Bai Yunxiang: How does archaeological research witness Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges?

China News Service, Beijing, April 7 Title: Bai Yunxiang: How does archaeological research witness Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges?

China News Service reporter Sun Zifa

From rice farming to bronze and iron to the Japanese archipelago, from Xu Fu leading 3,000 boys and girls across the sea to Jian Zhen Dongdu, from sending Tang envoys to study in datang to fighting the epidemic "Mountains and rivers are exotic, the wind and moon are the same day"... The exchanges and exchanges between China and Japan have always attracted much attention.

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. From an archaeological point of view, what important stages of ancient exchanges and exchanges between China and Japan have gone through? What are the far-reaching implications? In the past 50 years, what are the cooperative research and achievements in the field of archaeology between the two sides?

Bai Yunxiang, former deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, chair professor of Shandong University, and an archaeologist with a high reputation in both China and Japan, has long been committed to promoting Sino-Japanese archaeological exchanges and cooperation, and has led a number of Sino-Japanese archaeological cooperation research projects. He was recently interviewed in Beijing by China News Agency's "East and West Questions" to explain in detail how archaeological research has witnessed the long history of Cultural Exchanges between China and Japan.

The interview transcript is summarized below:

China News Service: Judging from the current archaeological research, when can The cultural exchange between China and Japan first date back? What are the important stages in the ancient process of exchanges and exchanges between the two countries?

Bai Yunxiang: The cultural exchanges between China and Japan can be traced back to ancient times, but the real exchanges began about 2500 years ago, that is, from the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD, When China entered the Warring States Qin and Han Dynasties and Japan entered the Yayoi Era, the exchanges between the two countries gradually developed.

In the past 800 years, according to archaeological discoveries, especially the cultural relics imported from China discovered on the Japanese archipelago, under the background of the great historical changes, great turmoil and great development of East Asian society, the exchanges between China and the Japanese archipelago have gone through five stages of development, and the methods, contents and nature of exchanges at each stage are also different.

The first phase was roughly from the 5th century BC to the end of the 4th century BC, mainly the spread of rice farming techniques from China to the Japanese archipelago.

The second stage is roughly from the end of the 4th century BC to the beginning of the 3rd century BC to 221 BC, while the rice culture continued to spread to the east, Chinese bronzes, iron products, etc. began to be introduced to the Japanese archipelago.

The third stage was roughly around 221 BC to 108 BC, when Chinese residents migrated to the Japanese archipelago, and Chinese products such as copper swords, copper coins, bronze mirrors and iron products spread to Japan.

The fourth stage is roughly around 108 BC to around the Common Era, when various Chinese objects were more imported into the Japanese archipelago, and some ancient countries of the Japanese archipelago began to send emissaries to the Han Dynasty, and initially established official exchanges and contacts with each other.

The fifth stage is roughly from the beginning of the 1st century to the first half of the 3rd century AD, the connection between the Han Dynasty and the Japanese archipelago is further strengthened, and some ancient countries of the Japanese archipelago may really enter the han dynasty's canonization system, and the influence of Han culture has reached as far as the central region of the Japanese archipelago.

China News Service: In ancient times, what path did China and Japan exchange and exchange? What important influences did the introduction of Chinese culture have on Japan?

Bai Yunxiang: Although there are many routes of exchanges and cultural exchanges between China and the Japanese archipelago, the "Yellow Sea Road" maritime exchange route is the most important. Specifically, starting from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, it has successively passed through the coastal area of the Yellow Sea in eastern China, the Shandong Peninsula, the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula, and then crossed the sea to reach the "Land/Waterway Around the Yellow Sea" in northern Kyushu, Japan, which is actually the gradual eastward transmission of China's rice farming culture. It is precisely because of this that the Yayoi culture of the Japanese archipelago, especially the Kyushu region, is most closely related to the culture of the Warring States and the Qin and Han Dynasties along the Bohai Rim and the Yellow Sea coast of China.

