcing the Chinese to pay them large subsidies of silk and silver for peace. Chinese rulers and their councilors were in constant negotiations with peoples they viewed as culturally inferior barbarians, under conditions where they were forced to treat them as equals as opposed to weaker tribute paying states in a Chinese-dominated world. At first, they used a combination of defensive measures and expensive bilateral treaties, which did make for a degree of stability. But a high price was exacted. Halfway through the Song, the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Liao and occupied the entire northern half of China, forcing the Song court to move south. To rule Chinese possessions, Jin rulers even took on the trappings of Chinese-style emperors and developed a dual administrative system. Steppe tribes were ruled by a traditional military organization, while the farming population of China was governed by Chinese-style civilian administration. The Song Dynasty thus constantly faced the prospect of extinction and was challenged in its legitimacy by rival emperors claiming the right to rule the Chinese realm.
One reason Song monarchs were able to buy peace was the extraordinary prosperity during their rule and the resulting tax revenue made available. During those centuries, China was by many measures the most developed country in the world. In 1100 CE, the population was 100 million, more than all of medieval Europe combined. That number doubled the population of 750 CE, just 300 years prior. The reason for such growth was flourishing agricultural production, especially rice-paddy agriculture. More drought-resistant and earlier ripening strains of rice, combined with better technology, led to higher yields per acre.
The impact was enormous. The productivity of farmers stimulated other industries such as ironworking. Estimates place iron production at as high as 20 thousand tons per year. That amount made iron prices low and products as spades, plowshares, nails, axles, and pots and pans were more cheaply available. Seeing its profitability, wealthy landowning and merchant families invested in metallurgy, spurring better technology. Bellows, for instance, were worked by hydraulic machinery such as water mills. Explosives derived from gunpowder were engineered to open mines. Similar development of the textile and ceramic industries occurred.
Indeed, during the Song, China underwent a veritable economic revolution. Improvements in agriculture and industry, combined with a denser population, spurred the commercialization of the economy. A commercialized economy is one that supports the pursuit of profit through the production of specialized products for markets. For instance, a Song farmer, rather than just producing rice to get by, might purchase it and instead specialize in tea or oranges. Since markets were proliferating in towns and cities and transport via land and water was now readily available, farmers could rely on merchants to market their goods across the country. To support this economic activity, the government minted billions of coins each year. Prosperity and increased trade led to the innovation of the world’s first paper currency, which was far more convenient than heavy coins, as well as sophisticated methods of banking.
A denser population and sophisticated economy led to greater urbanization. During the Song, at a time when London had roughly 15 thousand people, China had dozens of cities with over 50 thousand people and capitals with a half million. Song era painted scrolls show crowds of people moving through streets lined with shops, restaurants, teahouses, and guest houses. To manage their realm, Song rulers implemented a national civil service examination to recruit men for office. Prior dynasties had used written examinations testing knowledge of Confucian classics to select men for office, but only as a supplement to recommendation and hereditary privilege. During the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, however, aristocratic families that had for centuries dominated the upper echelons of officialdom disappeared. The first Song emperor, Zhao Kuangyin, rode to power with the support of military men; having largely unified China, he then sought to restore civil governance based in Confucian principles of humaneness and righteousness. So he invited senior commanders to a party and, over a cup of wine, asked them to relinquish their commands for a comfortable retirement. They obliged. He and his successors consequently made the examination system the pre-eminent route to office, even establishing a national school system to help young men prepare for and advance through it. Thus, during the Song Dynasty, civil offices came to be dominated by men who had spent years, even decades, preparing for and passing through a complex series of exams; they were both scholars and officials. Success in entering this class placed a person at the pinnacle of society, guaranteeing them prestige and wealth. These scholar-officials, and their Confucian worldview, dominated Chinese society until the 20th century.
In theory, since any adult male could take the examinations, the system was meritocratic. But in reality, because they were so difficult and quotas were set, very few actually passed them. Estimates suggest that only 1 in 100 passed the lowest level exam. This ratio meant that, in order to succeed, a young man had to begin memorizing long classical texts as a child and to continue his studies until he passed or gave up hope. Only affluent families could afford to support such an education.
Nevertheless, the meritocratic ideal inspired people from all classes to try and so promoted literacy and a literary revival during the Song Dynasty. As a part of this revival, and to provide a curriculum for education, scholar-officials sought to reinvigorate Confucianism. The philosophical movement they began is known as Neo-Confucianism. By the time of the Song Dynasty, Confucianism largely shaped personal behavior and social mores, while Buddhist and Daoist explanations of the cosmos, human nature, and the human predicament dominated the individual’s spiritual outlook. Neo- Confucians responded to this challenge by providing a metaphysical basis for Confucian morality and governance. Zhu Xi (1130–1200), arguably the most important philosopher in later imperial Chinese history, produced a grand synthesis that would shape the worldview of the scholar-official class. He argued that the cosmos consists of a duality of principles and a material force composing physical things. One principle underlies the cosmos, and individual principles provide abstract reasons for individual things. In human beings, principle manifests as human nature, which is wholly good and the origin of the human capacity to become moral persons. However, an individual’s physical being obscures their good nature and leads to moral failings, which is why a rigorous Confucian curriculum of moral self-cultivation based in classical texts like Confucius’ Analects is necessary. Most importantly, Zhu Xi argued, individual morality was the starting point for producing a well-managed family, orderly government, and peace throughout the world.
Furthermore, during the Song Dynasty, moveable-type printing began to be widely used, contributing to an increase in literacy and broader exposure to these new ideas. Block printing was also widely used. Chinese characters were carved on wood blocks, which were then arranged in boxes that could be dipped in ink and printed on paper. Books on a multitude of topics – especially classics and histories – became cheaply and widely available, fueling a cultural efflorescence at a time when education had become paramount to climbing the social ladder. Other inventions that made China one of the most technologically innovative during this time include gunpowder weapons and the mariner’s compass.
Looked at from many angles, then, the Song was truly a dynamic period in China’s history. However, some observers have bemoaned the fact that footbinding also began during this dynasty and see that practice as a symbol of increasing gender oppression. Scholars believe footbinding began among professional dancers in the 10th century and was then adopted by the upper classes. Over time it spread to the rest of Chinese society, only ending in the 20th century. At a young age, a girl’s feet would be wrapped tightly with bandages so that they couldn’t grow, ideally remaining about four inches long. That stunting made walking very difficult and largely kept women confined to their homes. Eventually, the bound foot, encased in an embroidered silk slipper, became a symbol of femininity and also one of the criteria for marriageability.
More generally, social norms and laws did place women in a subordinate position. Whereas men dominated public realms like government and business, women married at a young age and lived out most of their lives in the domestic sphere. Indeed, in earlier times, China was patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal. It was patriarchal because the law upheld the authority of senior males in the household and patrilineal because one’s surname and family property passed down the male line, though a wife did have control over her dowry. Importantly, ancestor worship, the pre-eminent social and religious practice in Chinese society, was directed toward patrilineal forbears. That is why it was important for the woman to move into the spouse’s home, where she would live together with her parents-in-law. Patrilocal describes this type of social pattern. Marriages were almost always arranged for the benefit of both families involved; during the wedding ceremony, the bride was taken in a curtained sedan chair to the husband’s home where she was to promise to obey her parents-in-law and then bow along with her husband before the ancestral altar. Ideally, she would become a competent household manager, educate the children, and demonstrate much restraint and other interpersonal skills valued by Tang society.
