Chapter 2: The Chinese and Japanese Civilizations

Introduction

The Asian civilization embraces 41 nations. Today is successfully challenging Western civilization via technological development and economic advances. It is composed of the major civilizations, such as Chinese civilization, Korean civilization, Japanese civilization, etc.

One must note that a number of countries with some roots in the Chinese civilization belong to the Sinic sphere in Eastern Asia. This sphere succeeds, in some senses, the former Japanese sphere of co-prosperity, a sweeping concept that spread to, and partially united, Japanoccupied Asia from 1930 to 1945. Its purpose included creating the self-reliant “bloc of Asian countries led only by the Japanese, no longer dependent upon the sponsorship of Western powers.

Today’s Sinic sphere is essentially a derivative form of the Chinese Civilization that influences nearby countries, including Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and Cambodia. This sphere developed when Chinese Buddhism, mixed with Confucianism, spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE.

The Origin of the Chinese And Japanese Civilizations

Chinese Civilization

Chinese civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It has existed for 5,000 years, thus for 83 percent of recorded history. We assume that Chinese culture began in Neolithic Times (5000 BCE) with the Yangshao Culture, established around the Yellow River valley and lasted until 3000 BCE. Later, Longshan culture flourished from about 3000 to 2000 BCE. This Longshan culture was led by the city of Jinan, which was then considered the center of the Chinese civilization. One of the characteristic features of early Chinese civilization. Early history of China was long unknown to the world due to the lack of written documents. Some written ancient documents describe the Xia Dynasty (2100 – 1600 BCE) as the first one in Chinese history. China today is still defined by the presence of a continuous Chinese civilization.

Chinese Civilization is experiencing its second turn as the world leader. In the first half of the Second Millennium (CE), China was roughly at the same level with Europe in scientific knowledge and far ahead in the technologies of printing, naval navigation, and ammunition (dynamite). However, the worst political mistake in the history of world civilization was almost certainly a decision made by the fourth Emperor Hongi in the Ming Dynasty to destroy the Chinese fleet. It was a suicidal move that put China in a disadvantageous position among the strongest countries of the world.

China secured its borders with the construction of the Great Wall, starting in 1358. China became subordinate to foreign rulers and invaders -- Mongolians, Manchurians, British, and Japanese.

Since the famous Long March in the 1930s, the Chinese have been awakening. They thought about themselves as the original settlers of China and have tried to throw off their submission to foreigners. As a consequence of the ending of exploration voyages in 1433, China fell behind Europe (i.e., Western Civilizations) in science and technology. However, they started to catch up. This can be seen at the beginning of the 21st century, when 600 years of separation from the rest of the world.

Today, China is one of the key players in politics, economics, science and technology, and social developments. Because, China plays a critical role in the Global Economy in the 21st century. First, China in recent decades has risen to become the World Factory, and second, it is the primary debt collector of Western Civilization. The Chinese, as a world leader in economics, are to be found are all over the globe.

In the past 80 years, the Chinese have undergone many social revolutions. Today, China faces multiple options and is at the crossroads whether it follow the ideals of Western civilization. There are other options. China might ally with Russia in sharing a common anti-American ideology or she might opt to take her own route to the future.

Japanese Civilization

The primary influences on Japan’s early culture were Mongolian. From about 250 BCE to 300 CE, a culture migrating from Asia and known as Yayoi prevailed, introducing rice farming, iron and bronze technology, and weaving. By the third century CE, civilizational influences were coming from Korea, especially in terms of better iron weapons and fighting from horseback. It led to Yamato period. During this period, The Japanese were divided into the many combatant clans, each with its patriarchal chief and guardian deity. The emperor’s duties were mostly concerning Shinto, a uniquely Japanese religion that was evolving at this period. Shinto, which reflects the “Way of the Gods” and is still common in Japan, emphasized the role of the forces of nature which affect Japan so profoundly.

By the 5th century CE, the growing power and sophistication of the Japanese state were making Japanese society more open to the impact of Chinese culture coming in by way of Korea. The most significant influence coming from China were ideas of Buddhism and Confucianism. An important side effect of the introduction of Buddhism was the introduction of Chinese writing to Japan. Buddhism assisted as a vehicle for the diffusion of Chinese civilization in much the same way that Christianity brought Mediterranean civilization to North Europe. Furthermore, Confucianism brought two important elements to Japanese civilization. It stressed a strict hierarchy of relationships. Also, Confucianism’s emphasis on merit and education as the tools of advancing in government were absorbed by the Japanese.

