The Emergence of East Asia: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam

• Korea • Vietnam • Japan • Japanese Origins and the Yayoi Revolution • Nara and Heian Japan • Japan's Early Feudal Age

IETNAM, KOREA, AND JAPAN Yet each of these three countries (along vvith Bor. WERE AN UNLIKELY TRIO. Vietnam to the north of Korea, a country which later disc.­ had jungles and elephants and was hot. peared) took in the civilization of Tang dynasty Ch:­ Korea was a northern land with a post­ and made it their own. To say this, of course, med­ tribal society and an Altaic language that they used it in response to their particular n e e~ related to Manchurian, Mongolian, and and took in \-vhat they were able to assimilate. Turkic. Japan was an island country, out Are we to emphasize their similarities or differenc in the sea to the east of the Asian main- Certainly the way they went about the task was clifferer land. In terms of spatial perception, In Vietnam it was done through Chinese rule, which d­ travel from Japan to America or Europe today is safe Vietnamese were unable to forestall. In Korea, the rul and takes half a day; in the seventh century, travel to gained power \vith the help of Tang armies, \",hieh th e:' China was risky and took weeks. then ousted from the peninsula. Ousting the Chine __ . ~. , -

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Heartland civilizations were few in for them to write using Chinese ideographs as it would be f - number. Most of the world be­ us to write English using Egyptian hieroglyphics. came civilized as the culture and In the seventh century, when "East Asia" began, t he se technologies of the heartlands countries were not blank slates on which Chinese culture Korea1 \ spread into adjacent areas. In East could be simply inscribed. Each already had in place preco Asia the heartland civilization of ditions for the acceptance of a more advanced civilization: Vietnam Japan China spread to Korea, Japan, and bronze and iron technologies, the practice of agriculture. Vietnam (and much later to Tai­ settled village communities, and archaic states. The appea wan), just as Mediterranean culture spread through a barbar­ of Chinese civilization was irresistible, but specific needs ian Europe . and interests conditioned its adoption. In Japan, for exa m­ When we speak of East Asia, we refer more to culture ple, the archaic Yamato court strengthened its control over than to geography. We stress what Japan, Korea, and Viet­ outlying regions by using Chinese political institutions and nam had in common. They mastered Buddhist and Confucian tax systems. teachings and with them Chinese conceptions of the uni­ Japan, Korea, and Vietnam may be compared, almost verse, state, and human relationships. They took in Chinese as a controlled laboratory experiment, w ith a second ha lf­ arts and technologies: painting, music, ceramics, criminal circle of countries or regions made up of Manchuria, Mon­ and civil law, medicine, and architecture. They learned to golia, Central Asia, and Tibet. In the second half-circle, th e write using Chinese ideographs. Since their languages be­ climate was harsher, agriculture was more rudimentary, an d longed to non-Chinese language families, it was as difficult the lifestyle was mostly nomadic and pastoral. Despite their

troops, paradoxically, set the stage for their borrowing of Korea to be vulnerable to invasions by its powerful neighbor its culture. Japan, much more distant and protected by an but far enough away so that most of the time China found it ocean moat, had the luxury of taking what it wanted, but easier to treat Korea as a tributary than to control it directly. it tumed out that it wanted almost evetything. Or so it The other factor was that the southern rim of Korea was just seemed at the time. In the last analysis, the common core one hundred miles from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu across the Tsushima Straits (see Map 9-1). of what the three countries took may be more important During its old and new stone ages, Korea was peopled by than the way they went about it. tribes migrating south from northeast Asia-from Siberia, Mon­ golia, and Inner Asia. They probably spoke an Altaic tongue­ Korea distantly related to Japanese and to Manchurian, Mongolian, and Turkic. They settled in Korea, though small numbers con­ Geography has shaped Korean history. A range of mountains tinued on to Japan after 300 B.C.E. They subsisted by hunting, along its northern rim divides the Korean peninsula from gathering, and fishing, and, like other early peoples of northeast Manchuria, making it a distinct geographical unit. Mountains Asia, made comb-patterned pottery and lived in pit dwellings. continue south through the eastern third of Korea, while in the The Korean Bronze Age began in 1300, agriculture in west and south are coastal plains and broad river valleys. The 1000, and the Iron Age in 400- 300 B.C.E. Most of the popu­ combination of mountains, rice paddies, and sea make Korea lation lived in small villages along the coasts or rivers and only a beautiful land. The traditional name for Korea may be trans­ gradually spread inland. Agriculture made possible perma­ lated as the "land of the morning calm." Two further geograph­ nent settlements. Their religion was animism, the worship of ical factors vitally affected Korean history. One was that the the sun, moon, sea, and other forces of nature, and they com­ northwestern corner of Korea was only 300 miles from the municated with the spirits of the dead through shamans. Im­ northeastern corner of historical China: close enough for pOltant leaders were buried in megalithic tomb mounds.

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~ r ox imity to China and their frequent contacts with it, these Japan, Korea, and Vietnam have complex feelings toward :ountries were unable or unwilling to take in its more ad- China . •3n ced civilization. In effect, on the steppe to the north and Of the three societies treated in this chapter, Korea and " est, the Chinese seed fell upon stony places or was Vietnam were closer to China for longer periods of time, and scorched and withered away. But in the agricultural lands of had, as a reSUlt, a stronger Chinese imprint. Japan, which orea, Japan, and Vietnam it fell onto good ground and was larger, more populous, and more distant, emerged as ::rou ght forth fruit. the most distinctive variant within East Asia . To understand The comparison can be extended. It seems paradoxical these countries, however, we must turn from generalizations : l at Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, which took in Chinese civi­ to their historical particulars. zati on and made it their own, became independent nations recent times, whereas Tibet, central Asia, part of Mongo­ 'a, and Manchuria, which refused Chinese civilization, were l~o~ws- .(J1{[e:~ti0mS~ onquered and absorbed by China . (The case of Manchuria • Why did Korea, Vietnam, and Japan follow a distinctive s complicated.) The explanation is partly a question of de­ trajectory in their relationship with China compared to .el opment: the regions to the west and north were less other regions of east and central Asia? :::ole to resist Chinese imperialism. It was partly a matter of :::olitical and cultural identity. Just as in modern times west­ • How do the histories of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan illus­ s'nizing nations feel an ambivalence or even antipathy to­ trate the relationship between a "heartland civilization" .• ard the" modern heartland civilization" of the West, so did and adjacent areas?

