Nara time
The Nara period ( Japanese 奈良 時代 , Nara jidai ) in the history of Japan covers the years 710 to 794. Empress (Tennō) Gemmei moved the capital to Heijō-kyō (now Nara ). Heijō-kyō remained the capital until the Kammu- tennō moved it to Nagaoka-kyō in 784 - and a decade later to Heian-kyō ( Kyōto ).
Most of Japanese society during this period was agricultural around villages. Most of the villagers followed religiously the Shinto , which is based on the worship of the spirits of nature and the ancestors ( Kami ).
The capital was based on the model of Chang'an ( Xi'an ), the capital of Tang - China (618–907). The upper classes emulated the Chinese in other matters too, e. B. in the adoption of the Chinese script ( Kanji ) and Buddhism as a religion.
Economic, social and government developments
Because of the Shinto notion that a place is spiritually polluted by the death of a person, it was customary until the Asuka period and before the Taihō Code was introduced to relocate the capital after the death of every Tennō. Reforms and the bureaucratization of the government led in 710 to the establishment of the permanent imperial capital Heijō-kyō or Nara. This capital gave its name to the new era and was the first real urban center in Japan. It soon had a population of 200,000, nearly 4% of the country's total population. Around 10,000 officials were employed at the court.
Economic and state activities increased during the Nara period. Roads connected Nara with the provincial capitals and taxes were collected more efficiently and regularly. Coins were minted, although not widely used. There was little trade outside of the Nara area. In the provinces, the old system of land ownership that had been created as part of the Taika Reform - in the spirit of Prince Shōtoku - had faded .
In the middle of the 8th century, due to the erosion of the land distribution system based on the Chinese model, the share of shōen (feudal landed property) increased. This was mainly caused by three factors:
- Attempts by the government to secure the loyalty of officials by giving them inheritable land
- Land reclaimed through reclamation did not fall under the land distribution system
- Gradual avoidance of the redistribution and tax burden by binding the landowners to powerful (tax-exempt) noble families.
The administrative system of the era was known as the Ritsuryō .
The wing fighting at the imperial court continued throughout the Nara period. Imperial family members, senior court families such as the Fujiwara, and Buddhist priests continued to contend for influence. The Shōmu - Tennō already had a new capital ( Kuni ) built for three years without moving into it. In the late Nara period, the financial burdens on the state increased and the court laid off unnecessary officials. In 792 compulsory military service was abolished and the district chiefs were allowed to maintain private militia forces for local police duties. Decentralization of government became the rule, despite the reforms of the Nara period. Finally, in order to regain control in imperial hands, the capital was relocated to Nagaoka , about 16 miles north of Nara, in 784 . The venture was abandoned before completion, because in 794 the resettlement to Heian-kyō ( capital of peace and tranquility ) took place. In the late 11th century , this city was commonly called Kyōto ( capital ).
Cultural developments
literature
The efforts of the imperial court to record and document its history gave rise to the first works of Japanese literature . Works such as the Kojiki (712) and the Nihonshoki (720) were of a political nature and served to highlight the importance of the Japanese imperial family in relation to China and Korea by depicting the mythological roots and the long genealogy of the ruling house.
With the spread of the written language, Japanese poetry ( waka ) and prose ( setsuwa ) became firmly established in writing . Over time, personal collections were amalgamated, and around 759 the first large collection of Japanese poetry Man'yōshū ( Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves ) was created. The Kaifūsō (懐 風 藻), a collection of poems written in Chinese by Japanese emperors and princes, was also created. The oldest surviving setsuwa work is the Nihon Ryōiki .
Before the development of the Kana, a form of Chinese characters provided with special markings, the so-called Kanbun or Han script, served as script.
Spread of Buddhism
Another significant cultural development at that time was the establishment of Buddhism in Japan . Buddhism was introduced as early as the 6th century, but met with divided approval. This only changed in the Nara period, when it was enthusiastically accepted by Emperor Shōmu . Emperor Shōmu and his Fujiwara friends were ardent Buddhists. They actively contributed to its dissemination, instrumentalized it as the “guardian of the state” and strengthened Japanese institutions through further adaptation to Chinese models, most of which were conveyed through Korea.
During Shōmus rule the Tōdai-ji ( Great Eastern Temple ) was built, inside a 16 m high gilded bronze statue Adibuddha (Japanese Dainichi , Great Sun ). This Buddha was identified with the sun goddess . From this point on, there was a gradual syncretism between Buddhism and Shinto ( Shinbutsu-Shūgō ). Shōmu declared himself to be the "servant of the three treasures" of Buddhism: the Buddha, the teachings of Buddhism and the Buddhist community. At his instigation, Kegon and Ritsu were also introduced, which together with four other schools became the "six Buddhist schools of Nara".