Although gender hierarchy was, therefore, the norm, other scholars have observed that ideals were not always reality and women did exercise their agency within the boundaries placed upon them. A wife could gain dignity and a sense of self-worth by handling her roles capably; she would also earn respect. Song literature further reveals that women were often in the fields working or out on city streets shopping. Among the upper classes, literacy and the ability to compose essays or poetry made a woman more marriageable. For this reason, some women were able to excel in these fields. Li Qingzhao [lee ching-jow] (c. 1084–1155) is one of China’s greatest poets. She came from a prestigious scholar-official family. Her father was both a statesman and classical scholar, and her mother was known for her literary achievements. In her teens, Li began to compose poetry, and, over the course of her life, she produced many volumes of essays and poems. Poems to her husband even suggest mutual love and respect and equality within their marriage.
THE EMERGENCE OF EAST ASIA: KOREA’S HISTORY FROM THE FOURTH CENTURY BCE TO 900 CE
Think about it…
- How were Japan and Korea different from China?
East Asia first emerges as an identifiable cultural sphere during the Tang Dynasty. By the Tang era, kingdoms had already emerged on the Korean Peninsula and the main islands of Japan, but it was during the Tang that ruling elites in both of these states made extensive efforts to adapt components of the Chinese political, legal, and writing system, as well as of Chinese culture, to their own societies.
We have already learned about China’s history from the Han Dynasty (203 BCE–220 CE) through the Period of Division (220–589 CE) and into the Tang and Song Dynasties. During those same centuries, the first states formed on the Korean Peninsula, and historians generally organize that time into three periods: the early historical period (c. 400 BCE–313 CE), Three Kingdoms Period (313–668 CE), and the Silla Dynasty (668–892 CE).
There are many questions that are of interest to scholars of Korea’s earliest history. Among them, historians consider how it is possible to reconstruct a history of Korea when most early records are in Chinese. Other key questions include whether there was a distinct Korean culture before the spread of Buddhism and facets of Chinese culture into the peninsula. What enabled Silla to unify the Korean Peninsula in the 7th century? What features of Chinese statecraft and learning did Silla’s elites adopt from Tang China? In this unit, we’ll look at the history of Korea from the earliest myths to 926 CE.
Korea’s Geography and Early Beginnings
The Korean Peninsula is the location of North and South Korea today. Prior to the 20th century it was home to a long succession of Korean kingdoms. Extending roughly 1100 kilometers southward from the Asian landmass, the peninsula is bounded by seas to the east, west, and south, and defined by the Yalu River and Paektu Mountain to the north. Beyond that lies Northeast China which was only periodically included in the territory of Chinese empires. Because the peninsula lies between China to the north and west, and Japan to the east, Korean dynasties have been deeply impacted by these neighboring states’ histories and cultures. Like Japan, Korea is also mountainous, although coastal areas and plains located to the west and south were well-suited to agriculture.
The countries of East Asia share in the region’s temperate climate and summer monsoon season. During the summer months, warm and moist air originating from the Pacific flows from southeast to northwest, while during the winter months cold and dry air originating from Central Asia moves in the opposite direction. Thus, those areas of East Asia located further to the east and south are generally warmer and wetter, and for longer periods of time. That made them well-suited to rice-paddy agriculture, and rice consequently became the primary cereal crop in southern China, the Korean peninsula, and the islands of Japan. While growing rice is labor intensive, this grain also offers high yields per unit of land, so it supported population growth in these countries and, therefore, the formation of vibrant civilizations.
Since the Neolithic period there were people living in small villages on the coast and inland. Like Japan, they were foragers, living on local plants and fishing and hunting. The earliest histories of Korea reach back to claims of a kingdom established in the 3rd millennium BCE. (2000-999 BCE). That kingdom, called now by the name “Gojoseon,” is largely considered to be mythological. The information that we have regarding this kingdom comes from the Goryeo period (918-1392 CE), and was written by Chinese historians, who claimed that a king named Tangun founded the dynasty and built his capital near modern-day Pyongyang, in what is now North Korea.
According to the myth, Tangun founded his capital city during the same era as Emperor Yao, the legendary founder of Chinese civilization. No evidence of Gojoseon or King Tangun has been found, however, and they claim to have a similar founding date as found in China’s mythical history, which suggests that this myth was created later to claim some legitimacy in regard to Chinese civilization. Even more telling is the fact that Tangun’s birth itself is surrounded by mythology. There are numerous tales about his origins, at least one of which claims he was born from the union of a female bear whom the gods turned into a human, and the gods. In this way, as in Chinese history, and perhaps echoed by the later Japanese mythology, Korean civilization seems to be claiming a place for its emperor as a son of Heaven.
The Tangun myth is just that. However, there is evidence that people lived in Korea as early as 500,000 years ago, and polished stone tools and pottery indicate a Neolithic culture between 8,000 and 2,000 BCE. These people were not ethnically homogeneous, nor did they all speak a single language. In fact, languages and tribal membership were likely fluid at the time, with various tribes and tribal confederations speaking different languages and living within distinct cultural settings. Eventually, the language that developed into Korean shares structural and vocabulary elements with several other languages belonging to the Altaic group.
This point is important because people unfamiliar with East Asia sometimes think that the languages spoken by Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese are closely related, when in fact they are quite different. However, it is also important to note that in ancient times, the Chinese writing system was adopted by literate elites throughout East Asia for the purpose of writing their spoken languages. Only over time were native scripts developed out of this writing system.
The earliest written histories of Korea come from China only a century or two before the year 1 CE. These histories share a common limitation in that they were created by Chinese scribes, whose point of view was not likely the same as the people about whom they were writing. By 300 BCE, a state called Joseon, (Gojoseon-Old Joseon), was the most powerful of several small states that Chinese scribes were writing about. The location of this historical Gojoseon is not yet clear. It may have been on the Liao River in Manchuria, or the Taedong River near modern Pyongyang. Gojoseon developed bronze technology and seems to have been a federation of several small walled towns.
During the period of China’s Han Dynasty, according to “The Grand Historian” Sima Qian, the King of the Han state of Yan rebelled against the Han emperor. During this rebellion, one of the commanders in the King of Yan’s army, a man named Weiman (Korean Wiman) left the army with 1,000 soldiers and went to Joseon. He was welcomed by the king, according to Sima Qian, and given the job of defending the border of the kingdom, but he eventually turned his men on the Joseon dynasty itself and proclaimed himself king. This was the beginning of the Wiman dynasty which lasted until 108 BCE. Wiman had iron technology and was quite large. Wiman people used iron plows and had iron weapons. The Wiman kingdom, though, did not sit in what we consider to be Korea today. It was north of the Han River, and mostly north of the Yalu in what is now Eastern Manchuria. Even where it did intrude southward, the Wiman kings did not control all people in the Korean peninsula north of the Han River. Nevertheless, it had significant legal and economic control over the region.
