American history Empire, War, and propaganda

Nipponese and Chinese horticultures have galore(postnominal) similarities owing to the fact that the latter(prenominal) has exerted a major pagan influence on the originator. As is mentioned in the De Barys nurse on Nipponese tradition, the Nipponese started recording their later they had contact with the Chinese. In fact the earliest existence of Japan is in the Chinese Dynastic histories around the 1stCentury BCE, written by Chinese historians who were know to compile fairly reliable accounts of their consecrate day world (p.3, 4).The inseparable accounts of Nipponese were written around the 8th century CE, by which while the Japanese were already heavily influenced by the Chinese traditions. Hence, there argon a lot of cultural similarities between the cardinal countries. This paper comp ars and contrasts the two cultures with respect to their righteousness, tradition, literature and philosophies. traditions and Philosophies in china and Japan Chinese Chinese doct rine and organized religion seems to begin with Confucius and his teachings.While there are certain records which are supposed to pre-date Confucius, according to De Bary in his book on Chinese Tradition these works are suspected to be compiled by and by the time of Confucius (p. 1). The traditionalistic history consists of many semi-divine culture heroes who supposedly were responsible for bringing refinement among the mess of China. These were followed by three rulers of exceptional wisdom Yao, Shun and Yu, as is mentioned in the books by De Bary on Chinese Tradition (p. 2).However, the most famed of the Chinese religion and Philosophy is of course the teaching of Confucius who adoptive the teachings and examples of these rulers in his teachings. In fact according to De Bary the life of Chinese for the past 2000 days set up be characterized in a word to be Confucian. The min most important and influential native philosophy of Chinese is much religious in genius and is cognise as Taoism. Many of the present day philosophers comment that the two philosophies complement each separate.While Confucianism concerns itself with the social responsibilities and humane aspects of life, Taoism contends itself with a weird outlook towards life. De Bary mentions that these two philosophies give two incompatible aspects of an individual one that is related to his work and responsibilities and the other which is related to his spiritual side (p. 48). The work of Confucius was further refined to make it a more moralistic and righteous, such(prenominal) that people were honor bound to fulfill their duties and responsibilities.These were other philosophies at work in China. One of these was Legalism which was proposed by Shang Yang and is considered to be all the same a nonher classical school of thought in China. The theory thus far was explained in detail by Han Fei, who is considered as the father of this philosophy. De Bary says that growth of this phi losophy was due to a need for a more rational administration for society than the traditional feudalistic organisation, which had started to disintegrate even during the Confucian halt (p. 122).Legalism was inherent in the Han Empire and was made palatable by adopting Confucianism as the state ideology. As will be seen in the section below Legalism combined with Confucianism was one of the philosophies that was widely accepted and followed in Japan after they decided to abandon their clan-based society for a more rational one. Japanese Prior to Chinese influence, Japan consisted of a number of tribes ruled by individual kings. These tribes were supposedly from many different parts of Asia including Korea and proceeded to settle in the Japanese islands.While the early traditional influences of Japanese people remain obscure, Chinese writings mention Japanese people as performing lie worship, which might account for the name of the country. These writings also mention the people as being honest, polite, displaying gentleness in peace and bravery in war, love for liquor and mountains and religious rites of purification and divination as is mentioned by De Bary in his book on Japanese tradition (p. 5). This cause of nature worship was the emeritusest type of religion found in Japan and was known as Shintoism.As the tribes began to exert their sphere of influence, they turned towards the Chinese philosophies and examples for both political and cultural guidance. Hence, the Japanese culture is very closely intertwined with the Chinese culture, and it is not the other way round. De Bary mentions that many of the imperial edicts issued during the Great Reform decimal point which began in the 645 CE consisted of Chinese based administration systems (p. 63). For instance the old political system which was based on tribal clans was changed to the Chinese system of systematic territorial administration.Also there was an attempt to abolish private property, modify the land and redistribute it based on the family size which was the system followed in China. De Bary says that these systems were so meticulously followed that the records that have been found of this period are most identical to those found in