On how ancient Japanese absorbed China's advanced culture (Sichuan Education Press, Grade Three History)

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Japan sent envoys to China to study culture. After Japan returned to China, it changed from a slave country to a feudal country through modernization and changed its name to Japan. Japanese tea ceremony, flower path and Japanese characters including kimono all come from China, and even the urban planning buildings in Kyoto are copied from Chang 'an.

In the two and a half centuries from the beginning of the 7th century to the end of the 9th century, in order to learn China culture, the Japanese sent more than a dozen missions to the Tang Dynasty. Its high frequency, large scale, long time and rich content are unprecedented in the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchange. The envoys to the Tang Dynasty made great contributions to the development of Japanese society and the friendly exchanges between China and Japan, bearing rich fruits and becoming the first climax of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.

Enlightenment: We should learn and introduce the world's outstanding cultural achievements with an open mind and promote the innovation and development of our own culture.

First, we must have a stable political situation and adhere to the policy of opening to the outside world.

Second, improve their own quality and strive to develop economy and culture.

[Note] This is my homework when I was studying in Jiangxi Normal University. It is shoddy. I'm not afraid of jokes when I take it out to bask in the sun. I should leave memories of my school days.

The influence of China's ancient culture on Japanese.

Internal content summary

China and Japan are close neighbors and have been in contact for a long time. However, China has been one of the ancient civilizations in the world since ancient times, with its own advanced culture and great radiation to neighboring countries. In contrast, ancient Japanese culture was underdeveloped. In order to be consistent with the advanced culture, it adopted the doctrine of borrowing, especially in order to spare no effort to absorb the advanced culture of ancient China, especially the culture of Sui and Tang Dynasties, which was almost omniscient and all-encompassing. As a result, it promoted the rapid development of ancient Japanese society and jumped into the forest of Asian powers. On the other hand, although Japan's cultural export function is relatively weak, it is good at absorbing foreign cultures. Japan's absorption of China's ancient culture was not a complete copy, but a combination of absorption, digestion and innovation, which eventually formed the Yamato culture with its own national characteristics.

Keywords: China, Japanese culture, Confucianism, Zen culture.

Sino-Japanese exchanges have a long history, but China has been a big country in Asia since ancient times, with a long and self-contained national culture, which has always exerted great radiation on neighboring ethnic groups. Japan is located near China, facing each other across the sea. There is a big gap between its own culture and that of China, and it is strongly influenced by the ancient culture of China. There is a gap between advanced culture and cultural lag in communication, which leads to disharmony between them. When people find this disharmony, they will have a series of psychological reactions. In order to be consistent with advanced culture, there is a tendency to lean towards advanced culture. "Taking it" is one of the ways to introduce advanced culture easily, so it is inevitable to spare no effort to introduce advanced culture.

In the communication between China and Japan, the ancient Japanese culture, especially the Sui and Tang Dynasties culture, has a very important influence on Japan. It directly affected the development of ancient Japanese society, and some aspects still have an influence that cannot be ignored in Japan. It is true that the Japanese are good at learning and absorbing foreign advanced culture, not just "bringing it", but having their own unique characteristics. This paper intends to study the influence of China's ancient culture on Japanese from the aspects of how Yamato people absorbed China's ancient culture and its absorption characteristics.

A Historical Investigation of Japanese Absorption of Ancient China Culture

First, the stage when China's material civilization influenced Japan.

From the 3rd century to the first half of the 4th century, Japan formed a unified country. And Japan was influenced by the ancient culture of China as early as the rope pattern era. For example, a pottery with a carefully polished surface was found in the site of the late rope pattern culture in Kitakyushu, Japan. Japanese scholar He believes that this is caused by the influence of Longshan culture in China. Zhang Zhongyi thought it was influenced by Chu culture [1]. A bronze knife was unearthed in Misaki Mountain, Baohai County, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Stratigraphically, it belongs to the late rope pattern culture, and its shape is roughly similar to that of bronze knives in Yin and Shang Dynasties in China [2]. However, the exquisite lacquer comb [3] unearthed in the early period of Japanese rope culture, the lacquer container and lacquer bow [4] in the late period of bamboo and wood tires have the same manufacturing method and painting style as the lacquer ware in the pre-Qin period in China.