Emperor Han Wudi brought the Wiman dynasty to an end. Wudi, known as China’s “martial emperor,” was a successful general and conqueror whose expansion of the Han dynasty and patronage of Confucianism identify him as one of the most effective of the Han Dynasty rulers. His military adventures in the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria led Wudi to set up four Chinese commanderies (bases for military administration of surrounding territories) in the northern Korean peninsula, near modern-day Pyongyang. The most important of these was the commandery of Lelang. The existence of Lelang and the other commanderies increased trade between the peninsula and Han China thereby increasing cultural exchange and the importance of Chinese ideas and writing. Lelang became a center for iron ore mining, iron production, industry (manufacturing), arts, culture, and trade. Its economic success led many Chinese, along with people from Manchuria and the Korean peninsula, to emigrate there and set themselves up in business.
Because it was a Chinese city, a center of trade as well as Chinese administration, Lelang became a major center for cultural mixing and political and economic interchange. It is likely that the use of Chinese for all these purposes also increased during the four centuries during which Lelang thrived. The fact that it is not clear what ethnicities emigrated there probably also had a great effect on the creation of certain aspects of later Korean culture. When we talk, for example, about Lelang being a Chinese city, this is not in ethnic terms but refers to which entity controlled Lelang’s politics. Chinese from the northern part of the Han Dynasty may have spoken Chinese, but they were often of mixed ethnicity themselves and were used to interacting with the various peoples of the Xiongnu confederation, a group of tribal entities who did not share a common culture or necessarily common language. The same was true at the time for people living on the Korean peninsula. Thus, although we can say that today Korea is a nation with very little ethnic diversity, in 100 BCE – 313 CE, the people living in the Korean peninsula, even those in the commandery of Lelang, were of myriad ethnic, linguistic, or cultural origins. We can think of this time and place as relatively diverse, but joined together and ruled by the ideologies and policies of the Han Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty under Wudi encountered financial difficulties as his expansionist policy ran into economic realities. In the latter part of his reign, Wudi’s success appears to have cost China more than it brought in. This financial strain led eventually to the state’s absorption of the production of salt and iron, the two biggest industrial commodities in China at the time, to help balance payments with income. Lelang was a part of this state-controlled production of iron, and no doubt opinions about whether the state should be involved in trade of this kind were discussed regularly there. When Wudi died in 87 BCE Confucian scholars preparing to advise the new emperor held a special conference, known today as the Great Salt and Iron Debate, to discuss the appropriateness of imperial involvement in manufacturing and business.
Through all of this turmoil and the death of Wudi, Lelang remained a Chinese commandery and continued to be a primary power in the region until 313 CE. It attracted Chinese immigrants and even while Wudi’s expansion faltered, then ended, the region remained loyal to China. Its power was such that it was also able to force states south of the Han River which were not nominally under its control to pay tribute, probably both for protection and to participate in the trade with other parts of Asia.
Korea’s Three Kingdoms
Sometime between 40 BCE and 40 C.E. the small “walled states” that existed south of the Han river began grouping themselves into three larger federations. They had developed irrigation technology and wet rice agriculture in the alluvial valleys of the Korean Peninsula. Wet rice agriculture is significant technology because though the labor input is high, the output in terms of calories per person and overall grain yield per hectare (1 hectare = 2.47105 acres) is much higher than dry land grains. This made these states somewhat wealthier than their predecessors in the same region, leading to a developing economy.
Those three federations included Jinhan, in the middle of the southern peninsula, Mahan in the southwestern part of the peninsula, and Byeonhan in the southeastern part of the peninsula. This might seem like the beginning of the consolidation of polities in the Korean Peninsula itself but these were federations of states, and so not centralized nor did they likely have integrated economies, governments, or armies. They were most probably among the states from which Lelang was able to extract tribute payments. In a region of the Korean Peninsula to the south and west, beyond the Sobaek Mountains ,and so protected to some degree from Chinese influence from Lelang and across the Yellow Sea, a small kingdom known as Silla [she-la] appeared by roughly 57 BCE. It became a part of the competition for power on the peninsula as the other states consolidated in the 1st century CE.
Out of this early consolidation, in the federation known as Mahan in the southwestern Korean Peninsula, a centralized state that came to be known as Baekje [peck-jay] emerged by 246 CE. Historians know of the existence of Baekje because Lelang records show that it attacked Baekje in 246. Apparently, the growth of this new kingdom threatened Lelang. Baekje was a centralized aristocratic state. In this form of government, the state can have a specific ruler (e.g. king or queen), but power rests primarily in the hands of a small elite, usually large landholders with military power. Baekje does seem to have had that military tradition. Within 100 years of the 246 CE confrontation with Lelang, it had taken control of the entirety of Mahan and the area around modern-day Seoul. It also appears that the Korean custom of father-to-son inheritance began here under King Kun Chogo and his grandson instituted Buddhism as the official state religion in 384 CE.
At roughly the same time, two other kingdoms emerged to the north of Lelang and Baekje: Buyeo, in the Sungari River basin of Manchuria, and Goguryeo [Ko-goo-ryo], south of Buyeo near the Yalu River. Of the two, Goguryeo was the most powerful. Developing in conflict with China, it gained strength and eventually defeated and consumed Buyeo by 312 CE, and then continued to expand in all directions, but especially in the direction of the Liao River in the West and the Taedong River in the South. In 313 CE it defeated and occupied Lelang, then began a war with Baekje.
The political picture for the early historical period is complex because the peninsula and neighboring Manchuria looked like a mosaic of chiefdom confederations and petty kingdoms, each governed by elite families living in walled towns. These political entities first took shape during these centuries. By the early centuries CE, three kingdoms extending from Manchuria to where Seoul lies today (the capital of South Korea) covered the northern half, while the southern half was divided up by confederations of chiefdoms.
As the Korean peninsula lies very close to China, with only Manchuria and the Yellow Sea dividing the two states, rulers of Chinese states had long taken an interest in controlling both trade routes leading into this region and the people living there. In 108 BCE, during the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu even sent expeditions into Manchuria and Korea. He opened up a corridor leading from China through Manchuria into the peninsula and established four commanderies to control the area. After the Han Dynasty collapsed, northern China was in turmoil and unable to control these frontiers. In 313 CE, King Mich’on of Goguryeo, in an effort to expand the size of his kingdom, seized Chinese territory. That date marked the beginning of a new stage in Korean history referred to as the Three Kingdoms period (313 CE–668 CE). The Three Kingdoms were Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. The most powerful kingdom was Goguryeo (c. 37 BCE–668 CE).
Like Goguryeo, the early histories of Baekje and Silla date back to the early historical period, during which time they were consolidated from southern chiefdom confederations. Each kingdom was dominated by a warrior elite composed of the ruling and aristocratic clans. For most of the Three Kingdoms period, Goguryeo was the dominant military and political power, spreading its control over much of Manchuria and northern Korea. During the 5th century CE, its capital was moved to Pyongyang, site of a former Han Commandery. This move made this city, the capital of North Korea today, important to Korean history. Murals on Goguryeo tombs located in the vicinity show what this kingdom’s elites valued. They are depicted as heavily-clad warriors fighting on horseback with bows and arrows, and swords and halberds. A cosmos depicts guardian spirits and nature gods belonging to a native Korean tradition of shamanism.