Chinese Commanderies 108 B.C .E.-313 C.E., kings is reflected in the size and number of their royal tomb and Korean States 313-668 C.E. mounds. Chinese culture entered only as a small trickle from the northwest or by sea. Buddhism entered, too, but =,-oreans were still ruled by tribal chiefdoms, or tribal con­ the indigenous animism predominated at the village level. :ederations, in 108 B.C.E . when the Han emperor \A/udi sent dn army into north Korea to menace the flank of the Silla 668-918 Of the three Korean states, Silla, the west­ Siongnu empire that spread across the steppe to the north ernmost, grew stronger, and with the help of Tang (Chinese) af C hina. Wudi established four commanderies, with troops armies, defeated the other two in 660 and 668 and unified 2-n d forts to rule over the local village society. The most im­ Korea. The Chinese intended to stay and rule, but Silla ?ortant, Lolang, was located near Pyongyang, the present­ forces soon drove them from Korea. After an interval, rela­ 'ay capital of North Korea. Playing off one tribal leader tions were reestablished: China recognized Silla as an au­ against another, the Chinese maintained a partial hegemony tonomous tribute state, and Silla, for its part, sent annual o\ er the peninsula for four centuries until 313 C.E., almost missions to the Chinese court carrying tribute or gifts. 2- century after the fall of the Han dynasty. Thereafter, Korea's northern flank was protected from As the commanderies disappeared, three archaic states steppe nomads by Chinese armies. emerged from earlier tribal confederations: Silla in the east, The period of Silla rule may be likened to eighth­ Pa ekche in the west, and Koguryo stretching into century Nara Japan. On the one hand, borrowing from \ Ianchuria in the north. Their history is complex for they China began in earnest. The capital at Kyongju was laid out, ~a d varying relations with China and Japan, and often like Chang'an, on a checkerboard pattern. Korea adopted :ought among themselves. Despite ups and downs, their Chinese writing, established some government offices on ::Jopulations increased and their aristocratic governments in­ the Chinese model, set up a Confucian national academy to ~ r e a sed their sway over local villages. The power of their train officials, sent annual embassies to the Tang court, and

277 278 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of World Civilizations, 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E.

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Map 9-1. Early Korean States. sent thousands of students to study in the Tang capital. It also Korea was compiled in 1145; new genres of poetry and liter­ embraced a range of Chinese arts, philosophies, and technolo­ ature appeared; printing using moveable metallic type was gies. Buddhism was patronized by the Silla king and nobility invented during the thirteenth century. The Koryo was also and began to spread into the countryside. On the other hand, Korea's Buddhist age: temples, monasteries, and nunneries within the Silla government, aristocratic birth mattered more were built throughout the land, and sculpture and art flour­ than scholarship, and most official posts were held by the well­ ished. During the thirteenth century, Buddhist scholars pro­ born even after the establishment of an examination system in duced in classical Chinese a printed edition of the Tripitaka, 788. In village Korea, the worship of nature deities continued, a huge compendium of sutras and other sacred writings. despite the formal introduction of Buddhism. Confucianism was also supported by the court and taught Silla underwent a normal end-of-dynasty decline. The both in state schools and private academies. waning of the Tang dynasty in China left Korea open to at­ In comparison to Silla, Koryo was more "Chinese" in tacks from the northwest. There were coups at the court and most respects. Government offices resembled those of rebellions in outlying regions. Rebel kingdoms fought China and Chinese-type laws were established. But even among themselves until, in 918, a warlord general founded then, governing remained a monopoly of the aristocracy, a new dynasty, the Koryo. The English word "Korea" is de­ and administrative centralization was incomplete: of the rived from this dynastic name. three hundred district magistrates, only one-third were of­ ficials sent out from the capital; the rest were appointed Koryo 918-1392 The West knows the Koryo era for its from among local nobles or dignitaries. Apart from aristo­ celadon vases, which rivaled those of China, but it was cre­ crats, Koryo society was made up of commoners (the "good ative in other ways as well. The earliest surviving history of people") and slaves. Commoners were burdened by heavy Chapter 9 The Emergence of Ea st Asia: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam 279

Pulguksa temple. built in 751 (and recentl y restored) near the ancient Silla capital of Kyongju. At right is a stupa containing a sutra, or relic of the Buddha.

[axes of rice, labor, and military service. Hereditary slaves Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281, which were \" ere almost one-third of the entire population-more than launched from Korean ports, further weakened the court. nywhere else in East Asia. Despite its cultural brilliance, the weaknesses of Koryo \" ere many. For one thing, the Koryo economy was undevel­ Vietnam oped: Trade was by barter, and money did not circulate. Chi­ Vietnam in Southeast Asia nese missions commented on the extravagance of officials in he capital and the squalor of commoners and slaves in Four movements shaped the historical civilizations of 'orea's villages. For another, aristocrats amassed estates and Southeast Asia. Vietnam was touched by each and by a built private armies. By the late twelfth century, military of­ fifth, as well. The first was the movement of peoples and fi cials had replaced civil officials at the court, and power languages from north to south. Ranges of mountains rising pas sed into the hands of the capital guards-who have been in Tibet and South China extend southward, dividing ompared to the Praetorian Guards of the late Roman Em­ Southeast Asia into river valleys. The Mon and Burmese pire. Still another problem is that frequent incursions from peoples had moved from the southeast slopes of the Ti­ across Korea's northern border weakened the state. The betan plateau into the Upper Irrawaddy by 500 B.C.E. and Ko ryo court survived as long as it did by becoming in suc­ continued south along the Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers, cession the tributary of the Song, Liao, Chin, and Mongol founding the kingdom of Pagan in 847 C. E. Thai tribes dy nasties of China. The cost of wars with the Mongols moved south from China down the valley of the Chao was particularly high; the demands placed on Korea by the Phraya River somewhat later, founding the kingdoms of 280 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of World Civilizations, 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E .

