Sinofication Case

During the Post-Classical period, core civilizations had a great impact on the smaller, peripheral regions around them. One large well-developed and complex civilization of the Post-Classical period that greatly influenced its neighbors was China. This process was called Sinification, the process which other societies emulating Chinese culture and aspects. China’s neighboring countries, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, not only were under the influence of Sinification but also many of their own culture remained indigenous.

Korea, the landbridge between China and Japan, although it has kept some of its aspects indigenous, it was still the most sinified out of the three. One of the many things Korea received from China was Buddhism. A worldwide culture that is practiced by millions today. In depth, the higher social classes practiced Zen Buddhist and the peasants practiced Pure Land Buddhism. Chinese writing was introduced, although it was difficult in adapting Chinese characters to the spoken Korean language. In addition, Confucianism also sparked in Korea as there were universities to educate the youth. Furthermore, Korea adopted many farming and metalworking techniques from China and were introduced to many manufactured goods. On the other hand, Korea also had some of its own culture that remained indigenous. For example their style of government remained unchanged as they failed to emulate the Chinese bureaucracy as Korean land owning nobles knew this would minimize their power. As Korea was the most sinified out of Japan and Vietnam, this was mainly the case because Korea directly borders China as its neighboring country.

Japan also went through the process of Sinification. It wasn’t the most sinified like Korea, therefore it has kept more of its own culture indigenous. In 646 C.E., the Japanese government embarked upon the Taika reforms, which was an attempt to reconstruct the Japanese imperial government upon the Chinese bureaucracy. Also, it introduced a technique called the equal-field system in which they used for agriculture and the implication of the civil service exams. In addition, Japan received the influence of Buddhism in which it was then combined with Shintoism to form Tendai Buddhism. Furthermore, Japanese scholars have taken in Chinese script and Confucian classics on the behalf of simplifying it. Although this may seem that it’s in Japan’s favor, the Taika Reforms that consisted of all of these emulations of