From the late Japanese rope culture to the early Yayoi culture, a large number of Chinese mainland immigrants moved to the Japanese archipelago, bringing China's advanced culture. The legend of Xu Fudong crossing the river happened in this period, and his deeds can also be found in the history books of the two countries. Biography of Qin Shihuang: In the twenty-eighth year (2 19 BC), Qin Shihuang began to "explore the north from the south" ... set up a platform to ward off evil spirits, set up stone carvings, praised Qin De ... Qi Xu wrote: There are three sacred mountains in the sea ... where immortals live, so please fast and take children and men to beg. So the city sent thousands of boys and girls to the sea to seek immortality. "Japan's" Luoshan Anthology "records:" Xu Fuzhi came to Japan six or seven years before burning books and burying Confucianism. " After Xu Fu entered Japan, he popularized the weaving technology of rice and sericulture on a large scale. Coupled with the legend of the founding of Japan, Xu Fu was regarded as a "god of agriculture" and "god of textile" by Japanese residents, and even as an ancestor and god by Japan [5]. Although it is impossible to verify whether "Japan" was built by Xu Fu. However, according to the records of Historical Records, History of Han, History of Later Han, History of the Three Kingdoms, Song of Japanese Knife and other ancient books, Xu Fu was a real person, and he was a representative of immigrants who went to Japan in ancient times. Around 200-300 BC, an advanced rice cultivation culture appeared in Kitakyushu, which further developed eastward, spreading rice cultivation to the whole of Japan, and finally contributed to the emergence of Japan's primitive country. The biggest reason is the influence of a large number of immigrants, especially those from China, including Xu Fu and his party.

After entering the Han Dynasty, Japan became a vassal state of China, and cultural exchanges became more frequent. 1784, a gold seal of "Han Wei Wang Nu" was unearthed at the seaside of Shiga County, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan, which was the original seal of "Han Wei Wang Nu" awarded by Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It shows that Japan has been exposed to Chinese characters at this time. In 403 AD, Chinese characters were first used in Japan. In August of 2004, officials began to recite poems to achieve four views. The introduction of Chinese characters promoted the development of Japanese culture and thought.

Confucianism was introduced into Japan through words, so Japan accepted Confucianism from the beginning. According to Japanese historical records, Confucianism was introduced to Japan in 405 AD, and Wang arrived in Japan from the North Pole south of the Korean Peninsula. He was the teacher of Shen Ying's son. Wang Ren presented The Analects of Confucius, which was the beginning of the spread of Confucianism to the East. Later, Confucianism spread to Japan in a limited range through classics, but it had a far-reaching impact on Japan. On the one hand, he developed the political thought of Yamato, which was obvious in imperial edicts of past dynasties. Emperor Rende said in the imperial edict: "Jun is people-oriented." [7] This is a quotation from Xunzi. It shows that all Japanese kings have understood the idea of valuing the people, which is influenced by China's Confucianism. Shoto Kutaishi's title is named after moral items such as virtue, benevolence, propriety, faithfulness, righteousness and wisdom, which is obviously influenced by Confucian ethics. Japan has developed the virtue of filial piety and humility from top to bottom because it advocates morality. In addition, in terms of customs, since the introduction of Confucianism, the customs of marrying aunts, half-brothers and sisters and stepmother in ancient Japan have gradually decreased, making Japan change its customs. [8]

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced to China from India and then to Japan from China. According to historical records, in 522 AD, Sima Qian, a man from the Southern Dynasties, arrived in Japan and built a grass temple in Bantian Garden in Dahe County to offer sacrifices. This is the earliest documentary record about the introduction of Buddhism into Japan. Since then, Buddhism has been introduced into Japan. Buddhism teaches compassion, which can quell the fierce factional struggle in Japan at that time, but the most important thing is that Buddhism advocates that as long as you repent your sins and accumulate merits, you can get rid of Buddhism to a certain extent and gain eternal life. For the vast number of slaves and peasants who suffer in this world, they can give great hope and comfort with the vision of the world. So it is very popular in Japan, and the whole country believes in Buddhism. When Shoto Kutaishi and Su Shi were in power, Buddhism flourished and temples were everywhere. I built the Bird Temple in Sujia, and I also built Horyuji and Sitian Temple. In terms of architectural style, Buddha sculpture, painting, handmade works of art, etc. , deeply influenced by the culture of China in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Second, it absorbed a lot of Sui and Tang culture which was mainly institutional culture.

