Abstracts

What Five Chinese Portraits Did in Early Heian Japan

In 807 five portraits of Buddhist priests, which were said to be produced by the Tang court painter Li Chen (李真), arrived in the port city of Dazaifu and were presented to the court of Emperor Heizei, together with scriptures, Buddhist images, and ritual instruments that were brought from the Tang capital by Kûkai. The set of the five portraits survives today as a part of the treasures of the Tôji monastery in Kyoto. They are popularly referred to as Shingon gosozô (真言五祖像), the portraits of patriarchs who were instrumental in transmitting esoteric Buddhist teaching in China during the early and mid-Tang periods.

These portraits were seminal for the rise and development of the abhisheka rituals in the Heian period, of which the use of patriarchic portraits became an integral part for demonstrating the legitimacy of ritual performance. This paper attempts to reconstruct the historical occasions in which these portraits were employed, especially at the abhisheka ritual performed in 822 at Todaiji, Nara, for Heizei, who then was the grand emperor (太上天皇). The ritual was sponsored by Emperor Saga and took place at the time of Saga’s abdication and the enthronement of Emperor Junna. This paper argues that Heizei’s abhisheka played a crucial role in affecting significant change in the system of Japanese emperorship, in particular, in the relationship between the emperor and grand emperor in the framework of the ritsuryô system, and the stabilization of the early Heian regime after the transfer of the capital form Nara to Kyoto.

Homographs with Different Meaning: Chinese and Japanese Expressions in Sakugen Shûryô’s travel diary to Ming China

Language is an expression of ideas, and the acceptance of new ideas implies the introduction of new words. As one of the most important symbols of Chinese civilization, Chinese characters have exerted great influence on Japan. Yet during this process, the Japanese retained their identity by reforming and altering Chinese characters. In this report, the homographs which appear in Sakugen Shûryô’s First Travel Diary will be used to illustrate some features and causes of the changes of Chinese characters in medieval Japan.

Academic Exercises: Digesting the Chinese Classics on Poetic Occasions in Ancient Japan

Writing poems on lines or topics from Chinese texts was a pervasive poetic practice in Early Japan. The educated elite wrote poems on Chinese Classics, Chinese Histories, Buddhist Scripture, and Chinese poetry from the Six Dynasties and Tang Periods. Composing on lines from Chinese poetry became the mainstream genre of Chinese-style poetry (kanshi 漢詩) in the form of “Topic Poetry” [kudaishi 句題詩] since the mid-tenth century. Though different in their social setting and political or religious meaning, these subgenres of kanshi poetry had in common that the poems were composed specifically on a Chinese source text or on specific passages from a source text, that they were composed as a communal act during social events, that poetry was only one element in the orchestration of such social events, which, depending on the occasion, included also ritual ceremonies, lectures, and banqueting and that such poetry was almost exclusively written in regulated five- and seven- character verse.

This paper argues that this kind of poetry, which “digested” Chinese canonical texts was particular prominent in early Japan, in contrast to China. It allowed Nara and Heian Japanese to engage Chinese texts creatively and thus served to both enhance education about these texts, and inject the significance of Chinese Classics into the social fabric of Japanese court life and ideology through social events. It also provided a platform to show off one’s mastery of and wit with the Chinese canon and provided a way to evaluate courtiers’ talents not unlike examination poems.

As sample cases this paper discusses Japanese kanshi written on the Chinese Classics on the occasion of the sekiten 釋奠ceremony in honor of Confucius and kanshi written on Chinese Dynastic Histories in conjunction with lectures at the Academy. By introducing the notion of “digestive poetry” it tries to solve the following three questions: why are the surviving Japanese poems from the sekiten ceremony radically different from the medieval Chinese samples? Why did the Japanese stick enthusiastically with the Chinese medieval custom to compose poetry on the occasion of the sekiten instead of adopting the contemporary Tang custom that did not include the composition of poetry? And, lastly, why were the Japanese interested in writing ”Poems on History” [eishishi 詠史詩] that is on the Chinese Histories, at social events at the Academy instead of using that subgenre merely for personal reflection and lament? In a broader sense, this paper reflects on poetry as a hitherto little noticed venue for the reception of Chinese Classics and canonical texts in Japan.