Given the geopolitical position of Korea, it is not surprising that all three kingdoms highly valued martial traditions. First of all, they fought with each other for control over territory and resources on the peninsula. Secondly, Korea is positioned between China and Japan and those states often intruded upon peninsular conflicts. Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo monarchs readily borrowed ideas from China that might benefit their realms and give them more power. That borrowing included introducing elements of Chinese political institutions and legal traditions, as well as Buddhism and Confucianism. All these kingdoms sent students to study in China, as well as patronized Chinese Buddhist monks and learned Confucians who visited their courts. These visitors were knowledgeable in many fields, including science and technology. Buddhism not only promised salvation but also magical powers of healing, and rulers could style themselves as living Buddhas. Korean leaders sponsored the building of temples and formation of a Buddhist religious order. Confucianism, on the other hand, provided models of civility, courtly etiquette, and bureaucratic governance, and rulers could style themselves in Chinese fashion as sovereign monarchs. Confucian academies were established to train students of aristocratic families for service.
All three kingdoms had an important influence on the development of a later culture that we can call specifically Korean. It appears that a tradition of royal succession and aristocratic inheritance based on the transmission of power, title, land, and family leadership from father to son, as well as the importance of Buddhism, was likely established by Baekje. This does not mean that Buddhism did not exist in the other two kingdoms, nor does it mean that father-son inheritance was uncommon in the others. Baekje apparently codified these into its official political system before the others did. Goguryeo’s founding king Chumong was championed as super-human. He claimed the title Son of Heaven (the same title as the Chinese emperors) but was also rumored to have been as strong as a fully-grown man by the age of seven and to have the ability to walk on water. In one legend, King Chumong’s importance to Heaven was emphasized when fleeing from a group of enemy warriors chasing him, all the fish grouped together to form a bridge so that he and his horse could cross a river to escape, then dissipated, leaving his enemies helpless on the other side.
Learning in Action – The Silla Dynasty
Watch the video: “Korean history – Silla Kingdom”, The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea: Korean History Channel 1999
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRWGn2IO6_A&t=120s
Questions to answer:
- What was the name of the famed Silla era observatory?
- How did Silla era sculptures reflect their advances in mathematics?
- What was an example of Silla’s metallurgic achievements?
- What was the Hwarang?
Towards the end of the Three Kingdoms period, it was not the great northeastern power of Goguryeo that unified the Korean Peninsula. This was accomplished by the Silla Dynasty for two reasons. First, Silla rulers were particularly effective in using Chinese political practices to centralize their power. They adopted Chinese-style titles, central government agencies, and law codes; made Buddhism a state-sponsored religion; and established an academy for studying Chinese classical texts, law, medicine, and astronomy. Second, Silla monarchs built alliances with Tang emperors that worked to their advantage. As we addressed, the Chinese Sui Dynasty fell because the Sui rulers suffered terrible defeats at the hands of the armies of the great kingdom of Goguryeo. Tang Dynasty rulers continued the invasions but also failed. For that reason, they were open to building alliances with Silla and combining their military forces. Together, they defeated Baekje in 660 CE and Goguryeo in 668 CE. Much to the Tang emperor’s surprise, Silla then drove out Tang forces, preventing any efforts on China’s part to control the Korean peninsula. The Silla Dynasty (668–892 CE) thus became the first power to unify the peninsula. According to historian Bruce Cummings, there are differences between the narratives of Korean history preferred by North Korea and South Korea in our own time. While North Korea prefers to see Goguryeo as the progenitor of modern Korea, the South Korean history textbooks locate the mainline of Korean cultural development within the story of Silla.
Goguryeo and the Silla Dynasty were, in succession, two of the most powerful kingdoms in ancient Korea. Their histories were deeply shaped by the intrusion of Chinese states into the region. Throughout history, states developed and centralized their control over a territory largely in response to the impact of their powerful neighboring state which had developed before them. As they did so, they borrowed ideas for how states should be organized from that neighboring power, even as native traditions and languages were retained.
THE EMERGENCE OF EAST ASIA: JAPAN FROM THE YAYOI PERIOD TO TEH SEVENTH CENTURY
Think about it…
- How has Japan adapted the ideas of other states, especially China, to its specific needs?
Those who follow the history of World War II might know that during those years, the highest authority in Japan was Emperor Hirohito. Even today, Japan has an emperor and empress, although they no longer have any formal political power in this now democratic nation and rather serve in a cultural and symbolic role. Interestingly, the Japanese monarchy is the oldest continuous one in the history of the world and traces its beginnings to at least the 4th century CE. It is just one of the many distinctive developments in Japanese history.
Japan’s Geography and Early Beginnings
Japan’s early historical development presents unique characteristics because of its geography. The island archipelago was close enough to Chinese and Korean states to borrow from them and benefit from migration and yet far enough away so that invasions were never a sudden impetus to change. Japan is an archipelago consisting of four main islands, from north to south: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Japan also includes many smaller islands located off its Pacific coast, and in the seas between the main islands and the Asian continent. Since 1609 Japan has also included the islands of Okinawa, once the Ryukyu Kingdom, to the south of Kyushu. At 400,000 square kilometers, Japan is slightly smaller than California, although the terrain is more rugged. The middle of Japan’s largest island, Honshu, consists of several interlocking mountain ranges. Because Japan is covered by mountains and traversed by numerous rivers, only 15% of the land is suited to agriculture. Much of that is concentrated in two plains – the Kinai Plain in the area around modern Osaka and Kyoto, and the Kanto Plain around modern Tokyo. As the largest areas suitable for agriculture, these two plains have been particularly important to Japan’s early history.
Japan is also located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates composing the earth’s crust frequently move and collide. That is why earthquakes and volcanic activity have been a constant threat to populations living on these islands. Japan’s most famous volcano is the still-active Mt. Fuji, just south of the Tokyo area. Mt. Aso in Kyushu is also active and has played an important role in Japanese history. Earthquakes are common in Japan. The most recent was the devastating March 11th Fukushima Earthquake of 2011, which topped 9.0 on the Richter scale. The tsunami following that earthquake devastated large areas of Japan’s coastline, killing thousands and flattening towns and large parts of cities. It also cut power to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, where at least one of the reactors overheated and went into a meltdown situation. Prior to that earthquake was the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 in the Kobe region, and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 in the Tokyo area. In fact, many earthquakes have been even more devastating than these. Such geographical and geological realities have had important impacts on the development of Japanese culture.
But even during the prehistoric period, geography impacted Japan’s development in other ways including supporting a Paleolithic lifestyle for millennia. The first evidence for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers dates back to c. 30,000 BCE. In the resource-rich environments of mountainous and forested Japan, small bands of mobile, multi-generational families were able to thrive on game, shellfish, fruits, tubers, and nuts. In fact, foraging strategies were so successful that even when sedentary village communities first formed, they thrived without agriculture. This period of time is known as the Jōmon [joe-moan] Period (c. 11,000–500 BCE). The archaeological record reveals that, up and down the archipelago, foragers settled into permanent base camps. These were hamlet communities made up of pit dwellings for homes and raised floor structures for holding community functions. Jōmon, meaning “cord-marked,” refers to the type of pottery they used. This case is one of the few in prehistory where a culture invented and used pottery long before farming.