Sukhothai (1238-1419) and Ayutthaya (1350-1767). Even most of Southeast Asia the urban economies were lar;;:::: today Thai-speaking peoples are still to be found in several developed and controlled by Chinese. This created re e~: southern China provinces. The origins of the Vietnamese ments and, occasionally, anti-Chinese riots. To appease ~:: are less clear, but they, too, first inhabited the north and powers that be, Chinese companies routinely appoin:::-: moved into present-day central and southern Vietnam only non-Chinese politicians or generals to their boards of dire.:: in recent historical times. tors. Assimilation occurred, but at a generational pace. T-_= A second movement was the Indianization of Southeast greatest concentrations of Chinese, apart from Singapo:-:: Asia. Between the first and fifteenth centuries Indian (three quarters of the population), were in Malaysia, :-:­ traders and missionaries crossed the Bay of Bengal and es­ donesia, and Thailand. But many of the "boat people" \\'':: tablished outposts throughout Southeast Asia. As Hinduism fled Vietnam after the Vietnam War were Chinese \ 'ie:- and Buddhism spread through the region, Indian-type states namese. with god-kings were established, and Indian scripts, legal A fifth movement or event, which affected only Vie:­ codes, literature, drama, art, and music were adopted by the nam and made it a part of East Asia, was conquest by Chi c indigenous peoples. Today, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia retain an Indian-type Buddhism; on the walls of Bangkok Vietnamese Origins temples are painted scenes from the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. This early wave of Buddhism reached Viet­ The story of a second perspective on Vietnam might begi . nam, but was later supplanted by Chinese Buddhism. Viet­ with its present-day geography. Vietnam has been likened [ G nam, too, first received Buddhism as part of this early Indian two baskets on a carrying pole. One basket is the Red Rive: wave, though it was later supplanted by the Chinese form of basin, centering on Hanoi in the north, the other the deltc. that religion. of the Mekong River centering on Saigon (today Ho C h ~ A third movement of considerable dynamism was of Minh City) in the south. The carrying pole is the narrow Arab and Indian traders who sailed across the Indian mountainous strip of central Vietnam, with little river val· Ocean to dominate trade with the Spice Islands (the leys opening to the South China Sea (see Map 9-2). Moluccas of present-day Indonesia) between the thir­ teenth and fifteenth centuries. Settling on the coasts and islands of Southeast Asia, they married into local ruling families and spread the teachings of Islam. Local rulers who converted became sultans. Today Malaysia and In­ donesia are predominantly Muslim. The majestic Buddhist temple at Borobudur in central Java is a monument of an earlier age, submerged today in a sea of Islamic practice. Only the Hindu island of Bali to the east of Java retains the CHINA Indian religion that once covered the entire Indonesian ar­ chipelago. The Cham state (located in what today is cen­ .Hanoi~ tral Vietnam) also became Muslim. Islam did not directly ,/ ( (,,,II of affect Vietnam, though Arab and Indian traders en route to TOllk"'4 China would visit Vietnamese coastal harbors or travel up the Red River to Hanoi. ~~ \\l;! A fourth movement, much later, was the Chinese ~ = Q .Hue diaspora. The emigration of Chinese throughout the world SIAM (THAILAND) \ 9~ ~. , but especially to Southeast Asia began as a trickle and gath­ \ ered momentum after 1842, after the post-Opium War treaties. Most Chinese went, initially, as indentured labor to work on plantations. But in time many moved to cities and opened shops. The mercantile ethos of the C hinese was f more advanced than that of peoples to the south. Even o 100 200 300 MILES today the casual visitor to Bangkok sees shopkeepers sitting o-- 100 200 300 KILOMETERS\ I in front of their shops reading Chinese newspapers. Their children became educated; some entered banking or law. In Map 9-2. Vietnam and neighboring Southeast Asia. Chapter 9 The Emergence of East Asia: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam 281

anguages of East Asia --e two main language families in present-day East Asia are Standard Chinese, based on the Beijing dialect, is further :-8 Sinitic and the Ural-Altaic. They are as different from each from Cantonese than Spanish is from French. Ural-Altaic lan­ : :') er as they are from European tongues. The Sinitic lan­ guages are spoken to the east, north, and west of China. They ;:Jages are Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, and Tibetan. include Japanese, Korean, Manchurian, Mongolian, the Turkic • •' thin Chinese are several mutually unintelligible dialects. languages, and, in Europe, Finnish and Hungarian .

Until the late fifteenth century, the Vietnamese people found in excavations, but plows were still tipped with stone. _mabited only the north, that is to say, the basin of the Red The people lived in villages under tribal leaders and wor­ ::""'er, which flows from west to east and empties into the shiped the spirits of nature; men tattooed their bodies. r;ulf of Tongking. The Chams, a wholly different people, ::oser to Indonesians than to Vietnamese, occupied central - -:etnam and part of the southeastern coast. A sea-faring A Millennium of Chinese Rule: :=-eople who engaged in trade and piracy, the Chams became 111 B.C.E.- 939 C.E. ':-:indu-Buddhist and later Muslim. They were united in the ..ingdom of Champa and waged intermittent wars against The political history of the Vietnamese began in 208 B.C.E . :.~e Vietnamese to their north. A third people, the Khmers or when a renegade Han dynasty general formed the state of Cambodians, inhabited the Mekong River delta, the area Nan Yueh. Its capital was near the present-day Chinese city :.-'at is today south Vietnam. They were a part of the Hindu- of Guangzhou (Canton). It ruled over peoples in both 3uddhist Cambodian (Khmer) empire that had its capital at southeastern China and the Red River basin. The Chinese _'illgkor in present-day Cambodia. ideograph for Yueh is read Viet in Vietnamese. The name The early history of the Vietnamese in the Red River val­ Vietnam, literally, "Viet to the south," is derived from the :ey is known only through archaeology. Agriculture began name of this early state. Nan Yueh lasted for about a cen­ -=arly; slash and burn techniques were practiced in the high­ tury until 111 B.C.E., when the armies of Han Wudi con­ ~ d s and crude paddy fields in the lowlands. Bronze entered, quered it and brought it under Chinese controL After that, :;lfobably from China, during the first millennium B.C.E., and the Red River basin was ruled by China for more than one ::ron during the first or second century B.C.E. Pots made on thousand years. ?O tting wheels and bronze arrowheads and fishhooks are For the first seven centuries, Vietnam was governed by a Chinese military commandery-like those established in Korea and other border regions to rule over non-Chinese "barbarian" populations. The administrative center was ini­ tially a fort with a Chinese governor and Chinese troops. The governor ruled indirectly through local Vietnamese chiefs or magnates. Refugees fleeing China after the fall of the Former Han dynasty were appointed as officials in Vietnam. In a famous incident of 39 C.E. , the Trung sisters led a revolt against Chinese rule- the husband of one had been executed by the Chinese. The sisters later were made into national heroes. As a fifteenth-century Vietnamese poet put it: Bronze drum engraved with intricate geometric designs from circa 800 B.C.E. ietnam. An artifact of the early Bronze age, it was made for ceremonial pur­ All the male heroes bowed their heads in submission; Joses. Whether early Vietnamese bronze technology was indigenous or Only the two sisters proudly stood up to avenge the ,'/h ether it came from China is an open question. country. 282 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of World Civilizations, 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E.

