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The Spread of Chinese Civilization Korea, Japan and Vietnam summary

Chapter 19     The Spread of Chinese Civilization:
Korea, Japan and Vietnam

1. Introduction

Because of the remarkable durability of Chinese civilization as well as its marvelous technological and economic innovations, other cultures began to imitate China. Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were all drawn into China's cultural and political orbit in the postclassical period. Each of the three areas interacted with China differently. Of the three, Japan was able to retain its complete political independence, while Vietnam and Korea were subjected to varying degrees of Chinese imperialism. The latter two regions had less control over the nature of cultural borrowing than did Japan. In all of the areas, Buddhism played a significant role in cultural transformation. Eventually, adoption of Chinese culture caused Japan, Korea, and Vietnam to remain relatively isolated with the exception of their links to China.

2. Japan: The Imperial Age
1. Introduction

Chinese cultural influence in Japan peaked during the seventh and eighth centuries. In 646 the Japanese emperor introduced administrative reforms, the Taika reforms, intended to realign the Japanese government along Chinese models. Chinese patterns of court etiquette, diplomacy, historical writing, and Confucian philosophy became mandatory aspects of the Japanese court. Buddhism swept into Japan. The attempted wholesale introduction of Chinese culture into Japan met with resistance from the aristocracy. The eventual failure of the Taika reforms implied the weakening of the imperial government and the passage of power to the aristocracy. In the long run, power passed from the imperial court to regional lords, who insisted on a return to Japanese ways.

2. Crisis at Nara and the Shift to Heian (Kyoto)

The Taika reforms were intended to create an emperor with absolute powers assisted by a Chinese-style bureaucracy and supported by an army of conscripted peasants. Opposition to the reforms came from aristocratic families and from Buddhist monks. Buddhist monks had become so powerful in Japan that one of their number actually conspired to take over the throne in the 760s. With the imperial government under constant threat of Buddhist disruption, the emperor moved the capital from Nara to Heian (Kyoto). The Buddhists who were forbidden to build monasteries within the new capital settled for constructing monasteries on the hills that surrounded the city.
To counterbalance the growing influence of the Buddhists, emperors restored the powers of the aristocratic families, reinforced their traditional control of the imperial government, and permitted them to build up their control of rural estates. Attempts to create a conscripted army were abandoned and military organization was left to members of the rural aristocracy.

3. Ultracivilized: Court Life in the Heian Era

Although attempts to expand imperial centralization were abandoned at Heian, the imperial court produced a refined culture that set standards for aristocratic life. The court established strict rules of social conduct and a hierarchy of status that defined social relationships. The elite in Heian lived in a complex of palaces and gardens. Poetry was the favorite literary expression at Heian. Women participated in the production of poetry and other forms of literature. For instance, one of the most celebrated literary works of this era was The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki.

4. The Decline of Imperial Power

By the middle of the ninth century, the imperial court was dominated by the Fujiwara family. Aristocratic families competed with Buddhist monasteries for control of land around the capital. Both groups sought to frustrate imperial reforms and limit the power of the emperors. Gradually the secular elite within the imperial court at Heian and the Buddhist monasteries began to cooperate. Both groups came into conflict with the growing regional influence of local lords outside the region of Heian.

5. The Rise of the Provincial Warrior Elite

In the countryside, elite families also sought to monopolize land and labor. These families were able to carve out private precincts ruled by "house" governments. In each local precinct, the elite family in control constructed small fortresses to house the local lord and his military retainers. The warrior leaders, or bushi, exercised private jurisdiction within their lands and enforced their rule through private armies of mounted troops, or samurai.
As the imperial government became increasingly weak, it began to hire local lords and their armed troops to provide for law and order, even in the regions near the capital. Supported by peasants, who supplied the bushi and samurai with food, local warriors began to emerge as a separate and powerful class. Warfare between groups of samurai was often based on heroic combat between champions. The samurai developed a distinctive code of conduct based on honor in war and requiring ritual suicide for disgrace. The rise of the samurai frustrated any attempts for the emergence of a free peasantry in Japan.
Treated as property of the warrior class, peasants turned to salvationist strains of Buddhism notably the Pure Lands sect. Artisans were concentrated in the capital city and in the fortress towns of the more powerful bushi. Artisans, like peasants, had very little social status.