Sinophiles and Sinophobes: Politics, Classicism, and Medicine in Tokugawa Japan

This talk first reviews the political, economic, and cultural context within which Japanese during the Tokugawa era (1600-1866) mastered Kanbun 漢文as their elite lingua franca. Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges were based on prestigious classical Chinese texts imported from Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) China via the controlled Ningbo-Nagasaki trade and Kanbun texts sent in the other direction, from Japan back to China. The role of Japanese Kanbun teachers in presenting language textbooks for instruction and the larger Japanese adaptation of Chinese studies in the eighteenth century is then contextualized within a socio-cultural framework to highlight the local, regional, and urban role of the Confucian/classical teacher-scholar in a rapidly changing Tokugawa society.

The concluding part based on research using rare Kanbun medical materials in the Fujikawa Bunko 富士川文庫 at Kyoto University, which show how some increasingly iconoclastic Japanese scholar-physicians (known as the Koiha 古醫派) appropriated the late Ming and early Qing revival of interest in ancient Chinese medicine rather than continue to follow more recent Song-Jin-Yuan 宋金元 medical practices (Koseiha 後世派) based on Song interpretations of the Huangdi neijing 黃帝內經 (Yellow Emperor’s inner classic). This group favored ancient treatment formulae and empirically-based diagnoses, which drew on the Shanghan lun 傷寒論 (Treatise of Cold Damage Disorders) as a medical text and Zhang Zhongjing張仲景 as a pioneering physician. Although many Japanese physicians favored Western medicine (transmitted via Dutch Learning 蘭學) over Chinese medicine in the mid-nineteenth century, most in the mid- and late-eighteenth century focused on mastering classical Chinese, and then Ming and Qing medical books entering Nagasaki from China. These critical currents of Chinese medicine in Japan provided further impetus for growing Japanese interest in Dutch Learning and modern Western medicine.

The “Gold Seal” and the Debate in the Late Edo Period

The “Treatise on Wa” in the Later Han History (fascicle 115:18a) notes: “In the second year of the Jianwu Zhongyuan reign [57 C.E.], the state of Na in Wa sent an emissary to [the Later Han dynasty] court to pay tribute. He called himself dafu. The state [of Na] is located in the southern extremity of Wa. [Emperor] Guangwu presented him with a seal and ribbon.” After the passage of 1,727 years, the “gold seal” was accidentally discovered by a farmer in Shikanoshima, Kyushu in 1784. The locally famous Confucian scholar Kamei Nanmei quickly prepared a study of the gold seal. He explained its inscription, 「漢倭奴國王」 (any reading of the text of the inscription immediately tilts one hand as to its meaning), and among other things defended the veracity of the gold seal itself. Over the next few years, an extraordinarily active debate ensued in which Confucians, nativists, experts on seals, and others exchanged their views. Was the seal the real thing or a fake? How are we to read the inscription? What was the larger meaning of the seal’s unearthing? Why did the seal show no sign whatsoever of disrepair after so long? These and many similar concerns were discussed.

After introducing this debate, my paper will comment on the form and content of the debate, pointing out problematic points along the way, over the course of the late eighteenth century. Finally, I shall discuss the claims made in a late 2006 book by Miura Sukeyuki, entitled Kin’in gizō jiken: Kan no Wa no Na no kokuō no maboroshi (The incident of the forged golden seal: The illusion of “King of Na in Wa, [subject state] of Han) (Tokyo: Gentōsha, 2006).

The “Contextual Turn” in the Interpretation of the Canon of Chinese Classics within the History of East Asian Cultural Exchange: Models and Questions

This article discusses the “contextual turn” in interpretation of the Chinese classics, wherein Confucian thoughts and values indigenous to China were reinterpreted by Korean and Japanese scholars, with their own specific cultural and political considerations. Such a “contextual turn” involves issues on two levels—those of East Asian political order (especially the Chinese-barbarian distinction) and abstract political thought (especially ruler-subject relations)—and brings up various issues of interpretation at the same time.

