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China’s Economic Rise
Lessons from Japan’s
Political Economy
China’s Economic Rise
China’s Economic
Rise
Lessons from Japan’s Political Economy
Department for Continuing Education
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-49810-8 ISBN 978-3-030-49811-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49811-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
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For my father and my mother,
Nallathamby Sangaralingam and Pathmarani Sangaralingam,
Inuvil and Karinagar, Ceylon.
For their courage, dignity and their humility
Preface
This book is the fourth in a series of books by me which explores the eco-
nomic and political rise of China and its consequences for China and the
rest of the world. The first books of the series encompassed the two vol-
umes of ‘China’s Lessons for India’. In Volume 1, The Political Economy
of Development, the emphasis was on evaluating the economic and politi-
cal past of China and the economic reform programme which started in
1978. In Volume 2, The Political Economy of Change, the emphasis was
on how the economic reform programme impacted on the Chinese econ-
omy effecting its rise to become the world’s second largest economy by
2011 as well as its transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a
knowledge economy. At this moment in time, the Chinese economy faces
one of two future trajectories which also have historical precedents. The
first of these historical precedents is the one in which China follows the
path followed by Great Britain after it became the first country in the
world to industrialise in the eighteenth century, subsequently building an
empire. This potential future for China is explored in the third book of the
series, ‘The Rise of Empires—The Political Economy of Innovation’. On
the other hand, the purpose of this book, the fourth in the series, is to
explore the second historical precedent which the Chinese economy will
follow, that of Japan after the Meiji restoration of 1868. In this case, just
as China started to reform its economy from 1978, Japan started its
reforms in earnest after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. This book will
show that there are economic, political and military similarities between
the rise of modern Japan today and the rise of contemporary China, and
what it may face in years to come. In this context, this book will be useful
vii
viii PREFACE
reading for academics, politicians, the general public and for anyone inter-
ested in one of China’s possible future trajectories.
Japan’s rise to statehood through the Kamakura Period (1185 AD to
1333 AD) to the Tokugawa Period (1600 AD to 1868 AD) was quite
unremarkable. And for all of this time, China was the centre of the uni-
verse and Japan its vassal state. Japan itself was secluded for over 200 years
during the Tokugawa Period when all foreigners were expelled from
Japan. However, Japan’s seclusion from the rest of the world was ended
with the arrival off the coast of Japan of US, Russian and British warships.
As a result of which western nations won trade concessions as well as other
benefits from the Tokugawa Bakufu in the mid-nineteenth century. Japan
at that time, compared to the United States and Britain, was underdevel-
oped and technologically backward especially in the military sphere.
However, Japan had already gone through proto-industrialisation before
the British had in the late eighteenth century. Nevertheless, whereas
British proto-industrialisation led to rapid technological development and
industrialisation proper, this did not happen in the case of Japan. This is
probably because Japan did not have increasing demand for its manufac-
tured goods from overseas colonies whilst domestic producers faced
increasing costs of production due to rising wages, as was the case of Great
Britain. The arrival of the British in Japan in particular must have stirred
intense debates in the Tokugawa Bakufu about the choices of either being
colonised or rapidly industrialising and becoming militarily capable of
defending Japan’s borders. This is particularly true in the context of the
use of superior military force against the Chinese Qing imperial court by
the British to win trade and territorial concessions in order to further their
domestic prosperity through enforced trade. At this time, unlike the
Chinese, the Japanese realised that in order for their country, their society
and culture to survive the ravages of becoming colonised, they would have
to modernise extremely fast. The Tokugawa Shogunate and Bakufu were
incapable and perhaps unwilling to take the policy steps required to safe-
guard Japan’s sovereignty. It was for this reason that the Tokugawa
Shogunate and Bakufu were replaced by a constitutional monarchy based
on multi-party democratic politics as a result of the Meiji Restoration
of 1868.
Historically when countries have undergone rapid economic develop-
ment, increasing disparities between the rich and the poor and economic
crises have arisen. The historical trend has been a shift away from democ-
racy, a mixed economic system encompassing free market forces,
PREFACE ix
government intervention and the use of private capital towards bureau-

cratic fascism. This was the case of Japan at the end of the 1920s and early
1930s and Germany in the 1930s. The result was a rise in nationalism,
racial self-awareness of the peoples of these countries, a rush to militarism
and inevitably global military conflict. Herein lies the juxtaposition
between economic activity and human behaviour. In this case, negative
economic activity resulting in increasing income disparities as well as
increasing deprivation in society leads to the rise of populism, and the
democratic system becomes the mechanism which facilitates the rise of
autocracy. The issues which the contemporary world economy faces have
been seen before specifically in the 1930s. Then globalisation and global
trade came to a stuttering halt with economic crises in several countries
most prominently associated with the Wall Street Crash of 1929. As west-
ern economies began to suffer the economic consequences of the crash,
particularly associated with rising unemployment, increasing income dis-
parities and social deprivation, they turned to protect their economies
with the use of tariffs to make Japanese goods more expensive and domes-
tically produced goods cheaper in comparison. The British Empire decided
at the imperial economic conference in Ottawa in 1932 to impose tariffs
on Japanese manufactured goods including textiles which were beginning
to displace British and Canadian goods due to their relative cheapness.1
However, this made the economic situation worse and led to military con-
flict. But the Japanese economy began to grow in the 1930s because of its
militarily planned nature. This situation has comparisons with contempo-
rary global economics. In this case, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 can
perhaps be compared to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The global and
national economic crises which followed both of these economic events
were similar in nature, increasing income disparities and increasing social
deprivation. Both events were due to the fault of the poor regulation
financial system which was being driven by the webs of human intrigue
and avarice. However, the big difference between these two triggers of
economic crisis was that the global and national economic impact of the
Global Financial Crisis was mitigated, and it did not cause a Great
Depression as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 did. Indeed, the negative
economic effects of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 were mitigated by
1
Miners, N. (2002), Industrial development in the colonial empire and the imperial eco-
nomic conference at Ottawa 1932, 30:2, 53–76, DOI: https://doi.
org/10.1080/03086530208583141.
x PREFACE
a globally co-ordinated economic policy response which involved the use

