Japan,+Korea+and+Vietnam

The spread of Chinese civilization


 * ESPIRIT Chart: Japan **

= Religion = MI: The common people looked to Buddhist monks for spiritual and secular assistance and meshed Buddhist beliefs with traditional religion.
 * They began worship buddhist gods and Kami or nature spirits of Japan.
 * The Taika effort to remake the Japanese ruler into a Chinese-style absolutist monarch was frustrated by resistance from aristocratic families and Buddhist monks.
 * Together with Buddhist monasteries, also estate owners, they whittled down imperial authority.
 * Large numbers of peasants and artisans fell under their control.
 * Cooperation between aristocrats and Buddhists was helped by secret texts and ceremonies of esoteric Buddhism, techniques to gain salvation through prayer and meditation.
 * Zen Buddhism had a key role in maintaining the arts among the elite. Zen monasteries were key locations for renewed contacts with China.
 * Worship of Buddha in chinese temple style.

Political
MI: The aristocracy returned to Japanese traditions; the peasantry reworked Buddhism into a Japanese creed. The emperor lost power to aristocrats and provincial lords. **Economic** **T****he shared feudal past may have assisted their successful industrial development and shaped their capacity for running capitalist economies.**
 * The Fujiwara excercised exceptional influence over imperial affairs.
 * They used that wealth and power to build up to provide stable financial base and large estate.
 * Bushi administred law and Samurai were loyals of the local lords not to the court of aristocratic officials.
 * the Japanese determined aristocratic rank by birth, thus blocking social mobility.
 * The aristocrats dominated the central government and restored their position as landholders.
 * The emperor gave up plans for creating a peasant conscript army and ordered local leaders to form rural militias.
 * The pleasure-loving emperor lost control of policy to aristocratic court families.
 * By the ninth century, the Fujiwara dominated the administration and married into the imperial family.
 * Aristocratic families used their wealth and influence to buy large estates.
 * The provincial aristocracy had also gained estates. Some carved out regional states ruled from small fortresses housing the lord and his retainers.
 * The warrior leaders (bushi) governed and taxed for themselves, not the court.
 * The emperor and court were preserved, but all power rested with the Minamoto and their samurai. Japanese feudalism was under way.
 * They included the concept of mutual ties and obligations and embraced elite militaristic values.
 * There were differences between the two approaches to feudalism. Western Europe stressed contractual ideas, while the Japanese relied on group and individual bonds.
 * Bacafu or military governmen, capital located in Kamakura in their base area on Kanto plain.
 * Shoguns or military leaders on the Bakufu.
 * Hojo one of the warrior families that had been allied with Minamoto.
 * Ashikaga Takuaji led a revolt of the Bushi that overthrew Kamakura and established Ashikaga Shogunate.
 * Rulers were called daimyos of the 300 little kingdom.
 * Bureaucracy was brough to Japan
 * Collected taxes, had provincial granaries and markets
 * Traded with China raw vegetables, rice, and fish served on bamboo and wooden trays.
 * Agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected
 * Pesants produced vegetable oils for the lord and themselves
 * Irrigation system for farming

Interaction

 * The interaction among the little groups they formed.
 * Through the exchanges from China, Korea and Vietnam.

Social
Although the imperial court had lost power, court culture flourished at Heian. Aristocratic men and women lived according to strict behavioral codes.
 * The rise of the samurai blocked the development of a free peasantry;
 * Warrioros were dedicated to the warfare.
 * Seppuki in which they suicide instead of surrendering.
 * they became serfs bound to the land and were treated as the lord's property. Rigid class barriers separated them from the warrior elite.
 * To counter their degradation, the peasantry turned to the Pure Lands Salvationist Buddhism.
 * Artisans lived at the court and with some of the bushi; they also, despite their skills, possessed little social status.
 * A new and wealthy commercial class emerged, and guilds were formed by artisans and merchants.
 * A minority of women found opportunities in commerce and handicraft industries, but the women of the warrior class lost status as primogeniture blocked them from receiving inheritances.
 * Women became appendages of warrior fathers and husbands. As part of this general trend, women lost ritual roles in religion and were replaced in theaters by men.
 * The role of religion, the weaponry and armor, and the warrior codes of conducts of both countries can easily prove this point.

Intellectual
Notable achievements were made in painting, architecture, gardens, and the tea ceremony.
 * The basis of life was the pursuit of enjoyment and the avoidance of common, distasteful elements of life.
 * Poetry was a valued art form, and the Japanese simplified the script taken from the Chinese to facilitate expression.
 * An outpouring of distinctively Japanese poetic and literary works followed.
 * Lady Murasaki's //The Tale of Genji//, the first novel in any language, vividly depicts courtly life.
 * They had a separate identity of paintaings of landscapes and other fine arts during the years of war with tiny human figures and monochrome.

Technology
The technology were weaponery in advancement and palaces and massiva building and high tech.
 * They lived in a complex of palaces and gardens.
 * Unlike China, which had to undertake massive public works and water-control projects.
 * High quality seals and advanced army.



Chinese influences was heavily taken by three main civilization that are nearby through a course of conquest or control. In Japan at the beggining there was a lot of reliance on Chinese culture, however after the Taika reforms we see a decline as feudalism takes the lead and emperial families start to form. The Japanese adopted the Buddhist religion and the people started relieying on it for salvationasit attempts. In korea, there was a heavy influence of chinese culture becasue it was closely interacting with, there was a tribute system that was the reason for exchange in culture, but the scholar exceeded their teachers and made masterpeices in art and pottery. Lastly in Vietnam, influece began by coquest of chinese to them they also had Buddhism as a key factor and bureacracies and cultural beliefs.