Who is the Japanese? Are they really descendants of China?

China and Japan belong to the cultural circle of Chinese characters. However, you will find that there are many differences in Japanese culture. The Japanese are conservative, elegant and polite, but they are very militant and open to sex, which is a bit difficult to understand. Today we will talk about who the Japanese are.

First: Japanese archaeology.

It is a common sense that Japan is an island country, and its residents are all from land. So there is no doubt that the Japanese must be from Eurasia. The Japanese are also very keen to discuss "the origin of the Japanese nation" and "where the Japanese come from". However, Japanese archaeologists and historians never dig the tombs of emperors, and the tombs of emperors in past dynasties are well preserved.

Members of the Japanese royal family, Emperor Hirohito and Emperor Akihito.

Before the end of World War II, the Japanese emperor had already published the "Declaration on Earth", that is, he admitted that he was a human being, not a descendant of God. According to reason, Japanese archaeologists and historians want to dig the tombs of emperors, and they have not desecrated the sacredness of emperors. There are 158 giant mausoleums in Japan, all of which were built in the 4th to 7th centuries. If the Japanese want to find out their origins and conduct archaeological excavations of the emperor's mausoleum, they can easily find the answer. However, it is not good for Japan to find out the real origin of the Japanese royal family, because these early emperors were inextricably linked with the Qin and Han Dynasties in China, and even related to the later Baekje.

The Japanese don't carry out archaeological excavations of the emperor's mausoleum, but they are very keen on discovering Paleolithic and Neolithic sites. The more Japanese advance Japanese history, the easier it is to prove that Japanese history has nothing to do with China history. Because the Japanese tend to dig stone age sites and tombs, the number of Neolithic sites discovered in Japan far exceeds that in China, but this does not mean that there are more Neolithic sites in Japan than in China, just because the Japanese are keen on digging, so they find more.

Sites of the Yayoi Age in Japan

Therefore, the Japanese themselves have some preconceived ideas about the origin of the Japanese.

Second: Where did the Japanese come from?

Japan's geographical position is quite similar to that of Britain, but the Japanese archipelago is more isolated than the British Isles. The Japanese archipelago is closer to the Eurasian continent than180km, while the narrowest part of the English Channel is only 34km. The history of Britain is deeply influenced by the history of Europe, and Britain is often conquered by continental European countries. English, like Dutch and German, belongs to the Germanic family of Indo-European languages. Although English is very different from French, Italian and Spanish in grammar, it still belongs to the Indo-European family. Japanese archipelago is relatively isolated from the world, so Chinese and Japanese do not belong to the same language family, Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family, Japanese belongs to Altai language family, and Korean and Japanese belong to Altai language family. There are many similarities in grammar rules between Japanese and Korean, but there are few basic words between them. The difference between Japanese and Korean is far greater than that between English and German.

The location of the Japanese archipelago

Although the Japanese archipelago is isolated from the world, in the history of civilization, with the progress of human navigation technology, the relationship between the Japanese archipelago and the Eurasian continent is close. Therefore, although Chinese, Japanese and Korean do not belong to the same language family, about 70% of Japanese and Korean words come from Chinese characters. This uniqueness of Japanese people is actually very similar to the uniqueness of Japanese genes.

Nonobunaga Oda was a Japanese in16th century.

Before the invention of Chinese characters, Japanese ancestors arrived in Japanese archipelago one after another. The earliest time can be traced back to 500 thousand years ago. During the ice age, the main islands of Japan were connected with Eurasia. The stone tools in northern Japan are very similar to those in northern China and Siberia, while those in southern Japan are somewhat similar to those in southern China. Before human beings invented ships, Japanese ancestors walked to the Japanese archipelago while hunting large mammals. Among them, Ainu people still live in Hokkaido, Japan. The Ainu people seem to be the aborigines of the Japanese archipelago, but they are very different from the main residents of Japan in appearance. The Japanese are not descendants of Ainu people. Because at that time, people from many parts of Eurasia landed on the Japanese archipelago from different places, even including people from Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Of course, according to archaeological findings, we can know that these residents are mainly from North China and Siberia in China.

34,000 years ago, stone tools from North China in China were widely spread in southern Japan, indicating that the residents in southern Japan were mainly from North China in China. By 20,000 years ago, stone tools from Siberia had spread to northern Japan. These two kinds of stone tools coexisted in Japan 6.5438+0.5 million years ago, but after 6.5438+0.5 million years, stone tools from Siberia have spread to the whole country.

The above is the general situation of Paleolithic Japan. We don't know what happened in Paleolithic Japan. We can only infer the origin of the Japanese from the stone tools found in archaeological sites.

