Name____________________________________________________________
Per.______
Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources
Chapter Nine, China and the World: East Asian Connections, 500-1300 (pp. 390-397)
Coping with China: Comparing Korea, Vietnam, & Japan
 During postclassical era, the newly emerging states & civilizations of Korea, Vietnam & Japan
o These societies were thoroughly agricultural & sedentary
 Proximity to giant Chinese neighbor decisively shaped the histories of East Asian civilizations
o All of them borrowed major elements of Chinese culture
o Peoples of Vietnam, Korea, & Japan retained distinctive identities which lasted into
modern times
o These smaller East Asian civilizations resembled the “developing” Afro-Asian societies
which embraced modernity and elements of Western Culture
Korea and China
 The Korean peninsula & its people have long lived in the shadow of their imposing neighbors
 Early Korean states all referred to their rulers with the Chinese term wang (king)
 These states strenuously resisted Chinese political control
o 7th Century: Silla Kingdom- Allied with Tang dynasty China to bring some political
unity to the peninsula for the first time
o Chinese efforts to set up puppet regimes & to assimilate Koreans to Chinese provoked
military resistance
o Korean generally maintained its political independence while participating in China’s
tribute system
 Tribute missions to China provided legitimacy for Korean rulers
o New capital city of Kumsong was modeled directly on the Chinese capital (Chang’an)
o Tribute missions also enabled both official & private trade
o Confucian & Buddhist texts enriched the lives of a Korean aristocracy that was
becoming increasingly Chinese in culture
o Korea became a part of the expanding world of Chinese culture
 Negative impact on Korean women
o Chinese observers strongly disapproved of “free choice” marriages in Korea as well as
the practice of women singing & dancing together late at night
o Chinese models of family life & female behavior gradually replaced the more flexible
Korean patterns
o 1413: a legal distinction between primary & secondary wives required men to identify
one of their wives as primary
 Korea remained Korean
o After 688: the country’s political independence was largely intact
o Chinese cultural influence had little impact beyond the aristocracy & certainly did not
penetrate the lives of Korea’s serf-like peasants
o Korea’s aristocratic class was able to maintain an even stronger monopoly on
bureaucratic office that their Chinese counterparts
o In 1400’s, Korea moved toward greater cultural independence by developing a phonetic
alphabet known as hangul for writing the Korean language
Vietnam and China
 Vietnamese had a broadly similar historical encounter with China
 The elite culture of Vietnam borrowed heavily from China
o Adopting Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, administrative techniques, examination
system, artistic & literary styles
o Vietnam was fully incorporated into the Chinese state for more than a thousand years
(longer than corresponding parts of Korea)
o Regarded by the Chinese as “Southern Barbarians”
o Chinese officials who expected fully assimilate this rich region into China culturally as
well as politically
 Heavy pressure of Chinese presence generated periodic rebellions
o 39 CE, short lived uprising launched by two sisters, one was TrungTrac
o Trung sisters committed suicide rather than surrender to the Chinese
o They long remained powerful symbols of Vietnamese resistance to Chinese aggression
o Weakening of the Tang dynasty enabled particularly large rebellion to establish
Vietnam as separate state
 Chinese-based examination system in Vietnam functioned to undermine established aristocracy
o To provide some measure of social mobility for commoners & to create a merit-based
scholar-gentry class to staff the bureaucracy
 There remained much of uniquely Vietnamese
o Distinctive language, fondness of cockfighting, chewing betel nuts, & greater role for
women in social and economic life (Female Buddha)
o Vietnamese developed a variation of Chinese writing called chu nom
Japan and China
 Japanese islands were physically separated from China and were never successfully invaded or
conquered by their giant mainland neighbor
o Thus, Japan’s extensive borrowing from Chinese civilization was wholly voluntary
 Japan state found much that was useful to deliberately & systematically transform Japan into a
bureaucratic state on the Chinese model
o Initial leader of effort was Shotoku Taishi- launched largescale missions to China
o Issued Seventeen Article Constitution: proclaiming the Japanese ruler as a Chinese
style emperor & encouraging both Buddhism & Confucianism
o Document emphasized the moral quality of rulers as a foundation for social harmony
o Japanese adopted Chinese-style court rituals and a system of court rankings for officials
o Established Chinese-based taxation systems, law codes, government ministries
o Two capital cities (Nara) & (Heian) arose
 Art, architecture, education, medicine, views of the afterlife, attitudes toward suffering, &
impermanence reflected the influence of Buddhist culture in Japan
o The Chinese writing system proved attractive among the elite
 Absence of threat from China made it possible for Japanese to be selective in their borrowing
o Japanese combined what they assimilated from China with elements of their tradition
 Political realm: court & emperor retained an important ceremonial & cultural role
o Real political authority over the country gradually diminished in favor of competing
aristocratic families
o As political power became increasingly decentralized, local authorities developed own
military forces (Samurai following code of Bushido in Feudal Japan)
 Religiously, Japan remained distinctive
o Buddhism never completely replaced native beliefs & practices which focused attention
on numerous kami (Sacred spirits associated with human ancestors) AKA Shinto
 Japanese literary & artistic culture emerged in a unique writing system that combined Chinese
characters with a series of phonetic symbols

o Highly stylized Japanese poetic form, known as tanku developed
o The Tale of Genji, a Japanese novel written by a woman author Murasaki Shikibu
around 1000, provides an intimate picture of the intrigues & romances of court life
o Japan’s women escaped the more oppressive features of Chinese Confucian culture
o This is because the most powerful Chinese influence on japan occurred during the Tang
Dynasty when Chinese elite women enjoyed considerable freedom
Japan’s ability to borrow extensively from China while developing its own distinctive
civilization perhaps provided a model for its encounter with the West in the 19th Century