Development of things in Japan introduced from China – 🇺🇸🇪🇺 ICAS DP UA 🇺🇦

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　 As countries in East Asia, China and Japan have active exchanges in various areas such as economy, culture, and society, and their relationship is progressing. This deep relationship did not develop overnight, but has been built over more than a thousand years.
　The first mention of Japan in Chinese literature was in the Book of Chinese, Geizhi.

　　　　　”Wajin in the Rakuran Sea, 100 Counties, Isaijiraikkenun”

　Around the 1st century B.C., Japan was a small country with about 100 separate states, and was located in Rakuran County, which was on the Korean Peninsula. They sent messengers regularly to offer tribute. In addition, descriptions of the relationship between Wa and China can be found in historical books such as “Tōiden” in the “Later Hansho” and “Gishi Wajinden” in the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” In this way, exchanges between Japan and China have continued for more than a thousand years

　During the Asuka period, envoys from Japan to Sui and Tang Dynasty went to China and brought back to Japan the culture and systems of Tang, which was a great power at the time. For example, Japan’s first mass-produced and widely distributed money, Wado Kaichin, was created by imitating the Tang Dynasty’s Kaiyuan Tsuho. It is also said that the townscape of Heijokyo was modeled after Chang’an in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, everything from everyday items such as tea, chopsticks, and ceramics, to folk customs such as seasonal festivals and holidays, and cultures represented by Confucianism and Buddhism were introduced from China. These things have taken root in Japan and are gradually permeating the lives of ordinary Japanese people, having a major impact on various aspects such as food, clothing, and shelter. However, over many years, the things that were originally introduced from China developed to suit Japanese customs, and some of them became completely different from those in China.

　Here, I would like to explain two specific examples.

　1. Chopsticks

Chopsticks are part of Japanese food culture and are essential to the Japanese diet. However, these chopsticks were introduced from ancient China.
　The Chinese history book “Gishi Wajinden” contains descriptions of the lifestyle of the Japanese people around the 3rd century.

　　“Wachi’s warm climate, raw vegetables for winter and summer” “Eating and drinking beans, eating by hand” (Wagi’s warm climate means eating raw vegetables both in winter and summer. People eat and drink with their hands, using high cups.)

　From this description: At that time, Japanese people did not use chopsticks or spoons, but instead ate with their hands. On the other hand, Japan’s “Kojiki” and “Nihon Shoki” mention that chopsticks have existed in Japan since ancient times, but they were not used as tableware, but were used for ritual purposes like tweezers. It is a ritual vessel that is sometimes used.

　So, when did chopsticks begin to be used as tableware in Japan? There are various theories about this, but it is said that Prince Shotoku was the first to adopt the chopsticks eating system. In the eighth year of Emperor Suiko’s reign (600), Prince Shotoku dispatched an envoy to China (Sui), which was a developed country at the time. After returning to Japan, the Sui envoy reported to Prince Shotoku that people in China were eating with chopsticks. Then, a Chinese delegation came to visit Japan. If the envoys found out that Japan ate with their hands, they would think Japan was a barbaric country, and they might not be able to establish equal diplomatic relations with the Sui dynasty, which was a “developed country” at the time. It is said that Prince Shotoku ordered the members of the Kyukyo Imperial Court to eat with chopsticks. This is where the culture of eating with chopsticks began in Japan, and around the 8th century, it gradually spread not only within the imperial court but also into ordinary households, and became an essential part of the Japanese diet.

　However, although chopsticks were introduced from China, they now have a different shape from China. This is due to the difference in dietary customs between Japan and China. In China, when eating, everyone sits around the table and takes food from the same plate. Chinese chopsticks have been made for a long time so that they can handle dishes from a distance. In Japan, on the other hand, each person’s food is portioned out, and there is no need to use such long chopsticks to eat the food in front of you. And compared to Chinese chopsticks, Japanese chopsticks have sharper tips. It was made sharp to make it easier to remove the bones when eating fish. As a country surrounded by the sea, Japan’s diet has changed accordingly. Also, the way you place your chopsticks when eating is also different. In Japan, chopsticks are placed horizontally in front of you, but in China, they are generally placed next to the plate.

　On the other hand, even though the shapes of chopsticks are different, there are many common etiquette when it comes to chopsticks. For example, in Japan, it is considered impolite to “want chopsticks,” or move one’s hands around without deciding on a dish, and “sashibashi”, or pierce one’s food while eating, is considered impolite in China. It is considered very bad luck to stick your chopsticks on top of your rice. In Japan, a bowl of rice is placed next to the deceased person’s pillow by sticking chopsticks into the rice. In China, eating such food resembles burning incense sticks for a deceased person, so it is considered unlucky, just like in Japan.

In this way, although chopsticks were introduced from China, a unique Japanese chopstick culture was created to match Japanese customs.