Third: the age of rope pattern

About 13000 years ago, the global climate warmed, glaciers around the world began to melt, and the part of the Japanese archipelago connected with Eurasia sank to the bottom of the sea again, and Japan was isolated from the world again. Therefore, in the next 10000 years, the Japanese archipelago had little contact with China.

We usually think that Japan is a country lacking in resources. In fact, the "lack of resources" here only refers to mineral resources and fossil fuels needed by industrial civilization, not agricultural resources. The Japanese archipelago is actually an island rich in food resources. Japan is a temperate country with the most rainfall in the world. As an island country, the rainfall in Britain is almost the same all year round, but the rainfall in Japan is concentrated in summer, which can be said to be the same period of rain and heat. Japan is rich in animal and plant resources, and the forest is rich in edible wild fruits, nuts, seeds, roots and so on. At the same time, Japan is close to the ocean, and many islands and bays provide a lot of seafood for the Japanese.

Japan is rich in forest resources.

In the long Stone Age, although Japan was isolated from the world, primitive people living in Japan actually lived quite well because of the rich food in the Japanese archipelago. They don't need China's agricultural technology. They live a life of gathering and hunting. This life lasted until the 5th century BC, when Confucius and Mencius lived. As early as the Xia and Shang Dynasties, China formed a pattern of gathering and hunting crops in southern rice and northern millet.

In the 5th century BC, the Japanese still lived a life of gathering and hunting, but this does not mean that the ancient Japanese culture was lackluster and very primitive. The earliest pottery found in Japan was made 1.27 million years ago. When this kind of pottery was discovered, even Japanese historians couldn't believe that Japan's stone age was so advanced and thought that the dating was wrong. When it was found that there was no problem in dating, the Japanese once thought that Japan had made the earliest pottery in the world. Of course, later, the earliest pottery in the world was found in Jiangxi, China. Pottery unearthed in Jiangxi can be traced back to 20 thousand years ago. The earliest pottery in China and the earliest pottery in Japan were striped pots, indicating that Japanese pottery was influenced by China, and China's pottery-making technology was probably introduced to the Japanese archipelago before the end of the Ice Age.

Pottery in Japanese rope pattern era

A large number of striped pottery pots were unearthed in Japan, so Japan entered the so-called "rope pattern age" (12000 years ago to the 5th century BC) after the Paleolithic period. Rope people have never been interested in agricultural technology, but why are they keen on making pottery? The reason is that Japan's forest resources are very rich, and the fruits, seeds and roots of many plants need to be cooked before they can be eaten. Rice cultivation is optional, but pottery manufacturing must be available. The widespread use of pottery made the population of Japanese islands increase for the first time. In the whole Paleolithic period, the population of Japan was only a few thousand, while in the rope pattern era, the population of Japan was as high as 250 thousand.

Why is it important to estimate the population of each era when studying the origin of the Japanese? Because Japanese ancestors migrated from Eurasia one after another, the population of each period is directly related to the question of where the immediate ancestors of Japanese people came from today.

Fourth: Yayoi era and rapidly changing Japan.

Until the time of Confucius, the Japanese still lived a life of gathering and hunting, but they were more advanced than the primitive tribes in Australia, New Zealand and Africa, and their population exceeded the aborigines in Australia. Because Japan is an island country, which is close to the advanced China, the Japanese in the rope-grain era lived in villages and knew how to grow rice, not just gathering and hunting, but wandering in the forest. Their living conditions are very similar to those of Hemudu people and Banpo people in China, but they have not completely given up gathering and hunting because of the Japanese food resources.

By the 5th century BC, great changes had taken place in Japanese society. The reason is that human navigation technology has improved at this time, and they can cross the sea directly. Before that, they entered the Japanese archipelago mainly by walking during the Ice Age.

From the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD, it was the "Yayoi era" in Japan. In the Yayoi era, rice cultivation was the main mode of production, but before that, rice cultivation was only a supplement to gathering and hunting.

Yayoi village, repair the map.

In the 5th century BC, rice cultivation techniques in China spread from South Korea to Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu. Why did rice planting spread to the Japanese archipelago during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period? Because of Japan's abundant food resources, people in the rope-grain era have no motivation to engage in rice cultivation. At that time, the living conditions of Japanese islands were better than those of South Korea, and the climate of South Korea was relatively cold and dry than that of Japan. Later, cold-tolerant rice varieties were cultivated, and rice cultivation spread on the Korean peninsula. During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a large-scale rice cultivation on the Korean Peninsula, using iron farm tools. The application of iron farm tools has further expanded the distribution of rice planting, and all good fields suitable for rice planting have been reclaimed. As a result, there has been a large-scale population growth on the Korean peninsula. The population growth has prompted the residents of the Korean peninsula to migrate to Kyushu, Japan, because the climate in Kyushu, Japan is warmer and wetter, which is suitable for rice cultivation. As a result, China's iron farm tools and rice cultivation spread to the Japanese islands through the Korean Peninsula.