In the 600’s, Chinese Confucian influence sparked some Japanese governmental reforms, such as supreme ruler and centralized bureaucracy.

In the 700’s CE, the central government introduced law codes and a taxation system modeled after that of T’ang China. The Taika reforms and Taiho law system increased the power of the emperor and court but with some characteristically Japanese adjustments.

In 1867, the long-lasting Tokugawa Shogunate malformed and gave way to the Meiji Restoration movement. The city of Tokyo became the imperial capital of Japan after the Kyoto, as the capital, stopped functioning. Japan then focused its energies on industrialization and modernization. After World War I, Japan’s economy began to decline and hit a low point in 1926 when the Great Depression touched the world. Eventually it contributed to the augmented militarism in Japan during the late 1920’s and 1930’s.

Japanese imperialist policy soon aimed to dominate China to obtain its enormous material and natural assets. In the early 1930’s numerous military “incidents” peaked into a full-scale war in 1937. The United States joined in that on December 8, 1941, following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Atomic bombs were thrown on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered soon afterward on August 14, 1945. After the surrender of Japan, the Allied Forces occupied the island country, marking the first time in the nation’s history that a foreign power had held it.

The Religion of the Chinese Civilization

Buddhism in China

Buddhism was imported from India, but it has been a widely accepted religion in China for many centuries. Chinese religions are not necessarily exclusive. Thus, as an educated man, a Chinese in his office is most likely a Confucian, as he respects his superiors and endeavors to fulfill his duties. When he returns home, he might be a Daoist, as he intends to relax to enjoy a natural way of life. Occasionally, he might visit a Buddhist temple to burn incense and pray for benefits. Chinese religions have evolved, at least from the perspective adopted in the past, from philosophy to religion. Chinese religions tend to be stratified, with different applications or understandings enabling different social classes to keep ties with many religions. Thus, it is that Chinese religions are in general tolerant of other faiths, even though occasional conflicts occur.

In the 1920s, when Mao Zedong initiated the peasant movement in Hunan, he started to target religions and blamed them as being “supernatural” and dominated by religious authorities. The most disastrous move against religions in modern Chinese history occurred during the Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1966 to 1976. Many religious monasteries, shrines, churches, statues, and other worshipping sites were severely damaged or even totally eradicated.

Buddhism and Shinto in Japan

Many Japanese people respect the religious practices of Japan as a fragment of the country’s culture, within the national scope of individual trust or faith. Most Japanese people perceive rites of the Shinto as the natural religion and others practice Buddhism and some accept Christianity or other faiths.

The Zen form of Buddhism highlights life experience and daily meditation rather than theoretical knowledge or learning from religious transcripts.

Shinto is the natural religion of Japan and was once its national religion. This religion has no established dogma or unique book, no holiest place, no person or kami viewed as the most sacred, and no well-defined customary prayers. The key leitmotif in the Shinto religion is love and reverence for ordinary artifacts and processes. The shrine may hold offerings of food and sake located before a symbol of the kami.

Shinto has continued through the centuries to inspire Japanese society. Many important Japanese practices have roots either directly or indirectly in Shinto, such ad typically Japanese arts as flower-arranging (ikebana), traditional architecture, and garden design.

The Civilizing Society of the Chinese and Japanese Civilizations

Chinese Society in the 21st. Century

China, with about 1.4 billion people, is the most populous nation in the world. China has about 20% of the world’s entire population. In 1979, China became the first country to launch a ‘one child per couple’ policy. Beginning in 2009, a relaxed one-child policy was applied in most provinces; couples are now permitted to have two children. China is a multiracial state consisting of 56 ethnic groups. The most populous one is the Han, which comprises about 91.51% of the country’s total population, whereas the other 55 ethnic minorities comprise the remaining 8.49%. There is a complex system in China, one characterized by kinship and clan. In the Chinese kinship system, maternal and paternal lineages are distinguished.