of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies in association with unortho-
dox monetary policies such as Quantitative Easing. Nevertheless, national
debt-to-GDP ratios were indicating the unsustainability of the debt such
that governments such as that of the United Kingdom in 2010 began an
austerity policy in order to bring debt and government borrowing down
to sustainable levels. However, contemporary global debt has increased by
50% in comparison to its levels in 2008–2009.2 Moreover, Eurozone gov-
ernment and household debt is also higher in 2019 than was the case a
decade ago.3 Furthermore, while debt is cheap, firms have accumulated
debt in order to increase equity returns.4 But at the moment, it is difficult
to pinpoint the trigger/s of the next financial crisis, at least in the long
term. Although the heart of any potential financial crisis could lie with the
Chinese economy in which unsustainable local government debt as well as
the debt of state-owned enterprises has built up over several years. If
China’s economic growth continues to fall in subsequent years and/or it
adopts a floating exchange rate mechanism, then these could serve as pos-
sible triggers for domestic economic stagnation and a potential global eco-
nomic crisis in the context of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Nevertheless, currently the US economy seems to be in good shape
because economic growth is taking place at a sustained and consistent
level, and housing debt has fallen since the crisis.5 In the short term, firms
may be able to manage debt repayments because interest payments remain
low and dividend payments can be cut.6 However, if unemployment begins
to rise as a result of an economic crisis, then this may lead to payment
defaults by households. But in the United States, mortgage-related house-
hold debt is at its lowest since 2008, although sub-prime auto loans are
increasing.7 Nevertheless, in contrast to the levels of sub-prime mortgage
loans in 2008, the value of the sub-prime auto loans is comparatively
2
Fletcher, L. (2019), Global debt – when is the day of reckoning? https://www.ft.com/
content/949d08da-462d-11e9-a965-23d669740bfb.
3
Fletcher, L. (2019), Global debt – when is the day of reckoning? https://www.ft.com/
content/949d08da-462d-11e9-a965-23d669740bfb.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
7
Tett, G. (2019), Driven to default: what’s causing the rise in sub-prime auto loans?
https://www.ft.com/content/1ce6d32e-4520-11e9-b168-96a37d002cd3.
PREFACE xi
smaller at $300 billion.8 Moreover, the size of Eurozone household debts

is at its lowest levels since 2006.9 This reduces the risk of big Eurozone
loan defaults due to either rising unemployment or rising interest rates.
However, the main concerns seem to lie with the status of the Chinese
economy and other emerging economies. In China’s case, the property
market is cooling as the Chinese economy has begun to slow from its
double-digit growth rates.10 As Chinese property developers find it diffi-
cult to offload new developments, they begin to slash prices and profits
and revenues fall. At the same time, in 2019 Chinese property developers
face debt repayments amounting to $55 billion.11 Despite the fact that the
growth of the Chinese economy has slowed to its lowest level in thirty
years, Chinese property developers increased their US-related bond debt
by $19 billion in the first two months of 2019.12 Public sector debt in
other developing countries is also a major concern where such debt now
accounts for 50% of GDP.13 This is the highest level in nearly fifty years.14
Furthermore, while 80% of developing countries have increased public
debt over the last five years, the number of developing economies with
high risk, unsustainable debt has increased to thirty-two.15 More worrying
is that the source of debt is not just Chinese lending but also lending by
other countries and multilateral institutions.16
In the case of the European Union (EU), the free movement of labour,
one of the economic pillars of the European Union, caused additional
competition for jobs and public service provision in the United Kingdom.
Moreover, the influx of workers from the former Soviet Bloc countries
which joined the EU in 2004, the EU-8 which included Poland and
8
Ibid.
9
Romei, V. (2019), Eurozone household debt falls to lowest levels since 2006, https://
www.ft.com/content/3cbbf5f8-1a41- 11e9-9e64-d150b3105d21.
10
Dunkley, E. (2019), Jiayuan crash underscores China property risks, https://www.
ft.com/content/b5560666-1a37-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3.
11
Dunkley, E. (2019), Jiayuan crash underscores China property risks, https://www.
ft.com/content/b5560666-1a37-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3.
12
Weinland, D. (2019), China’s property developers binge on record dollar debt, https://
www.ft.com/content/e8ff4e1a-3fe3-11e9-9bee-efab61506f44.
13
Callan, P., Bendary, B., and Sequeira, Y. (2019), Emerging markets face a new debt cri-
sis: Chinese lending is not the only cause, https://www.ft.com/
content/4fd4e6ac-440a-11e9-b168-96a37d002cd3.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
xii PREFACE
Hungary,17 acted to lower the wages of UK skilled and semi-skilled work-

