imperial clan— theoretically descended from the sun goddess, Amaterasu
O mikami, and the first emperor on earth, Jimmu Tenno— was competing
with the Soga clan for dominance among the others, for the emperor or em-
press was not necessarily chosen from the imperial clan. The Soga clan had
risen to power because, as the clan responsible for imports and exports, it
had earned more funds and thus had some leverage over the others. Other
clans had received their titles because they had been able to supply one or
more wives to the imperial males, thus making them in- laws of the impe-
rial clan. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, titles were also given to
individuals who performed special functions for the Yamato government,
such as managing court rituals, building and storing armaments, taking care
of irrigation, or raising horses. Such individuals were then allowed to pass
their titles on to their descendants, who continued to perform those func-
tions. Clans that had a specific responsibility were known as be, and their
rankings, as reflected in their titles, were not as high as those of the Soga
or imperial clan. One such be that was particularly difficult for the Soga clan
to control was the Monono be, which, because it was responsible for pro-
ducing and maintaining armaments, had access to weapons.
. 2 .
Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization, 600–838
Empress Suiko appointed her nephew, posthumously known as Prince
Shotoku, as regent.3 Prince Shotoku, like his aunt, had taken an early in-
terest in Buddhism, even before he became regent. Empress Suiko and
Prince Shotoku worked together closely and were successful in using what
they learned from China to strengthen their control over the other clans.
Prince Shotoku also took an active role in promoting relations with the Sui
dynasty in China and with the Paekche kingdom, which controlled the
southwestern part of the Korean Peninsula.
When Suiko was enthroned as sovereign it was difficult for any clan to
exercise complete control over all the other clans, some of which were large
and spread- out geo graph i cally. The main issue for Empress Suiko and the
Soga clan was to maintain control over the be, as well as other clans that
had been given titles, while devising a new system of centralized adminis-
trative appointments to create a more effective overall structure.
The power of the Soga was contested by other clans, but in general Em-
press Suiko and the Soga clan were able to achieve more centralized con-
trol than their pre de ces sors. The period during which Empress Suiko held
power in Japan is known as the period of the Asuka enlightenment. The
Asuka Temple was completed in 596.
In 618 the Sui dynasty was defeated and replaced by the Tang dynasty;
in 645 the Soga clan also lost power in Japan. But the pro cess of learning
from China that had begun under the Soga, in cooperation with the Sui
dynasty, not only continued but reached even greater heights.
China had developed a pattern of relations that some Western scholars
call the “tribute system,” designed to maintain stable, peaceful relations out-
side the territory it could control and rule directly. This was not a formal
contractual system but a body of princi ples and rituals that China used to
guide relationships with foreign states and vari ous ethnic groups. Every sev-
eral years, China’s partners would bring a tribute, some animal species,
plant, or product that was either rare or non ex is tent in China, and China
would reciprocate by presenting something, perhaps more valuable, that was
rare in the partner’s territory. Such rituals between foreign envoys and their
Chinese hosts symbolized recognition by the outsiders of the superiority
of Chinese civilization, both morally and militarily. In exchange, China, the
great center of civilization that claimed a unique link between the Chinese
emperor and Heaven, helped legitimate the reign of the leader of the
. 3 .
china and japan
tribute- bearing country by bestowing a title and the right to engage in trade
with China. The tribute system was sufficiently flexible to consider changing
economic and po liti cal situations. It was also well adapted for relations with
the smaller groups of people who lived along the thousands of miles of
China’s northern and western borders— the Tungusic, Mongol, Turkic, and
Tibetan people— and helped reduce the risk that they might invade China.
However, the larger nations along the periphery, notably Korea, Vietnam,
and especially Japan, after absorbing Chinese culture in the seventh and
eighth centuries, sometimes expressed re sis tance to accepting the superi-
ority of Chinese civilization.
The Japa nese tribute missions sent to China under Empress Suiko were
unusual because sending a large overseas mission from the more populated
Japan was a much bigger undertaking than sending a small group across a
land border. Shortly after she was enthroned, Empress Suiko began plan-
ning to send her first tribute mission to China in 600— ordering prepara-
tions for the ships, collecting the requisite supplies, and selecting those who
would take part in the trip.
Contacts before Empress Suiko and the Base for Borrowing
Archaeological evidence from burial mounds in Japan reveals that Chinese
pottery, bronze mirrors, swords, beads, and metal implements had spread
from China to Japan by way of Korea during the Yayoi period (now dated
as early as 1000 bc).4 For example, it is believed that a gold seal discovered
in Fukuoka prefecture was given to a Japa nese envoy in the Later Han dy-
nasty in ad 57. Rice agriculture was introduced into Japan during this pe-
riod as well as metal and stone implements used for agriculture, arrowheads,
and cutting.
A few Japanese writings before the seventh century have been discov-
ered but they are not enough to confirm the nature of Japan’s earlier con-
tacts with Korea. The Japa nese historical rec ords, the Kojiki (A rec ord of
ancient matters) of 712, and the Nihon shoki (The chronicles of Japan) of
720, are considered by specialists to be reliable for the history in the de-
cades immediately before 712 but little reliable information is available
for the period before 500. Some scholars believe that the authors of the
Kojiki and Nihon shoki had access to sixth- century written rec ords in
. 4 .
Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization, 600–838
Japan and in the Korean Paekche kingdom but they were subsequently
lost.
Before the Kojiki, in the absence of a written history legends were passed
down orally, the best known of which is the story of Xu Fu. According to
the legend, Qin Shi Huangdi (who unified China and ruled from 221 to 210
bc) dispatched Xu Fu to a magical island to seek an elixir that would bring
the emperor eternal life. It was said that he eventually reached Japan, but
he never returned. Alas, there is no evidence to support this contact, even
though statues of Xu Fu in several places in Japan celebrate the legend.
&nbs
p; The Chinese had written rec ords for many centuries before Japan
adopted its written language from China, and during those centuries there
are some references to Japan in Chinese rec ords. Japan is mentioned in the
Hanshu (Rec ords of the Han dynasty) of 82, for example. The Hanshu does
not go into detail, but it refers to the woren (in Japa nese, wajin) people living in areas that correspond to present- day Korea and Japan.5
The Rec ords of the Wei Dynasty, reportedly completed in 297, contain the
first reliable written rec ord about Japan in any language. The Rec ords, and
Chinese and Japa nese scholarship analyzing them, recently introduced to
En glish-language readers by Joshua Fogel’s translation of the work by Saeki
Arikiyo, include enough detailed information, such as the names of local places
in Kyushu, that one can tell they were based on observations by travelers to
Kyushu and possibly to Japan’s main island, Honshu. The Rec ords describe
a visit by representatives of the Wei dynasty who brought gifts to Empress
Himiko (ca. 170–248), and missions sent by Empress Himiko bringing
tribute to the Wei ruler in 238 when the Wei granted her the title of “Ruler
of the Wa” and she was friendly to the Wei. She again sent a mission in 243.
The Rec ords of the Wei Dynasty report that there had been as many as
one hundred diff er ent clan groups in the land of the Wa, varying in size from
1,000 to 70,000 house holds. It is noted that the Japa nese were engaged in
agriculture and fishing, and Japan had granaries and markets. The Rec ords
also report that Japan was sometimes ruled by men and sometimes by
women. The Wei Rec ords provide a positive view of Japan: “They have no
theft and little in the way of arguments,” the text reports. Those lower in the
hierarchical rankings were reported to be obedient to those of higher ranks.
Less than two de cades after the Rec ords of the Wei, there are reports of
people from China migrating to live in Japan to escape turmoil in their own
. 5 .
china and japan
country. According to Professor Wang Yong, one of China’s leading histo-
rians of Japan, there were at least two sizable migrations from China to
Japan, one soon after 313, when an estimated seven thousand families mi-
grated, and another some de cades later. According to Wang Yong, in the
fifth and sixth centuries even more Koreans migrated to Japan. Among
the Koreans, some were capable of writing Chinese characters, whereas no
one in Japan at the time was literate in Chinese characters.
Valuables that may have come from China have been found in the third-
century tombs of some Japa nese leaders. Later discoveries of key- hole
shaped tombs of Japa nese chieftains provide evidence that Chinese mirrors,
swords, and beads had reached Japan by the fourth and fifth centuries.
Japan sent a mission to China in 478, but there is little information about
what the envoys learned, and there is no evidence of formal contacts there-
after until the very last years of the sixth century, when the Sui dynasty
rose to power. For the following two hundred years there are ample docu-
ments to provide a considerable historical rec ord.
In the three centuries before Suiko of the Soga clan came to power, Japan
had made some advances that provided a base for the effort to learn from
China that Empress Suiko began in 600. Some Japa nese people had moved
from the southern island of Kyushu to the fertile area on the main island
of Honshu, around Nara, which supported wet rice agriculture. Other
people in this area had learned how to make pottery and were using bronze
and iron implements that had been brought to Japan from Korea. Horses
had been introduced by the sixth century, allowing Japa nese officials to cover
long distances relatively quickly. And although they had not yet mastered a
written language, some clans had come together in an administrative struc-
ture under the Yamato.
The people living in the area around Nara, like people elsewhere in Japan,
expressed re spect for certain awe- inspiring natu ral sites, such as mountain
peaks, cliffs, waterfalls, large trees, and rocks, by marking them with spe-
cial signs. The practice of paying re spect to these sites for their kami, the
spiritual force they contained, opened the Japa nese to learning about Bud-
dhism, a religion that taught broad re spect for spiritual forces. Some
sources state that the Korean kingdom of Paekche began sending missions
to Japan as early as 538 to promote the spread of Buddhism. Among the
Koreans sent to Japan were specialists in monastic meditation, incanta-
. 6 .
Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization, 600–838
tions, and architecture. Empress Suiko played a key role in Japan by intro-
ducing Buddhism and learning from China. Her nephew Shotoku is reported
to have believed that Buddhism encouraged re spect for social order and could
restrain chal enges to the po liti cal hierarchy. As soon as he took office, Sho-
toku lent his support to the introduction and expansion of Buddhism.
Many of the advances in the area of Nara came from the Korean im-
migrants to Japan. At its closest point, Japan was separated from China by
some 500 miles, but Korea was adjacent to China. Therefore Koreans, being
closer geographically with China, had incorporated ele ments of Chinese
civilization that had not yet reached Japan. Kyushu, in turn, was less than
120 miles from Pusan in Korea, so the Japa nese more easily learned ele-
ments of Chinese culture through the Koreans. At the time, the Korean
Peninsula was divided into three kingdoms, Koguryo in the north, Paekche,
with which Japan had the closest relations, in the southwest, and Silla in
the southeast. There were strug gles among the three kingdoms, and it is be-
lieved that some of the Korean immigrants to Japan were among those
who had lost out in those strug gles, while others fled from Korea after the
invasion of Tang dynasty troops. Some scholars are convinced that the
Soga clan, which in 600 de cided to send tribute missions to China, may
have had Korean members; regardless, the presence in Japan of Koreans,
who were more familiar with developments in China, certainly played a
role in Japan’s decision to send missions to China.
How Japan Learned from China after 600
In 600, under Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku, Japan sent its first mis-
sion to China since 478, and other missions followed quickly thereafter in
607, 608, and 614. The missions in 607 and 608 included tens of Buddhist
monks who were to remain in Chang’an (Xi’an) to advance their study of
Buddhism in order to bring it back to Japan. The Tang dynasty was estab-
lished in 618, after defeating the Sui, but the Japa nese monks remained in
Chang’an and continued their studies. One monk, Somin, returned to
Japan in 632. Another monk, Eon, remained in China until 639. Back in
Japan these monks played not only a religious role but also a broader
role as intellectuals and advisers to Japan’s po liti cal leaders. Somin and
Eon provided information about many aspects of Chinese culture and
> . 7 .
china and japan
institutions, assisting the leaders who were beginning to transform Japan.
The missions to Chang’an, which continued after 618, came to be known in
Japan as kentoshi (envoys sent to the Tang).
Chang’an was then a cosmopolitan city, with an estimated population
of more than one million. It attracted Koreans, Central Asians, and Middle
Easterners, as well as Chinese. The nearby Yellow River was far larger than
any river in Japan, and the plains around Chang’an were far broader than
any in Japan, thus permitting a larger population and a larger scale of agri-
cultural production than any that existed in Japan. The Sui and Tang dy-
nasties thereby had achieved an orga nizational complexity that was far be-
yond what Japan knew at the time.
Prince Shotoku endeavored to establish a system that would break up
the power of the clans. In 604 he inaugurated the “twelve- cap system” (some-
times also referred to as the “cap and rank” system), a system for selecting
officials regardless of the rank of their clan. He appointed officials as indi-
viduals and then assigned the individual a rank. Following the Chinese pat-
tern, he gave the person a cap, the color and shape of which conveyed the
person’s rank. In addition, Prince Shotoku introduced population registers
that could be used to collect taxes and recruit men for labor proj ects and
military ser vice. He also brought priests into the governmental structure.
To underpin his efforts to reform the clan system and promote stability,
Shotoku promulgated what is known as the Seventeen Article Constitu-
tion. Although there is disagreement among scholars as to its authenticity,
the Nihon shoki reports that it was issued in 604 by Prince Shotoku. Not
as detailed as a modern constitution, it was a preliminary set of guidelines
drawn from the early lessons learned from China, and it reflected the ef-
forts by Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku to centralize authority and to
weaken the power of the clans. Officials were not to assume their positions
by birth; rather, they were to be appointed by the emperor. Land that had
formerly belonged to the clans could be transferred by central officials, and
land could be owned in de pen dently of the clans. At the time, Confucianism
China and Japan Page 2