The Yayoi Period
Farming began during the next stage in Japanese history – the Yayoi [ya-yo-ee] Period (500 BCE–250 CE). The label refers to a site near Tokyo where artifacts were discovered evidencing new developments in Japan. Most importantly, rice-paddy agriculture and dry-field farming were introduced during this era, techniques that supported population growth and the formation of more and larger village communities. The impetus to shift to cultivated agriculture was likely earlier experimentation with simple horticulture, a warming climate, and migration from mainland East Asia. Those migrants also brought knowledge of iron- and bronze-working, and over time tools and weapons fashioned from metals became widespread.
During the early centuries of the Yayoi Period, small village communities proliferated across the main islands of Japan, but it was during the latter half of this era they evolved into something more substantial. Archaeologists have excavated the foundations of large settlements surrounded by moats and embankments. These fortified bastions were home to up to 2000 residents and contained ceremonial centers, differentiated residences and burials, watchtowers, and palisades. Some burials contained skeletons indicating wounds or dismemberment. Combining this evidence with clues from contemporary Chinese historical sources, specialists have concluded that, by the end of the Yayoi period, powerful chiefdoms had emerged in Japan, allying with and battling each other to control trade routes and territory.
Regional landholding elite clans, known as uji exercised power and patronized associated clans whose members provided certain services for them. These service clans were known as be (pronounced “bay”). The uji-be relationship was complex, and be appear to have served in various capacities, including that of a military or political advisor, metal smith, tool-maker, cloth-maker, etc… The uji-be system resulted in the creation of several largely independent political and economic units in competition with each other for resources.
The late Yayoi Period clearly was a transitional phase leading to the formation of the first kingdom in Japanese history. That happened in the next stage, the Mounded Tomb Period (250–600 CE). Among the warring chiefdoms, one emerged as dominant. Chinese sources from the Northern Wei Dynasty (just before the Sui consolidated power) describe a chiefdom led by a woman named Himiko or Pimiko, who lived in a wooden palace that looked much like a stockade, and whose palace attendants were exclusively male. The Chinese, whose political system was headed by a male emperor attended by women and eunuchs, saw this as quite exotic and commented extensively upon it, and named Japan “The Queen Country.” Japanese residents of Himiko’s kingdom called themselves Wa (和) or Yamato (大和), which means ‘Great Wa.’ Hailing from the Kinai region of Japan, succeeding Yamato chieftains (who after Himiko appear to have been mostly, but not exclusively male) expanded their power through force and diplomacy and eventually forged a kingdom. The principal evidence for their growing power are the massive, keyhole-shaped tombs giving this period its name. Nearly 10,000 tombs have been identified, but the largest ones belong to the Yamato rulers, the ancestors of the long-lived Japanese imperial line. Although the large royal ones have not yet been excavated, smaller tombs containing an abundance of horse trappings, iron weapons, and armor provide evidence that mounted warfare was introduced from the Korean peninsula, perhaps accelerating the pace of state formation. This Korean connection, for which there is ample evidence through at least 550 BCE, was important in Japanese politics as well as warfare. Buddhism came to Japan from Korea around 550, and was a political turning point, pitting factions of the Japanese political elite against each other over whether influence from mainland Asia was desirable.
As they conquered more territory, Yamato rulers devised strategies for strengthening their monarchy and incorporating leaders of the many powerful chieftain clans dominating local areas up and down the archipelago. For service at their royal court or as provincial officials, they granted them office and noble titles, thereby building a coalition of great clans. Among these great clans, the Yamato may have found their most powerful rivals in a group known as the Soga Clan. The Soga led the faction that saw connections to the mainland, both China and Korea, as useful. They were able to find military, agricultural, and other technology in these connections as well as ideas for organizing government and for mobilizing Buddhism in the service of political power. In the 6th century CE, Yamato rulers began to study the great Sui (581–618 CE) and Tang (618–907 CE) Dynasties in China and introduced reforms based on what they learned.
The Nara Period
It may be that the Soga hoped to replace the imperial clan. They certainly found ways to accrue power and use it in the name of the Emperors and Empresses they served. Their interest in maintaining connections with the mainland had a deep and lasting effect on Japanese history. The two centuries in Japanese history known as the Nara Period (c. 600–800 CE), was defined by these Chinese-style reforms, although the name itself refers to one of the successive locations of the royal court. This period was the culmination of decades during which the Japanese elite adopted and adapted elements of the more sophisticated Chinese culture. For example, the Japanese borrowed China’s writing system, and through learning this language, the literate elite were able to access the knowledge and achievements of China in areas of philosophy (Confucianism), religion( Buddhism and Daoism), science, and literature. Since the Japanese and Chinese languages were quite different from each other, Chinese did not easily work but was still used for writing Japanese records and documents. The Chinese language was adopted wholesale in written and spoken form for official business. Men who were officials or scholars learned to read, write and speak in Tang-era classical Chinese. To write in Japanese, however, required significant adaptation. This is one of the earliest examples of Japan’s ability to not only adopt ideas from abroad, but to adapt them to Japanese needs and circumstances. Initially this was done in two ways. In one, Chinese characters (the characters of the Han Dynasty, known in China as Hanzi, and pronounced in Japanese as Kanji) were used, but were pronounced according to Japanese vocabulary – sometimes those characters meant the same, and sounded similar to their Chinese counterparts, and sometimes they were used only for their sound as parts of speech in Japanese.
Political practices and models were also borrowed. Prince Shōtoku (573–621 CE), a descendant of both the Imperial family and the Soga Clan became regent for his aunt, Empress Suiko (r. 593–628), in 593 CE. Like the Soga, he was deeply interested in Chinese and Korean culture and technology, and saw these as a way to consolidate power for his line of the Imperial Family in the face of opposition from other noble families such as the Mononobe. He and Empress Suiko sent several embassies to the capital of China and then remodeled their capital and court using many Chinese ideas. In his “Seventeen Article Constitution,” Prince Shōtoku called for the introduction of Buddhism and Confucian ethics. His articles, for instance, stated that the sovereign’s relation to subjects was like Heaven’s to the earth, and his or her commands should thus be obeyed. Empress Suiko adopted the title “Heavenly Monarch,” thus shifting the character of the monarch from a martial king/queen to a Chinese-style emperor/empress. The constitution also established a series of “hat ranks” in which members of the court were given specific ranks and responsibilities based on the power of their clan and their relationship to the emperor or empress, and these ranks were indicated by the hats which officials wore while performing official court duties. In brief, they introduced a Confucian-oriented, emperor-centered state ideology that clearly established a hierarchical system of ranks and norms for court etiquette. For the remainder of this period, other reformers and monarchs would only deepen the reforms by introducing Chinese-style law codes. These laws reshaped the government and land according to a bureaucratic and administrative structure very similar to that of Tang China.
Learning In Action – The Great Temples of Nara
Watch the video: “Ancient Temples of Nara Japan”, Asian Art Museum 2009
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4rWWtSWf_k&t=41s
Questions to answer:
- What aspects of the city of Nara draw millions of visitors each year?