When we look at the literacy and schools we see that in the 21st century, Chinese youth (15-24 years) have a 99% literacy rate, China has about 400 million students today, Chinese citizens must attend school for at least nine years, China has over 2,000 universities and colleges, with over 2 million total students enrolled in higher education, etc.

The Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has several organs. The primary structures of state power are: the National People’s Congress (NPC), the President, and the State Council with a prime minister and ministers. From a military point of view, some say that China wants to win wars without battles. It has already won an economic war of sorts with other civilizations in the 21st century.

China’s “socialist” market economy is the world’s secondlargest economy by nominal GDP after the United States. China is simultaneously the world’s fastest rising domestic consumer market and it is second in the world as an importer of goods for its huge population. Regarding service products, China is a net importer. Market socialism with a Chinese character is the new challenge to the current version of Western capitalism.

The Chinese have a relatively good standard of living in the cities (where about 800 million people live), with meaningfully enhanced facilities for housing and education. In addition, there has been a real enhancement in the status of women.

Japanese Society in the 21st. Century

Japan is a country of “one race, one civilization, one language and one culture. The Japanese people are homogeneous and comprise 98.5% of the whole population of Japan. The Japanese language has a threecomponent writing system.

Japan’s national goal for its education program is to nurture creative, unorthodox, hardworking, high-spirited and cultured members of the Japanese society. Some of the goals of the education system are as follows: at the age of three, every child in Japan goes to kindergarten. Also, Japanese students spend six years in primary, three years in secondary, three years in high school, and at least four years in college education. Furthermore, the major subjects in Japanese schools are Math, Language, Social Science, Craftsmanship, Music and Physical Education. In 2010 more than 2.8 million students were registered in Japan’s 778 universities.

The state government of Japan is headed by a hereditary monarchy in which the authority of the Emperor is constitutionally restricted and is restricted mostly to regular, ceremonial duties. It is a state with fortyseven administrative divisions, with the Emperor as its head of state. The Japan Self-Defense Forces are the unified military forces of Japan. In recent years they have been involved in international peacekeeping operations of UN. Japan’s navy is considered the most challenging of these three branches and among the most impressive in the world.

In spite of its small size, Japan is the third largest economy in the whole world, behind only the United States and China. Japan has little land suitable for agriculture, but it delivers high yield nonetheless, and local markets consume most of its products. Rice is the main agricultural crop and it is highly subsidized. Raw materials are Japan’s largest import for manufacturing. Japan has become very successful in producing and exporting a variety of goods, such as consumer electronics, cars, optical equipment, robots, etc.

Japan accomplishes excellence in some of the metrics used to build the Better Life Index. Japan has grown so dramatically since World War II that it scores above average in the rankings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (35 countries) for income and wealth, education and skills, jobs and earnings, personal security, and social connections. However, there are some negative developments. For example, there is a considerable gap between the richest and the poorest Japanese. The top 20% of the population earn more than six times as much as the bottom 20%. Good education and skills are necessary requisites for finding a job. The level of atmospheric 2.5 PM is 16 micrograms per cubic meter, higher than the OECD average of 14.05 micrograms per cubic meter. Concerning the public sphere, there is a strong sense of community and moderate levels of civic participation in Japan.

The Civilizing Culture of the Chinese and Japanese Civilizations

Chinese Culture in the 21st. Century

Chinese culture is exceptional, in part because it is harmoniously mingled. As of 2015, a total of 48 important Chinese places are listed for their cultural value to the world: 37 for Cultural Heritage, 8 for Natural Heritage, and 3 for Cultural and Natural Heritage. Through millennia, the Chinese culture was closed to other ethnic groups. However, since the May 4th Movement of 1919, China had been relegated to the status of a semi-colony and had been enslaved to a series of humiliating treaties, facing unprecedented challenges from the West.

Under the great impact of Western culture, affirmative developments occurred. Chinese culture had been exposed day by day, and the values of the old ways, based almost exclusively on Confucianism, lost their appeal in the process of exposure to Western-oriented industrialization and urbanization. Some scholars even called this Westernization a “New Culture Movement”. The Chinese knew that traditional humanism presented by Confucianism advocated the establishment of a welldisciplined, stable, multi-level society with high moral values. Confucianism was reflected in the moral codes and social concepts of the Chinese people through centuries. Furthermore, since the family is the most primary educational unit of society, the idea of attaching importance to family values has been commonly recognized and enforced in the 20th and 21st century. The way for the Chinese to get along with each other is to find a way to deal with the most pressing questions faced by humanity, the relationship between humans, nature and “Tian.” “Tian” is the utmost power ruling over minor gods and human beings. The goal of contemporary Chinese culture is achieving the harmonious state and “the unity of the Tian and Humanity”.