The central government also built provincial temples called Kokubunji in the provinces. The Tōdai-ji was their center and at the same time the Kokubunji of Yamato Province .
Although these efforts to make Buddhism the state religion suddenly ceased, Nara Buddhism elevated the status of the imperial family. The Buddhist influence at court increased under the two reigns of Shōmu's daughter. As Empress Kōken (reign from 749-758) she brought many Buddhist priests to the court. Kōken abdicated in 758. This happened on the advice of her cousin Fujiwara Nakamaro , who was also Chancellor and in this position also served Kōken's son Junnin .
There followed a power struggle between the abdicated empress, who had taken a Buddhist faith healer named Dōkyō as a lover. She had her son deposed and took the throne again as Empress Shotoku . Thereupon Nakamaro 764 raised his arms. However, he was quickly thrown down. Kōken accused Junnin of conspiracy with Nakamaro and had him banished to Awaji . The empress ordered the printing of 1 million prayer talismans - the Hyakumanto dharani - of which many specimens, placed in small clay pagodas, have been preserved. These small scrolls from 770 are among the earliest works in print in the world. Empress Shōtoku had these talismans made to appease the Buddhist clergy. Their approach - and the attempt to make Dōkyō (co-) emperor - shocked the Nara society and ultimately led to the exclusion of women from the line of succession and the removal of Buddhist priests from political offices.
Her successor Konin from a sideline of the imperial family caused the capital to be relocated, also to avoid the influence of the Buddhist clergy.
Relations with foreign countries
The court in Nara aggressively introduced "civilization" based on the Chinese model. Diplomatic envoys were regularly sent to the Tang Court for this purpose . Ordinary Japanese were not allowed to travel abroad. Foreigners were only allowed to enter and leave the country via the port of Hakata in the Dazaifu Special Military Administrative Region in northern Kyushu. This authority strictly controlled the trade and tried to prevent contact between foreigners and locals as much as possible.
Many Japanese scholars, both laypeople and Buddhist priests, studied in Chang'an and Luoyang . They got there as members of the embassies, which often comprised several hundred members. A scholar named Abe no Nakamaro passed the state entrance exam and got a government post in China. He served as governor general in Annam (now central Vietnam) from 761 to 767. Many scholars who returned home were offered high government positions, such as Kibi no Mabi .
Tang China itself never sent official envoys to Japan, as the Japanese Tennōs never asked for recognition from China. Such would have required recognition of the sovereignty of the Chinese emperor. A local Chinese government in the lower Yangzi Valley sent an embassy to Japan to repatriate Japanese envoys who entered China through the Manchurian Kingdom of Bohai ( Cor. Parhae ). This local Chinese embassy was unable to return home due to the An Lushan uprising and was eventually naturalized in Japan.
Relations with the neighboring kingdom of Silla were brisk after the aftermath of the war of the 670s (Japan supported the Paekche kingdom ) had been overcome. After that, diplomatic embassies were exchanged regularly.
The rise of the Bohai Kingdom in Northeast Asia destabilized Japan-Silla relations. In 728 Bohai sent his first embassy across the Sea of Japan to Nara. Japan welcomed the Bohai legation as the kingdom was a sort of restoration of the ancient Goguryeo kingdom , which Japan was allied with until it was conquered by Tang China and Silla in 668. The friendly diplomatic and commercial relations with Bohai continued until the Manchurian kingdom was conquered by the Kitan in the 10th century . On the other hand, relations with Silla deteriorated year after year as the Nara court claimed suzerainty over Silla.
Web links
literature
- Roger Bersihand: History of Japan: From the Beginnings to the Present . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1963
- Hans A. Dettmer: Basic features of the history of Japan . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-01368-9
- Ronald E. Dolan, Robert L. Worden (Eds.): "Nara and Heian Periods, AD 710-1185" Japan: A Country Study . 1994, Library of Congress, Federal Research Division. (engl.)
- Lucien Ellington: Japan. 2009, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-162-6 . (engl.)
- Wybe Kuitert: Two Early Japanese Gardens. 1991. (engl.)
- Craig A. Lockard: Societies Networks And Transitions: Volume B From 600 To 1750. 2009, Wadsworth. ISBN 978-1-4390-8540-0 . (engl.)
- Akihito Suzuki: Smallpox and the Epidemiological Heritage of Modern Japan: Towards a Total History. July 2011, Medical History. 55 (3): 313. (Eng.)
- William Wayne Farris: The Historical Demography of Japan to 1700 (Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History). 2017, Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415707022 . (engl.)
- George C. Kohn: Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present. 2002, Princeton, New Jersey: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816048939 . (engl.)
- Ann Bowman Jannetta: Epidemics and Mortality in Early Modern Japan. 2014, New York: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0816048939 . (engl.)