Song wheat finishing
【Editor's Note】 Recently, the ten-volume "Kodansha History of Japan" was published by the New Classic Amber | Wenhui Publishing House, which has attracted widespread attention. Minister Kazuhisa Shinnobu of Kodansha said that the "Kodansha History of Japan" took five years from planning to release, and is a general history of Japan for the general public. In the first ten years of the publication of this set of books, Japanese archaeological discoveries continued, the interpretation of new materials in Japan and abroad was also constantly advancing, and Japanese historiography had developed rapidly, so they planned this set of books, and the authors of each volume were the researchers at the forefront of data excavation preservation and discovery interpretation.
Kazuhisa Shinnoki also said that the biggest feature of this set of books is that Mr. Yoshihiko Neto assumes a central role as editor-in-chief, which is the greatest charm for Japanese readers. Starting from "what is Japan", Neto overturned the common sense that Japan was an isolated island country and an agricultural country, and this "view of History of Netno" was also reflected in the authors, and each volume was not limited to the accepted conclusions, reflecting the latest research results at that time. The set had a profound impact on Japanese readers, with a cumulative sales of 1.23 million copies of the single book and the library.
On June 15th, the launch ceremony of the new book "Kodansha: History of Japan" was held in Beijing on the same day as the mountains and rivers, and the wind and moon were the same day. Four scholars, Tang Chongnan, Wang Yong, Wang Xinsheng, and Liu Xiaofeng, had a dialogue and exchanged their views on Japanese history, Japanese culture, and Sino-Japanese relations. The Paper has compiled four scholars and on-site Q&A into an essay for the benefit of readers.
Wang Yong: Distinguished guests, dear readers, good evening! I'm going to introduce a few of today's guests again.
Mr. Tang Chongnan is the old president of the Chinese Japanese History Society, and his personal achievements needless to say, what we feel most is his promotion and training of young scholars, and the influence of the older generation of historians on us is very great.
Professor Wang Xinsheng, a well-known professor who has long been in charge of the Lecture on Japanese History at Peking University, has not only received high praise in the professional field, but also has many fans among non-professional readers.
Professor Liu Xiaofeng of Tsinghua University is a scholar who inherits the orthodox Japanese historiography of Kyoto University, but his research does not stop at Japanese historiography, but has expanded to east Asian history, and studies Japan from the perspective of East Asian history.
I myself am mainly engaged in sino-Japanese cultural exchange research, and my professional field with Professor Liu Xiaofeng is Sui and Tang Dynasties, which is biased towards ancient times; Professor Wang Xinsheng and Mr. Tang are good at modern times, so the four of us can connect from the times.
We would like to discuss a few issues today. The first question is, why should we pay attention to Japan, why should we study Japan, why should we understand the history of Japan?
There are many levels of concern about Japan. Since the normalization of sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, I have the impression that the first thing I paid attention to was the Japanese language, and the mood of the people who studied Japanese was very high at that time, and I was also a student of the first Japanese major at Zhejiang University. After the language society, I began to read works and Japanese literature. Then there is economic trade, from learning the Japanese language to using Japan as an economic and trade partner, so our attention to Japan has diversified. At this time, the publishing fever of Japanese history suddenly arose in The country, and it was not limited to the stories of military generals such as sengoku and Takeda Shingen. We recommend that you read the General History of Japan, and among all the General Histories of Japan, we especially recommend reading "Kodansha History of Japan."
Teachers can talk about this question: Why read Japanese history?
Professor Wang Yong
Wang Xinsheng: People here are definitely particularly interested in Japan. One of the words we often use, "one coat with water", means that we are particularly close to Japan, with a history of friendship for more than two thousand years. The normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations has been more than fifty years old, and the changes in the past fifty years have also been great, one stage every ten years. First it was friendship and cooperation, then friction and cooperation, confrontation and cooperation, conflict and cooperation, and Sino-Japanese relations can develop in the future. I think there will be a test in China-Japan relations in the future, which is why we should understand Japan, which is both an object of our learning and a terrible opponent. The best era in our history to study Japan was the Ming Dynasty, why? Because there is Wokou and there is Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
You may have seen Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke", and its earliest inspiration came from the editor-in-chief of this set of books, Yoshihiko Mitano, who wrote a history of japan's middle ages. If you really want to understand this animation, you must have a historical background, and if there is no historical background, it seems that there are some obstacles. This is one of the reasons why we should read Japanese history.
Professor Wang Xinsheng
Wang Yong: Professor Wang Xinsheng has expounded the necessity of reading Japanese history from his own standpoint. Next, I would like to ask Mr. Tang to say a few words.
