The year is 1912. In this year, the Titanic sank, the Balkan wars began, and China ended over 2,000 years under imperial rule.

Emperor Pu Yi was removed from power – the last emperor of the Qing dynasty (also known as Manchu dynasty) and the last emperor China would ever possess. Sun Yat Sen became the first president of the Republic of China after revolution erupted. The people of China had blamed their troubles on their rulers resulting in the formation of the Chinese republic. However, the republic collapsed by 1916 and warlords (local generals) controlled the majority of China.

Today, we all know China as a communist nation. The events starting in the year 1912 can be described by an historian as those leading to the Communist Party taking control of China – but what caused the end to a long history of imperial rule and why did communism come to favour over democracy?  

The basic overview of communism vs nationalism/democracy goes something like this…

When Sun Yat Sen died in 1925, Kuomintang (nationalist political party in the Republic of China, established in 1919) was divided; as well as China herself. The army commander Chiang Kai Shek had North and South East China, while the communists were in Central China. The communists were expelled from Kuomintang which led to organised riots. Both nationalists and communists fought for control of China during the 1920’s and 30’s. Mao Zedong became leader of the Communist Party in 1935, only two years before China was thrown into war with Japan, and Mao extended communist control over China. Civil war took place between 1945 and 1949, the communists won and Mao Zedong became chairman of the People’s Republic of China.

Mao Zedong

Ultimately, that’s the most simplified summary of it all. Now back to 1912. As a nation, China wanted to remain individual: forces from the United Kingdom and Japan invading and influencing China was considered a threat as the Chinese people did not want to lose themselves to outside ideas or religions. As I mentioned before, the blame fell straight to the ruling emperor, however when imperial rule was abolished the people discovered political chaos. A weak democratic government and rising communism was enough to throw the country into turmoil for years before the communist party came out on top. While democracy was failing to aid China, the people (namely those who already supported communism) looked to other nearby countries; namely Russia - who they saw to be strong because of communism. So with that background, what led to the communists asserting their leadership?After Sun Yat Sen’s death (1925), General Chian Kai Shek – as the new leader of the Kuomintang – worked with the communist party to defeat the warlords who had taken control of various points of China, as well as Japan who had invaded in the East. However, in contrast to this, Kai Shek turned against the communists in 1927 and executed a large number of members of communist-backed labour unions. This caused the remaining (surviving) communists to flee. During a major event known as “The Long March”, the Red Army (communist army, known as this due to red being a colour associated with communism) escaped to the Shaanxi province approximately 9,700km away. This event took place in 1934, and was named as “The Long March” by Mao Zedong who emerged as communist party leader after the 368-day feat. During Mao’s December 1936 speech, he described the Long March as a heroic event, stating that it “proclaimed to the world that the red army is an army of heroes” (translation located in text “World book’s documenting history the Chinese revolution, published by World book Inc. U.S.A. by Joseph Harris).

1945 was the year that the USA dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, forcing their surrender. While the Second World War had drawn Japanese troops out of China, the fighting had continued in the East, where the Japanese had invaded Manchuria in 1931. The communist forces had captured General Chiang and only released him once an end to the civil war was agreed on in order to join forces and defend against Japan. Of course, this didn’t last long. Despite this, in 1949 the communists had the support of China’s peasant majority and stronger military tactics; the Soviet Union supplying the communist weapons was also an aid to the eminent victory. The nationalist government became increasingly corrupt and unpopular with the Chinese people, while the communists appealed to larger numbers and were able to earn control of large areas of Northern China during the civil war. By December 1939, General Chiang and his supporters fled to the Chinese Island of Taiwan after the U.S. Army General George C. Marshal failed to sort out a peace arrangement. And so, the civil war was brought to an end. The People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949, Beijing became the new capitol and China allied itself with the Soviet Union (along with other communist powers).

1949 Mao and Stalin in Moscow during Stalin birthday celebration, December 1949

The communist government brought land and wealth under state control, and eventually resulted in China becoming a one-party state with no opposition allowed; only communist ideas could be published or broadcast due to propaganda and censorship.

During approximately 40 years of struggle, both nationalist and communist supporters died – around 60,000 communists died during the Long March alone. The death total of the Chinese revolution was 30 million - according to the Chinese government, that is.

China remains communist, despite events like the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 as a part of a democracy movement (which of course resulted in multiple executions) and Mao Zedong’s death in 1976 (September 9th).

China’s problems with fitting into the modern world caused what an historian could describe as a domino effect setting off the end to imperial rule and a rivalry between communism and democracy which created the civil war. We know from events like the Vietnam War (in which the Vietcong were aided by China) that Mao Zedong formed one of, if not the first “people’s war” and that after all the inner commotion churning within China, it came out as a communist state. And this has been a very brief summary on how and why China became that communist state.

Caitlin

“Chinese influences on Japan affecting historical development”

When we think of Asia it is generally China and Japan which come to mind first. Culturally, Japan and China have both similarities and differences; maybe that is why we in the Western world tend to view them closely together. Seeing certain similarities between the two is not an uncommon thing; like many other countries Japan was influenced by the Chinese throughout history as China continuously developed and expanded.