China (p. 64). However, the influence exerted by the Chinese on Japanese traditions was not just political during this period. As is already mentioned above, Chinese life has been mostly influenced by the teachings of Confucius.Needless to say these traditions were adopted by Japanese also and formed one of the integral parts of take on for the scholars during the period. However, these teachings cannot be found in their original formed as debaryhas affirm in his books (p. 69). There have been many changes because the people tended to imbibe their brisk religion and philosophies with those of the new order proposed by the Chinese philosophers during that period. Buddhism in China and Japan Chinese Buddhism came to China via India in the first century AD, where the religion originated.Buddhism came divided into a number of sects, said to be eighteen in number before it came to China. When Buddhism entered China some of these sects were introduced and assumed newer forms under the Chinese influence. In addition Chinese themselves developed many strong sects. initially when it came to Japan Buddhism encountered stiff opposition and remained a foreign religion for everywhere two centuries after which it started getting accepted. The problem as is told by De Bary was that the Chinese did not know about the sectarian nature of Buddhism, and considered whatever language were written to be the words of Buddha.This resulted in confusion due to the many contradictory statements of various sects. Mahayana Buddhism or the Greater Vehicle took on a Chinese character and evolved into several schools such as Tien-Ttai, Hua-yuen, Pre polish and Chan Japanese Buddhism is one of the major religions practiced in both China and Ja pan. The religion was introduced to Japan in the 7thcentury AD. The most popular types of Buddhism followed here were Pure Land and Zen Buddhism, a offshoot of Chan Buddhism (p. 120). In Japan, Buddhism became closely intertwined with the tenets of Shinto.This was initially do to make the religion more acceptable to the local public. The first fetch indication of a merger between Shinto principles and Buddhism according to De Bary was in the middle of Nara period which was more than 200 years after the religion was introduced in the country. De Bary further states that the mutual relationship of the Buddhism with the Shinto developed and by the Kamakura period there existed detailed explanations of Shinto gods as the concrete manifestations of Buddhist deities (p.121). Here, the Buddhism and its various rites differ from the Chinese versions because there are no such deities present in the Chinese versions, where the Buddhism was based primarily on the Taoist principles of the be auty of nature and relation between Buddhism with the various environmental issues. belles-lettres influence The influence of Chinese literature in Japanese culture is clear evident by the fact that Japanese follow the Chinese pictographic script in writing.The reason for this is mentioned by De Bary in his book where he says that the Chinese way of philosophy and political code was adopted directly by the Japanese rulers. An understanding of the corresponding script was so considered to be necessary and such a script was considered to be a must for being considered as a scholar whether literal or political (p. 48). However, the Chinese script being very difficult to its pictographic nature had to be simplified when it was adopted by the common man. Hence, the Japanese also have sound based writing system which is not present in the Chinese script.Political influence Chinese influence can be seen in almost every aspect of Japanese life. On the political side De Bary gives the exa mple of the Imperial rule which is sometimes called Tennoism. This type of imperial rules gives the regnant family a divine status. In Japanese society, this translated to the ruling family having an unbroken tie with the Sun Goddess who was the primary deity worshiped by the Japanese people. The chief difference between the Chinese and Japanese ruling systems was that the former was merit based while the later was hereditary in nature.The Chinese rulers were theoretically subjected to the criteria of merit and rulers or dynasties could forfeit the mandate to rule if they did not live up to them. This principle was absent in case of Japanese ruling family, which was primarily governed by the hereditary principle and the merit principle did not apply at all to the ruling family (p. 69) Conclusion As has been already mentioned above, the Chinese and Japanese traditions and cultures are closely inter related due to the strong influence the former had in the development of the latter.T he cultural vein has flowed from Chinese to the Japanese people, which included the spread of Buddhism in the country. The principles were no doubt changed according to the dictates of the society, but the binding ties can be clearly seen between the cultured of the two countries. Works Cited De Bary WT (2001), Sources of Japanese Tradition, 2nd Edition, capital of South Carolina University Press, West Sussex De Bary WT (1960), Sources of Japanese Tradition Vol. 1, Columbia University Press, West Sussex