ers.18 In association with the Coalition government’s austerity policies, the
lowering of wages would have contributed to the growing poverty in
British society and the increased economic deprivation. This would have
led to a resurgent national identity which would have resulted in the peo-
ple of Britain voting to leave the European Union in the June 2016
Referendum, by a winning margin of 3.8%.19 Those who voted to leave
the EU represented 51.9% of those who voted, while those who voted to
remain in the EU comprised 48.1% of a total electorate of 46,501,241
eligible UK voters.20 Thus, the majority in favour of leaving the EU may
have arisen because of either the Coalition government’s economic auster-
ity policies or the influx of cheap labour from the EU. Child poverty in the
United Kingdom has also increased due to low economic growth and cuts
in welfare benefits by the government.21 Moreover, working-class UK
families are increasingly having to rely on charities in order to meet their
basic needs.22 In America, Donald Trump was voted into office as President
in November 2016 with a promise to ‘make America great again’. His
election victory may have resulted because of increasing inequality in
America due to the loss of manufacturing jobs caused by the economic rise
of China. In an effort to bring jobs back to America, President Trump has
imposed tariffs on cheap Chinese goods just as the United States did to
Japanese goods in 1932. In the European Union, economic stagnation
following the Global Financial Crisis has given way to far right govern-
ments in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Italy.23 In Germany,
the far right has been gaining a popular mandate in elections, and in
17
Portes, J. (2017), Immigration and the UK-EU relationship, IN The Economics of
UK-EU Relations: From the Treaty of Rome to the Vote for Brexit, Campos, N., Coricelli,
F. (Eds), Palgrave Macmillan.
18
Clarke, H., Goodwin, M., and Whiteley, P. (2017), Brexit: Why Britain Voted To Leave
The European Union, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
19
Withnall, A. (2016), EU referendum results in full: Brexit campaign secures victory by 4
points, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-referendum-final-
result-leave-campaign-secures-official-lead-a7099296.html.
20
Ibid.
21
Wright, R. (2019), Child poverty set to hit record levels, says think tanks, https://www.
ft.com/content/0e26447c-3455-11e9-bb0c-42459962a812.
22
Rovnick, N. (2019), UK working poor increasingly rely on charities for basic needs,
https://www.ft.com/content/f6c2dd6e-343a-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5.
23
Camus, J., and Lebourg, N. (2017), Far-Right Politics in Europe, The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
PREFACE xiii
France, the far right has been momentarily seen off by promises of better
things to come from an enfeebled Emmanuel Macron. This is all at a time
when countries are not experiencing sufficient levels of economic growth.
For example, China’s economic growth is slowing from its historic levels
of the first decade of the twenty-first century. The imposition of tariffs on
Chinese goods is clearly negatively impacting on Chinese economic
growth. As a result, many Chinese firms have begun to freeze recruitment
and instead relying on unpaid internships to maintain their staffing levels.
Simultaneously many if not all Chinese families are investing heavily in
their children’s future by spending a lot of money on their education in
order to acquire a foreign education. At the same time, China is enhancing
its military power by increasing training and investing in and introducing
new technologies. China’s leaders take for granted that the South China
Sea is its own backyard and that the breakaway province of Taiwan must
be re-joined to the motherland. At the same time, children in China are
taught about the atrocities committed by the Japanese in the invasion of
China in the 1930s. Just as in Japan there was an antagonism against for-
eigners and the foreign powers, can the same thing be said of China today?
Furthermore, the rapid ascent of the Chinese economy since 1978 has
fuelled a national pride which has lent itself to increasing nationalism. This
is exactly the same thing which happened to Japan in the decades which
followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868. And from an economics perspec-
tive, the contemporary Chinese economy is beginning to experience dif-
ficulties which are particularly associated with the imposition of tariffs by
the United States. The rate of Chinese factory output growth, a measure
of the country’s manufacturing sector, year on year in January 2019 grew
at its lowest level since 1995.24 Similarly, just as the Chinese economy is
struggling to create jobs, the Japanese economy of the 1930s was unable
to create enough jobs for an increasing population. Moreover, while the
Japanese had been building and technologically upgrading their military
capacity since 1868, China has begun to do this in a big way only in the
last decade or so. Unfortunately, contemporary China has some of the
characteristics of post-Meiji Japan—rising nationalism, increasing militari-
sation, a potentially impending economic crisis and millions still living in
poverty in the rural parts of the country. If, indeed, China today is on the
same economic, political and military trajectory as post-Meiji Japan, then
24
Wildau, G. (2019), Chinese factory-output growth slows to weakest on record, https://
www.ft.com/content/a2c7edf8-45fb-11e9-b168-96a37d002cd3.
xiv PREFACE
its policy makers must turn the country away from this trajectory to con-
flict and human suffering. Rather, China today is at a place where it can
benefit humanity and return to its place as the centre of the universe. But
in order to achieve this it must turn away from the negativity of national-
ism and militarism and instead embrace humanity and its neighbours in
benevolence. Today’s rivals were ancient friends, and today India and
China must return to their ancient status. In fact, 2020 will be marking
the beginning of the Asian century as from that date the value of Asian
economies will be bigger than the rest of the world combined.25 In terms
of purchasing power parity, China is already the world’s largest economy
and India the third.26
Japan had begun the process of modernising its economy in the mid-
nineteenth century because of a fear of colonisation by the western pow-
ers. However, this modernisation did not take off until the Meiji
Restoration of 1868 in which the Shogun and a military government of a
decentralised Japan were replaced by a constitutional monarchy based on
a democratic system of government. Japanese society and economy then
developed according to a twin-track approach. One track favoured the use
of market forces, private capital and government support in order to rap-
idly modernise and industrialise the Japanese economy in association with
an educational system which still favoured traditional Japanese values. The
second track involved developing Japanese institutions along western lines
and improving Japan’s military capacity by increased manpower and tech-
nological ability. At the same time the rising urban middle classes and the
availability of a relatively free press gave way to increasing individualism
and a strong democratic system based on party politics. However, an ever-
present and growing undercurrent in Japan was the antagonism against
the western powers because of unfair treaties and constraints upon Japan’s
military capacity, as well as increasing income disparities between the well
off and the less well off. The growing undercurrent sentiment in Japan
was becoming stronger in the 1920s and the early 1930s such that liberal-
ism and multi-party politics were being swept away by rising militarism
and nationalism towards bureaucratic fascism. This it was felt would be
able to more efficiently allocate economic resources, especially social
goods, which could help to alleviate poverty, and income disparity, in
25
Romei, V., and Reed, J. (2019), The Asian Century is Set to Begin, https://www.ft.
com/content/520cb6f6-2958-11e9-a5ab-ff8ef2b976c7.
26
Ibid.
PREFACE xv
Japanese society. The transition to bureaucratic fascism was made easier

