CIVILIZATION IN KOREA, VIETNAM, AND JAPAN
Directions: Using the Guided Reading Questions, underline the key points in each paragraph. After
reading and annotating the document, compare the 3 east Asia civilizations using the table.
1. China's power and prestige during the Tang and Song dynasties guided the spread of civilization to
other parts of east Asia. Korea and Vietnam adapted Chinese ideographs to their local languages,
resulting in the first writing in these languages. Chinese artistic styles, the bureaucratic examination
system, and Confucian learning were assimilated in these areas as well, along with the Buddhist
religion as it had passed through China.
2. Chinese influence in Korea peaked between the 7th and 9th centuries, during which time Korean
rulers imitated Chinese city planning, imported Confucianism, and copied Chinese artistic styles. The
Korean economy was less advanced than China's and depended on slave labor for work in the mines
to produce raw materials for export. The aristocracy oppressed the Korean masses, although for
several centuries Buddhism was shared across class lines. A social revolt in the 14th century resulted
in a new dynasty, the Yi, who ruled until the 20th century and quickly restored aristocratic rule. This
dynasty also enforced a rigorous Confucianism, emphasizing the gap between elites and commoners
and attacking Buddhism. Confucian ceremonies around the royal court replaced religious ones,
particularly within the new capital of Seoul.
3. Chinese influence in Vietnam also affected the upper classes more than the common people, Whose
culture, including the enjoyment of cockfights, was more like that of other parts of southeast Asia.
Vietnamese rulers, after periods of Chinese occupation, realized they needed to emulate Chinese
strengths simply to protect their region, and Chinese bureaucracy and agricultural technology were
widely imitated. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in China, Vietnamese rulers gained their
independence and began a process of expansion southward. Unlike in Korea, political unity was rare,
and internal warfare frequently consumed Vietnamese energies.
4. Japan was the third geographic area to enter the Chinese orbit. Even more than Korea and Vietnam,
however, Japan remained distinct in important respects because the Chinese never conquered it.
Thus, the Japanese produced a unique variant of east Asian civilization, akin to Chinese but
sufficiently different to make Japan a major separate force in the world.
5. As Japan became aware of Chinese achievements, by about the year 400, it developed the habit of
selective borrowing -a practice the Chinese had never seen fit to adopt. The custom remained in
Japan's collective memory, promoting, much later, a response to Western influences that bore some
resemblance to Japan's acceptance of Chinese ways. In the centuries after the year 500, the Japanese
proved willing to learn from a superior culture -the Chinese- while retaining a vigorous sense of
their own traditions. Particularly in social and political structure, however, the Japanese ultimately did
not imitate the Chinese model.
6. Before Chinese influences happened upon the scene, the Japanese had already developed strong
regional political units; the Shinto religion, which worshipped the spirits of nature in local shrines and
regarded the emperor as divine; and a prosperous agriculture based on the cultivation of rice. The
fragmentation of politics was fostered by the mountains that divide the major islands of Japan,
making communication difficult. Shintoism provided a simple, satisfying ritual in which priests led
ceremonies and offerings to the gods. The religion also emphasized rituals of cleanness and
discouraged popular festivals featuring games and drinking. Shintoism, like the regional political
pattern, long survived influences from the outside, indeed coexisting with them; thus, Japanese
Confucianists, Buddhists, and, more recently, dynamic business leaders combine newer values with
older Shinto practices.
7. Japan began copying China in earnest around the year 600. Students and envoys traveled to China
and were impressed with the economic and political achievements there. In 604, the Japanese ruler,
Prince Shotoku, issued a constitution establishing a centralized government and bureaucracy and
urging reverence for Buddhism and Confucian virtues. Chinese-style architecture and urban planning
were introduced, along with Chinese ideographs. Regular exchanges with China, organized by the
Japanese government, brought back increasing knowledge, as well as the artistic products of the
neighboring giant. Under Chinese influence, a new calendar was adopted. A significant result of
Japan's assimilation of Chinese culture was that the position of Japanese women deteriorated.
Japanese families had long been tightly knit, but with important public and workplace roles for
women. Confucian values led to women being considered inferior, and although the Japanese never
went as far as their Chinese mentors did in proscribing women's roles, they did confine women's
authority to household and child-rearing. In the arts, too, Japan mirrored its neighbor. Chinese dance
and musical forms were introduced to court ceremonies and remain the basis for traditional Japanese
culture in these areas even today.