In 603, Shoto Kutaishi began to reform, which was an important event in Japanese history. From the content of its reform, we can see that it was deeply influenced by ancient Japanese culture. The reform mainly includes two aspects: the formulation of the Twelve Orders of the Crown and the Seventeen Constitutions. The 12th-order crown, which originated in the late Zhou Dynasty in China, was named after the five permanent members of China's Confucianism, namely, benevolence, courtesy, wisdom, faithfulness and virtue. As for the seventeen constitutions, both the content and the ideological principles can only be found in China. That is, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the theoretical basis, supplemented by Buddhism, and oriental thoughts are integrated into one furnace, which is the result of Shoto Kutaishi's imitation of China culture.

After the mid-7th century, that is, in the early days of peace in Nara, Japan entered the formation period of a country ruled by law from large-scale innovation. Great changes have taken place in the introduction of China culture, with the first climax of comprehensive acceptance of China culture, and the form of absorption has changed from indirect to direct. The most typical is to send world-famous envoys to the Tang Dynasty, reaching 13 times. They are eager to study the laws, systems, literature, life and architecture of Tang Wenhua and China. And learn almost everything. Limited by space, this paper only examines its profound influence from the aspects of political system, literature, art and religion. First of all, in the political system, the centralized legal state established after the political reform was completely modeled after the Tang Dynasty. The system of two officials and eight provinces is modeled after the system of three provinces and six departments. The laws and salary orders of the Tang Dynasty were modeled after the Tang Committee, and the land system of Bantian was based on the land equalization system of the Tang Dynasty. Japan, like the Tang dynasty, also implemented the concession mediocrity law, which is almost the same in content, but different in amount. Secondly, in literature, Japan introduced a large number of books from the Tang Dynasty. It can be seen from the Japanese Book Catalogue edited at the end of the 9th century that almost all the major books of the Tang Dynasty were collected in Japan at that time, and even some books were lost in China, but they were preserved in Japan. [10] Not only that, they also actively learn to write Chinese and Chinese poems in various ways, and strive to learn the writing skills of Chinese and Chinese poems. This can be seen from the popularity of Bai Juyi's poems in Japan. Huaifengzao is regarded as the earliest collection of Chinese poems in Japan, and its preface is a six-body masterpiece. There are 120 poems in the book, among which there are five-character poems and seven-character poems. The author, from emperors to ministers and eminent monks, has a style similar to that of the early Tang poetry. [1 1] Tang poetry not only influenced ancient Japan, but also regarded Tang poetry as its own classicism in modern Japan. Yanbo Bookstore alone published 200,000 volumes of Tang poetry, so [12] shows its great influence. Thirdly, in terms of religion, Buddhism sects such as Sanlun Sect, Faxiang Sect, Huayan Sect and Lega Sect prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. Monks who entered the Tang Dynasty studied these sects and transplanted them to Japan as usual, and many famous monks appeared, among which Konghai and Zui became outstanding representatives. What the Chinese and Japanese people will never forget here is that Jian Zhen, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, made an indelible contribution to the spread of Buddhism in China after going through hardships and dangers. In addition, Japanese astronomy, calendar, medicine, education, history, art, sculpture, customs and other aspects are also deeply influenced by Tang Wenhua. I won't describe it here.