through the destabilising effect of an economic crisis in Japan in the 1920s
and in the 1930s which was only made worse by the imposition of tariffs
by the western powers, notably the United States, on Japanese exports in
1932. Japanese military aggression, notably against China in the 1930s,
led to sanctions being imposed by the United States. These developments
contributed directly to the Japanese bombing of US warships based at
Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Moreover, Japanese politicians of the
first three decades of the twentieth century were unable to formulate the
optimal economic policy in order to resolve the economic crises which had
been developing. This was because policies had to be diluted in order to
achieve a compromise to facilitate agreement amongst multi-party politi-
cians in the Japanese parliament, the ‘Diet’. This is similar to what is hap-
pening in the UK Parliament with regard to Brexit. While China does not
have the problem of having to dilute economic policy, it does have a mul-
titude of other factors which could easily contribute to a large-scale eco-
nomic crisis. These factors include huge provincial government debts and
the property bubble in major urban centres, most notably Shanghai and
Beijing. Property prices are so high that people simply have to work in
order to pay their rent with little money left to enjoy anything else.
In the light of what has been previously discussed, China has the same
ingredients—nationalism, militarism, income disparities, social depriva-
tion and economic crisis—in a hostile global environment in which tariffs
are being imposed on Chinese goods, and Chinese firms are placed under
intense scrutiny, as was Japan in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Furthermore, the distribution of income in Japan in the 1920s as well as
in the 1930s was unfair.27 This may have led to the undermining of the
democratic system of governance and the imposition of the command
economy by the military. Like Japan in the decades following the Meiji
Restoration of 1868, China took its first steps along the same path with
the market-oriented economic reforms of 1978. Since then China has
industrialised in the context of manufactured goods, to become the
world’s second largest economy. Although it may be the world’s largest
economy in PPP terms. But this has, like the Japan of the 1920s and the
1930s, been at the expense of growing income inequality between China’s
27
Minami, R. (1998), Economic development and income distribution in Japan: an assess-
ment of the Kuznets hypothesis, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 22, pp. 39–58.
xvi PREFACE
regions and its peoples.28 It is, therefore, important that the Chinese gov-
ernment instigates and implements policies to mitigate the unequal distri-
bution of income in Chinese society to prevent the political and social
instability which Japan experienced in the 1920s and the late 1930s.
Moreover, China’s economic growth is also experiencing a downturn, but
only time can tell how severe that will be or not. In this case, the purpose
of this book is to determine where Japan went wrong and how China can
learn from that experience in order to build a better future for itself and
the rest of humanity. This analysis will primarily be based on Japanese
economic and political development as a state over time, and the policies
which were followed by successive governments in the decades which fol-
lowed the Meiji Restoration of 1868. At this time, Japan having embraced
economic and political reform went onto industrialise at the start of the
Meiji Restoration of 1868. At the same time, Japan’s history of govern-
ment by the military, the Bakufu, under the command of an all-powerful
Shogun lent itself to the start of militarisation at the same time. As the
Japanese economy developed after WW1, economic crises were not man-
aged sufficiently well enough. The result was that income disparities
between Japan’s rural and urban populations increased. The poor were in
the ranks of the military, and increasing disparities between the rich and
the poor led to military control of the Japanese economy which became a
military command economy after the mid-1930s. Today, China stands on
ground upon which Japan stood in the first decades of the twentieth cen-
tury. Disparities in income between the urban rich and the rural poor are
ever omnipresent. Due to this and the exploitation of workers, some
Chinese have become fervent supporters of neo-Marxism. The danger is
that it is not the old who are turning against the Chinese capitalist state
but the young, the young educated, who see the suffering of their young
countrymen and women.29 Now that China’s economic engine has begun
to slow, the situation of the poor and the issue of the divide between
China’s rural poor and its urban rich become ever more critical. At the
same time China has been modernising its military forces. Economically,
tariffs have been imposed by the United States on Chinese exports, and
28
Shi, L., Sato, H., and Sicular, T. (2013), Rising Inequality in China, IN Rising Inequality
in China: Challenges to a Harmonious Society, Shi, L., Sato, h., and Sicular, T. (Eds),
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
29
Yang, Y. (2019), Inside China’s Crackdown on Young Marxists,’ https://www.ft.com/
content/fd087484-2f23-11e9-8744-e7016697f225.
PREFACE xvii
Chinese firms are under attack by western governments due to security