3. The Era of Warrior Dominance
1. Introduction

As the power of the bushi grew, even the court aristocracy depended on alliances with powerful samurai to remain in power. By the twelfth century, the regional bushi were able to contest for imperial power. The first conflict was between the Taira and the Minamoto families. During the 1180s, the Minamoto and their allies defeated the Taira who continued to rely on alliances within the imperial court. As a result of the Gempei Wars, the Minamoto family was able to establish the bakufu, a separate military government at Kamakura. Although the emperor and his court were retained, real power resided in the bakufu with the Minamoto and their allies.

2. The Declining Influence of China

Chinese influence in Japan waned as the decline of power in the imperial court made maintenance of Chinese models useless. The emergence of a Japanese scholar-gentry was opposed by the attempts of the aristocracy to cling to power. When the Tang empire in China collapsed, Chinese models seemed even less appropriate. Official missions to the Chinese court halted in 838.

3. The Breakdown of Bakufu Dominance and the Age of the Warlords

The first shogun of the bakufu was Yoritomo Minamoto. He severely weakened the military government by eliminating any potential threats to his rule even from among his own family. At Yoritomo's death, there was no able heir to succeed him. The Hojo family rose to dominate the bakufu, although members of the Minamoto family continued to hold the title of shogun.
In the early fourteenth century, Ashikaga Takuaji, a member of a collateral branch of the Minamoto family led a rebellion of bushi who overthrew the Kamakura shogunate and established the Ashikaga shogunate in its place. When the emperor refused to recognize the Ashikaga military government, the Ashikaga shoguns chased him from Kyoto and placed new, puppet emperors on the throne. Continued civil strife destroyed whatever power the emperors had been able to retain. Powers of the bushi grew at the expense of central government, whether imperial or bakufu.
With the full-scale civil war, 1467-1477, rival heirs of the Ashikaga family sought to create alliances with bushi leaders. The shogunate lost authority to regional lords. Warlord rulers divided Japan into nearly 300 private states under the jurisdiction of daimyos.

4. Toward Barbarism? Military Division and Social Change

Under the daimyos, warfare changed from heroic combat to more modern conflict. Daimyos relied on large, peasant armies. As the constant state of war destroyed the Japanese economy, some peasants engaged in futile rebellions against their military overlords. Despite constant conflict, some daimyos attempted to build up their estates and establish rural stability. Local rulers invested in irrigation systems, attempted to recruit new supplies of labor, fostered commercial production, and introduced merchants into local communities.
Women in merchant and artisan families may have benefited from daimyo attempts to improve economic conditions. Most women, however, lost status during the daimyo period.

5. Artistic Solace for a Troubled Age

Cultural development continued during the warring-houses era. Particularly important in cultural development was Zen Buddhist monasteries. On the cultural level, Zen monasteries provided for renewed contact with China. Painting, architecture, and garden design, in particular, were important in daimyo society.

6. Seeds of Unity and Japanese Nationhood

Economic and cultural growth, as well as administrative developments within daimyo estates, provided the foundation for national unification in Japan. Commercial and artisan classes would later participate in creation of a national economy.
Administrative reforms provided the bureaucratic infrastructure for local government within a national scheme.