It was the year 57AD when Japan was first mentioned in Chinese history, during the Japanese Yayoi period (300BC-300AD). This earliest known written record of Japan from a Chinese source stated that the Nakoku state of Wa – “Wa” being the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese name for Japan – received a golden seal from an Emperor of the Han dynasty (Emperor Guangwu). This source was recorded by Hou Han Shu, or “history of the later Han”; 143 years before the invention of sushi - Japan’s national dish - and 182 years before the first recorded Japanese envoy visited China.

As you might expect, China had little chance of not influencing Japan, being an Asian country located near China which was behind in civilisation and technological development. Although, unlike other Asian countries – namely those located to the South of China, like Vietnam, the Japanese never lost sight of their own culture - Japan retained cultural and political independence from China. While aspects of China were adopted by Japan, the use of selecting, borrowing, adapting and importing allowed the Japanese people to control the flow of Chinese ideas into the country. In the words of Professor Peter Stearns, Japan “initiated and controlled the process of cultural borrowing from China.” For a country as advanced as China to do this with what Japan was at the time, this was of huge benefit to Japan; the Japanese were able to become fully civilised and through the process of controlled selection, they were never sucked into becoming dominated by the Chinese. But how can we know it was all voluntary and controlled? We can infer this because Japan has, and has always, remained politically independent from China.

It is clear that China was able to influence Japan – so what ways does this include?

Hiragana(Red)/Katakana(Blue)/Romanization(Gray)

What I find to be the most notable similarity and influence is the writing system. In the year 500, the Chinese writing system was adopted and adapted as the first writing system of Japan. This opened the way (with difficulties) for new aspects for Japanese culture; the ability to write and record – which as historians, we can clearly understand the importance of. Of course, this was later adapted on; the Chinese and Japanese languages are very different, so in order for their writing system to suit the Japanese system Hiragana, and later Katakana, were later developed within Japan. However, it was still a large step up from having no writing system. The Japanese were in this way able to study religious and political texts that originated in China – Chinese then could be compared to Latin in Europe, scholars over Asia were able to read Chinese texts, including those from Korea; with this influence, Japan joined those countries. Men wrote in Chinese, documents were written in Chinese; the Japanese adapted the characters to transliterate their own language. Robert Oxnam, a China scholar, states that this writing system as “a fundamental aspect of Japanese culture [having] foreign roots but a uniquely Japanese expression.” In this way, I would describe this development as a key influence of China upon Japanese civilisation.

Naturally, the influence does not stop there. Another major aspect of Chinese culture affecting and influencing Japan was the introduction of Buddhism, which altered the culture through more than just religion. It was during the year 593 when the Soga clan ruling over Japan at the time promoted Buddhism – though it had been introduced earlier than that. In the year 605, Prince Shotoku – the one who originally promoted Buddhism in Japan – declared Buddhism, along with Confucianism, the state religions of Japan. Even in Japan today Buddhism, along with Shintoism, major in the Japanese religious department. Through the introduction of Buddhism came new ideas in architecture; Buddhist temples and their architectural ideas featuring their curved roof style were a result of Chinese influence. This, once again, is still a relevant feature of Japanese culture today.

Butsuden 仏殿 at Myōshin-ji in Kyoto, Japan. Head head temple of the associated branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism

And so it continues. Styles of government were shaped by China; an early example of this is in the year 400 when the Yamato culture ruled over Japan from Kyushu to Kinai plane through being modelled after China. City planning resulting in the shaping of roads copying that of China’s, art and clothing in Japan were all influenced by China. For example, the kimono is an aspect of Japanese culture we can easily recognise; this was in fact inspired by fashion of the Han period. After reading this, I instantly related back to the Emperor’s dress clothes displayed in Te Papa museum earlier this year and could understand the similarities. The resemblance can be seen within the shape, colour, and material style of the clothing. 

So, once again, a prominent feature of Japanese culture, while being distinctively Japanese, was “inspired” by China.

Other features such as paintings and decorative scrolls were also affected by China through Buddhist influence; Chinese ink and fine paper, calligraphy as an art form, music, and masked dramas (Gingaku) are all aspects of Japan influenced by China.

Though, being two completely different places with different levels of resource accessibility, and ultimately different cultures, not everything Chinese-inspired worked out for Japan. For example, bureaucracies (a word thankfully more complicated to spell than it is to comprehend) which were stimulated from Chinese government resulted in inconveniencing Japanese peasants. Of course, there are also characteristically Japanese aspects of culture which do not link to Chinese culture – China had imperial soldiers, but Samurai and ninja are distinctively Japanese; in earlier history Japan never practically had an army, though they did possess Samurai warriors. While contact was forbidden with China by the Japanese emperor in 838, during years both prior and afterwards the histories and cultures of Japan and China often cross paths. Despite this early cut between the two countries’ ties, a (much) later example of how close China and Japan were in ancient times could be found in the year 1641 where Tokugawa Iemitsu (third Shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty) banned all foreigners except those who were Chinese or Dutch. Through both action and culture, we can clearly see that China has had a long-term historical effect on Japanese historical development.

I find that overall, Japan has made the most of its Chinese influences through its historical developments while at the same time remaining an individual, distinguishable country; their early interactions helped shape Japan into what we recognise now. Part of Japan remaining so individual comes down to the actions Japan took to develop and adapt Chinese influences instead of adopting them; Chinese influences are what an historian could describe as important stepping stones of Japanese history which enabled the historical development to occur in a way which resulted in the formation of modern Japan and the Japanese culture we recognise and admire.

Caitlin