But in that age there was little sense of "country," and A Small Independent Country the only consequence of the revolt was a further strengthen­ ing of Chinese controls. The history of independent Vietnam is conventionally bro ­ Vietnamese society changed during the centuries of ken into dynastic blocs named after the ruling family. The Chinese rule. Early Vietnam had a matrilineal tribal society, first two dynasties were the Ly 0009-1225) and the Tran practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, and often moved their 0225-1400). Vietnamese dynasties, however, were not settlements when their lands became exhausted. New agri­ the strong, centralized, bureaucratic states found in China. cultural techniques and metal plows, introduced from From the beginnings of the dynasties, there were tensions China, made possible permanent settlements and denser between the center and periphery. At the center were the populations. Tribal organization gave way to village society, social elites who ruled the population of the Red River and matrilineal to patrilineal descent-though women con­ delta. At the periphery were magnates-powerful local fi g­ tinued to enjoy a higher status than in China. Buddhism en­ ures who controlled upland peoples. Of these peripheral tered, replacing or mingling with earlier animistic beliefs. areas, the province of Thanh Hoa, one hundred miles Chinese officials sometimes married Vietnamese women , south of the Hanoi capital, was of particular importance and a Sino-Vietnamese social elite arose in the capital. The with magnates who were usually autonomous and often influence of Chinese higher culture was initially confined to opposed the dynasty. Both center and periphery main­ this elite. tained military forces and sometimes engaged in wars. During the Tang dynasty (6 18-907), Vietnam was still Often, several independent states coexisted during the treated as a border region, but Chinese administration be­ timespan of a single "dynasty." came stronger. Elements of Chinese law and, possibly, the Chinese invasions also affected Vietnamese history. Chinese land and tax system were introduced at this time. Most Chinese dynasties, as they expanded, attempted to Also, the Red River basin was divided into provinces, which reconquer the "south" that had once been ruled by the Chinese referred to collectively as Annam , the "pacified China. Such invasions were successfully repelled, south." When the French came to Vietnam in the nine­ though Ming armies occupied Vietnam for twenty years teenth century, they picked up the term and called the north beginning in 1407. But rather than defying China alto­ Vietnamese Annamese. gether, Vietnamese rulers found it easier to accommo­ Since it was during the Tang that Japan and Korea date: Every Vietnamese dynasty became a "tributary" of also took in Chinese learning, one can ask whether Viet­ China and sent missions that professed the Vietnamese nam was a parallel case. In some regards it was. In all ruler's submission to the Chinese emperor. In official three societies Buddhism entered, flourished in the capi­ communications with the Chinese "emperor," the Viet­ tals, and gradually percolated into local areas, where it namese rulers styled themselves as "kings," indicating absorbed elements from earlier indigenous religions. In all their subordinate status. three, other aspects of China's higher culture affected Such submission, however, was purely formal. Within mainly the elites of the society, while an older way of life Vietnam, Vietnamese rulers styled themselves as "emper­ continued in villages with only small changes. But where ors" and claimed that their mandate to rule came directly Japanese and Korean rulers reached out for Chinese from Heaven, separate but equal to the mandate received learning and technology and used it for their own ends by the Chinese emperor. They also denied the universal­ the Vietnamese had it thrust upon them. In the ninth ity of the Chinese imperium by referring to China not as century the Japanese devised a phonetic syllabary for the the Middle Kingdom but as the Northern Court-their transcription of their language, and by the year 1000 were own government being the Southern Court. In 1076, a writing works such as The Tale of Genji-reflecting a new Vietnamese general fighting Chinese troops wrote the fol­ culture in which native and Chinese elements were lowing poem: fused. In Vietnam, where both the rulers and the written language were Chinese, no such transformation The Southern emperor rules the Southern land occurred. Our destiny is writ in Heaven's Book Ten major revolts occurred during the thousand years of How dare you bandits trespass on our soil Chinese rule-not an unusual number for a Chinese border You shall meet your undOing at our hands. region with a non-Chinese population. The last revolt, which took place in 939, when China was weak, led to the We must note that the poem was in Chinese, Vietnam's establishment of an independent Vietnamese government. only written language, and couched in the terminology of Vietnam never again became a part of China. Chinese political thought. Chapter 9 The Emergence of East Asia: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam 283

After 8,000 years of Jomon culture, a second phase of Japan Japanese prehistory began about 300 B.C .E. It is called the Yayoi culture, after the area in Tokyo where its distinctive Japanese history has three main turning points, each marked hard, pale orange pottery was first unearthed. There is no by a major influx of an outside culture and each followed by greater break in the entire Japanese record than between the a massive restructuring of Japanese institutions. The first Jomon and the Yayoi. For at the beginning of the third cen­ turning point was in the third century B.C.E., when an Old tury B.C.E. the agricultural revolution, the bronze revolution, tone Age Japan became an agricultural, metalworking soci­ and the iron revolution-which in the Near East, India, and ety, similar to those on the Korean peninsula or in northeast­ China had been separated by thousands of years, and each ern Asia. This era lasted until 600 C.E. The second turning of which singly had wrought profound transformations­ point came during the seventh and eighth centuries, when burst into Japan simultaneously. \\,hole complexes of Chinese culture entered Japan directly. The new technologies were brought to Japan by peoples A.bsorbing these, archaic Japan made the leap to a higher moving across the Tsushima Straits from the Korean penin­ historical civilization associated with the writing system, sula. It is uncertain whether these immigrants came as a technologies, and philosophies of China, and with Chinese trickle and were absorbed-the predominant view in forms of Buddhism. Japan would remain a vital part of this Japan-or whether they came in sufficient numbers to push ivilization until the third turning point, in the nineteenth back the indigenous Jomon people. Physical anthropologists century, when it encountered the West. say that skulls from early Yayoi sites differ from those of the lomon. The early Yayoi migrants, using the same seacraft by Japanese Origins and the Yayoi which they had crossed from Korea, spread along the coasts Revolution of northern Kyushu and western Honshu. Yayoi culture rap­ idly replaced that of the Jomon as far east in Japan as the Japanese hotly debate their origins. New archaeological finds present-day city of Nagoya. After that, the Yayoi culture dif- are front-page news. Bookstores have rows of books, often fused overland into eastern Japan more slowly and popular works, asking, Who are we and where did we with greater difficulty. Conditions were less favor­ come from? During the ice ages, Japan was con­ able for agriculture, and a mixed agricultural­ nected by land bridges to Asia. Woolly mammoths hunting economy lasted longer. entered the northern island of Hokkaido, and The early Yayoi "frontier settlements" elephants, saber-toothed tigers, giant elk, and were located next to their fields. Their agri­ other continental fauna entered the lower is­ culture was primitive. By the first century lands. Did humans enter as well? Because C.E., the Yayoi population had so expanded Japan's acidic volcanic soil eats up bones, that wars were fought for the best land. there are no early skeletal remains. Excavations have found extensive The earliest evidence of human stone-axe industries and skulls habitation is that of finely pierced by bronze and iron ar­ shaped stone tools dating rowheads. An early Chinese from about 30,000 B.C.E. chronicle describes Japan Then, from about 10,000 as made up of "more than B.C.E., there exists pottery, the one hundred countries" with oldest in the world, and from wars and conflicts raging on all about 8000 B.C.E., Jomon or sides. During these wars, Villages "cord-pattern" pottery. Archaeologists are baf­ Jiimon figurine. Along with the cord-pat­ fled by the appearance of pot­ terned pots, the hunting and gathering tery in an Old Stone Age hunt- JiSmon people produced mysterious fig­ ing. gathering, and fishing urines. Is this a female deity? Why are the eyes slitted like snow goggles? Earthenware society, when in all other early so­ with traces of pigment (Kamegoaka type); cieties it developed along with agri­ 24.8 cm high. culture as an aspect of New Stone Asia Society, N. Y. Mr and Mrs. John D. Age culture. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. 284 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of World Civilizations, 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E. were relocated to defensible positions on low hills away from the fi elds. From these wars emerged a more peaceful order of regional tribal confederations and a ruling class of aristocratic warriors. Late Yayoi excava tions once again re­ veal villages alongside fields and far fewer stone axes. During the third century C.E. a temporary hegemony was achieved over a number of such regional tribal confed­ erations by a queen named Pimiko. In the Chinese chroni­ cle Pimiko is described as a shaman who "occupied herself with magic and sorcery, bewitching the people." She was mature but unmarried. "After she became the ruler, there were few who saw her. She had one thousand women as at­ tendants but only one man. He served her food and drink and acted as a medium of communication. She resided in a palace surrounded by towers and stockades with armed guards in a state of constant vigilance."] After Pimiko, references to Japan disappeared from the Chinese dynastic histories for a century and a half.