Third, the deep spiritual and cultural radiation

10 century later, Japan entered the Kamakura era, which was the transition period from ancient countries to the Middle Ages. Great changes have taken place in politics, ideology, economy and culture. At the same time, China entered the Song and Yuan Dynasties from the Tang Dynasty, and the owner, content and form of culture were brand-new. Especially Buddhism, ushered in a major turning point. All this stimulated the Japanese Zen monks, especially the Wushan monk's idea of sea cucumber crossing. Such as WuZhun Normal School, Master Hu Chuan Lian and other famous monks, tried their best to transplant China culture to Japan, which set off the second upsurge of learning China after the Tang Dynasty, enriched the content of Japanese culture and accelerated its development. Take typical literature, Buddhism and Confucianism as examples: Wushan literature had a high representative position in Japan at that time, but it was influenced by it with the change of Chinese dynasties. The Japanese literature in Wushan once appeared "calm and virtuous glitz", which reflected the cultural decadence of China in the Song Dynasty, while the poetry-chanting movement of monks who entered the Yuan Dynasty in Muromachi period in the Southern and Northern Dynasties clearly conveyed the poetry-chanting movement of China in the Yuan Dynasty. During Antu and Taoshan periods, the secularization of Zen forest literature was influenced by the secularization of literati literature in Ming Dynasty in China. [13] As far as religion is concerned, the Buddhism advocated by Japan at that time was Jing Shizong and Zen. This is related to the Buddhist belief in China at that time. Pure Land Sect and Zen Buddhism were spread by Japanese monks who came to China and China monks who crossed Japan. China's Pure Land Religion is based on the Three Classics and One Theory, namely, Banzhou Samadha Sutra, Amitabha Sutra, View of Infinite Life Sutra and Past Life Theory, which is also the basis of Japanese Pure Land Religion. Pure land Sect is widely spread among Japanese people, so the elegant and simple custom of pure land Sect art can still be seen everywhere in Japanese life today. Besides Pure Land Sect, Zen Buddhism is more popular in Japan, which was first created by China and later spread to Japan. Respect reality, follow nature, attach importance to sensibility, and reject unrealistic, ideal, cumbersome and extravagant things. Everything is simple and indifferent, quiet and lonely, and free. This is the aesthetic thought of Zen. It is no accident that Zen practice is simple and advocates epiphany and meditation for enlightenment. The Japanese samurai's indifference to life and death is connected with the Zen doctrine of "life and death coexist" Moreover, in reality, the indulgence of Japanese samurai is directly influenced by Zen thought. They do not advocate asceticism or read Buddhist scriptures. As long as they point directly at their hearts and make them "nothing", "chaos" and "ignorance", they are "abstinence", "determination" and "wisdom", and external behavior is also secondary. [14] Zhu entered Japan as early as the Kamakura era. 1200, Japanese samurai Kenzaburo Oe read Zhu's China. [15] In 124 1, Zhu's Annotations on the Analects of Confucius are in duplicate. 1257, the Japanese monk Yuanji explained the book Daming Lu in the Southern Song Dynasty when the Kamakura shogunate Kitajima was in power. Daming Road is about Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and Confucianism respects Song. [16] Later, "San 'an School" and "Hainan School" appeared in Japan, which was formed during the local popularization of Confucianism. In the intellectual circle of Kamakura-Muromachi era, the forces of Song learning still lived under Buddhism and failed to be independent from Buddhism. However, after a long period of communication, its influence gradually expanded, thus laying the foundation for the independence and prosperity of Confucianism in the Edo era.

After Japan entered the Edo era, China culture continued to exert a profound influence on Japanese society. The characteristic of this period is that China's Confucianism was widely absorbed by Japan, including Song studies, Yangming studies and Zhuangzi studies represented by Confucianism, but the influence was not great. Japanese samurai absorbed Confucianism and Zen Buddhism, and finally fully formed the Bushido spirit, thus forming a culture with Yamato national spirit characteristics. For example, Bushido's emphasis on loyalty, filial piety and righteousness comes from China's Confucianism. /kloc-After the middle of the 0/7th century, Confucianism (especially Zhuzi studies) gradually spread among the samurai, and Confucianism became a prominent school in China. According to Japanese scholars' statistics, from 1630 to 187 1, among the 19 12 people who were taught by various governors, they belonged to Zhuzi. [17] It can be seen that Zhuzixue was the dominant ideology in the Edo era. In the late Edo period, Yangming studies occupied an important position in Japan. The representative figure is Sato and his party, and many thinkers were active in the political arena at the end of the curtain, such as Sasuke Xiangshan, Yoshida Shōin and Saigō Takamori. In the late Edo period, "Jundao" and "Chen Dao" replaced the Zen Bushido based only on personal exercise, and eventually became the only spiritual pillar of Japanese society, which was also deeply infiltrated by Confucianism.

Not only in the Edo period, but also after the fall of Tokugawa shogunate, Confucianism once declined under the slogan of learning from the West. However, after the Meiji Restoration, Confucianism was promoted by both the ruling and opposition parties, and Confucianism became the spiritual pillar of Japanese society. The profound influence of China's Confucianism on Japan can be seen from Japan's admiration for Confucius.

Characteristics of Japanese Absorption of Ancient China Culture

The Japanese's absorption of China's ancient culture, rather than simply "taking it", has its distinctive characteristics.