8. As noted, however, complete imitation did not take place, in part because the Japanese economy
remained more backward and less commercial than China's. The centralized Japanese bureaucracy did
not succeed in displacing local landowning aristocrats. In politics, particularly, the Chinese model
soon began to pall. The Japanese aristocracy was quite comfortable with numerous aspects of
Chinese culture, but it did not hesitate to diverge from China in terms of political style. In any event,
the decline of the Tang dynasty made the Chinese model less attractive for a time. The short-lived
Japanese experiment with centralized government soon faded. The emperor remained, but chiefly as a
religious figure, rather than an effective political ruler. Real government lay in the hands of regional
military leaders.
9. Japanese rule was, by the year 800, a fullblown feudal system, quite similar to that which developed
separately in western Europe during roughly the same period. Powerful regional aristocrats grouped
local landowners under their banners, providing protection and courts of law in return for economic
aid and military service. The result was a pyramid, with the peasant masses at the bottom of this
power structure. The great lords, called daimyo, or "great names," used their revenues to hire
professional soldiers, called samurai. This feudal system was, obviously, a step backward from
centralized rule. It brought frequent periods of warfare to the islands and a considerably greater
emphasis on military virtues than prevailed in China. Major wars occurred between 1051 and 1088,
and again in the following centuries. Nonetheless, the feudal system blended with Confucian values
learned from China. Samurai soldiers had a powerful code of honor and bravery and were expected to
commit ritual suicide if they dishonored this code. At the same time, the samurai valued literary
accomplishments, such as the writing of poetry, and important ceremonies, such as the tea ceremony.
In this respect, Japanese feudal lords were different from their rougher-hewn European counterparts.
Other distinctions existed between Eastern and Western feudalism. Because Confucianism
encouraged the Japanese lords to believe that good government required absolute loyalty, Japanese
feudalism did not give way to institutions designed to check the power of the greater lords, like the
parliaments that arose from European feudalism. According to the Japanese, admirable personal
conduct, the loyalty of the lesser lords, and the mutual devotion of the daimyo to their servants
produced proper government. Japanese feudalism involved tight group cohesion, whereas the western
European version was characterized by a greater sense of contract between individuals. These
differences between Japanese and Western society, translated today into business organizations, are a
key example of how successful features of a civilization survive and adapt.
10. Japanese feudalism was used to build a somewhat stronger government structure after 1185. A single
aristocratic family, the Minamoto, gained military dominance over the whole of Japan, establishing a
central office called the shogunate. Each shogun served officially as chief officer to the emperor, but
in fact the shogun was the real ruler of the country and commanded the fidelity of the regional lords.
Faithful generals were rewarded with estates scattered throughout the country, which helped convert
feudal loyalties into effective national politics. The new shogunate took its name from its capital city
of Kamakura. Under the Kamakura shogunate, which lasted until 1333, Japan experienced greater
peace than ever before. The new government was strong enough, among other things, to resist two
attempts by Mongol invaders from China to conquer their country. In the second invasion effort, the
Mongols massed the largest overseas expedition the world had ever known, with 140,000 men.
However, a typhoon destroyed the fleet, and this "divine wind" was long remembered by the
Japanese, who believed that their country was uniquely blessed by the gods.
11. Japanese politics, as it had developed by the end of the Kamakura period, provided a unique mix of
Chinese and local ingredients. Confucian loyalty and ceremony blended with military skills, including
elaborate exercises in horsemanship, archery, and fencing, and with intense devotion to one's lord.
The bureaucratic element of Chinese culture played little role as yet. The feudal code, imposing
mutual bonds between leaders and followers, served instead as the principal political link. Even today,
the feudal heritage of Japan manifests itself in the close connection between government, business
managers, and workers. The Kamakura shoguns translated the dominant sense of group loyalty into a
series of committees to oversee their administration. The tradition of collective rule, rather than
individual or purely bureaucratic control, also maintains a strong hold on Japanese society; it is, in
part, responsible for the unusual skill of the Japanese in group leadership and for the economic surge
of their nation in the contemporary world.