Kanji

　Kanji and kana (hiragana and katakana) are used to write Japanese. Both are used in modern Japanese, with kanji being more often used in newspapers and official documents. These kanji were, of course, introduced from China long ago, and the kana unique to Japanese were created by referring to the eccentricities and radicals of Chinese kanji.
　There are various theories about the origin of kanji, but it is believed that books written in kanji were officially introduced in the 15th year of Emperor Ojin’s reign, when “Analects” and “Senjimon” were introduced. Later, kanji spread to the upper class of intellectuals such as aristocrats, and after the Meiji period, ordinary Japanese began to learn kanji as well.
　However, even though they are called kanji, the kanji currently used in China and Japan are completely different.

　First of all, the way of reading kanji is different. In Japan, a single kanji often has several different pronunciations. There are two ways to read it: On-yomi and Kun-yomi. Onyomi is a way of reading that imitates Chinese pronunciation. Depending on when the kanji was introduced, there are three types of the same on-yomi: “Go-on”, “Kan-on”, and “Kan-on”. For example, the kanji “行” is read as “kyo” or “gyou” (procession) in Wu-on, “kou” (bank) in Kan-on, and “an” (lantern) in Tang-on. However, it is often mistaken that “Wuyin” is the pronunciation from the Wu Dynasty, Hanyon is the pronunciation from the Han Dynasty, and Tangyon is the pronunciation from the Tang Dynasty. In fact, “Wuyin” is a pronunciation that was introduced from China around the 5th or 6th century, and “Wu” does not refer to the era, but rather indicates that it is a pronunciation from the southern region of China. “Han Yin” is the pronunciation passed down by envoys to Sui and Tang Dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries. This pronunciation was adopted as the standard language of the Han people spoken around Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, so it is called Han Yin. It is also said that among the on-yomi readings, Kan-on is the most common because exchanges between Japan and China were active at that time due to envoys sent to Sui and Tang Dynasties. In addition, “Karon” refers to the pronunciation that has been passed down since the Kamakura period. From the end of the Heian period to the Kamakura period onwards, “Tang” came to refer to all of China, and the pronunciation that was introduced around that time came to be called “Tang”.

　On the other hand, kun-yomi is a reading method that applies Japanese words with the same meaning as kanji. Before the introduction of kanji, there was already something called “Japanese” in Japan, but it was only a spoken language and had no written language. After kanji were introduced, kun-yomi is the way to write them in their original Japanese reading.
　And the way of writing kanji is also different. First of all, it is clearly different from the simplified Chinese characters currently used in mainland China, but that is because mainland Chinese characters were abbreviated too much. In fact, there are many abbreviations among the kanji used in Japan today. For example, the kanji for “country” was written as “country” in ancient China, but now both China and Japan use the abbreviated “country.” However, there are some kanji that are written differently depending on how they are abbreviated. For example, the kanji “Raku” is abbreviated as “Raku” in Japan, but in simplified Chinese characters it is changed to “乐”. On the other hand, the traditional Chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan are simply written as “Raku”. In addition, there are many kanji that are slightly different. For example, the character for “picture” is written as “pain” in Chinese, and “ice” is written as “冰.”

Also, even if you write the same kanji, the meaning can be completely different. For example, the same character “bed” is written, but its meaning in Chinese is bed. Also, the kanji for “yu” is often used in Japanese for hot springs, such as “public bath,” but in Chinese, “yu” means soup. In addition, the kanji for “letter” means toilet paper, and the kanji for “daughter” does not mean daughter, but mother. It seems that many people have misunderstandings or experience culture shock due to these differences.

　On the other hand, kanji and Chinese words themselves were introduced to Japan from China, but in modern times, Japanese-made Chinese words have sometimes been re-imported to China. In modern times, Japan broke away from its old system through the Meiji Restoration and adopted new technologies, ideas, and systems from the West. Many new concepts and things emerged, and our predecessors brilliantly translated them into Japanese. For example, the word “science” was originally used to mean various academic fields, but when the word “science” was introduced in the Meiji period, Enlightenment thinker Nishi Zhou defined it as a collection of various academic fields. “Science” was used as the translation. It is also said that the word “telephone” was imported back into China from Japan. In 1876, the telephone invented by Graham Bell was imported, and at first it was simply called “telephone”, but the following year it was translated into “telephone” and “telephone”. Originally, the words “denwa” and “denwaki” meant to tell a story, and from that point on, it was also written as “denwa” and “denwaki.” In addition, words expressing various abstract things such as economics, culture, and philosophy were introduced to China as Japanese Chinese words.

　In this way, kanji were originally invented by the Chinese and brought to Japan, but over a long period of time they permeated the lives of the Japanese people, giving rise to Japan’s unique kanji culture.

　As mentioned in the preamble, exchanges between Japan and China have continued for over 1,600 years. Throughout its long history, Japan has sometimes learned Chinese culture, and China has sometimes imported new technology from Japan. I think that in a truly good relationship, it is important to maintain a relationship of equals, rather than one party having a dominant position. I hope that Japan and China will continue to cooperate, learn from each other, and develop together. I would also like to contribute my small efforts to ensure that the friendly relations between Japan and China continue forever. 　

Beijing Foreign Studies University

Lu Yucong

Source: Jal Foundation