China was a huge and inescapable “other” in the minds of Korean and Japanese Confucians. The Chinese empire was at once a “political foreign country” and their “cultural homeland,” and this tension was evidenced by their particular interpretations of the term “Zhongguo” which appears in the Confucian classics. The usual strategy adopted by Korean and Japanese Confucians in interpreting Chinese classics was first to “de-contextualize” the classics and then give new meanings to them. By this process the Chinese classics were made more congenial to the political and cultural contexts of Korea and Japan.

This paper concludes that the “contextual turn” of interpretation of the Chinese classics in East Asia represents the following two tensions: one between the texts’ universal value and regional idiosyncrasies, and another between their transcendent “conceptualization” and their original “contextualization.” These tensions also signify a fusion by East Asian scholars of the interpretation and the use of the classics.

Legacy and Development of the Canon of Chinese Classics: Reception of the Classic of Changes in Ancient Japan

From ancient times, East Asia has had Chinese characters as a common cultural base among its regions. At the same time, the culture brought about by Chinese characters showed unique developments and sometimes exhibited new dimensions in each region. The shared base of Chinese character culture and its derivatives in various forms are cultural features peculiar to East Asia.

Many texts written in Chinese characters came from the continent to ancient Japan. Such works were studied enthusiastically and contributed to a new, Japanese understanding and way of reading. In this presentation, I will look at Zhouyi (The Classic of Changes) as an example of the cultural impact of the introduction of Chinese books and of the Japanese response to it. Zhouyi is one of the Confucian classics, which reflect Chinese thinking and ideas. I will discuss how it was received, studied, and digested in ancient Japan, using reference materials from the late Nara and early Heian periods, to show in part the significance of Chinese books that were diffused throughout East Asia.

I will look first at how Zhouyi was used in the Buddhist Scriptures Commentaries by Zenju of Kôfukuji temple. I will also refer to Jiang Zhouyi shu lunjia yiji, a commentary book on Zhouyi which was lost in China long ago and whose existence has been largely forgotten. Moreover, I will look at Shûeki-shô (Notes on Zhouyi), thought to have been written by Emperor Uda and now kept at Higashiyama-gobunko library, as an example of Japan's unique reception of Zhouyi. It has Japanese annotations of Zhouyi, and is the oldest extant Japanese interpretation of a Chinese classic. Using these materials, I hope in this presentation to examine the reception, legacy, and development of Zhouyi in Japan.

Translation, Vernacularization and the Loss of Universality in East Asia

This paper will examine the impact of translation upon the process of vernacularization in premodern Japan, Korea and Vietnam and the rise of cultural particularities vis-à-vis regional universalities. Conduct books for women provide one focus for this investigation, but I shall also consider sinological and Buddhist texts in their local incarnations.

East Asia and the Archaeology of Modern Taste

Physiologists now identify five basic tastes: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness—and umami. The last bears a Japanese name, most immediately, because it was first discovered and christened by a Japanese chemist in 1907. But the global scientific adoption of the term also reflects an intriguing paradox: the perception of umami is a universal of human physiology, yet unlike sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, this fifth taste has no ready name in English or other languages. Somehow, people have long appreciated it without quite recognizing it.

My paper will begin by spotlighting the hidden revolution that the discovery of umami introduced into the modern food culture of East Asia—and indeed the world. But my chief focus will be to excavate the historical archaeology underlying this discovery.

“East Asia” in Modern Japanese Literature

“Modern” Japanese Literature refers generally to literature from before and after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, written in colloquial language. Many of these works take East Asia as their subject matter. From antiquity through recent times, Japanese literature has developed uniquely within a relationship of mutual influence with the countries of East Asia. In early modern times cultural exchange blossomed between Japan and the countries of East Asia, whose cultural properties Japanese authors appropriated in their works. East Asia has been important for many writers as a mysterious and fascinating place, but scholarly research has largely ignored such writers’ depictions.

