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CHAPTER 13: The Spread of Chinese Civilization: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
I.
II.
Japan
a. Taika Reforms
i. Aristocrats and Buddhist monks resisted
1. Emperor moves the capital city to Heian (Kyoto) and forbids Buddhist entry.
2. End of the Taika Reforms
b. Heian Court Life
i. The imperial household and aristocrats lived in a beautiful complex filled with fish
ponds, waterfalls, and gardens.
ii. Poems and Literature
1. The Tale of Genji.
iii. The Fujiwara Family
c. Provincial Warrior Elites (similar to Feudalism in Western Europe)
i. Landed aristocracy began to form mini-kingdoms, centered around a fort where the local
lord would live
ii. The bushi, the warrior leaders, administered their own mini-kingdom, rarely providing
tribute to the imperial court.
1. Samurai.
a. Seppuku (disembowelment) or hara-kiri (belly-splitting).
iii. Peasants were reduced to the status of serfs (bound to the land and the lord).
1. Pure Land Buddhism
iv. Their (Warrior Elites) rising power led to the decreasing power of the emperor and the
decreasing influence of China.
1. The Taira and the Minamoto
2. The Emperor as son of heaven was no longer used; the aristocrats were more
powerful than the scholar-gentry; and Buddhism was transformed into a Japanese
Buddhism.
3. By 1185, the Taira house was destroyed and the Minamoto’s took control,
establishing their capital at Kamakura and naming their government bakufu, or
military government.
d. The Age of the Warlords
i. First Minamoto ruler, or shogun
ii. The Hojo Family and the Minamoto Family.
iii. Ashikaga Takuaji decided to overthrow the Kamakura regime – he began the Ashikaga
Shogunate and forced the emperor to flee.
1. Division of Japan into 300 little kingdoms, whose warlord leaders were called
daimyos instead of bushi.
iv. Strengthening the infrastructure and economy of individual states
v. Peasants strengthened through commerce
vi. Women’s declining roles
vii. Zen Buddhism brought artistic developments to a war torn Japan.
Korea
a. Descended from Siberian and Manchurian tribes instead of the Mongolian and Turkic tribes that
the Chinese did.
b. Choson and tribute to the Chinese
c. Resistance of the Koguryo kingdom in the north
d. Establishment of Silla and Paekche kingdoms
e. Sinification
i. Chinese writing was introduced; a Chinese type law code was written; Chinese history
taught; and Chinese bureaucracy was attempted.
III.
f. The Sui and the Tang Dynasties
i. The Silla kingdom – victory and tribute
ii. The Silla (668-918) and the Koryo (918-1392) Dynasties
1. Most committed to the tributes owed compared to other tributary kingdoms.
2. Tributes paid were often worth less than gifts and amenities given by the Chinese.
a. Chinese learning, commerce, and protection very valuable.
3. Capital at Kumsong
a. Aristocrats lived there
i. Sometimes went through Chinese examination system
ii. Pursued the arts
iii. Favored Buddhism over Confucianism
iv. Became better in porcelain pottery over the Chinese.
v. Also invented a removable glue for the moveable type.
g. Society
i. The aristocrats were the only ones that counted – everyone else oriented for their service.
ii. Aristocrats divided into several ranks – did not intermarry or socialize with each other.
1. Below them were the government workers, commoners, and near-slaves (lowborn) which were miners, artisans, servants, and entertainers.
iii. Rebellions by the commoners and the low-born weakened both the Silla and the Koryo
Dynasties.
1. The Mongol invasion – 1231
2. The Yi Dynasty was established in 1392 and ruled until 1910
Vietnam (Nam Viet or “People of the South”)
a. The Vietnamese were aware of the benefits they would receive from the Chinese, but they did
not want to lose their own sense of identity.
i. Live in what is now Southern China; have more relationship to the Khmers (Cambodia)
and the Tais (Thailand) than the Chinese; favor the nuclear family instead of the extended
family; do not have clan networks; women have more freedom; women wear skirts
instead of pants; they blackened their teeth; their Buddhism and their art and literature
were different than the Chinese.
b. In 111 B.C.E., the Han conquered the Viets, the Viets learning that they could learn much from
the Chinese.
i. Vietnamese used Chinese tech to become stronger than neighbors
c. Resistance
i. The Vietnamese, however, sporadically rose to defeat their Chinese rulers.
a. Women - Trung Sisters Uprising – 39 C.E.
ii. The Vietnamese took advantage of political turmoil in China to mount rebellions.
Vietnam was hard to reach due to mountains and distance, so a weak dynasty could easily
lose control of Vietnam.
1. Independence from China – 939 until 19th century (France)
d. Chinese Influence
i. Even after the Chinese withdrew, their influence was still seen.
1. Buddhism
e. Expansion
i. The Vietnamese began to look south toward the lands of the Khmers and the Chams,
instead of north.
ii. At the end of the 16th century, the Nguyen family of the South challenged the Trinh
family of the North. Both wanted a unified Vietnam, and their war blinded them to the
French threat.