Many people know that the peak period of cultural exchange between Japan and China was in the Tang Dynasty, that is, the Japanese Baekje Coalition Army, which was paralyzed by the Tang army in the Battle of Baicunkou, and since then, Japan's worship of the Tang Dynasty has been like an idol, more like a little brother before and after the saddle, and learning Han and Tang culture throughout the country. One example is that classical Chinese classics such as the I Ching and Lao Tzu were regarded as "Bibles" by the Japanese rulers, and only the imperial family was eligible to read them. If you look at the words of the civilians, even if you hide them, it is a capital offense, but you can imagine the high status of Han culture in Japan at that time.
But in fact, during the Sui Dynasty, Japan at that time already had a certain admiration for the culture of the Central Plains Dynasty on the other side, and sent Sui envoys to study. And all this is related to the protagonist we are going to talk about today, a famous crown prince in Japanese history. Not only did he have a profound influence on Japanese culture today, but he was also a deified figure, Prince Shengde.
Oh, yes, he also sent a hand to study in the Sui Dynasty at that time, called Ono Meizi.
Prince Sōtoku in the Hiwa hilarious manga, the image of Ono's girl
In 574, Prince Shengde was born to a pair of children of Emperor Chinmei, Crown Prince Kiyoshi and Empress Dowager Ofebe. Yes, Prince Shengde's parents are half-siblings. However, the name of Prince Shengde is the same as the title of the Chinese royal family, Prince Shengde did not call him prince Shengde during his lifetime, his real name was Stable (it is said that he was born in front of the stables, so he got this name), alias Feng Cong, Shanggong Wang, etc. In the three most extensive historical books in Japan, the Kojiki, the Nihon Shoki, and the ManyoShu, they are also known as the Stables of the Upper Palace, Toyotomiya Shōtoku, and the Shōtoku Shōtoku, and anyway, there are various records, of course, in order not to be entangled, we will uniformly call them the Prince of Shōtoku.
Of course, before introducing prince Shengde, let's talk about how he got his start. As we all know, the Japanese emperor at this time was already a symbolic existence, the real power was in the hands of the Hao clan, in 587 AD, with the death of Emperor Tomorrow (Prince Shengde's father), and it coincided with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan through Baekje, so the representative of the Chongfo sect, the noble Su I Mazi began to fight with the noble Yabu Shouya of the Buddhist suppression school, and both wanted to support their puppets to ascend to the throne, and Prince Shengde sided with Su I Mazi.
After several wars, Su Mazi won the final victory and supported Emperor Chongjun on board. However, Emperor Chongjun was not willing to be just a puppet, and could only say that this idea was very good, but it was very unrealistic, so he was assassinated by sumazi after only five years on the throne. In order to get a more obedient emperor, he then put Toyo Go-akiyahime (The second empress and sister of Emperor Minda) to the throne, the first empress in Japanese history, Emperor Teiko, and prince Seitoku at this time, who was officially made crown prince.
So this story tells us that it is very important to stand in line, of course, standing in line is not our theme today, but in short, because of the right team, the most famous politician in Japanese history, Prince Shengde, began to appear on the stage of history, and at this time there was also a figure closely related to his subsequent activities, that is, Huici, a high monk from Goguryeo, entered the Japanese Imperial Palace and became the teacher of Prince Shengde.
Before Hui Ci came to Japan, the Sui Dynasty at this time had unified the divided and chaotic Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the national strength was also thriving, and began to show the potential of a world's top power, in fact, history has always had a misunderstanding, that is, everyone said that the Tang Dynasty was the most powerful empire in the world at that time, and this foundation was actually laid by the Sui Dynasty, and a series of policies such as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the imperial examination system were the reasons for the development of the Tang Dynasty. And the Goguryeo huici was a person who particularly admired the culture of the Sui Dynasty, so when he taught prince Shengde, he said:
The Sui Dynasty was intact and powerful, believing in and protecting the Dharma. “
Therefore, with the guidance of his teacher, Prince Shengde devoted himself to promoting buddhism in Japan (the biggest obstacle at this time, the Japanese Daihao clan Monobu clan had declined), and at the same time, he constantly sent Sui Shi to the Central Plains to study, including the Sui envoy Ono Meizi, who was more familiar to the Chinese people.
Not only that, he himself imitated the "I Ching", the Five Elements of Yin and Yang doctrine and other classical Chinese philosophical books, combined with the Fa, Confucianism, Taoism and other ideas to promulgate the "Seventeen Articles of the Constitution", which paved the way for the input of Han culture. Therefore, many people are very strange, why in the First World War of Baicunkou, Japan was able to quickly absorb Han culture, and gradually became more excellent than the Inheritance of China, for example, the highest artistic achievement of garden style architecture originating from Chinese gardens is Japan's dry landscape; the most perfect successor of Gagaku from China is also Japan, and even the country has been lost. In fact, all this can be attributed to the Prince of Shengde.
Japanese gagaku that has been lost in China
In 622, the seriously ill Prince Shengde died with the princess who had just died the day before (the true date is different), but his influence on Japan was enough to change all the history of the country in the future. Beginning with Prince Shengde, he himself annotated the Lotus Sutra, the Vimal Sutra, and the Shengyi Sutra, thus taking root in Japan, and at the same time he hired masters and monks of Han culture to give large-scale public lectures in Japan, and Han culture began to lay the foundation for subsequent large-scale integration.
It can be said that without Prince Shengde, there would be no contemporary Japan. This is also the reason why the yen once had the head of Prince Shengde. Finally, as an digression, it was during the reign of Prince Seongdeok that Japan was committed to strengthening relations with neighboring countries, sending troops to the Korean Peninsula and joining forces with Baekje to attack Silla, and as a result, Silla brought in a rescue soldier called "Datang".