How have Japanese writers conceived of and written about East Asia? In this paper I will take up a single modern Japanese author and closely examine how he portrayed East Asia.

The Vicissitudes of Kings Tang and Wu in Tokugawa Japan

The stories of King Tang, founder of the Shang dynasty, and King Wu, founder of the Zhou, were a persistent source of tension within the tradition of Confucian political thought. As the founders of two hallowed dynasties, Tang and Wu were commonly counted as sages. Yet each, in turning against his lord and ruler, had seemingly contravened the imperative of loyalty that lay at the heart of the lord-vassal/ruler-subject relationship. The ambivalence that followed the idea of dynastic change through “punitive correction,” which was associated with Tang and Wu, likely led to the formulation of a counter model in the story of Yao and Shun’s virtuous yielding of the throne. It is visible as well in ongoing debates about the implications of Confucius’s praise for Wu’s father, Wen, who had not turned against the tyrannical last Shang ruler, rather than for Wu. It is also demonstrated in repeated controversies about Mencius’s unequivocal defense of Tang and Wu as not guilty of regicide.

In Japan the intertwining of the stories of Tang and Wu with two key issues in Tokugawa thought brought further complications. A number of thinkers stressed the absolute nature of the bonds of loyalty linking vassal to lord, presenting this relationship as the foundation of the Tokugawa political and social order. At the same time, the presumption of the absence of dynastic change in Japan, as compared to China, took on increasing weight as a defining attribute of Japanese political, cultural, and moral identity, and as testimony to its superiority among nations. This tension in the appraisal of Tang and Wu widened into an open fault line. Picking up on debates already current among seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Confucian thinkers (most notably several disciples of Yamazaki Ansai), the proponents of National Learning who arose from the mid-eighteenth century made the failings of Tang and Wu one of the pillars of an attack on Confucianism. Responding to these charges proved a major challenge for those, such as the late Mito scholars, who sought to defend Confucianism’s validity and pertinence to upholding the true Japanese tradition, but who also saw the essence of that tradition as lying in the rejection of dynastic change. The debate over Tang and Wu thus contributed ultimately to a refiguring of the dynamics of Confucianism in the Tokugawa context.

New Wisdom From Scholars of Dutch Studies and Protestant Missionaries:
The Potential of Kanji for the Reception of Foreign Culture

One of the biggest differences between Chinese characters and other writing systems is that Chinese characters have continually increased in number. After 1600 years of development, the characters included in 1716’s Kangxi Dictionary (Kang xi zidian) are four times those of The Interpretation of Characters (Shuo wen jie zi). Misuses and character simplifications aside, the proliferation of characters is largely attributable to the emergence of new concepts with the influx of knowledge and reception of foreign culture following the Age of Expansion. This paper discusses the different research related to Chinese characters produced by Japanese Rangakusha (scholars of Dutch learning) and missionaries who worked in China.

Chinese Linguistic Heritage In Japan

From a linguistic point of view, the interaction between China and Japan is characterized by the introduction in Japan of the Chinese writing system. However, the linguistic influence is not limited to kanji, but extends also to the language structure and to the lexicon.

In particular, I am convinced that the practice of kanbun kundoku had a decisive role in the birth of Japanese writing and written language. Besides, kanbun kundoku was also crucial in the birth of wakun annotation and the association of Japanese words and kanji. However, the lexical diversity of the Chinese and Japanese languages caused a series of problematic issues, a few of which I will examine.

The purpose of my linguistic research is to analyze a concrete case of how language and culture are mutually influential, on the one hand, and also how Japan, in contrast with the case of Europe and Latin, absorbed a foreign language by a continuous compromise.