- Which architectural and artistic elements did the Japanese incorporate from Korea and China?
- What factors make Todaiji a unique and historic temple?
In 710 CE, the process of centralization took another step with the creation of the new permanent capital city at Heijo-kyo (today’s Nara city). While there were at least two previous capital cities (Asuka-kyo, Fujiwara-kyo) in Japanese history by this time, neither lasted long, and neither was so much a part of the plan to centralize the state as was Heijo-kyo. This first permanent capital of Nara (capital from 710-784) was modeled on the great Tang capitol, Chang’an. Despite the fact the city of Nara never had walls, and Chang’an had immense walls, the layout of the city including the grid pattern divided into four distinct districts paralleled its Tang Empire model.
Nevertheless, distinctly Japanese patterns remained throughout this time. Empress Suiko was a clear example that in Japan, somewhat different from China, an empress was acceptable as a ruler. Japan’s royally-recognized great clans of earlier times evolved into an aristocratic class that dominated the court and the upper ranks of officialdom. Heian-kyo (today’s Kyoto), despite its grid-pattern layout according to Chinese principles of feng-shui (geomancy), experienced habitation patterns that more closely resembled Japanese indigenous politics. Residents settled in the city not according to the grid, but based on rank and location, leaving much of the Western half of the original layout empty, and gathering around the palace and the Kamo River in the East; even there occupation patterns only vaguely following the grid layout of the streets. In addition, though a Chinese-style imperial university was founded in Kyoto to produce Confucian scholars who would become able administrators, no one not of noble court rank was able to enter the university or hold a position at court. The meritocracy of China, which in the Tang period would be institutionalized in the Imperial Examination System, was modified to meet Japanese social customs. In education, administration, and social-geographical realities, Japan remained unlike the developing Chinese meritocracy resulting from the Confucian examination system. In Japan, power continued to be based on aristocratic lineage and physical proximity to the emperor. Also, in addition to establishing a council to manage the growing number of Buddhist temples and clerics, the court established a Council of Kami Affairs to oversee native Japanese religious traditions. That tradition is known as Shinto, or the “Way of the Kami.”
Environment in History – Princess Mononoke and Japan’s Love of Nature
Question to answer:
- How has Japanese culture justified the destruction of nature even while creating cultural systems that would seem to encourage protection of nature?
In its fantasy film Princess Mononoke, Japan’s Studio Ghibli dealt with relations between the natural and the human worlds. Set in Japan’s Muromachi Period (1336-1573), the film has two protagonists. Each finds different reasons to oppose human abuse of nature. San, the wild girl raised by wolves, sees humans as all bad. They destroy the forests and deprive the wild animals of their environment. For San, the only way for nature to survive is to destroy humans. Ashitaka, a warrior from a faraway village who was raised among humans, wants to see humans and nature coexist. The story is about this conflict. Human industry is symbolized by the existence of a destructive ironworks that produces guns. Human society is symbolized by the Emperor’s god hunter, who is out looking to control nature by killing the god of life and death. Ashitaka tries to thread the needle by finding ways for both to succeed. In the end, the only thing that is clear is that the conflict will continue.
We often romanticize Japanese history as Studio Ghibli does in this film. People who study or visit Japan frequently stereotype Japanese culture as one that uniquely cares for nature. It is true that from ancient times Japan has maintained a spiritual respect for nature. All we have to do to support this stereotype is to look at Japanese religion and festivals.
Japan’s indigenous religion, Shinto, infuses natural objects and animals with religious significance. Shinto is based on the belief gods can be unique rocks, mountains, and even trees. But these things are uniquely sacred spaces and objects and do not necessarily represent all of nature. In fact, many natural sites in the Nara and Heian Periods were seen by the Japanese as the homes of demons. Forests could be dangerous places. It was not only the bears and wolves that one had to watch out for. Dark spirits were also a danger, and people built shrines to placate them. As these places were cleared or brought within the productive spheres of village economies, however, those local demons often were transformed into local gods of prosperity or protection. In other words, the taming of the gods went hand in hand with the taming of nature. Clearing the land was spiritually a good thing as much as it was good for food production.
Buddhism also encourages the veneration of nature. Strictures against eating meat, killing animals, and protecting other living things do exist. Yet, since Buddhism is often reduced to a simple fear of karmic consequences, these beliefs do not always result in the preservation of nature. Instead, it can lead to the use of ritual cleansing after the fact. If land must be cleared, for example, there are ceremonies for removing the karma created by the resulting deaths of trees, plants, animals, and insects. Thus there is no contradiction between a spiritual reverence for nature and a practical tendency toward its destruction.
Japanese culture has always also balanced this veneration of nature with such a practical side. As Japan’s population grew from the Yayoi Period (300 BCE-500 CE) all the way into our modern world, practical needs for farmland often took precedence over the spiritual reasons for preserving nature. Logging, harvesting of wild plants, and hunting all were viewed as necessary. Moreover, they could be readily reconciled with a spiritual valuation of nature. By adjusting the uses of the sacred to preserve and protect human needs, or by performing ceremonies to apologize for destructive acts after the fact, Japanese religious beliefs allow for the rebalancing of the spiritual valuation of nature with its practical exploitation. This often allowed justification of the use and abuse of natural resources.
During economic booms and times of war Japan saw unrestrained harvesting of large forested areas. In the Nara, Heian, and Warring States periods, there was little systematic forestry. Japanese, who worshiped river and mountain gods, made no plans for replacing trees. Forests were only harvested, not managed through planting or forest thinning. Loss of vegetation and forest cover so near unmanaged natural spaces often led to heavy impacts from flooding. With no plans to prevent erosion and pollution in harvested forests, wildfires often destroyed many square miles of forest and farmland. Forestry was only born in the 1800s, when it became clear that forests were in decline.
What Princess Mononoke gets right, then, is that it is important for us not to romanticize the Japanese reverence for nature. Japanese religion and aesthetics did not prevent its abuse. Religion instead made it possible to destroy nature, and then apologize to the gods after the fact. Ghibli’s ongoing conflict between humans who wish to kill the god of nature and take its place, and the creatures of the forest, who wish to live in peace, is an allegorical summary of Japan’s own environmental history.
Shinto began in prehistoric times as a tradition of ritualized reverence for kami – those spirits and deities associated with natural phenomena such as the sun or moon. Anything mysterious might become a kami, including a mountain, charismatic ruler, or serpent. During the Yayoi and Mounded Tomb Periods, these kami became the subjects of myths that explained their origins and powers, and shrines were erected to house sacred objects symbolizing them. By properly purifying oneself, conducting rituals, and praying to a kami, an individual could potentially avert a disaster, and ensure his own or the community’s well-being. Clans would claim important kami as their guardian spirits and fashion stories about how their ancestors descended from them. Yamato monarchs claimed they were descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, and constructed a shrine at Ise [ee-say] to house her kami body. During the Nara Period, the Yamato court developed a centralized system to keep track of and regulate Shinto shrines throughout its realm, thereby harnessing higher powers to support its claim to rule the land. This system, which functioned in a rather decentralized way, was further centralized and rationalized following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 CE, when the establishment of a nation-state in the face of the incursion of Western powers seemed desirable. Until that time, Shinto was much less systematized than many modern people would expect.
