One of the most dramatic episodes of modern history has been Japan’s
adoption of Western institutions and techniques. But the interesting
thing is that such wholesale borrowings were not new in the history of
Japan. More than a thousand years earlier she had drawn similarly on
Chinese civilization. That earlier period, moreover, was akin to the
later in one significant respect--the old Japanese ways persisted under
the new shell. The changes were only skin-deep. And the more important
beliefs and practices that featured the early clan society we have been
studying continued to govern Japanese behavior.
Japan’s contacts with China had begun well before the seventh century,
the period when they became so marked. At first these contacts had been
only secondhand, through Korea. Direct relations with China had been
established early in the fifth century, but had remained unofficial.
The first official Japanese envoy was sent to the Sui Dynasty in 607
A.D., and a second embassy followed in 608. In the two centuries after
630, no less than twelve Japanese embassies visited the T’ang court
at Ch’ang-an, located on the site of the modern city of Sian (see
map opposite). These two hundred years were China’s golden age, when
dazzling Ch’ang-an was the world’s foremost civilized center. Japanese
monks and scholars accompanied the embassies, often remaining in China
for long periods of study. They brought back to Japan a thorough
knowledge of Chinese culture--much as Japanese students have returned
from Western countries with new knowledge and skills during the past
eighty years or so.
[Illustration: ROUTES TO THE CONTINENT 7-8th CENTURIES]