Monk Jianzhen and the Cult of Buddhist Relics

Why did Jianzhen 鑑真endure great hardship to come to Japan? His motives have long been a subject for debate in Chinese and Japanese academic circles. Previously I have explored this issue through the relationship between Taoism and Buddhism; now I hope to answer this question using Jianzhen’s Buddhist relics as the key.

The 3000 granulated ashes of the Buddha which Jianzhen brought to Japan are considered the hidden treasure of Tôshôdaiji唐招提寺 temple. The golden turtle vessel which contains these relics tells of Jianzhen’s travel to Japan, which was filled with tribulation. Not only are the Buddha's grains the incarnation of Buddha, they are also connected to belief in the transmigration of souls. That Jianzhen brought such a great number of these relics to Japan is likely connected to his personal faith in transmigration. This paper considers Jianzhen’s longing for a physical image of the Buddha and his meditative aims as evidence.

“The Kanshi of Mori Ōgai: Allusion and Diction”

The extant corpus of kanshi (poems written only in Chinese characters) by Mori Ōgai numbers nearly 240. The poetry is here discussed in terms of “allusion” and “diction.”

Allusion
Questions of allusion go to the heart of what a writer is saying and to appreciating how it is being said.
The use (or non-use) of allusion in Chinese and Sino-Japanese poses several questions. Has an author read the work one finds cited in the commentaries to his writing? And if so, how can one be sure he is consciously alluding to it? Most important, if the use of an allusion is intentional (or at least likely), what role is the allusion fulfilling? Is it used to confirm an earlier formulation, to find support and prestige for a current stance, to display learning, to add a twist to a familiar (or not-so-familiar) turn of phrase, to be ironic, or for what combination of these?
The use of allusion in the kanshi of Mori Ogai is here treated “inductively” by identifying (A) passages where the writers of classical Chinese and Sino-Japanese are specifically named, (B) locutions in the corpus that are incomprehensible without reference to earlier classical-Chinese sources, (C) passages that in all likelihood draw on such sources, and (D) specific parallels with earlier kambun writing that have been noted by Ogai’s commentators.
Allusion presents special difficulties when translating or explicating a passage, as illustrated here by an example.

Diction
The closely related topic of diction is also discussed.
In kanshi predating Mori Ogai’s arrival in Europe, many of which deal with historical sites or themes, references are repeatedly made to the fog, mist, vapor, etc., that shroud the subject – a stance likely carried over in Ōgai’s later shiden (historical biographies).
Ogai’s penchant for difficult kanji, especially when he was young, was pronounced. Examples are cited of his use of (A) less-common variants of Chinese characters, (B) rare characters, and (C) well-known characters with less-common meanings. In his later years Ōgai tended to use such “fancy language” less frequently (and only as appropriate), here illustrated by an example.
Several instances of the “translation” of the contemporary material world into kanji are also noted. So too are Chinese characters used in more exclusively “Japanese” senses – important for understanding the nature and role of kambun (Sino-Japanese).

Ōgai’s training in kanbun was central to the success of his other writing. It not only helped him to write the tour de force of kanji expression, the florid but masterful prose of Sokkyō shijin (his translation/adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s novel, The Impromptu Poet – arguably Ōgai’s most “creative” work), but also the pithiness and rhythmical quality of Goethe, in the unaffected and limpidly clear Japanese of his Faust translation.

About Chônen’s Letter to Emperor Taizong of the Song preserved in the “Japan” section of the Song History

The “Japan” section of the Song History (volume 491, section 7) records that Chōnen from Tōdaiji temple sent a diplomatic letter with his disciple Kain to Emperor Taizong of the Song in 988. In 983, Chōnen had visited the Song court accompanied by Kain and some others for an audience with the Emperor, and made a pilgrimage to Mt. Wutai. Thereafter he returned to Japan in 986, with items such as newly made copies of the complete sutras and a copy of King Udayana’s sculpture of the Buddha. After two years, he once again dispatched Kain to Song and paid a great tribute to return the favor. Although such works as the Classical Records of Ancient China Volume 17 (Gakken Press) contain the kundoku and modern translations of the original text, they do not discuss issues with the letter itself, and lack any analysis or detailed consideration of the source material. Yet this letter, written by a Heian-period man of letters in parallel prose style, has left its mark in official Chinese history and is considered uniquely significant in the history of Sino-Japanese thought, culture, and literary exchange. Furthermore, it is truly valuable given that it was lost in Japan for a long time but was passed down in China. This presentation aims above all to precisely comprehend this letter, and then see what can be extrapolated from the text, as well as apprehend its methods and the author’s assumptions. The key issue of this presentation is how to situate the reciprocal movement of persons and objects—that is, the role of writing in cultural exchange.

