Chinese influence on early Japanese political and cultural development

¶ … Japan, it may be called a period of "Chinese fixation."

Chinese Fixation in Japan

The Japanese were concerned about adopting attitudes brought from China during the country's early years. Prince Shotoku in particular was interested in introducing Chinese ideas into his community because he appreciated the fact that the Chinese were well organized and that their political system was structured so as for it to address the needs of both the people and their leaders. Emperor Kotoku was also concerned about adopting behaviors that would make the Japanese state more similar to the Chinese one and established the Taika reforms in an attempt to promote Confucian thinking and philosophies from China. While some of these reforms were meant to help Japan experience progress in a series of domains, they were generally purposed to restructure the political system in order for a strict hierarchy to dominate the Japanese social order.

3) Japanese Religious: Japan cosmology and similarities to Chinese culture

Chinese influence in Japan did not only involve political ideas, as the Japanese were also concentrated on promoting Chinese cultural values. "Exchanging poems written in Chinese was considered the highest accomplishment in polite society, and the Chinese poems were also employed to impress upon foreign visitors Japan's cultural advancement at diplomatic receptions." (Lu 22) The first collection of Chinese poems written by Japanese poets, the Kaifuso, was issued in 751 and it directly demonstrated that Chinese cultural values held a special place in the Japanese society.

Nara, the first permanent capital of Japan between 710 and 784, contained wide patterned avenues, worshiping buildings, and pagodas, and was largely similar to the imperial city in Changan. Japanese scholars even turned to Chinese geomancy in an attempt to understand where it was best for them to build the city of Nara. To a certain degree, the Japanese decision to adopt Chinese ideas was rational. Chinese concepts that played an important role in amplifying the power of the imperial court were adopted into Japanese culture without hesitation. The same rule applied in the case of Buddhist elements. Buddhism was actually supported as a religion in Japan because of its political implication rather than because of the spiritual ideas that it put across. "This pragmatic approach and the coalescence of indigenous and alien elements were in large measures responsible for the success of Japan's cultural importation." (Lu 22)

The influence of Chinese elements is visible in a series of concepts present in Japan, but the idea of imperial rule is probable the one that emphasizes this respective influence. This idea is known as Tennoism and it has been associated with notions according to which the imperial house has a divine ancestry. "In modern times, Tennoism has been identified with the claims made for the divine ancestry of the imperial house, its unbroken succession from the Sun Goddess, and the commission of the Divine Grandson's imperial descendants to rule the land." (De Bary 69) This idea and the title demonstrate the similarities between the Japanese and the Chinese states, as Japanese leaders have focused on adopting a series of religious and cosmological notions from the Chinese as they struggled to provide their subjects with the opportunity to rationalize the position of their superiors.

The Japanese filtered information they took from Chinese culture with the purpose of only adopting features that would be beneficial to their culture. Many methods of thinking did not change and a great deal of differences continued to exist between ideas that the two cultures expressed with regard to particular matters. The fact that they were divided by water made it difficult for them to be able to reach common ground in some discussions. The Japanese aristocracy focused on maintaining different perspectives from points-of-view expressed by the Chinese. Even with this, the fact that their background contained a great deal of Chinese-inspired elements meant that they would have to agree to a series of Chinese ideas because they were taught to do so. The new era in Japan required many innovative ideas to be introduced into the country's culture and both political and cultural elements from China seemed to play an essential role when considering progress in the country.

To a certain degree, the fact that the Japanese borrowed elements from Chinese cultural tradition generated much controversy in China. The way that the Japanese related to their leader as the "Child of Heaven in the Land of the Rising Sun" while the Chinese referred to their as the "Child of Heaven in the Land of the Setting Sun" influenced many Chinese to believe that

5) Conclusion

While the Japanese acknowledged the important role that Chinese values could play in improving thinking in their country, they also realized that they could use a series of Chinese elements with the purpose of strengthening the political system and in order to upgrade the role of Japanese leaders. Japanese history has been greatly influenced by foreign ideas, but it has fundamentally remained the same, as the Japanese generally focused on borrowing elements from other cultures while keeping most of their cultural values.

All things considered, the early Japanese society was greatly influenced by Chinese ideas during the time lasting from the introduction of Buddhism in the Japanese society in 552 and until the end of the Nara system in 784. While these influences were focused on the political ideas that the Japanese had used with the purpose of improving their political system, cultural values also intervened and had a strong impact on how the Japanese saw the world.

Works cited:

Biswas, Sampa, "Indian Influence on the Art of Japan," (Northern Book Centre, 2010)

De Barry, William Theodore, "Sources of Japanese Tradition: From earliest times through the sixteenth century," (Columbia University Press, 2001)

Foot, Sara, and Robinson, Chase F., "The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 2: 400-1400," (Oxford University Press, 25.10.2012)

Lebra, Takie S., "Japanese Patterns of Behaviour," (University of Hawaii Press, 1976)

Lu, David J., 'Japan: "aœ Documentary History," (M.E. Sharpe, 1997)

Yao, Xinzhong, "An Introduction to Confucianism," (Cambridge University Press, 13.02.2000)