Tang Chongnan: As a Chinese, why should we read history? Mr. Wang talked about the Ming Dynasty's resistance to the Wu Dynasty, qi Jiguang' time, when there were many Wokou. In fact, a series of contradictions and conflicts have occurred between China and Japan in modern times, especially at present. Just now Mr. Wang Xinsheng talked about the issue of cooperation, I turned it upside down, now it is conflict and cooperation, probably conflict is more realistic.
In order to have a deeper understanding of our neighbors, we must have the accumulation of historical knowledge and a deep understanding of Japan's history, so as to better understand how they have developed in the past. Only by grasping the history and the present can we more accurately predict the future, see how China and Japan will develop in the future, better understand each other, and walk more steadily in Sino-Japanese relations. Fifty years have passed since the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, and we will continue to follow this track in the future. Now that China and Japan are inseparable neighbors of East Asia and the two countries are developing peacefully, I believe there will be more benefits here. But it also depends on the development of the situation in the whole world and In East Asia, especially in the United States.
Researcher Tang Chongnan
Wang Yong: Mr. Tang spoke very well. Mr. Wang Xinsheng also mentioned that the study of Japan in the Ming Dynasty reached its climax, when Japan was the enemy. And I am thinking, not only the enemy, but also to be a friend must also "know oneself and know the other" in order to last, and when the enemy "knows oneself and knows the other" can be defeated.
Professor Wang Xinsheng mentioned that during the Republic of China period, Dai Jitao wrote a "Treatise on Japan", saying that the Japanese have put Chinese on the dissection table, and have repeatedly dissected countless times, and his meridians and your bones are all clear. However, when returning to the Qing Dynasty, Huang Zunxian's "Japan National Policy" mentioned that Chinese looking at Japan is a glimpse of light and flowers in the fog, this contrast is very large, this situation has been until now, more than a hundred years, I think there is no fundamental change.
So in this sense, whether we are friends or enemies, we need to understand Japan, and understanding Japan's history is an important way.
Liu Xiaofeng: All three teachers spoke very well. I remembered a classmate who told me that Japan is a very small country, and they still fight each other, like villages fighting each other, and this topic greatly touched me.
Indeed, in terms of scale, Japan is not the same as ours. A particularly interesting example is a poem by Takeda Shingen that I read in Japan: "After killing 100,000 soldiers in the world, the sword around his waist is bloody; the mountain monk does not know the hero and the lord, but only asks for his name." "Can a warring states warrior write such a good Chinese poem?" I've got to memorize it. In 2000, when I returned to China, I found that a predecessor of Tsinghua Had written a "Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang", which said that Zhu Yuanzhang even wrote poetry, and he wrote a poem called: "Kill a million soldiers in Jiangnan, the sword around the waist is still bloody; the mountain monk does not know the hero lord, and only cares about asking his name." "Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a million soldiers, Takeda Shingen 100,000, who copied whom? Zhu Yuanzhang was in front, and it was Takeda Shingen who copied Zhu Yuanzhang. In the wars of the Sengoku period in Japan, at first you look like Muradou, but at the time of the Final Battle of Sekigahara, there were 80,000 Western Troops and 100,000 Eastern Troops, so it was not Muradou. Moreover, the Ming history wrote that Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought in Korea, and for six or seven years, the Chinese army and the Korean army have been fighting, if we regard those wars in the Warring States as village wars, then what do you think of the Ming dynasty warriors who died on the Korean battlefield?
So you have to respect history. Japan, which is next to us, is very small compared to the mainland, with a population of 120 million, but its population size and economic scale are larger than France, Germany, and Britain. So we have to read the history of Japan and understand it.
Professor Liu Xiaofeng
Wang Yong: We like to talk about "little Japan", and the Japanese people are not happy to hear it. There is a scholar in South Korea who says that Japanese culture is a "condensed culture", and the Japanese people are very happy, because the short ones are "condensed".
In fact, japan's condensed history is very long, and after the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula were transmitted to Japan, they were all reduced due to the limitations of geographical terroir. We know that Heian Kyo (now Kyoto) in the Heian period was built in imitation of Chang'an, and the scale should be one-tenth of Chang'an' scale, which was reduced. I once visited the replica site of West Lake in Japan, the Shinobu Pond in Tokyo's Ueno Park, which is "West Lake". There are many "West Lakes" in Japan, more than two dozen. I'm from Hangzhou, and I know they don't like this "West Lake". What should I do if Japan learns Chinese culture and surrounding cultures, but cannot copy them? Just zoom out.