First, absorb and digest the consciousness of innovation

Ancient Japanese always faced the poverty of their own culture soberly, eager to absorb China's advanced culture to enrich themselves. In Nara, Japan fully absorbed the culture of Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, but while absorbing the culture of China, Japan has a strong ability of digestion and innovation. For example, in terms of laws and regulations, the Tang Dynasty formulated heavy laws as "ten evils", while Japan reduced them to "eight abuses". There were six in the Tang Dynasty and eight provinces in Japan. In terms of language, Japan skillfully uses the meaning of Chinese characters to create phrases similar to proper nouns to express its intention, making Chinese characters a recording symbol of its own language and an organic part of its own language. For example, in literature, gradually join their own traditional literature. For example, The Tale of Genji is an excellent work reflecting Japanese life. In addition, in terms of Buddhist thought, Japanese Buddhism aims at protecting the country. For example, Zen Buddhism has a very strong idea of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, advocating the unity of God and Buddhism and simplifying the form, which laid the ideological foundation for the emergence of Bushido in the future. Another example is Confucianism. China's Confucianism takes filial piety as the first of the five ethics, emphasizing that loyalty and filial piety are difficult to be satisfactory, while Japanese Confucianism takes "loyalty" as the first of the five ethics and advocates both loyalty and filial piety. [18] Later, "Jundao" and "Chen Dao" replaced Bushido and became the only spiritual pillar of samurai, while loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness were not necessarily treated separately according to clan and rank. Therefore, there are also superfamily groups in Japan, which is different from China. Although China's Confucianism also attaches importance to loyalty to the rulers, his loyalty to his family often exceeds his loyalty to the rulers. At the same time, the main purpose of studying Confucianism in China, especially in Zhuzi, is to cultivate self-cultivation, while in Japan, it has risen to the height of governing the country and leveling the world. In addition, Japanese Confucianism and Buddhism are even combined with traditional Shinto, that is, Confucianism and Buddhism are harmonious, which is another feature of Japanese Confucianism. In clothing, the Tang suit was introduced and transformed into a "kimono" in Japan.

Second, heterozygosity and compatibility

Japanese characters can be said to be the synthesis of foreign cultures. The Japanese invented hiragana by borrowing the whole writing method of Chinese characters, and katakana by borrowing the radical (radical or radical) of Chinese characters. Today's Japanese contains a large number of loanwords in dozens of languages except Chinese. In faith, the Japanese worship the gods of Japan, China and India. Regarding festivals, Japan celebrates both Japanese festivals and China festivals. In housing, Japan, China and the outside go hand in hand. All these reflect the hybridity and compatibility of foreign cultures in Japan.

Third, nationality and practicality.

When Japan absorbs China culture, it emphasizes the integration of Japan's inherent spirit and China's knowledge, that is, the so-called idea of "harmony between soul and talent". At the same time, the absorption of China culture is based on realism. Although Japan in Zongliang era was almost "completely dominated by the Tang Dynasty", we should still see that Japan did not import all the systems of the Tang Dynasty, but made effective choices. For example, the imperial examination system and eunuch system [19] have never been implemented in Japan. Another example is to follow the social etiquette of Song and Ming Dynasties, but not to learn the custom of female foot binding, mainly because these do not meet the political and social needs and cultural conditions of Japan. Another example is Tang Le imported from China. Later, it gradually changed its shape and reduced its scale according to Japanese style, so it was called Yala. There is also the creation of the Japanese tea ceremony with China's tea, and the Japanese samurai absorbed China's Confucianism and Zen Buddhism to create Bushido. With regard to China's advanced culture, Japan not only learned Confucian classics and political system, but also paid attention to China's practical skills in law, astronomy, medicine, arithmetic, compilation of history books and architecture, which reflected the national and practical characteristics of Japan's absorption of China culture.

To sum up, it can be seen that China's ancient culture has a great influence on ancient Japanese society, and it has always influenced the development of ancient Japanese society in some aspects, such as Confucianism and Buddhism. Even in today's Japan, you can still see traces of China's ancient culture. For example, in Japanese proverbs, the Analects of Confucius and Buddhist terms are often used for analogy, such as "reading of the analects of confucius didn't understand" (meaning China's "dead reading"), "telling the Analects to dogs" (meaning China's "casting pearls before swine") and "telling the scriptures to Sakyamuni" (meaning China's "selling articles in front of Confucius"). It embodies the profound influence of the Analects of Confucius and Buddhism in Japan. [20] On the other hand, although Japan is a country with weak cultural function output, it is good at absorbing foreign advanced culture and digesting and innovating it, and finally forming Yamato national culture with its own characteristics. At present, except for a few narrow-minded nationalists and militarists, most Japanese admit that Japan has absorbed a lot of ancient China culture. For example, an advertisement selling noodles in Japan now says "Noodles were taught to us by China people with a long history of 4,000 years". Face it squarely