The spread of Chinese culture to the Japanese archipelago is not limited to cultural exchanges, but has played an important role in the cultural and social development of the Yayoi period in Japan: in the field of social production and technology, the introduction and gradual development of rice farming technology has gradually led to the gradual entry of Japan into the agricultural society; with the introduction of Chinese bronze, iron and casting technology, from the middle of the Yayoi era in the 2nd century BC, the Japanese archipelago has gradually entered the metal age.

At the same time, in the field of social life, under the direct or indirect cultural influence from China, cultural phenomena such as ring trench settlements, dolmens, urn coffin tombs, earthen wooden coffin tombs, square ring trench tombs, and tomb mound tombs have also appeared one after another in the Japanese archipelago.

China News Service: There were close exchanges between China and Japan in ancient times, and ancient China had a wide and far-reaching influence on Japanese culture.

Bai Yunxiang: China and Japan are neighbors with water in their clothes, and Japan's history and culture are inextricably linked to China. Ancient Japanese rice farming, bronze culture, iron culture, writing, urban culture, funeral culture... All are directly or indirectly influenced by China.

Among the remains of the Yayoi culture in Japan, han dynasty artifacts have been widely found. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 80 Yayoi cultural sites and tombs excavated from the Japanese archipelago of Han Dynasty cultural relics, distributed in the western parts of Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island and Honshu Island, especially in the northern part of Kyushu.

The residential ruins of Toro, Japan, have been restored. Photo by Sun Dongmin, China News Service

For example, the Hara Tsuji Ruins in Iki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, located on the sea passage between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese island of Kyushu, is a mesa site surrounded by a three-fold trench, and the excavated Han Dynasty cultural relics include bronze mirrors, carriages and horses, swords, hammers, quan and other bronze ware, coins such as cargo springs, Oizumi fifty coins, and iron axes, which are generally considered to be the ruins of the "one country" contained in the "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Wei".

The Han Dynasty cultural relics unearthed in Japan mainly include gold seals, coins, bronze mirrors, iron objects and other cultural relics, one of which is found in the square gold seal of the snake button on Shiga Island in Fukuoka City, with the five characters of the seal book "King Han Weinu" engraved on the face. Coins mainly include half two coins, five baht coins, cargo springs, large springs fifty and cloth. Copper mirror is the largest number of discovery sites, the largest number of excavations of a type of Han Dynasty cultural relics, so far has found about 250 complete pieces, about 270 pieces of copper mirror fragments, including the Western Han Mirror, the New Mang Mirror and the Eastern Han Mirror, the main mirrors of the Han Dynasty are almost all found, in addition to the Kyushu area also found a large number of imitation of the Han mirror casting "imitation Han mirror". Iron tools mainly include axes, chisels, shovels, knives, swords, spears and so on. Other Han Dynasty artifacts include copper three-winged pendants, copper swords, copper-capped bow hats, copper four-leaf ornaments, and glass bibs.

Archaeologists unearthed a bronze mirror from the Han Dynasty in 2021 at a large western Han dynasty cemetery in Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province. China News Service reporter Zhang Yuan photographed

Mirrors (bronze mirrors), swords (iron swords), and jade (jade), known as the "Three Treasures" of ancient Japan, all originated in China. Among them, 5 pieces of super-large "Eight Leaf New Seat Arc Mirror" excavated from Tomb No. 1 of Fukuoka Plain Village, Japan, which not only have the general characteristics of the Eastern Han Dynasty Cloud Thunder Arc Mirror, but also have distinct characteristics of their own, and Chinese and Japanese archaeologists have speculated that the Eastern Han Dynasty bronze mirror craftsman Dongdu Japan designed and produced locally.

For another example, the Tang Dynasty had close Sino-Japanese relations, and the Tang Dynasty culture had an important impact on Japanese culture. For example, the capital city of Pingchengjing in the Nara era, its design and construction were directly influenced by the Sui and Tang Dynasties Chang'an City and Luoyang Castle; the Tang Zhaoti Temple built for the Jian Zhen monks has also been preserved to this day, and some other monasteries have also been directly affected by the structure of the Tang Dynasty temples; the Takamatsutsuka Ancient Tomb found in Nara at the end of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century AD, the murals in the tomb are similar to the Tang tomb murals, which shows its influence, and the tomb also unearthed the Tang Dynasty sea beast grape mirror; the Shosoin Temple, which is the courtyard where the Todaiji Temple is located in the Nara period, The collection contains relics of Emperor Shomu of the Nara period and other important cultural relics, many of which are Tang Dynasty cultural relics and are very precious.

In 2019, a number of artists from China, South Korea and Japan performed a concert on restored instruments from Shosoin, a World Heritage Site, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Photo by China News Service reporter Wang Gang

China News Service: 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Diplomatic Relations between China and Japan, what exchange and cooperation projects have Been Focused on in the Field of Archaeological Excavation and Research between China and Japan in the past 50 years? How is the overall progress? What do you think of Sino-Japanese archaeological exchanges and cooperation?

Bai Yunxiang: In the past 50 years since the normalization of Diplomatic Relations between China and Japan, the exchanges and cooperation between the archaeological circles of the two countries have roughly been said to have three types, or three aspects:

The first is the exchange and exchange of visits between Chinese and Japanese scholars in various forms and at all levels, such as master's and doctoral students pursuing degrees, as well as Academic visits and visits to each other's countries by Chinese and Japanese scholars. Many scientific research institutions and universities in China and Japan have signed cooperation and exchange agreements, such as the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Institute of Nara Cultural Property of Japan, the National Museum of History and Folklore of Japan, etc.; the exchanges and cooperation between relevant Chinese provinces and cities and Japan's friendly and sister cities also include archaeology, such as Shandong Province and Yamaguchi County, Shaanxi Province and Nara County, Xi'an City and Nara City, etc. The exchanges between these personnel and institutions have laid an important foundation for academic exchanges and cooperation between China and Japan, including archaeology.

Professor Shiraka Bai Yun (left) interacts with excavators at the archaeological excavation site at the Hokage-cho ruins in Chitose City, Hokkaido, Japan. Courtesy of respondents

Second, Sino-Japanese cooperation in archaeological investigation and excavation and research, although the number is small, is of great significance and has a great impact. For example, from 1997 to 2001, the Sino-Japanese Han Chang'an City Guigong ruins cooperated in excavation and research; from 2001 to 2006, the Sino-Japanese Tang Dynasty Chang'an City Daming Palace Tailiuchi site cooperated in excavation and research; from 2008 to 2011, the Sino-Japanese Luoyang Han wei ancient city sites cooperated in investigation and research; Sino-Japanese cooperation in the investigation and research of the Minfeng Niya site in Xinjiang; and the Sino-Japanese cooperation in the excavation and research of the Northern Zhou Tomb in Guyuan, Ningxia.

In 2018, the Xinjiang Museum held the "Nya Archaeology Story - Exhibition of Achievements in the 30th Anniversary of Sino-Japanese Nyaya Archaeology" to attract public visits. Photo by Liu Xin, a reporter of China News Service

The third is Sino-Japanese cooperation in thematic archaeological research, with a large number and a wide range of research fields. For example, from 2003 to 2005, Sino-Japanese cooperation in the Study of Neolithic Domestic Pigs in Inner Mongolia; 2004-2005, Sino-Japanese Cooperative Carbon Dating Research Project; 2004-2006 Sino-Japanese Cooperation on "Archaeological Research on the Mirror Fan of the Han Dynasty in the Ancient City of Linzi Qiguo in Shandong Province"; and "Comprehensive Research on Rice Farming in shandong Peninsula region and its Eastern Transmission" jointly carried out by Shandong University and Kyushu University.

