Chinese+Influence+on+Japanese+Culture


 * The Buddha at Kamakura**

Buddhism was officially introduced to the imperial Japanese court in A.D. 552. Buddhism first won favor in court circles, where if often replaced Shinto as the practices religion. Later, Japanese peasants embraced simpler forms of Buddhism. Chan Buddhism was also adopted by some elements of the Japanese population. The most influential pioneer of Zen was an aristocrat named Dogen, whose modifications of China appealed Japan's military governing class, which valued discipline and austerity.

Zen's rigorous meditative process, zazen, and its emphasis on concentration appealed to samurai, who believed that enhanced concentration would help them act without hesitation in battle. Japanese Buddhism also adopted many of the principle gods of Shinto as Buddhist deities, and Shinto shrines were even merged with Buddhist temples. Over time, most Japanese began to consider themselves as both Shintoism and Buddhists, and saw no conflict in having two religions.


 * Filial Piety and Confucianism**

The same monks that brought Buddhism to Japan in the 500's also introduced Confucianism. Confucius' emphasis on close family ties, filial respect, honor and respect for the aged, obedience to authority, the connection between learning and "rightful living: and worship of ancestors was embraced by most segments of the Japanese population. The rise of the Fujiwara family shows that Japanese women played a role similar to that of Chinese women. Many Japanese women, in accordance with Confucian tradition, entered into fixed marriages to increase the political status of their families. Japanese society also used Confucianism to justify the placement of merchants at the bottom of the social scale.

In some cases, however, the ideas of Confucianism were rejected or modified by the Japanese. Unlike their Chinese counterparts, the mandates of Japanese emperors were considered irrevocable, regardless of their virtue. The use of the surprise attack by the samurai also contradicted traditional Confucian teachings. Considered duplicitous by Confucian standards, samurai were trained at a young age to use the element of surprise to defeat their enemies.


 * Bureaucracy**

Between the 600's and 700's, Japanese emperors sought to establish themselves as powerful leaders who ruled with the aid fo a professional bureaucracy. The influence of Chinese government was first seen with Prince Shotoku who issued a "Seventeen Article Constitution", which declared him to be the "master of the whole country", and who used a Chinese bureaucratic system to rank his advisors. Chinese political influences reached their height under the Taika Reforms of emperor Tenchin in 646, which copied almost exactly the system of land distribution in Tang China.

Despite the efforts of Shotoku and Tenchin, however, the Chinese system of imperial bureaucratic government was never fully implemented in Japan. Japanese custom dictated that long and prestigious ancestry, not merit, be the primary requisite for high government offices. Instead of testing for intellectual ability, Japanese officials administered "exams" in which they reviewed candidates' genealogies to make sure that they were actually descended from distinguished ancestors. Likewise, from the Kamakura period forward, real power lay with the samurai class. The Japanese emperor, unlike his Chinese counterpart, became much more of a religious symbol than a government leader.


 * Architecture**

During the Nara and Heian periods, Japanese architecture began to reflect Chinese influences. As in China, most buildings were made of wood and built with post-and-beam architecture, making them flexible enough to withstand earth tremors. Japanese architects also borrowed the Chinese practice of using multiple roofs to symbolize the different levels of awakening as taught in Buddhism. The Japanese belief that the beauty of gardens and courtyards was as important as the architecture of the buildings themselves was also influenced by Chinese practices. Chinese precedent was followed closely in the construction of some of the first pagodas build in Japan, but later Japanese architects modified the style to place greater emphasis on the brackets, supporting eaves, and balconies. Chinese influence, however, was absent fromt he design of Shinto shrines and their characteristic torii gates, which were based on Japanese architectural traditions dating back to the pre-imperial period.


 * Calligraphy**

Until Chinese characters- called kanji in Japanese- were introduced to Japan in the 500's, Japan had no written language. During this early period a few aristocrats learned to read and write in kanji to study Buddhist scriptures. But Chinese characters, each of which stands for an entire word, were badly suited for writing Japanese, which had a complex grammar quite unlike Chinese.

