Japan When did Japan become a country? Why does Japan have more than half of its Chinese characters? Where did Japan come from?

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, primitive humans from Northeast China entered the Korean Peninsula to live, and some migrated to Japan. Archaeological and anthropological viewpoints believe that the Japanese nation is a fusion of the Han Chinese, northern Chinese ethnic minorities, Chinese Wuyue people, and a small number of Malays and Indosinians from the Nanyang Islands, and gradually migrated to Japan and evolved. Since 1996, the Sino-Japanese Human Bone Syndrome Investigation Team jointly formed by archaeological, anthropological and medical experts from China and Japan has repeatedly confirmed the above conclusion. During the Warring States Period, when the Qin State destroyed Yan, Qi and Yue, a large number of Yan, Qi and Yue people fled to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. After the Western Zhou Dynasty in China destroyed the Shang Dynasty, Jizi, a surviving official of the Shang Dynasty, went to the Korean Peninsula and established the "Ji clan princedom" with the local indigenous people. From the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD, the northern part of the Korean Peninsula belonged to China. During this period and later during the Qing Dynasty, when wars and disasters occurred in northern China, a large number of Chinese immigrated to the Korean Peninsula. Later, they moved eastward and southward from here. Arrived in Japan. Another immigration route is from eastern China directly across the sea to Japan. At the end of the 3rd century BC, it was recorded for the first time in Korean history. In the book "Historical Records" written by Sima Qian, a historian of the Han Dynasty in China, it was recorded that Jizi, the brother of Zhou, the last king of the Shang Dynasty, led King Wu of Zhou to conquer Zhou. With the etiquette and system of the Shang Dynasty, he arrived in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, was elected as the king, and was recognized by the Zhou Dynasty and became a prince. It is known as "Ji Zi Korea" in history. These people later became the ancestors of North and South Korea.

Japan originally had no written language, so it has always used Chinese characters. Now, about 80% of Japanese language accents are Chinese accents. Japanese language pronunciation mainly comes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Qing Dynasty. The multi-layered Chinese dialect accent is a fusion of the accents of ethnic minorities in northern China, the Wuyue accent of China, and a small amount of Malay accents and Indo-Chinese accents from Nanyang Islands. Therefore, Japanese culture has been deeply influenced by China.

Japan was not originally called Japan. In ancient Japanese mythology, the Japanese called it the "Eight Continents", "Eight Island Countries", etc. According to the records of "Hanshu" and "Houhanshu", ancient my country called Japan "Japanese" or "Japanese country". In the fifth century AD, after Japan was unified, the country was named Yamato. Because the ancient Japanese worshiped the sun god, they regarded the sun as their country's totem. According to legend, in the early seventh century, Japan's Prince Shotoku wrote in his letter of credence to Emperor Yang of Sui: "The prince at sunrise is the prince at sunset." This was the prototype of Japan's name. It was not until the second half of the seventh century that Japan sent Tang Dynasty historians to change the country's name to Japan, which means "the place where the sun rises." It was later used and became Japan's official country name. "New Tang Book·Japanese Biography" records: In the first year of Xianheng (670), the Japanese state sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the Japanese state had "accustomed themselves to Xia Yan slightly, hated the Japanese name, and changed its name to Japan." The envoy said that because of the recent sunrise, That’s the name.” In addition, in Chinese, “Fuso” and “Japan” are also nicknames for the country’s name.

Japan literally means "the place where the sun rises", which is where the sun rises. Therefore Japan is sometimes called the Land of the Sun.

Before Japan came into contact with China, the Japanese called the place where they lived "やまと" and "ひのもと", which means the root of the sun.

During the Three Kingdoms period in China, the Chinese used the word "Japan" to represent Japan. Since the word "倭" means "short", after the Chinese characters were introduced to Japan, the Japanese replaced it with "和" which has the same pronunciation (わ) in Japanese. And use the Chinese character "Yamato" to express the Japanese word やまと, and use "日本" to express the Japanese word ひのもと. Later, the phonetic pronunciation of "Japan" was changed in Japanese, and it turned into にほん (Nihon) and にっぽん (Nippon) commonly used in Japanese today.

The term "Japan" did not appear in China until the end of the 7th century AD. The "Old Book of Tang" in the "Twenty-Four Histories" records that the Japanese changed the country's name to "Japan" because they did not like the name "Japan". There is another statement in "Historical Records of Justice" in the 8th century AD, saying that Wu Zetian ordered Japan to change the name of the country to "Japan".

The official name of modern Japan is "Japan" (にほんこく).

From the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II, Japan's official name was the Empire of Japan (だいにっぽんていこく). After World War II, in the new constitution, it was changed to its current name.

Although most Japanese speakers in Japan use "Japan" to refer to their own country, in recent years, "ジャパン", which is transcribed from the English "Japan", is also used, and even "Cipangu" is transcribed from "Japan". The word "ジパング" is used to represent Japan, thereby creating the effect of a foreign language, which is especially common in advertisements and brand names.

In addition to Japan and Yamato, Japan also had other Japanese titles in ancient times. Such as: Dahachishu (おおやしま) (the eight islands created by Izanami and Izanozun in Japanese mythology), Yashima (やしま), Fuso (ふそう), Mizuho (みずほ), Shiki Island (しきしま), Akitsushima (あきつしま), etc.