. 21 .
china and japan
number of monasteries, Japan witnessed a great expansion in Buddhist art,
including Buddhist images, statues, and temples. Except for the period when
China was cracking down on Buddhist monasteries, Buddhism was a cos-
mopolitan religion that provided a strong cultural link between Japan and
China. Shinto, in contrast, was limited to Japan. When Japa nese nation-
alism became strong, Japan’s leaders would later call on Shinto rather than
Buddhism to justify their be hav ior.
Architecture
The Chinese built large palaces before they began building Buddhist
temples, but in Japan, large temples, made pos si ble with new technologies
from China, were erected first, before large palaces. Japan’s architectural
breakthrough for constructing large buildings came from temple architec-
ture, and what Japa nese craftsmen learned from their counter parts in Korea
and China they later applied to their own large public buildings.
Scholars have carefully examined the surviving buildings and documents
in Japan to reconstruct the pro cess by which the skills needed to build
temples reached Japan. Information is not complete, but evidence suggests
that Japa nese diplomats who went to China on tribute missions arranged
to bring back skilled Chinese and Korean carpenters and artists. In any case,
there is evidence that from the early sixth century, Korean designers, car-
penters, craftsmen, and paint ers emigrated to Japan, where they transmitted
Korean and Chinese temple- building technologies. In Japan, they raised
their families and passed on construction skills to later generations of
Korean- Japanese builders, who would continue to take part in temple
construction.
Before the new Chinese technology for temple building was introduced
in Japan, temples were constructed with a post- and- lintel frame topped by
a thatched roof. The thatched roof and the unpainted wooden pillars, which
were sunk into the ground, would rot relatively quickly, and such structures
could not support a heavier roof. The new Chinese engineering practices
introduced to Japan by Korean carpenters made it pos si ble to enclose a
much larger space in the main area of a building. With the new system, the
weight of a heavy tiled roof could be distributed along an outer perimeter
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Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization, 600–838
of columns, through bracket sets and spanning beams, allowing for a large
unpartitioned area inside the building. The wooden framework of the
building would last much longer because of the tiled roof, which provided
much better protection from rain and snow than a thatched roof. And Japa-
nese builders learned from the Chinese how to set pillars in a stone foun-
dation instead of thrusting them directly into the ground, an advance that
also greatly extended the life of a building.
The temples were huge buildings, and their construction required large
numbers of workers. But by the time Japan began constructing large temples,
a system for recruiting laborers had already been developed, so workers were
available for the vari ous tasks connected with temple construction.
The Great Shrine of Ise, the national Shinto shrine erected in Japan on
the Shima Peninsula, had commonly been viewed as entirely derived from
indigenous designs that existed prior to the introduction of Buddhist ar-
chitecture from China. But Japa nese scholars now acknowledge that some
features of this national shrine were imported from China. The Inner Shrine
(Naiku) on the large grounds of the Great Shrine had a traditional thatched
roof and wooden poles for pillars; because of the structure’s rapid decay, it
had to be rebuilt every twenty years. However, recent analy sis of features
of the Great Shrine of Ise suggests that several other aspects of its construc-
tion did not exist in Japan before the time of Emperor Temmu (673–686).
By the time the shrine was rebuilt in 690, skilled artisans had already started
arriving in Japan from Korea and China. The buildings on the grounds of
the shrine are located on a direct north- south axis, a common feature of
Chinese temple building that had not previously existed in Japan. The use
of doors within doors, a feature of Chinese architecture, also had not ex-
isted in Japan before it was introduced at Ise. To preserve tradition, Japan
has chosen to continue rebuilding the Inner Shrine every twenty years in
its old style, even with the thatched roof. The elaborate preparations for the
reconstruction of the Ise Shrine every twenty years allow for the contin-
uous involvement of new generations of Japa nese builders with traditional
construction techniques, thus reinforcing a commitment to old traditions,
including some traditions that originally came from China.
The Horyuji Temple is the oldest standing wooden structure in the
world. Its construction made use of timber- frame engineering and required
. 23 .
china and japan
an analy sis of the stress levels that the timber would support. The Horyuji
was originally built in 607 under the direction of Prince Shotoku at a time
when he was busy learning from China. It burned down in 670, but the
temple’s Western Precinct, which was reconstructed over the next several
de cades, has been in continuous use since the seventh century. The Bud-
dhist community attached to the Horyuji is the oldest Buddhist commu-
nity in Japan. Through new research techniques for analyzing the age of
structures, it has been determined that the central shaft of the Horyuji’s
five- story pagoda, completed in 711, was constructed of cypress wood from
trees that had been cut down in 594. Therefore, some of the timber in the
Horyuji was harvested a century before the temple was built and had first
been used in earlier buildings. This is indicative of the hardiness of cypress
beams, which when properly protected have an extraordinarily long life.