By the ninth century, the Japanese devised a phonetic script called hiragana, in which each Chinese symbol represented the sound of a single syllable. This made reading and writing much easier, and literacy became more widespread, especially among aristocratic women. Eventually, most Japanese writing used a hybrid script, with kanji for nouns and verbs, hiragana for modifiers and grammatical particles, and katakana (a writing system similar to hiragana) for emphatic expression.


 * City Planning**

Japanese emperors felt that if their power were to rival their Chinese counterparts, they would have to have imposing cities modeled after those in China. Thus, when constructing a new capital city at Nara in 708, the Japanese copied the rectangular plan of the Chinese city of Changan and laid out a grid of intersecting streets covering an ara of two-and-a-half by three miles, with an imperial palace located north of the city center. As in Changan, a wide thoroughfare ran south from the emperor's palace, bisecting the city. Other Japanese cities, like Heian-Kyo, also borrowed elements of Chinese design.

Still, the Japanese adapted the Chinese urban model in accordance with their needs. Because space was at a premium in Japan, Nara and Heian-Kyo never had forts like Changan's six-meter high defensive walls. The castletowns of the later Tokugawa period also showed the bledning oc Chinese principles and Japanese adaptations. The city of Edo (present-day Tokyo) had Chinese-styled streets that intersected at right angles, but an overall make-like layout that reflected uniquely Japanese characteristics.


 * Attire**

During the Nara period in the 700's, the clothing of Japan's upper classes began to reflect contemporary Tang styles. For riding and other outdoor activities, wealthy men wore black trousers and silk tunics, covered by a flowing, brightly colored silk robe that was closed with a sash. Wealthy women wore loose silk trousers, over which were placed several silk robes of different colors, one on top of the other. This method of layering clothing was the primary way by which a wealthy person's rank and status in Japan was displayed.

Japanese aristocrats, like their Chinese counterparts, carried fans and parasols. However, in Japan fans were mainly constructed out of bamboo, whereas is China they were made from other types of wood, such as rose. Similar to the masses in China, the working class in Japan wore clothing made of hemp, linen, and cotton. During the Ashikaga period, the kimono- a long, flowing robe worn with a sash- became the standard garment for both men and women. Although the garment itself was cut in a simple style, advances in weaving and dyeing techniques helped produce kimono of exceptional beauty and elegance.


 * Painting**

Like many of the arts, Japanese painting originally was influenced by Chinese styles but later developed its own characteristics. In their eagerness to mimic the techniques of Tang masters, Japanese painters of the Nara and Heian periods created watercolor images of nature, emphasizing mountains, trees, lowers, and birds. Zen monks also practiced ink painting int he Chan styled of creating images with a few rapid brush strokes, using only black ink.

Beginning around the 1000's, another style of painting Yamato-e developed. This style differed from the panoramic landscapes of Chinese painting both in format - narrower and much longer-and in style and content. Japanese painters laid their pigments on very thick and mad much use of gold and jade colors. Subjects of the Yamato style moved away form exclusively Buddhist themes and included works of fiction, notably Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji, highly detailed narrative paintings showing scenes of battles, urban life, or court life, and portraits.


 * Music**

As early as the sixth century A.D. the Japanese sent converts of Buddhism to learning centers in China where they learned how to perform Buddhist chants and how to notate music on paper with symbols as the Chinese did. However, the Japanese changed some of the shapes of the symbols to better fit their written language. The rhythms of these Buddhist chants are evident in Japanese gagaku music. Gagaku, which means "elegant, refined, or correct music", has been the court music of Japan since the 500's and is the world's oldest surviving form of court music.

Gagaku music developed as a combination of Indian, Chinese, Korean, and native Japanese musical practices. Gagaku ensembles, or orchestras, often performed music or accompanied dancers and singers for civil, military, or court rituals. Sometimes the titles of gagku songs- such as "The Barbarians Drinking Wine" - showed they were songs of Chinese origins. Many Japanese instruments were derived from Chinese instruments. The mouth organ, known in Japan as the sho, is related to the Chinese sheng, the Japanese lute, of biwa, is related to the Chinese pipa. The Japanese koto, a sither, is related to the Chinese chin, but the Japanese added moveable bridges to the koto to change the pitches of the strings.