The Asuka period brought a lot of transformation in the Japanese society. The stage was named Asuka after their political and cultural center of the Japanese people at that time. It was the area on the southern side of the Nara basin a few kilometers from the now known city of Nara. After the naming of the period, the imperial court took over the ruling where the two dominant clans the Soga, Mononobe, and Nakatomi while tied to the royal and became submissive to the emperors. Each group was assigned their role where the Soga became the tax administrators, Mononobe were the warriors, and the Nakatomi was awarded the position of being the religious ritual.
The Chinese had a significant influence to the Japanese in this period. The Chinese culture introduced their religion where they transformed Japanese to Buddhism. Although the Japanese first learned about Buddhism from the Koreas, the Chinese are the one who primarily influenced it. The Chinese gave the Japanese Buddhism scriptures and scholars who continued to praise the message of Buddhism. A statute was installed in the temple of Asuka era which was more than two meters tall (chan, 2018). It was the first Buddha statue to arrive in Japan, which showed that the Chinese had succeeded in influencing the Japanese to accept Buddhism.
New State Creed
The Chinese missionaries came to Japan in large numbers from the Theravada and Mahayana schools. Those from Mahayana school promised salvation to the monastic and laity followers. By the time of the Nara period, Buddhism became the state creed, while the missionaries and the artisans gave their arts and techniques in the aim of producing Buddhists icons and sutras. The gilt bronze statutes were introduced in large numbers. The Buddhists ceremonies were organized predominantly to enable the court to ensure there was rain, expel demons that brought diseases, and request for the abundant harvest. The Japanese judge was in support of Buddhism because of its desire to use Buddhism in the state of power instead of using it as an instrument of salvation. The struggle to ensure that Buddhism was accepted everywhere extended up to the
Nara Period
The Nara period began with the remodeling of the Japanese capital after the Chinese capital Chang`an was underscored with the tang culture, painting, and architectures. The Nara period was between 710-784, which marked the efforts of the Japanese to emulate the Chinese culture and political models (Girardin, 2017). The Japanese contact was dropped off when the tang from China defeated the officials from Japanese. However, the Japanese court was against the defeat, saying that the Chinese are decentralized and insisted on the renewal of relationships between the Chinese and the Japanese. However, the Chinese were active, and despite the complaints from the Japanese court, they did not listen. Hence, it was concluded that tang was the winner. During the Taika reforms, the Chinese taxation system was adopted in Japan and was promulgated by the Ritsuryo system. By the end of the century, they were significant attempts to regularize the government expenditure and also gave power to the Buddhist clergy.
In conclusion, the Chinese had a significant influence on the Japanese culture and religion. By engaging in their culture, the Chinese were able to influence Japanese to start practicing Buddhism which was a significant inspiration. Also, the Japanese court was established to follow the powers of the Buddhist clergy. Despite the Japanese resistance to these changes, they were able to adapt after the missionaries from China to Japan came to educate them on Buddhism religion.
References
Chan, Robert Kong. “Introduction.” Korea-China Relations in History and Contemporary Implications. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 1-20.
Girardin, Eric, Sandrine Lunven, and Guonan Ma. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of China’s monetary policy rule since the mid-1990s, focusing on the role of inflation. It investigates the rule followed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) by considering both the structural economic transformation of China and its evolving monetary policy framework. Our newly constructed monthly composite discrete monetary policy index (MPI), which combines price, quantity and administrative instruments, shows a change in style towards smoother but more …. No. 641. Bank for International Settlements, 2017.