Ancient Japan The Absorption Of Chinese Culture And The Integration Of The Above Theory

Japan is an excellent nation which is willing to absorb foreign culture. From Yayoi period to the Edo period, the culture of ancient Japan begin to form gradually by soaking up China's cultural elements under the influence of mainland China. The relative problems about the absorption of Chinese culture by ancient Japan are discussed in this thesis.Firstly, the reason of why the ancient Japan is good at absorbing Chinese culture, which are written from four aspects like the island environment, thought model, the simplicity of Japanese nation and the experience of success and failure from aggression against Korea.What the ancient Japan has absorbed from China is told in the second part from the following three aspects, the material civilization, spiritual civilization and institutional civilization. As for the material aspect, Japan emerges from innocence to civilization along with the introduction from China, such as the rice cultivation, farming implements, iron tools, bronzes and so on, especially such introductions like the civil construction, ceramics, woodblock printing, etc. As for spiritual aspects, characters begins to appear in Japan for the first time with the introduction of Chinese characters; Japan's politics, education and moral rules are affected by Confucianism and Buddhism little by little. As for institutional civilization, influenced by the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Japan build up better status system and become a centralized feudal state with a consistent legal system.The conclusion concludes the characteristics of Japan's absorption in the third part. The absorption is characterized with the followings under the basis of Japan's geography environment and production level. From the absorption process, it shows from passive to active and from indirect to direct; from the contents of absorption, it is selective and subjective. That is, with regard to selectivity, Japan selectively draws in Chinese culture based on its own traditional culture; with regard to practical principle, the absorption that is guided by the utilitarian value of "working for us" is called the "profit take-in"; with regard to flexibility, Japan's absorption is flexible.The last part describes what China learned from Japan's successful experience. Japan's initiative and flexibility during the absorption should be stressed; the lessons that we soak up Western culture is ought to be paid attention to; our culture will be bettered, enriched and developed only through bold absorption and proper adjustment.