Liu Xiaofeng: This set of books and my fate is particularly deep, I went to Japan in 1991 to study, in 2000 after taking a doctorate back, my major is Japanese history. The study of Japanese history that I participated in in Japan belonged to the Yoshihiko Yukihiko Mitsuke School, and his view of Japanese history was different from that of Japanese history before and after the war. This man is very special, he has a lot of revolutionary views, he said that Japan can not be regarded as just an agricultural country, it is still a maritime country. Then there is the fact that he believes that the historical materials of literature and the historical materials of painting can be used to study the history of Japan. So this set of Japanese histories is the most vividly written in the history of Japan that I have ever read, and its view of history is liberating, and these authors have used their creativity to write this set of books. Therefore, it is also very highly evaluated among Japanese readers, very readable, has a lot of involvement from the perspective of life history, and has a lot of particularly interesting knowledge, so it is a set of books that are particularly recommended, and the translation is also particularly good.
Wang Xinsheng: I was a college student in the class of 1977, I was a farmer for three years before I went to college, I worked for two years, and I forgot all about my English. I entered the history department of Shandong University, when the teacher said you learn Japanese, I am very happy, now there is a saying that you can not lose on the starting line, at that time to learn Japanese, young memory is good, learn well, and later studied Japanese history graduate school, to Beijing Normal University. Later, he also studied for a doctorate at Peking University. I have been doing Japanese history for more than 40 years, and I am still familiar with Japanese history.
This set of books makes use of the latest historical materials, and on the basis of combing the history of research, it is a good way to sort out the development history of Japanese history in accordance with the combination of general history and special topics. Just now I talked about the editor-in-chief Yoshihiko Neto, he is really a historical person, and the books he writes are not only works, but also "waiting for two bodies". But it should be said that he is an alternative in the field of historiography, and he has some revolutionary ideas. Of course, these revolutionary ideas have something to do with his experience, he was born in Yamanashi Prefecture, studied Japanese history at the University of Tokyo, and joined the Japanese Communist Party during his university studies, so he had very revolutionary ideas. Just now, Teacher Xiaofeng said that Neto has a revolutionary point of view: he overturned the view that Japan is a traditional agricultural society, believing that it is a maritime country. He also describes the history of a few people, including the history of walking merchants and wandering poets. Yoshihiko Yoshihiko Yoneno also had a revolutionary idea that the Uighurs were not Japanese.
The series revolves around his revolutionary ideas, combines the latest historical materials, and combs through the history of research. And it's for the public, which is not easy. My personal experience, I have a Japanese history essay, storytelling, told more than sixty stories, do not think that popular books are very easy to write, especially difficult to write, you have to master a lot of things to write, after engaging in academics too specialized, these things you can not write. So we have to read a lot of books when we do Japanese history. This set of books can tell the history of Japan, let you read it, and there are many inspirations, which is not easy. Now there is a saying: Xu Fu is not the first emperor of Japan? They used a lot of the latest historical materials, which were very detailed. By reading this book, you will have the best understanding of the latest research results in Japan.
Wang Yong: The main line of Japanese history is not like us, we are the family world, the change of surname revolution, the change of dynasty is relatively clear, and Japan is the migration of political space, as the political, cultural and economic center of the capital city migration, it means that a new era begins, the old era ends. So the capital of the Asuka period was in Asuka, the capital of the Nara period was in Nara, the capital of the Heian period was in Heian Kyo, and later the Kamakura period, the Muromachi period, and all the way to the Edo period, the capital was Kyoto.
My teacher had a bolder claim that after the end of the Edo period, the emperor moved the capital to Edo in the first year of the Meiji era, that is, Tokyo, so he called this era the "Tokyo era", but no one in Japanese academia responded. This shows that the Japanese era has its own characteristics. These ten books start from the Jomon and Yayoi periods in Japan, all the way to the Edo period, and finally to the Meiji period, and the history after the Meiji period is still changing, and it is left to be further confirmed, so it does not involve the Taisho period and the Showa period.
Now I would like to combine two issues, one is the characteristics of kodansha's set of books, and I will continue to talk about it. Why do these first-class experts write popular books that cater to popular tastes? This is relatively rare in China, but it is more common in Japan.
Tang Shigenan: Some of the views of Mr. Yoshihiko Netno in this set of books are revolutionary views, that is to say, these views are not the mainstream views of Japan, let alone the views that Chinese fully agree with, because our view of history and the method of engaging in Japanese studies are different, but they have special significance, they represent something that is very inspired by the frontier historians of Japanese scholarship, and they are appreciated by the people. Japan has a national history fever, and everyone cares about history, especially ancient history, and sometimes cares about it in great detail. The Japanese academic community is very serious about its own problems.