4. Korea: Between China and Japan
1. Introduction

Chinese culture influenced Korea more heavily than any other region, even though indigenous dynasties continued to rule the peninsula for much of the postclassic period. The people who inhabited the Korean peninsula were different ethnically than those who came to consider themselves Chinese. In 109 B.C.E., a Han dynasty emperor conquered the Korean kingdom of Choson and settled Chinese colonies in Korea. These Chinese colonies provided the conduit through which Chinese culture was transmitted. As Chinese control of Korea weakened, the indigenous Koguryo established an independent kingdom in the northern part of the peninsula.
Koguryo contested control of the peninsula with two smaller kingdoms, Silla and Paekche. In all three kingdoms, Buddhism supplied the key links to Chinese culture. In Koguryo, rulers attempted to institute the Chinese examination system, Chinese writing, and a bureaucracy. Opposition to Sinification by the Korean aristocracy led to failure of the plan.

2. Tang Alliances and the Conquest of Korea

The Tang emperors conquered Korea for China for the second time. In the process of conquest, the Tang allied themselves with Silla in order to defeat the other two dynasties. When Silla proved resistant to external control, the Tang emperors agreed to recognize the Silla monarch as a vassal in return for the payment of tribute. The Chinese withdrew their armies from Korea in 668, leaving the kings of Silla as independent rulers.

3. Sinification: The Tributary Link

Under the kings of Silla and the succeeding Koryo dynasty (918 - 1392), Sinification was thorough. The Silla rulers intentionally modeled their government after the Tang dynasty. The tribute system was critical to the process of cultural exchange. Tribute missions offered access to Chinese learning, art, and manufactured goods. Scholars from Korea were able to study at Chinese schools and Buddhist monasteries.

4. The Sinification of Korean Elite Culture

The aristocracy of the Korean kingdom of Silla clustered about the capital city of Kumsong. There they became immersed in Chinese culture, including Confucianism. Despite the interest in imitating all things Chinese, the Korean elite preferred Buddhism to Confucianism. The Koreans learned the initial secrets of pottery from the Chinese, but Korean artisans produced masterworks that often rivaled the efforts of their teachers.

5. Civilization for the Few

Sinification was largely limited in Korea to the elite, who monopolized most political offices and dominated social life. Much of Korea's trade involved supplying luxuries for the elite. To support the importation of luxuries, Korea exported raw materials. Artisans remained in the lower ranks of Korean society. Korea failed to develop a distinctive merchant class. The lower ranks of Korean society existed to serve the elite. Salvationist Buddhism promised an afterlife as a release from the drudgery of service to the Korean aristocracy.

6. Koryo Collapse, Dynastic Renewal

Periodic rebellions against the Korean government and aristocrats eventually weakened both the Silla and Koryo regimes. Following the Mongol invasion of Korea in 1231, the Yi dynasty was founded in 1392. It survived in much the same format as its predecessors until 1910.

5. Between China and Southeast Asia: The Making of Vietnam
1. Introduction

The Chinese were interested in the annexation of Vietnam in order to control the rice production of the Red River valley. The Vietnamese were less conciliatory toward the adoption of Chinese culture than other peoples. The first attempts at conquest during the Qin dynasty resulted in the establishment of trade between China and Vietnam, but no political unification. Aspects of Vietnamese culture such as language, household formation, local autonomy, dress, and the higher status of women differed significantly from Chinese patterns.

2. Conquest and Sinification

The Han dynasty emperors were responsible for the conquest of the Red River valley. By 111 B.C.E., Chinese troops and administrators were present in Vietnam. Initially the Viet elite cooperated with their conquerors and entered the bureaucratic administration of local government. The Viet elite undertook Confucian education and underwent the Chinese examination system as a means of qualifying for official posts in the government. With the introduction of Chinese agricultural techniques, Vietnamese agriculture became highly productive. Adoption of Chinese military techniques gave the Vietnamese advantages over the neighboring cultures of Southeast Asia.

3. Roots of Resistance

Chinese cultural importations failed to make an impression on the Vietnamese peasantry. Vietnamese resistance to political inclusion within the Chinese empire led to rebellions. The most famous of the rebellions occurred in 39 C.E. under the Trung sisters.