fears.30 For example, Huawei, a Chinese mobile and telecommunications
company, is being sidelined from western government contracts and ten-
ders because of fears that it is controlled by the Chinese state. And, if
Huawei technology is used in western countries’ telecommunications
infrastructure, then China would be able to use such infrastructure to
gather data which it could use to its military advantage in the event of a
conflict. It is for this reason that western governments, the United States,
the countries of Europe, New Zealand and Australia, are disinterested in
doing business with Chinese firms. Unfortunately, this will only cause
resentment in China against foreigners. A similar thing happened to a
developing Japan at a time in the nineteenth century when the same west-
ern governments were imposing unfavourable treaties on Japan. And in
the latter part of the twentieth century, Japan was being blamed for the
economic misfortunes of the western economies, just as China is being
blamed today. Similarities between Japan’s economic reform and rise and
the China of today abound. The question remains whether China will be
able to find a way to become a peaceful and harmonious country and
neighbour or will it fail and embroil the world in another war. Will history
repeat itself? Whether or not it does, economic crisis will always occur as it
did to a resurgent Japan, by now a superpower, in 1989. The economic
crisis Japan experienced from 1989 onwards may also happen to contem-
porary China.
Oxford, UK Sangaralingam Ramesh
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Wyndham Hacket Pain, Editor (Economics),

Palgrave Macmillan, London, and Tula Weis, Executive Editor, Palgrave
Macmillan, New York, for all their invaluable help in getting this book
published. I would also like to thank the library service at University
College London, where the idea for this book was formulated in May
2019 and where writing of the book began in August 2019.
xix
Contents
1 Introduction: The Rise of a Nation 1
2 The Kamakura Period (1185–1333): Emergence of

Military Government: The Bakufu 35
3 The Muromachi Period (1333–1568) and the Azuchi–

Momoyama Period (1568–1600) 71
4 The Tokugawa Period (1600–1868): Isolation and Change101
5 The Meiji Period (1868–1912): Industrialisation and

Democratisation135
6 The Taisho Period (1912–1926): Transition from

Democracy to a Military Economy173
7 The Showa Period (1926–1989): War and the Emergence

of a Modern Japan211
8 The Heisei Period (1989–2019): Economic Stagnation and

the Rise of China251
xxi
xxii Contents
9 Conclusion: Lessons for Contemporary China281
Index297
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: The Rise of a Nation
Chinese Chronicles
The earliest known writings inclusive of Japan, the Chinese chronicles
before 700 AD, refer to Japan as ‘Wa’ which was composed of one hun-
dred conflicting states.1 The earliest of such records, which can be dated
to 57 AD, notarised the names of chieftains and other polities in the archi-
pelago.2 The Chinese chronicles also mention the tributary missions
between the chieftains of Japan and the Chinese Han and Wei courts.3
Reference was also made to Han colonies in Korea.4 These included
Lelang and Daifang.5 The reference made by the Chinese Chronicles to
the conflicting states in Japan could have been due to a population explo-
sion which necessitated the need for more land for intensive agriculture
following the emergence of the Yoyoi culture on the island of Kyushu.
Archaeological evidence from around this time does suggest an increase in
defensive settlements; and skeletons with evidence of damage due to the
1
Diamond, J. (1998), In Search of Japanese Roots, Discover, http://discovermagazine.
com/1998/jun/japaneseroots1455/
2
Barnes, G. (2007), State Formation in Japan, Emergence of a 4th Century Ruling Elite,
Routledge, London.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Walker, H. (2012), East Asia: A New History, Author House, Bloomington.
© The Author(s) 2020 1

S. Ramesh, China’s Economic Rise,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49811-5_1
2 S. RAMESH
impact with projectiles.6 Nevertheless, which of the Wa states was the most
powerful is indeterminate. This is because one Chinese chronicle written
between 280 AD and 297 AD refers to it as ‘Yamaichi’, while another
Chinese chronicle written 150 years later refers to it as ‘Yamadai’.7 It is
difficult to determine if they were the same states, different or whether
they existed at all. An alternative theory which has been put forward is that
an entirely different entity existed, the state of Kyushu, one of whose
princes invaded the Kinai-Yamato area becoming the first Emperor of
Japan, Jimmu.8 The early Chinese writings are the only literary evidence of
early Japanese history, because either no Korean or Japanese literary evi-
dence exists or survived prior to the early eighth century AD. The first
Japanese literary evidence of Japanese history did not arrive until 712 BC,
with the emergence of the first tangible Emperor from whom the current
Emperor can claim to be a direct descendant. In this case, it is evident that
literary influences developed much earlier in China than they did in either
Korea or Japan. The early Chinese literary sources suggest that there was
a significant diffusion of cultural influences from both Korea and China,
with Korea as a conduit, to the peoples of the islands of Japan.9 However,
Chinese influence was more significant over the Japanese archipelago; and
the legitimacy of the titles of Japanese chieftains was somewhat dependent
on recognition by the imperial Chinese court.10 But the legitimacy of
Japanese polity ended in 631 AD when the Tang Emperor absolved the
Japanese from having to pay annual tribute to the Tang Court.11
Palaeolithic, Jomon and Yayoi Periods