The Way of Tea and the Tea Ceremony in East Asia

Chadō (The Way of Tea) is an important heritage shared throughout East Asia through various cultural exchanges.

"The Way of Tea" (Ch. chadao) appears for the first time in the Tang-period works of Chinese poetry 飲茶歌誚崔石使君(Yin cha ge qiao cui shi shi jun) and 封氏聞見記(Feng shi wen jian ji). It cannot be ascertained from historical records whether people in Korea and Japan were drinking tea when “The Way of Tea" was first being used in China.

The original historical meaning of chadao involves techniques of processing and drinking tea and a mental concept, meant for the purpose of good physical and mental health.

We may observe two main points regarding the originality of the Chinese term:

1.) China is simultaneously where tea originated and the birthplace of tea-drinking culture.  Whether in the East or West, all tea culture is rooted in the Chinese cha dao.

2.) Cha dao is closely connected to daily practice, although it emphasizes the spirituality of tea drinking.

About the origin of the Japanese Chadō, I will point out two aspects:

1.) "Chadō" is a word used commonly in China, Japan and Korea, but the word "Cha no yû” (the tea ceremony)" is a distinctly Japanese term; there is much Japanese originality in the tea-making procedure.

2.) As general life culture, the Japanese Chadō contributes much not only to a concrete cultural heritage but also to preserving the transmission of an intangible cultural legacy in a traditional art.

As for the Korean Way of Tea, the only example at present of the term in tea-related documents is what the Koreans copied verbatim from Chinese texts on tea. Closer inspection of historical records will be necessary to really clarify the indigenous qualities of the Korean practice.

Finally, I will discuss the difference between tea drinking culture in East Asia and the West.

World tea culture has two commonalities:

1.) All of the pronunciations of the word "tea" have Chinese roots.

Regardless of eastern and western divisions, words around the world meaning "tea" can be divided into two lineages, one the Cantonese word CH`A and the other of the Fukienese word TAY.

2.) The ways of using tea are similar.

Tea began to be imported into Europe in the 17th century, whereas in the East its usage shifted from medicinal to drinking.

Next, I will provide two points about the difference between East Asian and Western tea culture.

1.) The type of tea used for daily drinking is different.

Black tea is drunk habitually in the West, whereas in East Asia, in addition to completely fermented black tea, people like half-fermented Wulong tea and unfermented green tea.

2.) The quality and cultivation process in the tea cultures are different.

In East Asia, the Way of Tea reflects friendly cultural exchanges among peoples, and even calling it a symbol of peace would be no exaggeration. For example, in Japanese Chadō many East Asian traditions are condensed; furthermore, in the case of Japanese Chadō tea is not simply a drink. As a kind of rite tea drinking possesses both religious mystique and social meaning.

In the West and especially in the U.K., tea culture is closely linked to the development of capitalism. Black tea culture there is typified by the adding of sugar and milk. Black tea culture is not a game, and its drinking has nothing to do with seeking truth; so too does it lack an artistic aura. While adding milk to tea was done in East Asia as well, putting sugar in tea was unique to England. For a Briton, the sugar that became indispensable to tea was a symbol of the conquest of West India. In the 19th century, England carried opium—increasingly deleterious with use—to China while it imported Chinese tea, which is beneficial to health. In other words, the prosperity of black tea culture in this period was maintained at the cost of the health of the Chinese people.