4. Winning Independence

Separated from China by substantial distance and geographical barriers, Vietnam was difficult for the Chinese to govern. Whenever political chaos existed in China between dynasties, the Vietnamese were quick to reestablish their independence. Following the fall of the Tang, the Vietnamese achieved separation from China in 939. Until their conquest by the French in the nineteenth century, the Vietnamese were able to stave off foreign invasion.

5. The Continuing Chinese Impact

Chinese cultural influences did not end with the restoration of Vietnamese political independence. Vietnamese dynasties after 980 continued to imitate the Chinese bureaucracy, examination system, and the scholar-gentry. The Vietnamese administrators were never as powerful as their Chinese counterparts, because their power did not extend effectively to the village level. The competition with Buddhist monks also limited the power of the nascent Vietnamese scholar- gentry. Failure to establish a strong, centralized administrative network weakened many Vietnamese dynasties.

6. The Vietnamese Drive to the South

Vietnam continued to enjoy advantages over other rivals in Indochina. Their main adversaries were the Chams and Khmers, who resided in the southern portions of the region. The Vietnamese remained less interested in the hill peoples, whom they regarded as savages. Between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries, the Vietnamese drove the Chams from their lands in the south. Following the defeat of the Chams, the Vietnamese expanded their territories at the expense of the Khmers. By the eighteenth century, the Vietnamese had successfully taken much of the land surrounding the Mekong River delta.

7. Expansion and Division

As southern expansion continued, the central government in Hanoi had increasing difficulties establishing their authority in the south. By the sixteenth century, a rival dynasty the Nguyen emerged to challenge the northern Trinh dynasty. For two centuries, the war between the Trinh and Nguyen continued. Internal war weakened the Vietnamese when it became necessary to face an external threat from European imperialism.

6. Conclusion: Divergent Paths in East Asian Development

Chinese culture spread to the sedentary agricultural populations of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam in the first millennium C.E. Chinese writing, bureaucratic organization, religion, and art all made impressions on the indigenous cultures. In general, the local elites of the three regions actively sought to emulate Chinese models. Differences within the three areas resulted in divergent outcomes and alternative mixes of the indigenous and the imported. China was able to establish direct control over Korea. In Vietnam, Chinese influences mingled with Indian cultural contributions. Only Japan remained permanently independent of China and, thus, was able to selectively adapt Chinese models to Japanese needs. In East Asia, as a whole, cultural exchanges took place in isolation from the rest of the civilized world.

 

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The Spread of Chinese Civilization Korea, Japan and Vietnam summary

CHAPTER 13: THE SPREAD OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION:
             JAPAN, KOREA, AND VIETNAM
                              Pages 288 – 313

 

SUMMARY

Japan: The Imperial Age

Chinese influence on Japan peaked in the 7th and 8th centuries as Japanese rulers and their courtiers tried to build a Chinese-style bureaucracy and army and to emulate Chinese culture. But the isolated and civilized court centers lost political control to aristocratic families and local warlords. Intensifying rivalries between regional military leaders eventually plunged Japan into a long series of civil wars.

The Era of Warrior Dominance

From the 12th century onward, Japanese history was increasingly dominated by civil wars between shifting factions of the court aristocracy and local warlords. Chinese influence declined steadily in the centuries, that followed. But in the midst of strife and social dislocation, the warrior elite and the artisan classes that served them managed to develop a distinctly Japanese intellectual tradition. This creativity was obscured by continuing civil strife, which ended in the 16th century.

Korea: Between China and Japan

                  Korea was the east Asian state most profoundly influenced for the longest period
                  of time by the Chinese culture. Because the Korean peninsula is an extension of 
                  the Chinese mainland, historical Korean kingdoms were dwarfed by their giant
                  neighbor to the west. Nevertheless, Korea has been ruled by native dynasties
                  throughout most of its history, and developed a distinctly Korean civilization.
 