As for what Dai Jitao said, it is all said in history, Dai Jitao is talking about the past, and now China's study of Japan is no longer that the case, and our study of Japanese history in China has always been at the forefront of Japanese history. We have held many international conferences, and Japanese scholars also believe that Chinese scholars deserve the attention of Japanese scholars. At first, they thought that the study of Japanese history in China was also the level of elementary school students, and later it became the level of middle school students, and finally their authoritative Japanese scholars also began to pay attention to it.
Liu Xiaofeng: The translators of this set of books are very serious, and one of them is my friend, named Shi Xiaojun. Just now Mr. Tang talked about japan's national history, and the japanese national history particularly emphasized that the Japanese sent emissaries to China during the Sui and Tang dynasties and adopted an equal status with China. When Shi Xiaojun was in his early thirties, he wrote an article that was posted in a Japanese history magazine, saying that this was not right, why not? The envoy sent by Japan, Ono Meizi, the crown at that time was "Great Gift", ranking fifth in the twelfth rank of the crown, the envoy sent by the Sui Dynasty, Pei Shiqing, the official position was Wen Linlang, was the Eight Pins Official, equivalent to you sending me a foreign minister, I sent you a clerk, is this equal? If you feel unequal, you can not receive, but you received, what does it mean? So the translators of this set of books are really good, they are all very professional people, to say that this set of books can sell well in the future, the translation has a great contribution.
Wang Xinsheng: In this set of books, I wrote recommendations for four books. Volume 04 talks about the samurai in Japan, and how the samurai came to be, is also a revolutionary point of view. We traditionally talk about the origin of the Japanese samurai, saying that there were many manors in Japan at that time, and the lord of the manor armed himself to protect the land and became a samurai. But the book says that a samurai is a professional warrior, not necessarily a lord.
Of course, regarding the origin of the samurai, there is also a lot of debate in Japanese academic circles now. In the Heian period of Japan, the legion system was first practiced, and the legion system did not become a system later, and then the establishment system was introduced, and finally it became a local national government system. The book talks about the weapons used by Ezo prisoners, which played a great role in the appearance of samurai and was very clearly described. In the end, the samurai formed two major factions, genji and the Heiji clan, both descendants of the emperor. In ancient times, the emperor got married a lot, and there were quite a lot of children, and after giving birth to too many children, he could not raise them in the palace, so he put them in the place and demoted them to the subject's nationality, and his surname was Yuan, or Ping. To this day, Japan's Tennō is still the only family without a surname and no household registration, because the emperor's name is two characters, and it must also have a "Ren" character, such as the current Reiwa Emperor, whose name is "Naruhito", his father is "Akihito", and then "Hirohito", the emperor is now the 126th generation, which is very difficult.
There is a book here about the Nanboku Dynasty, the Ashikaga Clan followed Emperor Daigo, and then the two fell out and began to fight, and later created a Yoshino Imperial Court, the Southern and Northern Dynasties split, and finally in 1392, the third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu came to power, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were unified. This is the background of the story of "Smart Break". In fact, there are 15 generations of shoguns in the Muromachi shogunate, and the only one who has lived longer and ruled Japan for a long time is the third generation of general Ashikaga Yoshiman, and this person has a special relationship with China, that is, he engaged in a survey trade with the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the Yongle Emperor.
Back to the origin of the samurai, Genji and Heiji. One of the things that is particularly interesting about the book is that the customs of Japan are completely different. It is interesting to say that during the Jomon period, Japan had a population of 300,000, most of which was concentrated in the Kanto Region, where there were more grasslands in the Eastern Plains. The Yayoi people crossed the sea from the mainland and lived mainly in Kansai, which is now Kyoto and Osaka. Tokyo is in the Kanto region and was first built in the 15th century, when it was still relatively desolate, and it was not until the Edo period that Tokyo was really developed. So that place in eastern Japan used to be a plain, suitable for raising horses, samurai fighting to fight horses to ride horses, Japanese samurai are more luxurious than European knights, we have seen "Don Quixote", Don Quixote led a servant Sancho, but Japanese samurai to fight at least three people. Therefore, the samurai in the Kanto region were the first to rise. Genrai Dynasty, a representative of the Genji samurai, was exiled to the Izu Kingdom in his early years, and in the Kanto region, his base was in Kamakura, also in the Kanto, and he was very simple. Later, he defeated the Hira clan in Kyoto, fearing that his samurai would be corrupted in Kyoto and unable to fight, so he took power in Kamakura. To this day, we know that the confrontation between the Kansai and Kanto in Japan is particularly fierce, and when you go to Tokyo to take the elevator, you have to stand on the left, and when you get to Osaka, you have to stand on the right. Therefore, these things have historical roots, and the Muromachi shogunate liked the nobility, so they set the place of government in Kyoto.