Tomb Culture, the Yamato State, and Korea

Emerging directly from Yayoi culture was an era, (3 00- 600 C.E.), characterized by giant tomb mounds. Even today these dot the Japanese Tomb Painting. In 1972, Japanese archaeolog ists found this landscape of the Yamato plain near present-day Osaka. The painting on the interior wall of a megalithic burial chamber at Takamatsuzuka early tombs- patterned on those in Korea-were circular in Nara Prefecture. Th e most sophisticated tomb painting found in Japan, it mounds of earth built atop megalithic burial chambers. Later dates to the 300-680 era and resemb les pai ntings found in Korean and Chi­ nese tombs. Art Resource/Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitl. tombs were sometimes keyhole shaped. The tombs were sur­ rounded by moats and adorned with clay cylinders and statues of warriors, scribes, musicians, houses, boats, and the like. Early tombs, like the Yayoi graves that preceded them, contained mir­ rors, jewels, and other ceremonial objects. From the fifth cen­ tural region of ancient Japan. The Yamato rulers also held tury C.E. these objects were replaced by armor, swords, spears, lands and granaries throughout Japan. The tomb of the great and military trappings, reflecting a new wave of continental in­ king Nintoku is 486 meters long and 36 meters high, with fluences. The flow of people and culture from the Korean twice the volume of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. By the fifth peninsula into Japan that began with Yayoi was continuous century C.E. the great kings possessed sufficient authority to into historical times. commandeer laborers for such a project. Japan reappeared in the Chinese chronicles in the fifth century C.E. This period was also covered in the earliest Japanese accounts of their own history, the Records of Ancient Matters [Kojib} Chronology and the Records of Japan [Nihongi}, compiled in 7 12 and 720. These Early Japanese History records dovetail with the evidence of the tombs. The picture that emerges is of regional aristocracies under the loose 8000-300 B.C.E. J6 mon culture hegemony of the Yamato "great kings." Historians use the ge­ ographic label "Yamato" because the courts of the great Early Continental Influences kings were located on the Yamato plain, the richest agricul- 300 B.C,E.- 300 C.E. Yayoi culture

30~80c . E. Tomb cultu re and the Yamato state

I L. C. Goodrich, ed. , and R. Tsunoda, trans. , Japan in the Chinese Dynas­ 680-850 C.E, Chi nese Tang pattern in Nara and tic Histories (South Pasadena, CA: Perkins Asi atic Monographs, 1951 ), p. Ea rly Heian Ja pan 13. Chapter 9 Th e Emergence of East Asia: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam 285

The great kings awarded Korean-type titles to court and What little is known ofYamato politics suggests that the regional aristocrats, titles that implied a national hierarchy court was the scene of incessant struggles for power be­ entering on the Yamato court. That regional rulers had the tween aristocratic families. There were also continuing ef­ same kind of political authority over their populations can forts by the court to control outlying regions. Although mar­ be seen in the spread of tomb mounds throughout Japan. riage alliances were established and titles awarded, The basic social unit of Yamato aristocratic society was rebellions were not infrequent during the fifth and sixth [he extended family (uji ), closer in size to a Scottish clan centuries. Finally, there were constant wars with "barbarian than to a modern household. Attached to these aristocratic tribes" in southern Kyushu and eastern Honshu on the fron­ families were groups of specialist workers called be. This tiers of "civilized" Japan. word was of Korean origin and was originally used to deSig­ During the era of the Yamato court, a three-cornered nate potters, scribes, or others with special skills who had military balance had emerged on the Korean peninsula be­ emigrated from Korea. It was then extended to include sim­ tween the states of Paekche in the southwest, Silla in the ilar groups of indigenous workers and groups of peasants. east, and Koguryo in the north (see Map 9-3). Japan was an Yamato society had a small class of slaves, possibly captured ally of Paekche and maintained extensive trade and military in wars. Many peasants were neither slaves nor members of relations with the weak southern federation known as the aristocratic clans or specialized workers' groups. Kaya States.

( J ,. / ) HOKKAIDO ,..r . Jj [MANCHURIA) " ;;fr:~'f t/(7 ~ ,.' ) i. ~:"

/ KOCURY; , ." 'J""~ Sea oj J ] a pall I G ~ I

HONSHU '-..0 (~ ./\_,,--../ ~ I.) , G') ~ i ~r',,-,~, Heian (Kyoto). N ) .~. ',---- \ ~ 'AEKCHE\ SILUI I , a ~a r' • ,0,JrSE SHRINE % '; (~r<£YA STATES '-{; f ) / r Yamato <;> t., '--.Ji Plain SHIKOKU! oV ;5 \_r-"- ~,J " " ) KYUSHU ~ ~ / " u " PAC IFIC O( fAN

f<751 rhillll 100 200 300 MILES SC<7 o 100 200 300 KILOMETERS

Map 9-3. Yamato Japan and Korea ~ca. 500 C.E.) Pae kche was Japan 's ally on the Korean peninsula. Sill a, Japan's enemy, was the state that would eventually unify Korea . (Note: Nara was founded in 710; Heian in 794.) 286 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of World Civilizations, 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E.

