Essay on Chinas Impact on Japan and Korea

According to history, the Chinese culture is the unifying cultural foundation of all East Asian countries. Most nations ended up assimilating their way of life making them have a close relationship to each one of them. East Asia is said to have sprouted back in 8000BC (Brown and John 180-185). However, at this time, civilization not been introduced to the region. Most of the communities lived as hunters and gatherers. As the years passed by, between 8000BC-6000BC, agricultural farming was adopted in East Asia in two regions, namely; the area around the Yellow River and to the South, along Yangtze River valley. Millet and wet-rice were the staple food crops of the region. Later in the 4500 B.C, the Korean peninsula adapted farming from the northern China region. They mainly concentrated in wet-rice cultivation. Japan was among the last countries in the East Asian region to adopt farming; this is because hunting and gathering had become quite dominant that farming was left at bay. Japan ended up adopting rice farming in the early 10500 B.C from the Chinese communities (Marks, 75).

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From a political view, the Chinese Tang Dynasty also acted as a factor that resulted in the countries influence in both Korea and Japan. The Tang dynasty was known to be one of the long-lasting dynasties regions, which lasted for the periods of 618-907 A.D. Tang, ended up having quite successful emperors that made the area quite successful in political, economic, cultural, and military endeavors. In fact, most nations wanted to emulate the regions ways of life to be successful as well. It is to this effect that countries such as Japan and Korea ended up emulating the Chinese diplomacy in leadership (Brown and John, 312). The Japanese society was divided into clans known as uji.' One of its most successful clan was the Yamato clan, which dominated the largest Japanese island known as Honshu back in 500 CE. The emperor to this clan ended up adopting Chinese bureaucratic form of government making them assimilated to most of the Chinese culture. Besides this, Chinese religious practices, which were Buddhism, also became a driving factor in introducing Chinese culture to the region. The Yamato rulers together with Prince Shotoku embraced Buddhism thus influencing the rest of the communities. Prince Shotoku made a significant impact on the Chinese culture by sending students and other nobles for 200 years to the Chinese Tang court to learn of their culture and political system. Most of the written art in Japan in the early days was also presented in Chinese as well. The Japanese ended up adopting the Chinese architecture, their technology, and institutions as well.

In the fourth century, Korea came to evolve out of its three distinct dynasties, namely; Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla (Hayes 53-58). Since at this time the Chinese political structure was doing quite well, these three dynasties ended up adapting their political structure, their military composition and their style of law. Most of the Chinese culture, therefore, made its way from this adoption. Silla ended up adopting Chinese centralized form of government thus making it more successful than the rest of the dynasties. Therefore, in due time, the other two dynasties analyzed their structure to be as successful as Silla (Marks, 112). As a result, this allowed it to come together and form Korea, of which most of the territories had already adopted to the Chines culture. Chinese civilization had a significant impact in both Korea and Japan. As stated earlier, the written arts of Chinese also had a great impact in Japanese and Korean history. They served as evidence of records in the governments, of which, these two countries ended up adopting later as their form of a writing system. It is to this effect that there exists an apparent similarity among the Chinese, Korean and Japanese mode of arts.

Japan and Korea, however, differ regarding their social development. This can be illustrated from the effect that the two countries bear from the Chinese influence. In the postclassical period, Japan practiced decentralization of political authority under the authority of Emperor Daimyos (Hayes 84-88). They declined to exercise aristocracy, which was a form of leadership recommended under confusion religion. However, as for Korea, they profoundly embraced monopoly aristocracy in their administration and other businesses. This led to the development of classes in the Korean society, which later resulted in the poor status of the Korean economy. Despite the two nations adapting to Chines culture, which, also led to their civilization, Japan ended up having a higher status in their economic transformation as compared to Korea. In addition to this, historians also noted that Korea was heavily influenced by Chinas culture as compared to Japan making them not be innovative. This could have also contributed to its slow economic and political development in the region.

Conclusion

Throughout the paper, it is possible to note that, there existed several similarities as well as a few diversities when it comes to Chinese, Japanese and the Koreans culture. China influence to these countries enabled them to blossom and made remarkable developments in their political, economic, and social structures.

Works Cited

Brown, Ju, and John Brown. China, Japan, Korea: Culture and Customs. Ju Brown, 2006. Pp 175-306.

Marks, Robert B. China: its environment and history. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.

Hayes, Louis D. Political Systems of East Asia: China, Korea, and Japan. ME Sharpe, 2012.