Between China and Southeast Asia: The Making of Vietnam

From the Chinese point of view, the Red River, which became the heart of Vietnam, was just another rice-growing river valley to be annexed. But the Viets differed in critical ways from the other “southern” barbarians the Chinese had encountered. Their homeland was farther away from the centers of Chinese political power. For another, the Viets developed a sophisticated and resilient culture, which, while it might have borrowed from China, successfully resisted political incorporation.

Conclusion: Divergent Paths in East Asian Development

The first millenium C.E. was a pivotal epoch in the histories of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Common elements of Chinese culture, from writing to bureaucracy to religious teachings, were all but monopolized by court and provincial elites. But the differing ways in which Chinese cultural influence was transmitted resulted in very different outcomes.
CHAPTER REVIEW

Describe the influence of Chinese culture on Heian Japan.

Describe court life during the Heian period.

What led to the decline of imperial power within Japan?

How did the rise of provincial warrior elites change Japanese institutions?

Describe social, political, and economic institutions during the Bakufu Age.

To what extent did Vietnam and Korea accept and reject Chinese influences?

Which classes and institutions were largely Sinified in Korea and Vietnam?

How did Korea and Vietnam maintain political independence from China?

 

VOCABULARY

Taika Reforms

Heian Period

Kami

Bushi (Bushido)

Samurai

Seppuku (Hara-kiri)

Bakufu

Shogun

Daimyos

“Gatekeepers”

Sinification

Tribute states

Kowtow

MAP EXERCISES

Map 13.1: Japan in the Imperial and Warlord Periods (Page 291)
The Japanese home islands resemble very closely the physical geography of ancient Greece (except that Japan is wetter). How might physical geography affect movement and political developments within Japan?

 

Map 13.2: The Korean Peninsula (Page 300)
Which part of Korea would be most heavily influenced by Chinese culture?

Which part would be least affected?

Looking at the political map at the back of the book, why is the division into North and South Korea not a new development?
 

Map 13.3: South China and Vietnam (Page 305)
Why is travel and communication within the area difficult?

What routes would permit the easiest geographic movement in the area?

Why would Chinese influence on Vietnam be greater than Hindu or Buddhist from the Khmer and Mekong River area?

 

DOCUMENT ANALYSIS: Literature as a Mirror of the Exchanges (Page 310)

What ideas in the documents are:
Chinese?

Buddhist (Indian)?

Japanese?

Vietnamese?

How are the documents similar? Different?

 

What would account for the differences?

 

How would you summarize the degree of Sinification of neighboring cultures?

 

How have the Vietnamese and Japanese maintained their cultural identities?
PHOTO ESSAYS

Indigenous Cultures (Pages 288, 292, 295, 300, 301, 304, and 311)
Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures are syncretic blends of foreign and indigenous cultural elements. Identify these elements in the above photos:

Chinese.

 

Buddhist.

 

Indigenous elements.

 

 Feudal Militaristic Societies
Compare and contrast western European (pages 212, 222, and 234) and Japanese (pages 295 and 299) feudal military societies.

 

Religious Architectures
Compare and contrast the religious architectures of the Christians (page 228), Shinto (page 301), Buddhists (pages 270 and 289), and Muslims (pages 140 – 141). What elements are universal and transcendental, and which are local, ethnic, or particular to an individual society?

 

VISUALIZING THE PAST: Gatekeeper Elites (Pages 306 – 307)

Who are gatekeepers?

Who were the gatekeepers in:
Japan?

Aztec society?

Western Europe?

China?

With which other elites did each gatekeepers share their respective society?

 

What does the type of gatekeeper tell us about important values in societies?
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

The only indigenous aspect of Japanese culture during the Heian era was
Mahayana Buddhism.
the imperial administration.
written characters.
Shinto.
court etiquette and protocol.

The group which most directly challenged Chinese influences in Japan and Vietnam during the Post-Classical era was
the merchants.
Buddhist monks and priests.
the emperor.
the imperial bureaucracy.
aristocrats and local provincial administrators.