How many immigrants came to the Japanese archipelago from the Korean peninsula during the Yayoi period? Japanese and Korean scholars have different opinions and have been arguing for a long time. With the development of modern molecular biology, anthropologists can extract DNA from the remains of ancient humans, and it is clear to compare the genes of modern Japanese with those of rope-striped people and Yayoi people. Genetic research shows that there is still a big difference between the tattooed rope man and the Yayoi man. Woven rope people are closer to Ainu people today, and Ainu people now live in Hokkaido, Kuril Islands north of Hokkaido, kamchatka peninsula and other places. Yayoi people are closer to today's Japanese, that is, Japanese except Ainu people, and Yayoi people are closer to today's Koreans. At first, people thought that modern Japanese were formed by the fusion of Yayoi people and rope-striped people, but genetic research showed that Yayoi people dominated. At the same time, there are some regional differences. In southern Japan, the genes of rope-striped literati and Ainu people are relatively weak, while in northern Japan, the genes of rope-striped literati and Ainu people are more obvious.

Ainu people

Then, next, we can draw a conclusion. From the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD, a large number of immigrants migrated from the Korean peninsula to Kyushu, Japan. They brought China's advanced rice planting technology and iron farm tools, forming the Japanese Yayoi culture. Because of the advanced agricultural technology, immigrants from the Korean peninsula rapidly expanded their population and replaced the local Japanese rope people, but they did not completely replace them. Striped people are integrated into immigrants. But this conclusion is unpopular in South Korea and Japan, because the Japanese and Koreans have long had grievances. Korean scholars may pay more attention to the influence of the Yayoi people, while Japanese scholars may pay more attention to the influence of the tattooed rope people.

Pottery in the Yayoi period

Then, the question is, since immigrants from the Korean peninsula replaced the local Japanese rope-tattooed people in the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, why is there such a big difference between Japanese and Korean today? According to the truth, Japanese and Korean should be close to English and German, but why is the difference between Japanese and Korean far greater than that between English and German?

Before the 7th century, there were three regimes on the Korean peninsula, namely Koguryo, Silla and Baekje. Silla unified the Korean peninsula with the help of the Tang Dynasty in China, and the direct ancestor of the Koreans was Silla. In the Yayoi period, immigrants who moved from the Korean peninsula to the Japanese archipelago did not necessarily speak Silla. In addition, before Koguryo, Silla and Baekje, there were three Korean tribes in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula for a long time, namely Mahan and Chen Han. In the northern part of the Korean peninsula, there are four counties: Tan Jun County, ji zi County, Weiman County and Han County. It is impossible for all the immigrants who moved to the Japanese archipelago to be Chen Koreans and Silla people.

To sum up, modern Japanese are actually genetically closer to modern Koreans, which can also be seen from the looks of Koreans and Japanese, but Koreans and Japanese are unwilling to accept such a conclusion.

Fifth, the relationship between Japanese and China people.

For a long time, why do some scholars think that the Japanese are descendants of China? During the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of immigrants from China actually entered the Japanese archipelago. Some scholars believe that Emperor Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan, was actually Xu Fu of China. However, the migration of China people to the Japanese archipelago has not completely changed Japan's population view, because the migration of China people to the Japanese archipelago cannot be large-scale, but sporadic, discontinuous and intermittent. Ancient navigation technology was very backward, so it was very difficult to sail from China to Japan.

China people brought more technology and culture to Japan than population. So about 70% of Japanese vocabulary comes from Chinese characters, but the grammar of Japanese is very different from that of Chinese. According to the truth, Chinese and Japanese * * * use 70% of the vocabulary, and China people can understand it even if they don't learn Japanese. However, Chinese and Japanese are almost incompatible. On the one hand, Japanese grammar has been fixed. On the other hand, Chinese characters are morphemes, not phonograms, written in the same language, but without homophones. The Japanese learned the pronunciation of Chinese characters in the Middle Ages in China, and integrated it with the local Japanese accent.

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of immigrants from China moved to the Japanese archipelago, bringing with them advanced culture and technology. Therefore, in ancient times, the elite of Japanese society was related to China people. Today, the ancestors of some Japanese families came from China, but the arrival of China people did not completely change the original population of Japan, just as most advanced words in Japanese came from Chinese, but Chinese did not change the grammatical structure of Japanese.

If history goes back to the era of cavemen, then the Japanese are undoubtedly descendants of China. Therefore, Japanese historians and archaeologists are particularly keen on excavating Stone Age sites. If the Stone Age sites are similar to those in China at the same time, it will not affect the Japanese self-esteem, and the more Japanese history goes forward, the more it can reflect the differences between Japanese history and China history.