The Paekche connection enabled the Yamato court to A second aspect of early Shinto was its connection \\i-'­ expand its power within Japan. Imports of iron weapons and the state and the ruling post-tribal aristocracy. Each clan, 0::­ tools gave it military strength. The migration to Japan of Ko­ extended family, had its own myth centering on a naturE rean potters, weavers, scribes, metalworkers, and other arti­ deity (kami) that it claimed as its original ancestor. The cl a.:­ sans increased its wealth and influence. The great cultural genealogy in which the line of descent was traced was ~ Significance of the immigrants from Korea can be gauged by patent of nobility and a title to political authority. The hea - the fact that many became established as noble families. of a clan, who was also its chief priest, made sacrifices tc Paekche also served as a conduit for the first elements of its deity. When Japan was unified by the Yamato court, the Chinese culture to enter Japan. Chinese writing was myths of several clans were joined into a composite na­ adopted for the transcription of Japanese names during the tional myth. The deity of the Yamato great kings was the fifth or sixth century. Confucianism entered in 513, when sun goddess, so she became the chief deity, while other Paekche sent a "scholar of the Five Classics." Buddhism ar­ gods assumed lesser positions appropriate to the status or rived in 538 when a Paekche king sent a Buddha image, su­ their clan. Had another clan won the struggle, its deity tras, and possibly a priest. would have become paramount-perhaps a thunder god a Eventually the political balance on the peninsula in ancient Greece. shifted. In 532 Paekche turned against Japan and joined The Records of Ancient Matters and Records of Japan tell Silla in attacking and then gobbling up the Kaya States. In of the creation of Japan, of the deeds and misdeeds of god 660 Silla, always hostile to Japan, defeated Paekche and on the "plain of high heaven," and of ShintO unified the peninsula. But the rupture of ties with Korea creation their occasional adventures on earth or myth was less of a loss than it would have been earlier, for by this in the underworld. In mid-volume, the time Japan had established direct relations with China. stories of the gods, interspersed with the genealogies of noble families, give way to stories of early emperors and early Japanese history. The Japanese emper­ Religion in Early Japan ors, today the oldest royal family in the world, were viewed The indigenous religion of the Yamato Japanese was an an­ as the lineal descendants of the sun goddess and as "living imistic worship of the forces of nature, later given the name gods." The Great Shrine of the sun goddess at Ise has always of Shinto, or "the way of the gods," to distinguish it from been the most important in Japan. Buddhism. Shinto probably entered Japan from the conti­ nent as part of Yayoi culture. The underlying forces of na­ ture might be embodied in a waterfall, a twisted tree, a strangely shaped boulder, a mountain, or in a great leader who would be worshiped as a deity after his death. Mount Fuji was holy not as the abode of a god but because the mountain itself was an upwelling of a vital natural force. Even today in Japan, a gnarled tree trunk may be girdled with a straw rope and set aside as an object of veneration. The more potent forces of nature such as the sea, the sun, the moon, the wind, and thunder and lightning became personified as deities. The sensitivity to nature and natural beauty that pervades Japanese art and poetry owes much to Shinto. (See Document, "Darkness and the Cave of High Heaven.") Throughout Japan's premodern history most villages had shamans, religious specialists who, by entering a trance, could directly contact the inner forces of nature and gain the power to foretell the future or heal sickness. The queen Pimiko was such a shaman. The sorceress is also a stock fig­ The Itsukashima Shrine, On the little island of Miyajima not far from Hi­ ure in tales of ancient or medieval Japan. More often than roshima is the lovely Itsukashima shrine dedicated to the daughters of the not, women, receiving the command of a god, have founded ShintO god of the moon and oceans. Its outer gate (toril) is constructed of the "new" religions in this tradition, even into the nine­ camphor logs to resist the salt water. Originally bui lt in the late 6th century, it was rebuilt in the 16th. teenth and twentieth centuries. Chapter 9 Th e Emergence of East Asia: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam 287

The younger brother of the sun goddess was a mischief-maker. Eventually the gods drove him out of heaven. On one occasion, he knocked a hole in the roof of a weaving hall and dropped in a dappled pony that he had skinned alive. One weaving maiden was so startled that she struck her genitals with the shuttle she was using and died .

• What does this myth suggest regarding the social relations of the Shinto gods? Entering a cave and then reemerging signifies death and rebirth in the religions of many peoples. Com­ pare this passage to "Mark Describes the Resurrection of Jesus" in Chapter 6.

The Sun Goddess, terrified at the sight, opened the door placed a wooden box face down before the rock cave, of the heavenly rock cave, and hid herself inside. Then the stamped on it until it resounded, and, as if possessed, she Plain of High Heaven was shrouded in darkness, as was exposed her breasts and pushed her skirt-band down to the Central Land of the Reed Plains [Japan]. An endless her genitals. The Plain of High Heaven shook as the myr­ night prevailed. The cries of the myriad gods were like the iad gods broke into laughter. buzzing of summer flies, and myriad calamities arose . The Sun Goddess, thinking this strange, opened The eight hundred myriad gods assembled in the bed slightly the rock-cave door and said from within: "Since I of the Quiet River of Heaven. They asked one god to think have hidden myself, I thought that the Plain of Heaven and of a plan . They assembled the long-singing birds of eternal the Central Land of the Reed Plains would all be in dark­ night and made them sing . They took hard rocks from the ness. Why is it that the goddess makes merry and the bed of the river and iron from the Heavenly Metal Moun­ myriad gods all laugh?" tain and called in a smith to make a mirror. They asked the The goddess replied: "We rejoice and are glad because Jewel Ancestor God to make a string of 500 curved jew­ there is here a god greater than you." While she spoke els eight feet long. They asked other gods to remove the two other gods brought out the mirror and held it up be­ shoulder blade of a male deer, to obtain cherry wood from fore the Sun Goddess. Mount Kagu, and to perform a divination. They uprooted a The Sun Goddess, thinking this stranger and stranger, sacred tree, attached the string of curved jewels to its came out the door and peered into the mirror. Then the upper branches, hung the large mirror from its middle heavenly Hand-Strong-Male God seized her hand and branches, and suspended offerings of white and blue pulled her out. Another god drew a rope behind her and cloth from its lower branches. said : "You may not go back further than this." One god held these objects as grand offerings and an­ So when the Sun Goddess had come forth, the Plain of other intoned sacred words. The Heavenly Hand-Strong­ High Heaven and the Central Land of the Reed Plains Male God stood hidden beside the door. A goddess bound once again naturally shone in brightness. up her sleeves with clubmoss from Mount Kagu, made a herb band from the spindle-tree, and bound together From the Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), trans. by Albert Craig, leaves of bamboograss to hold in her hands. Then she w ith appreciation to Basil Hall Chamberlain and Donald L. Phillippi.

