The Comparative Study Of The Transmission Of Chinese Culture In The Western Regions And Japan In Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty is the golden age of the ancient cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, during which China promulgated its own culture while widely absorbing the foreign ones and exerted a profound influence on the culture all over the world. However, the examination of the relevant academic studies reveals that there is an imbalance between the studies on eastward Chinese cultural transmission and those on westward Chinese cultural transmission. The studies about the influence of Tang Dynasty on the east are more comprehensive and profound than those about the influence of Tang Dynasty on the west. Does the imbalance in academic studies suggest the discrepancy in historical facts? If so, in which aspects does the imbalance embody itself? And what are the reasons for that? This thesis hopes to highlight the different situations in which Chinese culture spreads and exerts its influence in the Western Regions and Japan by comparing the Chinese cultural transmission in these two areas. After restoring the true historical panorama, it tries to seek out the laws and determinants of cultural transmission through analyzing the reasons for the discrepancies. The thesis mainly consists of four parts:The first part is the introduction, in which the reasons, purpose and significance of the study are illustrated, the studying method is elaborated and the relevant concepts are defined.The second part compares the influence which Chinese culture in Tang Dynasty exerts on the Western Regions and Japan. It studies the influence from five aspects: Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese characters, poetry and festive customs. It also compares the extent of the influence. The comparative analysis shows that Chinese culture in Tang Dynasty has a greater influence on Japan than on the Western Regions. The Japanese culture wins a membership in the Chinese cultural circle since then because it acquires all the basic characteristics of Han culture. Though Tang Dynasty has a more profound and universal influence on the Western Regions than the previous as well as the subsequent dynasties, it only attains a superficial influence. The culture in these areas is still a part of the Western civilization in a deeper sense.The third part analyzes the reasons for the imbalance of the cultural transmissions. It mainly discusses the different influence of Chinese culture on the Western Regions and Japan from the following perspectives: cultural geography, traditional cultural types, the cultural transmission methods and channels, opening and closure, and the orientation of the culturalism.Through the above analysis, the fourth part concludes that Tang Dynasty is a crucial period of the transmission of Chinese culture. It affects and even determines the cultural situations in Asia as well as the world, of which the Western Regions and Japan are the best proof. At last, some suggestions are put forward as to how the Chinese culture can better walk up to the world nowadays.