Until 13,000 years ago the Japanese islands were part of continental Asia,
but as the ice age ended and glaciers melted, sea levels rose, flooding the
land bridges across which ancient animals, including Homo Erectus and
6
7
Toro, T. (1983), The Kyushu Dynasty: Furuta’s Theory on Ancient Japan, Japan
Quarterly, Vol. 30, p. 4.
8
Ibid.
9
10
Holcombe, C. (2001), The Genesis of East Asia, 221BC–907AD, University of Hawaii
Press, Honolulu.
11
Ibid.
1 INTRODUCTION: THE RISE OF A NATION 3
Homo Sapiens, had crossed over from Asia to Japan half a million years
previously.12 The earliest Palaeolithic stone tools found in the Japanese
islands were at a site called Takamori in Miyagi Prefecture, dated to be as
500,000 years old.13 The stone tools found at Takamori are of a similar age
to the stone tools found at the Zhoukoudian in China.14 At the latter site,
a remarkable number of Homo Erectus fossils were also found. The pres-
ence of land bridges which connected the islands of Japan to the Asian
mainland may have facilitated the movement of Homo Erectus populations
from China to Japan during the mid to the late Pleistocene period.15 The
latter period ranges from 125,000 years to 10,000 years ago.16 Dynamic
changes in human evolution were taking place during that time.17 Homo
Sapiens, having evolved in Africa, were moving out of Africa to colonise
other continents.18 Where the Japanese islands were once connected to
mainland Asia, this facilitated the movement of hominid species like Homo
Erectus and Homo Sapiens to Japan. The land bridges to the Japanese
islands from continental Asia are best associated as starting from either the
Korean peninsula, Siberia and/or Sakhalin.19 Nevertheless, no archaeo-
logical evidence has been found which can shed led light on the physique
of the early Homo Erectus population of Japan or to provide sufficient
grounds to infer that these early populations were the root of future
Japanese populations.20 However, the skeletal remains found on the island
of Okinawa, the so-called Minatogawa remains, do provide an insight into
the physique of the first Palaeolithic inhabitants of Japan 17,000 years
12
13
Kazumichi, K. (2001), The Japanese as an Asia-Pacific Population, IN Multicultural
Japan, Palaeolithic to Postmodern, Denoon, D., Hudson, M., McCormack, G., and Morris-
Suzuki, T. (Eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Gowlett, J., and Dunbar, R. (2011), A Brief Overview of Human Evolution, IN Early
Human Kinship, from Sex to Social Reproduction, Allen, N., Callan, H., Dunbar, R., and
James, W. (Eds), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
17
Kaifu, Y., and Fujita, M. (2012), Fossil Record of Early Modern Humans in East Asia,
Quaternary International, Vol. 248, pp. 2–11.
18
Ibid.
19
Naumann, N. (2000), Japanese Prehistory, The Material and Spiritual Culture of the
Jomon Period, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden.
20
4 S. RAMESH
ago.21 Analysis of the cranium of the Minatogawa population indicates