Professor Bai Yunxiang (first from the left) exchanged views with Japanese scholars such as Fumiseuga Sugaya and Nao Goto during an inspection of the ruins of the Ancient City of Qi in Linzi, Shandong. Courtesy of respondents

Most of these Sino-Japanese archaeological cooperation projects have progressed smoothly and achieved fruitful results. As an important part of Sino-foreign archaeological cooperation and exchanges, Sino-Japanese archaeological cooperation and exchanges started early, have a wide range, many levels and many achievements, occupy an important position in Sino-Japanese scientific and cultural exchanges, play an important role in Sino-Japanese friendly exchanges, and are also an important way for Chinese academia and Chinese culture to go global.

In the process of implementing the cooperative research archaeology project, the participants and institutions of China and Japan are equal and friendly, abide by the agreement, and negotiate in case of trouble. The earnest, meticulous, hard-working professionalism of Japanese scholars, the spirit of study and the spirit of seeking truth and seeking truth, which are admired by Chinese collaborators and are also worth learning from all academic peers.

China News Service: In 2022, China's modern archaeology, which has gone through a century of vicissitudes, has entered a new century, and the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations has also ushered in the 50th anniversary. Standing at this historical node, what are your expectations for the future exchanges and cooperation between China and Japan in the field of archaeology?

Bai Yunxiang: In fact, Sino-Japanese exchanges in archaeology began as early as the 1950s, and the Japanese archaeological delegation visited China in 1957, and after the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, they developed rapidly on the original basis. Over the past 50 years, the exchanges and cooperation between the Chinese and Japanese archaeological communities have made great progress.

Standing at such a historical node as Chinese archaeology moves towards a new century and the fiftieth anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, it is expected that the exchanges and cooperation between the Chinese and Japanese archaeological circles will persist, develop and deepen under the new historical conditions, and constantly open up new fields and make new progress. This will not only contribute to the development of archaeology between China and Japan, but will also play a positive role in the friendly exchanges between China and Japan. (End)

Respondent Profiles:

Professor Bai Yunxiang presented and introduced the Japanese version of the Sino-Japanese archaeological cooperation research results "Jingfan" in beijing office. Photo by China News Service reporter Sun Zifa

Bai Yunxiang, former deputy director and researcher of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, chair professor of Shandong University, expert enjoying special government allowances of the State Council, corresponding academician of the German Archaeological Research Institute, concurrently serves as the executive director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, the director of the Qin and Han Archaeology Professional Committee, the vice president of the Chinese Qin and Han History Research Association, and the vice president of the Asian Society for the History of Foundry Technology.

Professor Bai Yunxiang has long been engaged in field archaeology, editing and publishing of academic journals, archaeological research and teaching and organization, and his main research areas include Qin and Han archaeology, handicraft archaeology, Sino-foreign exchange archaeology, etc., and has published more than 130 kinds of academic papers at home and abroad. His major publications and award-winning achievements include: "Archaeological Research on Iron Ware in the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties" (2005), "Research on Ancient Chinese Iron Ware" (Japanese edition, 2009), "First Prize of the 7th Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award" in 2010, "Archaeological Research on the Mirror Fan of the Han Dynasty in the Ancient City of Linzi Qi in Shandong Province" (co-authored, 2007), "Shandong Provincial Culture and Art Science Outstanding Achievement Award" in 2009; "Chinese Archaeology • Qin Han Volume" (co-authored, 2010), In 2012, he won the second prize of the 4th Guo Moruo Chinese History Award; "From the Bronze Sword of Shanglinli in Korea and the Bronze Mirror of the Japanese Plain Village on the Two East Crossings of Ancient Chinese Bronze Craftsmen" (paper, 2015), in 2019, he won the "Third Prize of the 10th Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award"; "Qin and Han Archaeology and Qin and Han Civilization Research" (2019), which was named "2019 National Cultural Heritage Top Ten Books".

Among them, as the Chinese moderator, the sino-Japanese cooperation research results: "Archaeological Research on the Mirror Fan of the Han Dynasty in the Ancient City of The Qi State in Linzi, Shandong Province" (2007); "Cassium 笵 - Han-style Mirror Making Technology" (Japanese edition, 2009); "Research on the Early Chinese Bronze Culture" (Japanese edition, 2009).

Source: China News Network