The Heian Era
By the early 800s CE, deteriorating relations led Japanese leaders to severely restrict interchange with China, officially ending diplomatic relations and founding a new capital city Heian (modern-day Kyoto.) Heian remained the imperial center for the next several centuries. Heian is also the name historians use to refer to the next developmental period between 800-1200 CE. During the Heian era, Japan moved away from strong links to the Asian mainland, modifying elements borrowed from Korea and China and reasserting fundamental Japanese traditions to create a new fusion. The result was a creative period in literature, the arts, and cultural rituals. The Chinese character system, always an awkward fit for the Japanese spoken language, was modified and a second written language emerged, a written system reflecting the Japanese spoken word and patterns of language. This was the kana system: Japanese scholars modified Kanji into two syllabaries used to indicate the sounds of spoken Japanese. Many less-educated people, and especially women, who were not officials and therefore usually not taught Chinese, learned to write and read these syllabaries – Hiragana and Katakana. Each has 56 characters that indicate the sounds used in spoken Japanese. Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji discussed at the beginning of this chapter, wrote mostly in Hiragana, though she was well-educated and capable of writing in Chinese. Once the written language mirrored the spoken language, Japanese creativity in literature was unleashed in poetry and storytelling.
During the Heian Period, writing and literacy became increasingly common among the upper class. Women became increasingly literate, as did lower-level court officials, and poetic conventions for standard forms such as the waka and nagauta came to be recognized and refined. A source of great entertainment, but also serious enough to use in letters, formal speech, and conversations with friends and lovers, these poems became a very subtle and symbolic communication system, and have constituted one of the major strains of Japanese literature and scholarship ever since. These works included much more than Murasaki Shikibu’s great novel. Another court lady, Sei Shonagon, famously composed The Pillow Book, so named because she appears to have kept it inside her pillow to hid it from prying eyes. In it, she documented the practices of Heian-era courtiers, usually accompanied by her (often not very charitable) opinions of them. It is a wonderful look at the formality of the Heian Court from a very human perspective. In fact, the works of both Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon give us other insights as well. Women clearly played a key role at court, despite the very dominant political and social position of men in the Heian Period. Roles and social status were in fact so strictly categorized that it was difficult for anyone to meet without a very specific reason. However, since court ladies were normally ladies in waiting to the empress or an imperial consort, and were resident in the Imperial Palace, they often sat “in state” – in semi-anonymity behind beautifully painted screens in dark rooms. Visiting them without seeing them directly, and communicating through writing, which could not be easily overheard, lent itself not only to romantic liaisons, but also to the conduct of politics through labyrinthine semi-anonymous connections. If a man in court needed to get a message to the Imperial Chamberlain, for example, he probably would not have the official rank to meet with the Chamberlain directly. He could, however, meet with a lady in waiting whose rank was much closer to his own, and exchange poetry without ever seeing her face or revealing his own. That poetry could hint at his motives and message for the Chamberlain. Her later semi-anonymous poetry exchanges with other men, and theirs with other women, could move that message to the Chamberlain himself through unofficial channels, and work political action effectively from behind the scenes. It is this byzantine political system that may have been the reason for Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji, which some scholars believe may have been commissioned by Fujiwara no Michinaga, a powerful court noble, as a guide for his young nephew on how to conduct court politics.
Despite the hoops and barriers involved in this political system, administrative, legal and organizational work did get done. Leaders like Fujiwara no Michinaga, who ruled in the Emperor’s name so that the Emperor, as a living god, could care for Japan by dealing with spiritual matters, made great strides in methods of taxation, law, and land-ownership. He also conducted a long-running series of battles against the Emishi, indigenous inhabitants of Japan, probably descendants of Jomon people, who did not share Yamato rule or Yamato religion and philosophy; they are likely the ancestors of today’s Ainu, a minority population within Japan. Under leaders such as Michinaga and his descendants, the Yamato political system, now the Heian political system, revised its military structure by requiring military service from all commoners for a certain period each year, creating a conscript army of footsoldiers armed with long pikes, and trained annually. A system of laws known as the Taika Reform systematized the government structure, rules of land ownership, systems of taxation and other principles of the state.
Eventually, however, the abuse of position by members of noble clans such as the Fujiwara themselves undermined this legal code and the system of taxation, putting ever larger estates in the hands of fewer and fewer noble families who, because of their relationship with the imperial family, paid no taxes. The loss in revenue eventually made maintenance of the government and the conscript army nearly impossible. Landowners by the 9th century began to employ mercenaries – private soldiers who used horses and swords, to defend their property and to guard the imperial palace. These soldiers came to be known as samurai, meaning “those who serve.” Working in essence as corporations whose workers used violence for private ends, these samurai households established strict rules of obedience and behavior to maintain control of their members. Thus, in the political sphere, the attempt by Yamato leaders to create a truly unified state failed and Japan reverted to a pattern of localized regional clan leadership and dominance by a military-based aristocracy. The Japanese imperial family had to accept its position of symbolic and spiritual importance with no direct rule over the Japanese people. But many tools of state power borrowed from China, most significantly writing, were now being utilized by the aristocratic political elite. Japan was heading into its long feudal era.
Reading the Past – The Taika Reform
Read: “Excerpts from the Reform Edict of Taika” from Japan: A Documentary History: The Dawn of History to the Late Tokugawa Period, edited by David J. Lu (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1997). Posted by Asia for Educators, Columbia University
Use the Longer Version on page 3
Link: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/taika.pdf
Questions to answer:
- What changes imposed represented the creation of an administrative system in Japan for the ‘first time’?
- What were the duties of an alderman of a village?
- What were some of the centralized taxes imposed by this edict?
Like Korea, Japan’s history was highly impacted by developments in China, even as native languages, traditions, and creative adaptation remained foundational to the unique identities of each. Korea, however, was far more subject to the intrusion of Chinese states in the Korean Peninsula, something that did not happen in Japan due in large part to its geographic asset of a natural moat. Still, neither Japanese nor Korean history can be understood simply as processes of borrowing from Chinese culture. Rather, they must be understood on their own terms, and based on their history of adapting what they did borrow from China to fit local needs, language, and context.
Question to answer:
- What factors in Japanese history supported the development of modern Manga?
The history of manga – Japanese comics – goes back a long time. But, the use of the term manga is relatively new. Manga is a combination of historic Japanese artistic practices and modern Western comics.
The earliest Japanese graphic character art looks very different from manga. The Chōjūgiga is a lighthearted picture scroll drawn in the 7th century CE. It depicts stylized animals in anthropomorphic poses. Most are dressed as Buddhist monks going about their daily activities. The images, probably created by a famous monk named Toba, poke fun at the world of Buddhism. Though the scroll does not look like manga, it has some elements in common with it. Lightheartedness, making animals behave like humans, and an emphasis on daily life are all frequently used in manga today.