similarities with populations in southern China, 30,000 BC, and to north
China, 10,000 BC.22 However, the mainland Japanese population during
the Holocene period were different in form and structure from the
Minatogawa people.23 The Holocene period covers the time period from
the present to 11,000 years ago.24 Nevertheless, stone tools have been
found in the south of Kanto which may be older than 30,000 years in
age.25 The technology used to produce the stone tools is unique to Japan,
although some examples have been found in Australia.26 The technology
itself was reflected by the use of edge grinding to produce sharp stone
blades which were then fixed to wooden handles to produce axe like stone
tools.27 Archaeological evidence suggests that knowledge of the technol-
ogy moved from Kanto to Honshu and then on to Kyushu.28
As sea levels began to rise at the end of the last ice age, the Japanese
islands, Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido, became cut off from
the rest of humanity, and the cut-off populations on the islands developed
on their own for some time. However, throughout Japan’s history, the
three plains in Japan’s geographical topography were important to its
development.29 These plains include the Kanto plain encompassing Tokyo
Bay, the Nobi plain encompassing Ise Bay and the Kinai plain encompass-
ing Osaka Bay. While all three plains house the greatest population con-
centrations in the islands of Japan due to their fertile nature, the Kanto
plain is by far the largest of the three plains encompassing 5000 square
miles.30 As these three plains are the most fertile regions in Japan, the
three plains are of historical importance in the story of Japan’s rise as a
nation. This is because agricultural production would be substantive in
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
22
23
Kaifu, Y., and Fujita, M. (2012), Fossil Record of Early Modern Humans in East Asia,
Quaternary International, Vol. 248, pp. 2–11.
24
Giraud, R. (2004), Geologic Hazards of Monroe City, Sevier County, Utah, Special
Study 110, Utah Geological Survey, US.
25
Oda, S., and Keally, C. (1992), The Origin and Early Development of Axe-Like and
Edge-Ground Stone Tools in the Japanese Palaeolithic, IPPA Bulletin, Vol. 12, pp. 23–31.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid.
29
Sansom, G. (1959), A History of Japan to 1334, Stanford University Press, Stanford,
California.
30
Ibid.
these regions whose possessors would be bestowed with great wealth and
power.31 This would to some extent explain the migration of peoples from
the southwest of Japan to eastern Japan, through its central region.32 It
would therefore follow that the development of Japan’s cultural, social,
political and economic development would be influenced by the posses-
sion and the competition for possession of these lands. This is evidenced
by the fact that throughout Japan’s long history, all three plains have con-
tributed to it in some way or another. For example, in distant time, the
Nobi plain was the seat of the food goddess, the plain of Kinai housed the
commercial centre of Osaka and the ancient royal capital of Kyoto, while
the plain of Kanto houses the strategically important Tokyo Bay which
also was the seat of feudal power.33
While there is insufficient evidence to conjecture that there was a
Palaeolithic culture in Japan,34 it is logical to deduce that animals includ-
ing humans must have had to live there after the disappearance of the land
bridges. Moreover, it would be reasonable to conclude that the Minatogawa
population would have also expanded to the main islands of Japan.35
Nevertheless, archaeological evidence does suggest that a Neolithic cul-
ture did exist on the Japanese islands. The climate proved to be beneficial
to plant and animal ecosystems, and as result, the Neolithic people of
Japan, the Jomon, were best placed to thrive and to innovate. The Jomon
culture prevailed between 14,000 BC and 2500 BC.36 The early Jomon
populations may have evolved from the beings similar to those who occu-
pied the Minatogawa site because the early Jomon remains found in coastal
and mountain areas are similar to the remains found at Minatogawa.37
Thus, it would be safe to conclude that the early Jomon population
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Kidder, J. (1954), A Reconsideration of the ‘Pre-Pottery’ Culture of Japan, Artibus
Asiae, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 135–143.
35
36
Matsui, A., and Kanehara, M. (2006), The Question of Prehistoric Plant Husbandry
during the Jomon Period in Japan, World Archaeology, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 259–273, DOI:
10.1080/00438240600708295
37
6 S. RAMESH
inherited the physical characteristics of the mid to late Pleistocene peri-

od.38 However, by the latter half of the Jomon period, evolution seems to
have played its part in changing the physique of the inhabitants of Japan.39
Human fossil remains were more abundant as the Jomon had begun to
use shell mounds to bury their dead. As a result, it was possible for anthro-
pologists and archaeologists to discern that the Jomon had become taller,
with robust limb bones, and had more moderate tooth wear in compari-
son to their ancestors of the mid-late Pleistocene.40 However, the people
of the Jomon culture were strikingly dissimilar to modern Japanese people
in several ways.41
There were two main innovations which resulted from the Jomon cul-
ture. The first of these innovations was pottery, with Japanese pottery
being the oldest known in the world, made in Japan nearly 13,000 years
ago in Kyushu, the southernmost of the Japanese islands, spreading north-
wards to reach the northern most of the Japanese islands, 7000 years
ago.42 However, more up to date analysis suggests that the Neolithic
Jomon culture of Japan produced the world’s oldest pottery at between
10,750 BC and 10,000 BC.43 The latter date coincides with the emer-
gence of the Jomon culture on the island of Honshu.44 The word ‘Jomon’
is associated with the rope pattern found on pottery made during the time
of that culture.45 The earliest pottery found was on the island of Kyushu.46
This may suggest that the Jomon culture existed there too, perhaps by
migrating from Honshu. However, it is probable that Jomon culture
extended throughout the islands of Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa.47
But Jomon culture flourished predominantly on the main island in the
Ibid.
38
Ibid.
39
40
Ibid.
41
Ibid.
42
43
Karan, P. (2005), Japan in the 21st Century, Environment, Economy and Society, The
University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
44
Richardson, H. (2005), Life in Ancient Japan, Crabtree Publishing Company, New York.
45
Ibid.
46
Irapta, A., and Duka, C. (2005), Introduction to Asia: History, Culture and Civilisation,
Rex Book Store, Manila.
47
10.1080/00438240600708295
districts of Kanto and Tohuku.48 There was also a high population density
in the mountainous areas of Chubu, but a sparsely populated area of west-
ern Japan which was covered by evergreen forest.49 Although there was a
tendency for the population to flourish in regions where there was a big
availability of nuts, such as in Southern Hokkaido.50 The Jomon diet of
nuts probably proved to be the cause for the need to find something to
hold them in. Pottery provided an answer. The invention of pottery in
Japan proved to be revolutionary because food could now be combined
and cooked; and food could be stored. The implication of this is that
people could be consistently fed; and they could maximise the accumula-
tion of the nutritional value of food. The hunter-gatherers of Japan were
then better able to exploit the natural abundance of the Japanese ecosys-
tem far better than possible before the arrival of intensive agricultural
techniques nearly 10,000 years later.51 However, while there is no archae-
ological evidence to suggest that the Jomon were anything but hunter-
gatherers, they may have not been exclusively so.52 This is because although
the Jomon did not use metal tools, they may have used wooden and stone
tools to plant chestnut trees and grow millet grain to make bread at around
2500 BC.53 Indeed, there is archaeological evidence to suggest that the
Jomon culture was a hybrid of a hunter-gatherer existence as well as small-
scale in-situ agricultural production.54 But, in this case the Jomon may
simply just have been ‘managing’ their forestry resources.55 It was only
after 2500 BC that the agricultural production of food sources became a
48
10.1080/00438240600708295
49
Koyama, S. (1978), Jomon Subsistence and Population, Senri Ethnological Studies 2.
50
10.1080/00438240600708295
51
52
Karan, P. (2005), Japan in the 21st Century, Environment, Economy and Society, The
University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
53
Richardson, H. (2005), Life in Ancient Japan, Crabtree Publishing Company, New York.
54
Matsui, A., and Kanehara, M. (2006) The Question of Prehistoric Plant Husbandry dur-
ing the Jomon Period in Japan, World Archaeology, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 259–273, DOI:
10.1080/00438240600708295
55
Bleed, P., and Matsui, A. (2010), Why Didn’t Agriculture Develop in Japan? A
Consideration of Jomon Ecological Style, Niche Construction, and the Origins of
Domestication, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 17, pp. 356–370.
8 S. RAMESH
predominant feature of the local economy in Japan, with the mass migra-
tion of wet rice farmers from Korea or China.56 This represented the start
of the Yayoi period. The beneficial exploitation of the land led to a popula-
tion explosion in which a few thousand people became hundreds of thou-
sands of individuals.57 However, in order to better understand the
transition from the semi-agrarian economy of the Jomon culture to the
agrarian economy of the Yayoi culture, it is necessary to consider changes
in the environment, settlement for subsistence, ceremonial practices as
well as the location of a specific craft or trade at a specific site.58 The Sannai
Maruyama archaeological site is best placed to provide evidence of the
decline of Jomon culture in its Middle Period.59 This occurred between
4800 BC and 4050 BC.60 The plant-based remains at the site indicate that
the site went into decline at a time when subsistence specialisation in plant
food, such as chestnuts, had occurred.61 The settlement may have become
smaller as the population declined because the food consumed had less
nutritional content than the food types which had been consumed before.
The discovery of the oldest pottery in the world in Japan caused some
contradictions to be overturned.62 The first of these contradictions was
that hunter-gatherers, which the Japanese of that time were, could not
innovate. Nevertheless, the invention of pottery would allow the popula-
tion of the time to become more sedentary leading to a fall in the hunter-
gatherer existence.63 The second contradiction to be overturned was that
innovation could only occur in large populations and that it could not
occur in small isolated populations, which would be an apt description for
the categorisation of the population of Japan during that time. The second
56
Matsui, A., and Kanehara, M. (2006) The Question of Prehistoric Plant Husbandry dur-
ing the Jomon Period in Japan, World Archaeology, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 259–273, DOI:
10.1080/00438240600708295
57
58
Habu, J. (2008), Growth and Decline in Complex Hunter-Gatherer Societies: A Case
Study from the Jomon Period Sannai Maruyama Site, Japan.
59
Ibid.
60
Oh, C. (2011), Cosmogonical Worldview of Jomon Pottery, Sankeisha Co., Ltd.,
Aichi, Japan.
61
Habu, J. (2008), Growth and Decline in Complex Hunter-Gatherer Societies: A Case
Study from the Jomon Period Sannai Maruyama Site, Japan.
62
63
Ibid.
innovation or diffuse of innovation again occurred on the island of Kyushu,

