Day 3 Japan Learns from China and Korea

Japan Learns from China and Korea

But it takes a long time.

Japanese Had Their Own Life

Early Japanese society received very little influence from cultures on the Asian mainland. Occasionally, officials from China, Korea, or other parts of Asia visited Japan. For the most part, however, these visits didn’t have a great impact on the Japanese way of life. 

Japan Wants To See Other Cultures

• By the mid-500s, though, some Japanese leaders thought that Japan could learn a great deal from other cultures.

• In particular, they wanted to learn more about the cultures of China and Korea. 

Multiple Choice

What 2 places did the leaders in Japan want to learn about?

• China and Russia

• Korea and Japan

• China and Korea

The Big Invite

• To learn what they wanted to know, the rulers of Japan decided to send representatives to China and Korea to gather information about their cultures.

• They also invited people from China and Korea to move to Japan. The emperors hoped that these people could teach the Japanese new ways of working and thinking. 

Open Ended

Why did they invite people from China and Korea to move to Japan?

Changes in Language 

• One of the first things the Japanese learned from China and Korea was language.

• The early Japanese didn’t have a written language. Therefore, many learned to write in Chinese but speak Japanese

Multiple Choice

What language did the Japanese use for writing?

• Korean

• Chinese

They Use Sounds

• They continued to speak in Japanese, however, which is very different from Chinese.

• It wasn’t until about 200 years later that people devised a way of writing in Japanese. They used Chinese characters to represent the sounds used in Japanese. 

Open Ended

What was is the main difference between how the Japanese and Chinese write?

Official Language

• Japanese writers used Chinese for their poems and stories.

• One of the first histories of Japan, written in the 700s, is in Chinese.

• For many years Chinese was even the official language of Japan’s government. 

Multiple Choice

What was the official language of the Japanese government?

• Chinese

• Japanese

• Korean

Changes in Religion and Philosophy 

• One of the people most influential in bringing Chinese ideas to Japan was Prince Shotoku (shoh-toh-koo).

• He served from 593 to 621 as regent (REE-juhnt) for his aunt, the empress.

• A regent is a person who rules a country for someone who is unable to rule alone. 

Multiple Choice

What is a regent?

• a person who rules a country alone.

• a person who chosen rule a country.

• a person who rules a country for someone who is unable to rule alone.

The Influence

• All his life, Prince Shotoku admired Chinese culture.

• As a regent, Shotoku saw a chance for Japan to adopt more Chinese ideas.

• He sent scholars to China to learn all they could about Chinese society.  The ideas these scholars brought back changed Japanese society.

The Scholars Brought Back Confucianism

• Confucianism outlined how families should behave.

• Confucius taught that fathers should rule their families. He believed that wives should obey their husbands, children should obey their parents, and younger brothers should obey older brothers.

• Families in China lived according to these rules. As Confucian ideas spread through Japan, the Japanese began to live by them as well. 

Buddhism in Japan

• Shotoku was a Buddhist, and he wanted to spread Buddhism. Most people preferred to keep their traditional religion, Shinto.

• Shotoku built a grand Buddhist temple that still stands today. He also wrote commentaries on Buddhist teachings.

• Largely because of his efforts, Buddhism became very popular, especially among Japanese nobles. 

Change in Government?

Shotoku also wanted to change Japan’s government to be more like China’s. He especially wanted Japan’s emperors to have more power, as China’s emperors did.

Afraid that they would lose power to the emperor, many clan leaders opposed Shotoku’s government plans. As a result, Japan’s emperors gained little power. 

Open Ended

What aspects of Chinese society did Shotoku bring to Japan?