The Horyuji is far older than any temple still standing in China. Foguang
Temple on Mount Wutai, for example, was built in 857. Thus, it is impos-
sible to trace the Chinese origins of the Horyuji Temple. Instead, scholars
in both China and Japan have used the Horyuji’s structures to try to un-
derstand what buildings in China before that time might have been like.
After Japan’s devastating smallpox epidemic of 735–737 and the ensuing
serious famine, the Japa nese emperor directed in 741 that Japa nese prov-
inces should build temples to protect the country from such disasters. In
743, to provide additional protection, he decreed that a Great Buddha statue
should be erected in Kokomyoji ( later Todaiji, the Great Eastern Temple),
which would serve as an administrative center for all the provincial temples
in the entire country. Dozens of carpenters from China and Korea helped
guide local architects and builders in its construction, and large numbers
of Japa nese peasants were drafted to work on the proj ect. Such construction
required not only carpentry skills but also great advances in metallurgy.
The Todaiji, a
far more advanced structure than anything previously at-
tempted in Japan, was modeled after temples in China and Korea. In addi-
tion to smaller statues displayed in the Todaiji, a statue of Buddha in its
Great Buddha Hall is nearly fifty feet tall and weighs about 500 metric tons.
It is the largest bronze statue in the world, modeled after an even larger
statue in China that no longer exists. The Great Buddha statue in the
Todaiji has been damaged and repaired several times, but it still retains its
. 24 .
Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization, 600–838
original shape. The scale of the Great Buddha and the temple’s construc-
tion (expansion) in general were a great drain on manpower, on bronze and
other materials, and on court funding, but Japan’s rulers considered it well
worth the cost to protect against disaster and provide grandeur for the
Japa nese state.
A leading Chinese monk, Ganjin (Jianzhen in Chinese), arrived in Nara
in 754, invited by the emperor to attend the dedication of the great statue
of Buddha. He had been invited to Japan years earlier, in 742, by a Japa nese
visitor to China who wanted him to teach Japa nese monks. He had tried
on five diff er ent occasions to travel to Japan, but each attempt was unsuc-
cessful because of the weather. It was only on his sixth try, aboard a ship
that was part of a Japa nese mission returning home, that he was fi nally able
to reach Japan. By that time, Ganjin had become blind; nonetheless, he pre-
sided over the dedication of the great Todaiji Temple. Carpenters and monks
accompanying him on his journey built another temple, the Toshodaiji
(Tang Meditation Compound). There, he and the younger monks he had
brought with him were able to serve as teachers, training new generations
of Japa nese monks. His disciples built a life- size statue of him, with portrait-
like details including tendons beneath the jaw, closed eyes to reflect his
vision prob lem, and hair in his ears. Although damaged, the statue remains
today, trea sured as one of the most impor tant works in the history of East
Asian art, and one that provides a cultural link when the two nations wish
to emphasize their common heritage.
Currency and the Beginnings of a Commercial Economy
Although some Chinese coins from before the Nara period have been dis-
covered in Japa nese tombs, it was not until 708, on the eve of the Nara pe-
riod, that Japan, following the Chinese example, began minting coins. The
Japa nese technology for minting coins was inferior to China’s, and after
some de cades Japan gave up minting coins and instead imported large
amounts of copper coins from China. In the eighth century, the Japa nese
monetary economy was mostly limited to the area near Nara. During the
Nara period, there were two markets in Nara where rice, medicine, cloth,
some simple handicrafts, and ceramics were sold. At the time, the monetary
. 25 .
china and japan
economy in China covered a much larger geo graph i cal area. Rice re-
mained the main medium of exchange in Japan for several centuries there-
after, but in exchanges with Korea and China, bolts of silk were used as well
as rice.
The Legacy of Japa nese Borrowing from China
What Japan learned from China between 600 and 838— written language,
Buddhism, Confucianism, lit er a ture, music, and architecture, or the basic
building blocks of Japa nese culture— survived even after the arrival of
Western culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These ele ments
of the culture came not through the advance of Chinese troops, nor from
large- scale migration, but from a small number of Koreans in Japan who
brought with them aspects of Chinese culture, from a still smaller number
of Chinese mi grants who came to Japan, and primarily from a small number
of Japa nese monks and officials who had been to Chang’an to study, some of
whom had stayed in China for many years. Considering the scope of China’s
impact on Japan, it is remarkable that such comprehensive borrowing took
place through such a small number of people.