Technology was not popularized among the ordinary Chinese. At the beginning of the 1990s, however, personal computing became a necessity for life. The Chinese people share a new social communication medium based on the Internet.

For a long time, the Chinese people were not only isolated from the foreign countries but, due to their huge population, perhaps, their communication was limited to the closest circles. Furthermore, their movement and communication attempts were controlled by the state apparatus. It is believed that about 15% of the young Chinese generation is addicted to the Internet and need clinical treatment as a result. Also, with the advent of complicated merchandise, both real and virtual, the Internet generates a new form of economy and consumption in China. Finally, along with the development of the information society, a new democratic pattern called cyber democracy or e-democracy has appeared in China.

In the 21st century, the rapid development of the Internet has led to the development of popular culture in China which follows western pop culture. This rising Westernoriented pop culture has rich and extensive connotations. In a narrow sense, pop culture relates to art, literature, pop music or a new lifestyle for young people. Watching television is a new way to communicate within families. Another effect of the new media and pop culture has been to bring Western ideas about consumption into China.

In the past, financing was considered as a luxury available only to the rich. But nowadays, many ordinary people who have a certain amount of savings can get financing for shopping in China. Western-style fast food in China is a fresh wonder, again deeply reshaping Chinese culture and daily life. As of October 1987, Kentucky Fried Chicken became the most widespread fast food chain in China, when the first such restaurant was opened in Beijing.

Japanese Culture in the 21st. Century

Japanese culture is very rich in symbols and rituals and reflects the unity of simplicity, quietness, and harmony which is present in the Japanese cultural environment, architecture, art, music, and literature.

After World War II, and as a result of the powerful impact of the United States which governed this country following the end of the war in 1945, what was previously an ethnically closed Japanese culture opened widely to Western culture. This culture embraced a wide range -- food, animated movies, manga (comic books), music, and dance. In consequence, and because of a brilliant form of government – industry cooperation, Japan developed its big electronic industry (television and recording systems) and entertainment programs, including music and films.

The Civilizing Infrastructure of the Chinese and Japanese Civilizations

Chinese Infrastructure

In the last 600 years when China was isolated and stagnant, its infrastructure was undeveloped. Since becoming the World’s Factory, China has witnessed a huge rise in its income. Concomitantly, China has spectacularly developed its infrastructure, like highways, railroads, etc.

Societal progress is exemplified by living in cities rather than in villages in the rural areas. China is quickly developing cities to move more people out of the countryside and to be on par with developed countries. From 1980 to 2014 the population of urban China grew by more than 500 million people, from 100 to 611 million in 2013. Also, China is thinking about going into space and colonizing some planets first, having enough candidates to travel there. Recently, China landed the unmanned Yutu rover on the Moon with the help of the Chinese-built fastest computer in the world – the 2017 Milk 2.

Japanese Infrastructure

The Japanese infrastructure is adapted to its terrain. Japan is a mountainous land on a series of islands. It hosts an impressive network of highways and bullet-trains, built first in the world.

In 2012, Japan had twelve cities with populations of more than one million people. Almost 100 million Japanese, or 78 percent of the country’s total population of 127.4 million, live in urban areas. The axis of the highest concentration of cities in Japan ranges from Kanto to Kinki and alongside the Inland Sea to Northwest Kyushu. This belt forms the Japanese Megapolis, with six significant metropolitan areas: Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.

Life in the country is very different from life in urban Japan. For example, Volunteer mail carriers serve as firefighters, report on dents and road traffic accidents, and help out older adults by picking up their bank books and bringing them back cash. Or, the population of some municipalities has dropped by 25 percent or more, and the remaining residents would not be there without government subsidies. In addition to, communities are losing their bus amenities and public transportation since there is a lack of travelers. Schools have shut down because there is an absence of children. Stores have closed, healthcare facilities are far away, and farmers have found it is too expensive to transport their products and have thus stopped raising crops.