However, there is no clear historical link between the Chōjūgiga and manga of today. The Chōjūgiga does not look like manga in many ways. While it uses anthropomorphized animals, it does not tell a coherent story. It does not include demarcated frames or clear timelines. There are no speech bubbles. There are no words used in the scroll. In other words, the only thing this scroll has in common with today’s manga is that it is a series of images that humorously depict daily life. Still, this comparison shows Japan has long maintained a rich artistic and graphic culture. While manga are quite new, much of Japanese art and history no doubt prepared Japanese to appreciate the storytelling techniques of manga.
Historically, of course, the adoption and then adaptation of Chinese characters to write Japanese had a big impact. Chinese characters (in Japanese called kanji) are pictographic. They were originally small pictures of objects, actions and ideas. This means that once learned, they can be read very quickly without reference to the sounds they denote. The Japanese language is thus a graphic system in itself. For this reason, reading can be very fast. Most Japanese can read a page of manga in 2 seconds. Reading Japanese poetry is often as much a visual experience as it is a lexical one.
Japan has a tradition of storytelling art that goes back centuries as well. There were collections of scrolls like the Chōjūgiga produced in the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of these are serious. Religious scrolls instructed believers about the various worlds of Buddhist cosmology. The Jigoku zōshi (Hell scrolls) showed images of Buddhist hells. The Gaki zōshi (Hungry ghost scrolls) depicted the suffering of souls left without enlightenment or prayers after death. The Yamai zōshi (Disease scrolls) depicted many forms of human suffering. These provided ways for the Japanese to imagine the Buddhist world-view. They also showed the terrifying results of bad behavior in this life.
Other 17th-century picture scrolls dealt with light-hearted events and issues. These included ghost stories, sex, and other bodily functions. Some of them also included text and minimal storylines to go with the pictures. Still, there was little or no framing. These picture scrolls did not look like manga, although some modern anime artists have borrowed their look to create new manga styles.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) invented the word manga to describe his own linked pictures. Historically, this storytelling form is quite modern. Heworked during the late Tokugawa Period (1600-1868). Hokusai’s images superficially looked like what we call manga today. He coined the term using two Japanese characters: 漫画. The first of the two means whimsical. The second means brush stroke or picture. Hokusai’s use of the term referred to the playfulness of his paintings. Manga artists still use this term. Hokusai is world-famous today. In the Tokugawa period his art style was known as Ukiyo-e (pictures from the floating world). It was not considered among the best of Japanese art in his lifetime.
The name Ukiyo-e refers to the “floating world.” This was more an idea than a real place. It referred to fantasy and pleasure that floats on top of the horrors and difficulties of daily life. In a literal sense, the floating world referred to pleasure districts in the cities. These were places like the Yoshiwara of Edo (now Tokyo), where townspeople went to visit brothels, tea houses, and restaurants. Many ukiyo-e artists created images of famous Kabuki actors. Other images known as shunga functioned as pornography. Hokusai was among many ukiyo-e artists to use ukiyo-e style to create images of townspeople going about their daily tasks. He also used it for landscapes and cityscapes – many of which he sold like postcards. These images were popular art, rather than high art. Still, they did not look exactly like manga looks today. Developments in Modern Japan, including encounters with the West, led eventually to the style that is known as manga now, but the roots of this artistic, expressive form can be traced to Japan’s earlier centuries.
The key is to recognize that Japanese graphic culture and writing styles contributed to manga. The development of kanji – picture writing. The use of illustrated scrolls to instruct or entertain. These things have been a part of Japanese culture since its most ancient times. They undoubtedly contributed, even if indirectly, to the development of the manga millions of people across the world read today
CONCLUSION
After the Han dynasty fell, China was divided up by independent, short-lived kingdoms until 589 CE, when the Sui Dynasty reunited most of the territory once controlled by the Han. For four centuries, during the Period of Division (220 – 589 CE), China was politically unstable and racked by endemic warfare. Yet, in spite of the violence, these centuries also saw vibrant cultural developments, as Buddhism became an organized institutional religion reshaping the spiritual landscape.
The Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) was another long-lived one in Chinese history. Tang rulers built an empire on the foundations of solid political and legal institutions, agricultural policy, and a formidable military. Also during the Tang Dynasty, East Asia first emerged as an identifiable cultural sphere. Building on the achievements of the Tang, China achieved even more impressive advances in culture and economy during the Song Dynasty. The last major dynasty surveyed was the Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE), one that is notable for the challenges it faced from northern conquest dynasties, its economic prosperity, and the civil service examination system and the educated elite of scholar-officials it created.
During the 7th century CE, the Silla Dynasty unified the Korean Peninsula, after long periods of warfare and diplomacy with the other major kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula – Goguryeo and Baekje. Korean society also freed itself from Chinese rule, and while it maintained connections to China and borrowed some Chinese culture, including writing and Confucianism, it adapted these things to suit the geographic realities and cultural needs of Korean society. Korea was at once more conservatively Confucian, and more dedicated to family inheritance than China of the Tang Period. The Korean language is quite different from Chinese in vocabulary and grammatical structure. Political and social relations also developed in ways quite different from those in China. Similarly, the Yamato sovereigns unified much of Japan, often with the help of Buddhism, which came from Korea, as well as Chinese writing and philosophy. Like Korean, the Japanese language is very different from Chinese, and so Japanese adoption of Chinese writing also meant adapting that writing to Japanese linguistic needs. Borrowing Chinese legal and political ideas, Japan adapted those as well to its social and political realities. The combination of indigenous traditions and adapted Chinese ideas led in East Asia to the development of two very creative and powerful cultures which continue to impact the world today.
WORKS CITED AND FURTHER READING
LINKS TO PRIMARY SOURCES
Confucius – the Analects selections and complete online editions. http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/analects.html (selections) http://www.olemiss.edu/courses/inst203/confucianthought.pdf (selections) http://www.indiana.edu/~p374/Analects_of_Confucius_(Eno-2015).pdf (complete text)
Empress Wu Zetian and women during the Tang Dynasty http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/toc-06.html
The Laozi (Dao de jing) selections and complete online editions. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/laozi_daodejing.pdf (selections) http://ctext.org/dao-de-jing (complete text) http://www.indiana.edu/~p374/Daodejing.pdf (complete text)
Mandate of Heaven http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/shu-jing.html http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/classic_of_odes_king_wen.pdf
Mongols and the Mongol Yuan Dynasty http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/index.html
Oracle Bones of the Shang Dynasty http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/oracle_bone_general.pdf
Sunzi’s (Master Sun’s) Art of War http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/cup/sunzi_art_of_war.pdf (selections) http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html (complete text)
Prince Shōtoku’s Constitution
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/shotoku.pdf
Yoshinogari (a Yayoi Period archaeological site) http://www.yoshinogari.jp/en/
Media Attributions
- Grand-Canal
- Map_of_the_Tang_Empire_and_its_Protectorates_circa_660_CE
- A_Tang_Dynasty_Empress_Wu_Zetian
- 641px-Song_Taizu
- Northern_Song_Circuits
- Japan_relief_location_map
- 1600px-Historic_Monuments_of_Ancient_Nara-112865
- 1024px-Kamishikimi_Kumanoimasu_Shrine_001
- amaterasu-981
- Chouju_sumo2
- Hokusai-MangaBathingPeople