After 838, when Japan sent its last formal mission to China, Japan’s ac-
tive learning from China tapered off. The critical learning from China took
place as Japan’s leaders were building a more centralized administration that
would cover a broader geo graph i cal area. By the time Japan stopped sending
missions to China, its regions had begun to gain strength compared with
the center. In 792, two years before the Japa nese capital was moved to Kyoto
and the Heian period was founded, Japan ended its system of nationwide
conscription and permitted local officials to develop their own militias. By
then, relatives of the imperial family had begun to spread out to areas at a
considerable distance from Kyoto and had begun to build up their own re-
gional armies.
With decentralization, the cultural ele ments that Japan had adopted
from China were spread more broadly throughout Japan’s main islands. In
their shared written language, although the Chinese characters would be
abbreviated differently in the language reforms carried out in each country
in the twentieth century, the basic concepts of many of the characters con-
. 26 .
Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization, 600–838
tinued to provide a basis for communication between China and Japan. Even
today, the Chinese and Japa nese can still learn the written language of the
other country far more rapidly than Westerners can, and they often catch
nuances that Westerners do not.
Over the centuries, Confucian teachings have under gone many changes
in both countries, but a common core of texts, beliefs, and practices remains.
In Japan, people can still recite proverbs that were introduced from China.
They play stringed instruments that were first brought from China, and
they recite poems that originally came from China as if they were their own.
With mass education, which began spreading in each country late in the
nineteenth century, more youths in Japan and China received standardized
training in their own culture. Both countries have now achieved almost uni-
versal literacy, which makes available to the entire population not only
Western learning but also ele ments of their own traditional culture.
The popularity of Buddhism provides much of the population in both
countries with a common foundation of overlapping beliefs and ceremo-
nies. Even though Buddhist sects have been much stronger in Japan than
they have been in China, the sects in Japan can still trace their ancestry not
only to the Japa nese monks who introduced them but also to the Chinese
temples where the found ers of the Japa nese sects studied. During the early
period when Buddhism was first introduced in Japan, many of the contacts
came via Korea, but after the ninth century Japan had fewer contacts with
Korea and Buddhist contacts came directly from China to Japan.
When nationalism becomes strong, the differences in historical memory
between the Chinese and the Japa nese can become the focus
for mobilizing
and expressing antagonism. But the two nations’ broad cultural overlap also
provides a basis for common understanding. Japa nese and Chinese travelers
who visit the other’s country and see signs written in the local language
feel a level of familiarity that is not pos si ble for Westerners. Buddhists in
the two countries share rituals, beliefs, and a common culture that provide
a basis for working together and for offering compassion and assistance
across national borders. Japa nese Buddhists continue to visit their sacred
historical sites in China. Devoted prac ti tion ers can recite their common
sutras and enjoy their shared temples and art. In 1980, when the Chinese
brought a statue of Ganjin back to Daming Temple, his native temple in
. 27 .
china and japan
China, Japa nese Buddhists sent a stone lantern, dating back to the eighth
century, from the temple in Japan where Ganjin had taught. Ganjin remains
a symbol of the shared culture that can be called upon when Chinese and
Japa nese leaders choose to reinforce goodwill between the people of their
countries.
. 28 .
chapter two
Trade without Transformative
Learning, 838–1862
By 838, Japanese leaders had succeeded in transforming their gov-
erning structure, which had originally rested on relationships among clans,
into a centralized administrative state. Japan still had things it could learn
from China, and Japa nese leaders continued to gain knowledge from Japa-
nese visitors to China, Chinese visitors to Japan, and Korean monks and
artisans who brought to Japan the skills they had learned in China. But what
the Japa nese learned after 838 was minor in comparison with what they had
learned earlier. By 838 the Japa nese had learned from China how to set up
a governmental bureaucracy and how to create basic rules to guide govern-
mental operations. They had introduced Chinese Confucianism and Bud-
dhism to provide legitimacy for their government. They had learned a
written language that made it pos si ble to keep rec ords, to write histories
that could further legitimate their rule, and to communicate more easily
with far- flung officials. They had laid out cities, built temples, painted real-
istic portraits, learned how to play Chinese musical instruments, and up-
China and Japan Page 5