Aristocratic women during the Heian period
directed court protocols in the imperial capital.
often had incredible artistic and intellectual freedom often denied the women of other cultures.
were restricted to the father’s, husband’s, or family household.
encouraged the court to embrace Shintoism and abandon Buddhism.
studied and wrote about the worlds of the common Japanese people.

As the power of the Heian emperors declined,
Chinese trained scholar officials assumed control of the government.
civil war broke out between branches of the imperial family.
local nobles carved out estates and reduced Japanese peasants to serfdom.
China conquered Japan.
religious groups and the clergy became the effective government.

Real government in Japan after the 11th century rested with
the emperor’s immediate family.
women.
Confucian scholar-gentry.
shoguns or military governors.
Buddhist monks.

Japan’s form of government during the Bakufu period most resembles a
feudal state.
Gerintocracy or rule by the elderly.
democracy.
theocracy.
government by rich merchants.

The key link for the conduit of Chinese culture to Japan and Korea was
Buddhism.
commercial contacts such as trade.
migration by the Chinese to Korea and Japan.
diplomatic missions.
war.

During the Bakufu periods, Japanese women exercised the most influence and had the most freedom within
peasant communities.
aristocratic families.
religious establishments.
the courts of the emperors.
the rising merchant and artisan classes.

The typical pattern for relations between China and its neighbors during the Post-Classical period was
military occupation by the Chinese armies.
for these states to acknowledge Chinese superiority and pay tribute but remain independent.
incorporation of these states as provinces in the Chinese empire.
to form equal alliances as partners against nomadic invaders.
to maintain no formal relations or treaties with neighboring states.

Historical Vietnamese society differed from traditional Chinese society in all these ways EXCEPT:
a tradition of village autonomy was strong in Vietnam.
the major language of both was Chinese.
the Vietnamese preferred nuclear families.
the Vietnamese had no strong clans.
Women had greater freedom and influence in Vietnam than China.

The French in the 1950s and the Americans in the 1960s could have predicted the Vietnamese would resist foreign invasions and defeat invaders because
the majority of Vietnamese literature and art depicted Vietnam’s history and mocked foreign influences.
Vietnam had maintained its distinct Vietnamese identity despite centuries of Chinese rule.
Vietnam’s war of independence against China and the Mongols lasted 1,000 years in order to achieve freedom.
the Vietnamese constantly invaded and defeated their neighbors including China.
Vietnam had conquered and ruled its neighbors in Indo-China.

 

Local Vietnamese officials favored and imitated the styles and culture of
Confucian scholar officials.
Hindu rulers.
the imperial court and high administrators.
the peasants and local village culture.
merchants.

After their independence from China, the Vietnamese
slavishly copied Chinese culture and ruling styles.
degenerated into constantly feuding clans and villages.
were conquered by the Khmers and Thais.
became a largely commercial society in southeast Asia.
conquered the highlands and coasts between the Mekong River and South China Sea.

Geography, environment, and movement in Vietnam
successfully fostered the growth of a uniform Vietnamese culture.
have increasingly isolated Vietnam from its neighbors.
divided the nation into two cultural divisions – one in the south along the Mekong River and the other in the north along the Red River.
have made it difficult to ignore the influence of China in history.
led to the spread of Christianity and Islam throughout the country.

In Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, the class that most welcomed Chinese influence and culture was
the local aristocrats.
the court bureaucrats (scholar-gentry).
peasants.
Buddhist monks.
the merchants.

 

ESSAY QUESTIONS

How did the role of women change in Japan during the first millenium?

Compare and contrast the north and south divisions in China, Vietnam, and Korea with the East-West divisions in Europe.

Compare and contrast how smaller states and societies on the periphery of a greater or larger civilization are affected by the larger, more influential society: Korea, Japan, Sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia with Islam or China. How widespread is acculturation and how much of a society’s culture is indigenous?

Compare and contrast Japanese and west European feudalisms.
   

 

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