and twelfth centuries and can best be understood in terms Nara and Heian Japan of three stages. During the seventh century the Japanese studied China; during the eighth, they implanted Chinese The second major turning point in Japanese history was its institutions in Japan; after that, they adapted the institu­ adoption of the higher civilization of China. This is a prime tions to meet Japanese needs. By the eleventh century the example of the worldwide process (described in Chapter 2) creative reworking of Chinese elements had led to distinc­ by which the heartland civilizations spread into outlying tive Japanese forms, unlike those of China but equally un­ areas. In Japan the process occurred between the seventh like those of the earlier Yamato court. 288 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of Wor ld Ci vi lizati ons, 500 C. E. to 1500 C. E.

Court Government The offi cial embassies to the Tang court that began in 607 C.E. included traders, students, and Buddhist monks as well as representatives of the Yamato great kings . Like Third World students who study abroad today, Japanese who stud­ ied in China played key roles in their own government when they returned home. They brought back with them a quick­ ening fl ow of technology, art, Buddhism, and knowledge of Tang legal and governmental systems. But for Yamato Japan­ ese, the difficulties of mas tering Chinese and China's philo­ sophical culture were enormous. Actual institutional changes using the Tang model began only in the 680s with the Emperor Temmu and his successor, the Empress Jito (r. 686- 697). Temmu's life illustrates the interplay between Japanese power politic s and the adoption of Chinese institutions. He came to the throne by leading an alliance of eastern clans in rebellion against the previous great king, his nephew. The Records of Japan describes Temmu as "walking like a tiger through the eastern lands." He then used Chinese systems to consolidate his power. He rewarded his supporters with new court ranks and with positions in a new court govern­ ment, both patterned after the Tang example. He extended the authority of the court and increased its revenues by a survey of agricultural lands and a census of their population. He promulgated a Chinese-type law code that greatly aug­ mented the powers of the ruler. He styled himself as the "heavenly emperor," or tenno~ which thereafter replaced the Prince Shiitoku (574--622 ), A comm anding figure at th e pre-Nara Yam ato earli er title of "great king." In short, although Temmu must court, Prince Sh6tOku (shown here with two of his son s) promoted Buddi sm have admired immensely things Chinese, much of the and began reg ular emba ssies to Chin a. "This world is a li e," he wrote, borrowing was dictated by specific, immediate, and reflecting the Buddh ist be lief in an ultimate rea lity beyond . practical goals. Until the eighth century the capital was usually moved each time an emperor died. Then, in 710 a new capital, in­ perfumes, and pottery of the Tang. Clustered about the capi­ tended to be permanent, was establi shed at Nara. It was laid tal were Buddhist temples, more numerous than in Nara, with out on a checkerboard grid like the Chinese capital at soaring pagodas and sweeping tile roofs. With what awe must Chang'an. But then it was moved again in 784- some say to a peasant have viewed the city and its inhabitants! escape the meddling in politics of powerful Buddhist tem­ Governments at the Nara and Heian courts were ples. A final move occurred in 794 to Heian (later Kyo to) on headed by emperors , who were at the same time Confucian the plain north of Nara. This site remained the capital until rulers with the majesty accorded by Chinese law and Shinto the move to Tokyo in 1869. Even today, Kyoto's regular rulers descended from the sun goddess. Protected by an geometry refl ects Chinese city planning. aura of the sacred, their lineage was never usurped. It re­ The superimposition of a Chinese-type capital on a still mained in place throughout the rest of Japanese history, backward Japan produced as stark a contrast as any in history. though several emperors were killed and replaced by other In the vi ll ages, peasants- who worshiped the forces in moun­ fa mily members. tains and trees-lived in pit dwellings and either planted in Beneath the empero r, the same modified Chinese pat­ crude paddy fields or used slash-and-burn techniques of dry­ tern prevailed. At the top was a Council of State, a powerful land farming. In the capital stood pill ared palaces in which office from which leading clans sometimes manipulated the dwelt the emperor and nobles, descended from the gods on authority of an emperor who reigned but did not rule. Be­ high. They drank wine, wore silk, and enjoyed the paintings, neath the council were eight ministries-two more than in Chapter 9 The Eme rgence of East Asia : Japan, Korea, and Vietnam 289