Kodansha History of Japan in ten volumes
Wang Yong: Time relationship, the following time is left for readers to ask questions.
Question: The influence of the Tang Dynasty on Japan was very profound, including "mountains and rivers are exotic, the wind and moon are the same day", which is also an affirmation of Jian Zhen's transmission of Buddhism in Japan. I would like to ask you that buddhism and Confucianism have had a profound impact on Japan, but Taoism has no splash. How many teachers have any thoughts on this matter?
Liu Xiaofeng: You asked a very good question, this question is very important, the Japanese record of Beimihu "things ghost way, can confuse the public", what is that ghost way? We see that many things spread to Japan in the Han Dynasty, for example, when the Japanese came to China, the emperor specially rewarded them with a hundred bronze mirrors, why did they specially reward the Japanese with bronze mirrors? Because this is what the Japanese need, it has to do with where their souls go after they are buried. Chinese Taoism had spread to Japan during the Han Dynasty and had entered Japan's most primitive religious system.
By the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Taoism as a national religion had spread not as smoothly as Buddhism and Confucianism. However, Taoism still spread to Japan. Let's take an example, we are talking about Buddhism is very complicated, because after Buddhism entered China, it did not always maintain the original appearance of Indian Buddhism, because it is difficult for it to take root in China. The greatest power in China is the emperor, what is the concern of the emperor? I have all the beauty, the treasure, the power in this world, everything, but I will grow old, I will die, how can I live forever? Taoism gave the answer, while Buddhism did not, Buddhism needs to strengthen this piece, so there are many sutras in Buddhism, the content is to bless the emperor for eternal life, these sutras are all pseudo-scriptures. Why are these apocryphals made? In order to adapt to the political power framework of ancient China. At that time, Many monks were sent from Japan, and what they brought back were all tantric scriptures, and many of the tantras were related to the life expectancy of the emperor and the life of people.
When I studied the Japanese emperor, I was concerned about a question: When the emperor succeeded to the throne, how did the "emperor spirit" spread? They have a particularly important ceremony, called the Great Tasting Festival, which is a ceremony held when the new emperor is practicing zuo, and many of the details in it are imitating Taoism, indicating that Taoism has entered the core content of Japanese religious rituals. So it is not that Taoism did not spread the past, but that it did not spread the past on a large scale and in a systematic way.
Q: Recently, watching some Japanese movies, I would like to ask, in 2019, when I was walking at Kyoto University, I found that there is a centennial lecture hall, what is the relationship between the centennial lecture hall of Kyoto University and the centennial lecture hall of Peking University? What is the relationship between Peking University and Kyoto University? I walked around their campus a little bit unsure where to go, and it felt like I was walking in China.
Wang Xinsheng: Although I am not graduated from Kyoto University, I have done management work in the history department of Peking University, and we have an exchange with Peking University, we have a meeting every year, send teachers to go, and I am familiar with Beijing University.
When KYU was founded in 1897, it was the second imperial university in Japan. The first imperial university was the University of Tokyo, founded in 1886. The third is Tohoku University, which is engaged in practical research, and was founded in Sendai in 1907. The second imperial university, its academic, especially its Chinese school of influence is particularly large. In order to pay reparations for the Sino-Japanese War, Japan set up two Special China Research Groups, one is now the Institute of East Asian Cultures at the University of Tokyo, and the other is the Institute of Chinese Studies in Kyoto, which really had a great impact on China at that time. The more left-wing in Japan are basically university teachers and students. Japanese universities have a tradition of autonomy, and the police are not allowed to enter the campus. About ten years ago, kyoto's police officer Qiao disguised himself and sneaked into Kyokyo University, was discovered by the students, and was beaten up, and later all the newspapers praised the students for doing a good job. This is probably an introduction to Kyoto University.
Liu Xiaofeng: I just talked about the emperor of Japan, the emperor returned to Kyoto, and everyone went to the street to welcome him. Kyoto University students and teachers also stood in the street to protest against the emperor, but when the emperor came, they all turned their butts at the emperor, which is Kyoto University.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhong Yuan
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang