Japan,+Korea,+and+Vietnam

ESPIRIT for Japan:

e s p
 * Taika reforms- completely revamped imperial administration along chinese lines
 * 794- Kammu established capital at Hein (later called Kyoto)
 * extensive traders and agriculturalists until the 16 hundreds when they became isolationists
 * Japanese tried to establish Chinese-style society
 * in the towns with the common people, they stared in awe at the great Buddhist temples and bowed to passing aristocrats
 * peasants turned to Buddhist monks when they were sick or Buddhist magic when they needed a change of luck
 * women could NOT become empresses
 * rank by birth
 * little mobility within the social pyramid
 * emperor and his courtiers inhabitted closed luxurious delights
 * men and women of of aristocratic classes followed strict codes of polite behavior
 * social status was everything!- love affairs was preoccupation and gossip was rampant
 * members of imperial household and the leading aristocratic families lived in complex of palaces and gardens
 * chinese cultural imports believed to be more for men than for women
 * women played strong role in the creative parts of japanese culture...they wrote poems, played flutes and participated in schem,es to snub or disgrace rivals
 * women became involved in palace intrigues and power struggles
 * expected to be as poised in culture as men
 * Japanese rulers tried to establish Chinese-style bureaucracy
 * isolated court centers at Nara (later Heian) lost politicakl control to aristocratic famillies and local warlords
 * 3 periods in japan: Taika (645-710), Nara (710-784), Heian (794-857)
 * main goal of the Taika reforms was to change the japanese monarch into an absolutist chinese-style emperor
 * reform also intended to create professional bureaucracy and peasant conscript army in japan to match those of Han and Tang ChinaBuddhist monks dominated both the emperor and the capital as a whole
 * aristocracy and court feared the buddhist monks would uprise against the Taika reforms
 * emperor restored all power to aristocratic families
 * aristocrats taken over most positions in the government- could build up rural estates
 * local leaders forced to organize militia forces so that the emperor could get his peasant army

r i t
 * japanese struggled to master Confucian ways
 * worshipped in chinese-style temples
 * began to mix up the worship of Buddhist deities with "KAMI" or nature spirits of japan
 * Buddhists forbiddened to build temples in the new capital of Kyoto
 * monks built monastries at the hills of Kyoto and became potent force at court as advisors
 * Japanese scholars mastered thousands of chinese characters...little relationship to the language they actually spoke
 * japanese scholars wrote dynastic histories patterned after those by chinese emperors
 * elaborated court etiquette that combined chinese protocol with ancient japanese ideas about politeness and decorum
 * admired Buddhist art
 * writing verse was the most valued art at the court
 * unpainted wood seen as most flattering
 * fish ponds and sliding door panels in homes of the aristocratic families
 * written script borroed from the chinese was simplified and more compatible with the japanese language
 * The Tale of Genji- literary work...most celebrated in Japan
 * warriors wielded weapons: lances, hatchets, and iron macesw and the short bow (350 yards away)
 * gunpowder
 * cannons
 * battering rams, catapults from chinese
 * explosive balls
 * bamboo rockets (spread fire, etc.)

main idea: three main points for Japan:
 * created the basis of their empire off of the Chinese though towards the end made it their own
 * society in general was more geared for war rather than improvement
 * developed feudalism
 * 1) social status was everything
 * 2) copied the chinese politically and socially and in religion until china had a downfall and declined (they didnt want top model themselves after china anymore)
 * 3) aristocratic class was making a come-back into politics...they had most positions in the central government

something surprising:
 * they were trying to master the chinese characters even though it wouldnt help them advance in mass literacy...and it had nothing to do with their own language so they studied and learned almost 3000 characters for nothing...even though it became somewhat of a foundation for their own language

KOREA notes: influenced by China: influenced independent of China:
 * area was of the chinese formula
 * sinification was exclusive adaptation ways of the chinese
 * Buddhist ideas were patronized
 * financed buildings of monasteries like china
 * chinese printed language was introduced
 * sedentary farming
 * koguryo's law code similar to Han China
 * attempted to adopt bureaucracy
 * universities in Korea taught Confucius classes
 * sent embassies to china to see clothes the chinese wore and to collect chinese texts
 * access to chinese learning, arts and chinese goods granted b/c of tributar arrangements to china
 * porcelain manufacture techniques
 * metalwork techniques
 * dress
 * cuisine
 * social class system
 * oxide glazes used to make black and rust-coloreed glazes of this era
 * developed wood block
 * developed movable metal-type printing

VIETNAM notes: influenced by China:
 * superior technology from China
 * chinese failed to asimulate the vietnam
 * Han conquered vietnam b/c they thought they could learn a lot from Vietnam
 * geography stopped China from sending military and goods to vietnam
 * dressed differently
 * drawn into bureaucratic machines
 * vietnamese read classic chinese texts of Confucius
 * vietnamese women didnt like chinese clothes or the family system that would confine them to the home
 * trung sisters led revolts against China
 * vietnamese affraid of losing their own identity...didnt want to be a small part of chinas huge civilization
 * spoken language was not related to the chinese

Summary for Chinese influence in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam:

Feudalism in Japan and Europe: