Chinese Influence on Japanese History, Society, and Culture - Prof. Larissa Kennedy, Study notes of Asian literature

Download Chinese Influence on Japanese History, Society, and Culture - Prof. Larissa Kennedy and more Study notes Asian literature in PDF only on Docsity! Questions: Why are Chinese historical records important in the study of early Japan; why are they potentially problematic? What do they tell us about early Japanese society and culture? What evidence do they provide regarding the possibility that pre-Confucian Japan was a matriarchy? - They are important because Japan had no writing system to provide their own history. - They show that Japan has a somewhat Confucian viewpoint or bias. - They provide evidence of a matriarchy and the tribute system because Himiko is referred to as the “Queen of Japan”. How did Shinto ideology support the early Japanese cultural and social organization? How did an Emperor and aristocracy fit in with these ideas? - It supported the early Japanese culture because it was a cross between Confucianism and Buddhism. It brought about a writing system, which previously did not exist. It also provided a hierarchy of Gods/Goddesses (Uji’s used the hierarchy of gods to establish a hierarchy among themselves). - The goal was for the Emperor to rule over everyone, backed up by the noble aristocracy. How and why did the Japanese adopt, and later adapt, Chinese social/political and religious systems (Confucianism and Buddhism)? - They adopted Chinese social/political and religious systems because they really had no organized system of their own. Under Shotoku Taishi, Japan decided to follow the more sophisticated Chinese model which centralized power under an emperor. The new capital Nara was modeled after China’s great imperial city. - They adapted the ideas into their own in many ways. The Civil Service Exam was limited to sons of Japan’s old uji military aristocracy whereas in China, any and all literate men could qualify for the test. Also, the Confucian idea which taught that women were incapable of being educated/were unqualified for governing was subverted by the Japanese. By the early Heian era, the imperial line descended through both male and female lines. Buddhism was adapted to Japan’s liking after it was determined to be too complex to consider. It was transformed to be taught in Mahayana School of thought that salvation was too difficult for humans to accomplish on their own. It was necessary for holy men (boddisatua) to intercede on behalf of humans, who were thought of as men who had earned salvation but refused to leave the world until they helped others achieve nirvana. How did shoen lead Japan towards decentralized feudal government? Why did it result in a military government in Kamakura rather than Kyoto? What was the relationship between the military government and the imperial government/emperor? What was the relationship between land ownership and power? - Shoen decentralized Japan because even though they were supposed to be united, they had their own militaries. Also, since they were not paying taxes, they were becoming richer than the emperor – making him powerless. It also contributed to regionalization. - The military government was in Kamakura because the shogun moved to that capital in attempt to centralize the government. The political/cultural capital (Kyoto) was weakened by court life. - Military government and imperial government were related in the sense that men began fighting over control of land and labor, where some of them were offshoots of the imperial house. They fought in the same way as the Fujiwara where they wrestled for control of the imperial house in the early Heian period. - Land was ceded to powerful military and religious leaders and these land segments evolved into powerful semi-independent states. Other than the obvious threat to Japanese sovereignty, what effect did the Mongol invasions have on the Kamakura government and Japan in general? How did the Mongol invasions expose weaknesses in the Kamakura government? What were the weaknesses? - The Kamakura fell through after invasions because they couldn’t pay their debts to society. Because there was no national treasury, no one was rewarded for defending their country. Kyushu defenders were angered because they couldn’t confiscate enemy land. - It exposed how being decentralized leads to weakness. They had an alliance based government, no central banking system, and no central military because they ruled through semi-independent states. What was centralized feudalism? What social, political, and economic methods did the Tokugawa use to control the daimyo and other parts of society after 1600? What was the dominant political ideology they used? Why was sankin kotai so important? - The government was a mixture of military and civil administration as well as a combination of private and public, regional and national administrations. Ruled by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the system very nearly ran itself for over a century because Ieyasu appointed able and honest men to positions of power regardless of their family or social background. The system was also very closely monitored and highly administratively simple. - Tokugawa adapted the Neo-Confucian Social System. He clearly defined the division between samurai and society. He put class restrictions on everyone, disallowing any change in social class. He effectively froze time – no one’s social class changed or improved. - They used sankin kotai primarily to keep track of all the daimyo but also to indirectly collect taxes thanks to costs imposed on the daimyo like maintaining two properties and travel costs. How and why did the role of women change in the course of pre-modern Japanese history?