China. One of the extra ministries was a Secretariat and the sorbed military functions as well as those of the Min­ arher the Imperial Household Ministry. Size affected func­ istry of Justice and the Bureau of Impeachment. cio n. China had a population of 60 million; Nara Japan had -! or 5 million. Since there were fewer people to govern in Over the course of the Heian period, control of the _~a pa n and no external enemies, more of the business of court also shifted, though the emperor, wi th the power of court government was with the court itself. Of the 6,000 appointments, remained the key fi gure. persons in the central ministries, more than 4,000 were con­ 1. Until the mid-ninth century, some emperors actually cerned in one way or another with the care of the imperial ruled or, more often, shared power with nobles of other !louse. The Imperial Household Ministry, for example, had leading clans. an official staff of 1,296, whereas the Treasury had 305 and 2. From 856 the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan be­ -' Iilitary Affairs only 198. came preeminent, and from 986 to 1086 its strangle­ Local government was handled by sixty-odd provinces, hold on the court was absolute. The private offices of -\ hic h were further subdivided into districts and villages. In the Fujiwara house were as powerful as those of the pre- Nara times, these outlying areas had been governed in central government, and the Fujiwara family monopo­ b ma to fashion by regional clans, but under the new system, lized all key government posts. They controlled the provincial governors were sent out from the capital-leaving court by marrying their daughters to the emperor, forc­ ocal aristocrats to occupy the lesser position of district mag­ ing the emperor to retire after a son was born, and then !s trate. This substantially increased the power of the court. ruling as regents in place of the new infant emperor. At In other respects, Japanese court government was unlike times they even ruled as regents fo r adult emperors. Fu­ :hat of China. There were no eunuchs. There was little ten­ jiwara Michinaga's words were no empty boast when he -ion between the emperor and the bureaucracy-the main said, "As for this world, I think it is mine, nor is there a struggles were between clans. The Tang movement from aris­ fla w in the full moon." (See Document, "Aristocratic ocracy towards meritocracy was also absent in Japan. Apart Taste at the Fujiwara Court: Sei Sh6nagon Records Her :Tom clerks and monastics, only aristocrats were educated, and Likes and Dislikes.") only they were appointed to important official posts . Family 3. Fujiwara rule gave way, during the second half of the counted for more than grades. A feeble attempt to establish an eleventh century, to rule by retired emperors. The impe­ examination elite on the Chinese model failed completely. rial family and lesser noble houses had long resented Even during the Nara period the elaborate apparatus of Fujiwara domination. Disputes within the Fujiwara Chinese government was too much. In the words of a Chinese house itself enabled Emperor Shirakawa to regain con­ proverb, it was like using an axe to carve a chicken. In the early trol of the government. He reigned from 1072 to 1086 Heian period the actual functions of government were taken and then, abdicating at the age of thirty-three, ruled for over by three new offices outside the Chinese system: forty-three years as retired emperor. After his death an­ 1. Audit officers. A newly appointed provincial governor other retired emperor continued in the same pattern had to report on the accounts of his predecessor. Agree­ until 11 56. Shirakawa set up offices in his quarters not ment was rare, so from the end of the Nara period audit unlike the private offices of the Fuj iwara family. He ap­ officers were sent to examine the books. By early Heian pointed talented non-Fujiwara nobles to government times these auditors had come to superintend the col­ posts and sought to reduce the number of tax-free es­ lection of taxes and most other capital-province rela­ tates by confiscating those of the Fujiwara. He failed in tionships. They tried to halt the erosion of tax revenues. this and instead garnered huge estates for the imperial But as the quota and estate sys tems developed, this of­ family. He also developed strong ties to regional military fi ce had less and less to do. leaders and great temples. His sense of his own power 2. Bureau of archivists. This bureau was established in was reflected in his words-more a boast than a lament: 810 to record and preserve imperial decrees. Eventually "The only things that do not submit to my will are the it took over the executive function at the Heian court, waters of the Kamo River, the roll of the dice, and the drafting imperial decrees and attending to all aspects of mountain-monks [of the Tendai temple on Mount Hiei the emperor's life. to the northeast of Kyo to J. " But Shirakawa's powers 3. Police commissioners. Established in the second were exercised in a capital city that was increaSingly iso­ decade of the ninth century to enforce laws and prose­ lated fro m the changes in outlying regions, and even the cute criminals, the commissioners eventually became city itself was plagued by fires, banditry, and a sense of responSible for all law and order in the capital. They ab- impending catastrophe. 290 Part 3 Consolidation and Interaction of World Civilizations, 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E.

Land and Taxes The last embassy to China was in 839. By that time the fre­ Chronology netic borrowing of Chinese culture had slowed. The Japan­ ese had taken in all they needed-or, perhaps, all they could Who Was in Charge at the Nara and Heian Courts? handle-and were sufficiently self-confident to use Chinese ideas in innovative and flexible ways. The 350 years that fol­ 710-856 Emperors or combinations of nobles lowed until the end of the twelfth century were a time of as­ 856-1086 Fujiwara nobles similation and evolutionary change. Nowhere was this more evident than in the tax system. 1086-1160 Retired emperors In Nara and early Heian Japan, the economy was 1160-1180 Military house of Taira agricultural. The problem was to find labor to work the extensive landholdings of the government, imperial fam­ ily, nobles, and temples. The solution- using the inap­ propriately named equal field system of China- was to on tax-free estates than as free farmers subject to taxation. distribute land to all able-bodied persons and collect The pattern of such commendations was random, resulting from them three taxes: a light tax of grain, a light tax of in estates composed of scattered parcels of land, unlike the cloth or other local products, and a heavy tax of labor unified estates of Europe. The noble owners of estates ap­ service. But to tax persons meant knowing how many pointed stewards from among local notables to manage the there were and where they were, and this necessitated land. The stewards took a small slice of the cultivators' sur­ elaborate population and land registers. Even in China, plus for themselves, and forwarded the rest to the noble or despite its sophisticated bureaucracy, the system broke priestly owner in Kyoto. Since the stewards were from the down. In Japan, the marvel is that it could be carried out same stratum of local society as the district magistrates, they at all. Old registers and recent aerial photographs suggest shared an interest in upholding the local order. that for a time it was, at least in western Japan. Its imple­ mentation speaks of the immense energy and ability of Rise of the Samurai the early Japanese, who so quickly absorbed Chinese ad­ ministrative techniques. During the Nara period, Japan experimented with a Chinese Whenever changes in a society are legislated or imposed military system based on conscription. One-third of all able­ from above, the results tend to be uniform. But when bodied men between the ages of twenty-one and sixty were changes occur willy-nilly within a society, the results are taken. Conscript armies, however, proved inefficient, so in usually messy and difficult to comprehend. The evolution of 792 the court abolished conscription and began a new sys ­ taxation in Heian Japan was of the second type. tem relying on local mounted warriors. Some were stationed One big change was from the equal field system to one of in the capital and some in the provinces. They were official tax quotas payable in grain. Unable to maintain the elaborate troops whose taxes were remitted in exchange for military records needed for the equal field system, court officials sim­ service. The Japanese verb "to serve" is samurau, so those ply gave each governor a quota of taxes to collect from his who served became samurai- the noun form of the verb. province, and each governor, in turn, gave quotas to the district Then, in the mid- Heian period, the officially recruited local magistrates. Governors and magistrates, when they could, col­ warriors were replaced by nonofficial private bands of local lected more than their quotas and pocketed the difference for warriors. They constituted the military of Japan for the next themselves. By this means court nobles appointed as gover­ half millennium or so, until the foot-soldier revolution of the nors restored their family fortunes, while district magistrates, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. and the local notables and military families associated with Being a samurai was expensive. Horses, armor, and them, transformed themselves into a new local ruling class. weapons were costly, and their use required long training. A second change affecting about half the land in late The primary weapon was the bow and arrow, used from the Heian Japan was the conversion of tax-paying lands to tax­ saddle. Most samurai were from well-to-do local families­ free estates. Court nobles and powerful temples did not like district magistrates, notables, or the military families associ­ to pay taxes, so they used their influence at court to obtain ated with them. Their initial function was to preserve local immunities- exemptions from taxation for their lands. From order and, possibly, to help with tax collection. But from the ninth century small landholders often commended their early on they contributed at times to disorder. From the sec­ land to such nobles, figuring they would be better off as serfs ond half of the ninth century there are accounts of district