Japanese New Immigrant Literature

To many people in China, Japan is a country that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Ancient Japan learned from China, so there are many similarities between Japanese culture and China, but there are also many unique places in Japanese culture. For example, there were eunuchs in ancient China, but not in Japan. Why is this?

During the Dahua Reform, Japan studied the culture of the Tang Dynasty without reservation, but did not adopt the eunuch system and imperial examination system of the Tang Dynasty. Why? This is sometimes considered a mystery in Japanese history. If you don't adopt, you may be "unwilling" to adopt or "unnecessary" to adopt. If it is unwilling to adopt it, then Japan must have a higher value judgment at that time that China culture was "bad" in those two points, so it was unwilling to adopt it.

China has formed a feudal centralization of authority headed by the emperor since Qin Shihuang. The emperor is the son of heaven, and his position is supreme. In China, eunuchs are the inner ministers of the emperor, and their duties basically extend from the private affairs of the emperor and the harem. When an emperor is faced with the consorts who are easy to hold the young master hostage, generals who hold the relieving power, gentry handed down from generation to generation, and imperial examination groups with students all over the world, if the emperor's prestige is not enough (for example, he has just ascended the throne), he will feel that his position is unstable, and those ministers are actually outsiders in his eyes. However, eunuchs do have playmates who grew up with him. Eunuchs generally have no children and no family inheritance. The power they have is hard to pass on, and the social discrimination against them is hard to eliminate. It is almost impossible for them to seek usurpation. In contrast, eunuchs are much safer. Therefore, eunuchs, as a special political force, are active on the stage of China history.

According to the current records, castration has never been used as a punishment on a large scale in Japan, so it is impossible to have enough eunuchs to hold political positions. Some people think that castration was invented late in Japan because the early animal husbandry was underdeveloped, which is also a reasonable explanation. Some researchers also believe that castration, as a punishment, was widely used in the early wars with foreigners. For example, there were a large number of records of castration of prisoners of war in ancient Egypt, and Japan did not have a fierce war with foreign countries in the early days because of its geographical location, so there was no penalty similar to castration, which is also a more reasonable explanation.

Secondly, the wives and concubines of the Japanese royal family are limited, and they are generally directly managed by older women, so there is no need to recruit more men to assist in management, so there is no eunuch system like China. Finally, since the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, the secular power of the emperor has been restricted for a long time, and their main characteristics are spiritual symbols and spiritual leaders. Although there have been several attempts to fight for power and profit, most of them have failed. In the unified dynasty of China, it is really difficult to cultivate a new political group with real power like the emperor.

Japan's imperial power has been shelved, and those iron-fisted ministers who can control the land and put in a good word are nominal emperors. A prominent phenomenon in Japanese history is that a person does not gain power by being awarded a title. On the contrary, it is often because of the power that a person holds that his title is endowed with noble meaning. Under this kind of politics, the emperor is often dependent on others, and the imperial power of the Japanese royal family has never reached the height of emperor China's centralization, so its royal treatment is naturally inferior to that of China. As an extension of power symbol, eunuchs have never appeared on the historical stage of Japan.

As we all know, ancient Japanese culture mainly benefited from the absorption and integration of China culture. During the 4th-5th century, under the great influence of China's ancient civilization, the Japanese passed the barbaric period and entered the civilized period. Especially in the Han Dynasty, Japan established four counties, and a large number of Han Chinese immigrated to Japan. During the reign of Emperor Xionglue alone, as many as 1.8 million people immigrated to Japan.

The process of cultural absorption is long. In terms of literature, system, costumes, architecture and sects, Japan is just like China. Covering with water is inevitable.

For example, the ruling idea of ancient Japan was completely influenced by Confucianism, with Confucian politics as the core and throughout; After Confucianism was introduced into Japan, "filial piety" became a recognized moral norm; In literature, early Japanese folk songs were completely imitated by China. The most valuable Ye Wan Collection and Huaifengzao are written in phonetic Chinese characters, namely "Ye Wan's pen name", which is equivalent to China's The Book of Songs. Architecturally, ancient Japan was greatly influenced by Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the structure of Pingcheng Well was very similar to Chang 'an.

Ancient Japanese learned from China everywhere, but there were also many unique places. For example, there is no eunuch class in Japan.

Japanese scholar Sang Yuan Haruko once wrote an article, the eunuch of China. The article said: China's institutional cultural relics have been widely used in China since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but the eunuch system has not been used, which is indeed a good thing.

It can be said that it is right. It is not that I don't want to learn, but that I am too backward to learn.

Eunuchs nowadays are almost all negative images in TV dramas and novels. Although many people have made great contributions, such as Sima Qian and Zheng He, there are only a handful. This is not intentional blackening, but eunuch, which essentially represents meanness, jealousy and darkness.

Therefore, as far as the eunuch system is concerned, Japan is indeed lucky.

Then, why was there no eunuch class in ancient Japan?

Generally speaking, there are three reasons.

First, there is no advanced castration technology. As we all know, castration is a very demanding technical activity, but in ancient Japan, there was no such thing as castration, and I knew nothing about it. This is also related to the underdevelopment of early animal husbandry in Japan. After all, castration is applied to animals. They don't care about castration. They can't love horses or lovers.

Second, there is less contact with other ethnic groups and the country is closed. In fact, the early eunuchs were not eunuchs, but prisoners, and castration was used to punish prisoners of war. In feudal society, eunuchs appeared gradually. Because of its geographical location, Japan did not have a large-scale war with foreigners in the early days, so there was no cruel punishment like castration.

Third, the court is not large enough. The ancient Japanese court was not as luxurious as the ancient harem in China. The root of eunuch class is the jealousy of rulers. The harem is very big. In order to ensure the chastity of concubines in three palaces and six hospitals, it is necessary to castrate the men around them. In ancient Japan, on the one hand, there were not many concubines in the court, on the other hand, the system of female officials was extremely developed, and female officials perfectly replaced eunuchs, and there was no need for eunuchs at all.

Eunuch is a special group, which was seriously distorted in feudal society. No Country for Old Men, life and death are up to people. It not only represents the oppression and exploitation of human nature in feudal society for two thousand years, but also is an influential political force in feudal society.

Generally speaking, Japan really hit the nail on the head in this respect. Instead of learning, it has become a good thing. And the reason they gave-being influenced by Buddhism and following the right path-was too exaggerated. After all, they have done more cruel things.