Picking Pearls From The Great Ocean—The Study Of Yunnan Medival History Research Done By Japanese Scholars In A Hundred Year

Since the beginning of 20th century,Yasuichiro OTA has started his research on the relationship between Nanzhao political system and the Tang dynasty.In a hundred years time,Japanese academia has passed several stages on the study of Yunnan medieval history and each stage had its own characteristics and academic contributions.However,there has no summary and research on the hundred-year process on Japanese academic study of Yunnan in neither Japan nor China.This project focuses on the study of Japanese academia of Yunnan medieval history in a hundred years with serial summarizes,analysis and research.Besides the project also comes with the writer's personal opinions,which would hopefully help to supplement the regrets and promote the academic exchanges between China and Japan.Between 1930s-1950s Shinji MAE JIM A,Shun SUZUKI and others started some fragmentary empirical studies on the history and geology of Yunnan.In 1960s,the Japanese academia were keen on the study of the origins on Yunnan ancient nations due to the affection of western "Nanzhao Kingdom was built by Thai race theory".Scholars including Nobuhiro MATSUMOTO,Tatsumi MAKINO,Yoshiro SHIRATORI,Yoshimi FUJISAWA were the representatives for the period,and their research areas included the origins of Yunan "Dian","Ailao","Bo",and "Cuan" ancient nations,the ethnic groups of Nanzhao(issues of Wuman and Baiman),the origins and formation of Bai nation,etc.Yoshimi FUJISAWA,Shuji MAKIN and others later on gradually turned their focusing from the issues of Yunnan ancient nations to the political system of Nanzhao and Dali kingdom and southwestern borderland history of Tang dynasty.In 1970s,there were researches on the history of art in Nanzhao and Dali kingdom appeared in Japanese academia due to the publication of Nanzhao and Dali kingdom art history in Taiwan.When it came to 1990s,the communication between Chinese and Japanese academics became more frequent.Japanese visiting scholars including Kenichiro HAYASHI,Kenji TATEISHI further promoted the research of Yunnan history.They absorbed the findings from Chinese academics as well as using the theories that Japanese scholars used to study the history of Southeast Asia,including the "laurel forest culture" theory,the" station state" theory and the "mandala" theory to study the history of Yunnan,which formed opinions differed from Chinese academia.Moreover,under the effect of the development of new history and postmodernism,the researches of Japanese academia on Yunnan history are becoming fragmented and pluralistic.The research methods of other social science such as ethnology and cultural anthropology were introduced into the area.Upon the accumulation of more than a hundred years and few generations of Japanese scholars,there are considerable research findings available.This manuscript tried to make a systematic and comprehensive review on the achievements of Japanese academia on their study of Yunnan medieval history from the historiography side.In Japan,the study of Yunnan history is putting into the Southeast Asia world,which is similar to the angle that Japanese built to study Chinese and surrounding history in Japanese oriental history study before the Second World War.However,this may lead to the separation of Yunnan medieval history and destroy the integrity of Chinese history.In this research,the Japanese research findings are put back into the Yunnan medieval history and try to compare the research of Yunnan history in Chinese history as a whole with it in Japanese Southeast Asia view.The main focuses on this study are a.the study of historical geography;b.the research issues on the origins of nations;c.the history research of Yunnan during Tang and Song dynasties;d.the research on the political system of Nanzhao and Dali kingdom;e.respective exposition of Yunnan medieval history(including researches on historical study and the history of religious culture).This study especially cared about the following 3 levels,first is to summaries the researches of Japanese scholars associating with their academic background;second is to comparing the Japanese studies with Chinese studies,to therefore analyzed the similarities and differences to discuss the interrelationship between Chinese and Japanese academia;and the third is to display the cognitive appearance of Yunnan medieval history based on the comparison between Chinese and Japanese academia and provide the writer's own academic judgment from different opinions and conclusions.Through the academic summary of a hundred year study of Japanese academia on Yunnan medieval history,we noticed the academic exchanges between China and Japan became closer,and through the understanding,communication and learning from each others' strong points and closing the gap,the study of Yunnan medieval history will definitely be pushed to a high new stage.The study of Yunnan history would be extended to new area with new issues to be discovered and new achievements to be gained through the academic exchange not only between China and Japan,but also in the world.