The purpose of sending envoys to the Sui Dynasty

According to the analysis of Chinese and Japanese historical documents, seeking Buddhism and learning Sui culture were the main purposes of sending Sui envoys to China; but from an objective perspective, in order to ensure their interests in southern Korea, the Japanese One of the purposes of coming to China. As the research field continued to deepen, geographical relations gradually became an important reason for sending the Sui envoys to China. Buddhist exchanges have always been an important part of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges. The sending of envoys to the Sui Dynasty was the beginning of the normalization of cultural exchanges between China and Japan during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The exchange of Buddhist culture occupied an extremely important position. "Book of Sui·Biography of the Kingdom of Japan" records the purpose of sending a Sui envoy to China led by Ono Meizi in 607: "The envoy said: 'I heard that the Emperor Bodhisattva in Haixi revived Buddhism, so he sent pilgrims and dozens of ascetics to learn Buddhism. Origin Buddhism originated in ancient India and was introduced to the Central Plains of my country in the late Western Han Dynasty. It gradually spread during the Eastern Han Dynasty and influenced and absorbed Chinese traditional culture. It developed into one of the national religions and became an important part of the feudal culture promoted by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. The policy of abolishing Buddhism destroyed Buddhist temples and forced monks and nuns to return to secular life.

After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty revitalized Buddhism and devoted himself to the Three Treasures (Buddha, Buddha, etc.). They also issued orders to build monasteries and pagodas in various places, recruit and ordain monks, and organize the translation of Buddhist scriptures. It is said that there were 3,985 monasteries in the Sui Dynasty and 236,200 monks and nuns were sent to the Sui Dynasty. Ono Meizi said: "I heard that Emperor Haixi Bodhisattva revived Buddhism." This shows that the rulers of Japan at that time, led by Prince Shotoku, were well aware of the conflicts among the upper-class rulers in Japan in the late 6th century. It was very intense. When Emperor Suiko came to the throne, Soga Mashi was powerful.

Under this situation, Prince Shotoku could only seek to establish a unified national ideology and suppress powerful officials in order to achieve the centralization of the emperor's rule. During this process, the Japanese rulers found that Buddhism introduced by immigrants from the mainland was an extremely effective tool for unifying their thoughts, so they elevated Buddhism to a political level and used the power of the government to vigorously promote it and make it a state religion. /p>

Prince Shotoku stipulated in the second article of the Seventeen Articles of the Constitution he formulated: “Revere the Three Treasures. The Three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, are the ultimate destination of the four lives and the ultimate sect of all nations. No matter who you are in this world, it is not noble but the law. There are very few people who are especially evil. If you can teach them to follow them, but they don’t return to the Three Treasures, how can they be in vain? "It can be seen that Prince Shotoku's worship of Buddhism was entirely a political act. He was eager to introduce Buddhism from the Sui Dynasty in order to use this method to use divine power to assert imperial power. It was on this basis that dozens of monks were sent Study Buddhism revived in the Sui Dynasty.

In the 16th year of the Sui Dynasty, when Emperor Suiko sent the third envoy to the Sui Dynasty to escort the Sui envoy Pei Shiqing, the eight people brought by Ono Meizi were equally divided between monks and laymen, which shows that Japan The mission had a strong Buddhist flavor. At that time, Japan was in the process of transforming from slavery to feudalism, and was eager to learn from China's politics, economy and system in order to form its own legal system.

In order to learn better. In order to master China's excellent culture, most of the members of the Sui envoys were descendants of Han people who had stayed in Japan, that is, "naturalized" Han people. The eight members of the third Sui envoy were probably descendants of Han people who had settled in Japan. , or refers to those Japanese sinologists who are "familiar with Chinese characters and have a little knowledge of Chinese". This mission to the Sui Dynasty stayed in China for a long time, which laid a good foundation for them to fully absorb Chinese culture.

These. After the foreign students (monks) returned to Japan, they made significant contributions to the transplantation of Chinese culture and the reform of Japanese politics. Three people, including Gao Xiangxuanli, Monk and Nanyuan, played a role in the famous "Taika Reform" in Japanese history in 645. The core role of leadership; the laws and regulations they brought back from the Sui and Tang Dynasties (such as land equalization and rent-to-yong regulation) were transplanted into important systems in Japan, thus creating the "era of laws and regulations" in Japanese history. In order to break the isolation and loneliness, Japan used force to fight for Korea. In terms of historical facts, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty conquered Goguryeo in 598 AD. In 600 AD, Prince Shotoku sent troops to the Korean Peninsula to attack Silla, but Japan withdrew its troops. Later, Renna was occupied by Silla again.

In the same year, the Japanese official regent sent the first "Sui envoy". These events happened almost at the same time, which seems to be historical. It was an accidental coincidence, but combined with the historical facts at the time, it can be seen that it was a strategy adopted by Japan in order to compete with the Sui Dynasty on the Korean Peninsula, attempt to recapture Imna, stabilize its base in Korea, and expand its power.

On the one hand, it used force to intervene; on the other hand, in order to make the situation favorable to Japan, it tried its best to strengthen contact with the Sui Dynasty, which was powerful and had close relations with the Korean Peninsula, in order to gain understanding and support. Moreover, as early as the third year of the annexation of Renna (654), the rival Silla began to send envoys to the Northern Qi Dynasty to receive the canonization, and then sent envoys to the Chen Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty many times to carry out frequent diplomatic activities with China. . This information reached Japan, and the leaders, centered on Prince Shotoku, began to look for opportunities to resend large-scale diplomatic missions. After the Sui Dynasty unified China in 589, this opportunity came. The Japanese archipelago is located at the easternmost tip of the Eurasian continent. Its main islands are more than 110 miles away from the Korean Peninsula and more than 450 miles away from mainland China. In ancient times when navigation technology was underdeveloped, the obstacles posed by the ocean were insurmountable. The relative isolation of the Japanese archipelago from the mainland caused the lag in the early development of Japanese society to a certain extent.

The relative geographical isolation resulted in Japan’s early lack of foreign exchanges, as evidenced by the fact that the development level of Japan’s early civilization lagged behind both China and North Korea. The geographical isolation effect also profoundly affects the cultural psychology of the Japanese nation. The closed sea and small geographical environment of the island country have created a unique sense of depression and loneliness among the people of the island country. This has enabled the Yamato nation to maintain a strong curiosity and sensitivity to external stimulation for a long time, and a desire to break the isolation and loneliness. It became the internal condition that pushed Japan to absorb the achievements of heterogeneous civilizations.

Historically, due to geographical factors, there has always been a desire and impulse to expand its living space to the mainland within the small Japanese archipelago. The reason is that Japan’s limited space and resources are combined with population growth. contradiction. This is a millennium problem that has plagued Japan and is also a basic survival issue. Along with the unification and division, the prosperity and decline of the Japanese island, this kind of desire and impulse has been rising and falling for thousands of years. Historically, Japan has always taken a proactive stance towards the Asian continent, dominated by China, while China and North Korea have historically taken a defensive stance. Japan sent "envoys to the Sui and Tang Dynasties" not simply to learn from China's advanced culture, nor simply for friendship. There were also factors involved in collecting Chinese intelligence and facilitating the invasion of North Korea.