nearest Korea, in 200 BC. This second innovation can be associated with
the emergence of the use of the first metal tools and intensive agriculture
with crop irrigation, cultivation and animal husbandry, especially that of
the pig.64 This signified a transition from the original Jomon culture of
Kyushu to the emergent Yoyoi culture, with intensive agriculture taking
another three centuries to spread north to Honshu.65 The Yoyoi Period,
200 BC to 300 AD, was then a time of simultaneous change from the use
of stone tools and the gathering of food to intensive agriculture and met-
allurgy.66 It was also a period of time which in many ways can be compared
to the Meiji Period several centuries later for two reasons.67 Firstly, while
in Yoyoi Period small isolated settlements became unified showing tangi-
ble signs of state formation, this actually did occur during the Meiji
Period.68 Secondly, while in the Yoyoi Period there was rapid technologi-
cal change, the same is true of the Meiji Period when Japan went through
a process of rapid industrialisation.69 In this case, during the Yoyoi Period,
intensive agriculture and husbandry, the weaving of cloth from a single
thread using a spindle whorl and the emergence of the metal and glass
industries facilitated increasing specialisation of labour and the develop-
ment of a class structure.70 Furthermore, pottery was seen to have more
use value rather than an ascetic value, allowing for it to be produced in
greater quantity.71 However, despite advances in technology and the
increased specialisation of labour, goods such as bronze mirrors, iron
weapons and tools as well as glass ornaments still had to be imported from
central China.72 At the time, Han Dynasty China was the contemporary
civilisation of Yoyoi Period Japan.73 Therefore, the contemporary Han
64
Ibid.
65
Ibid.
66
Kanaseki, H., and Sahara, M. (1976), The Yoyoi Period, Asian Perspectives, Vol.
19, No. 1.
67
Ibid.
68
Keene, D. (2002), Emperor of Japan, Meiji and his World, 1852–1912, Columbia
University Press, New York.
69
Ibid.
70
Ibid.
71
Kitagawa, J. (1987), On Understanding Japanese Religion, Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey.
72
Kanaseki, H., and Sahara, M. (1976), The Yayoi period, Asian Perspectives, Vol.
19, No. 1.
73
Walker, H. (2012), East Asia: A New History, AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana.
10 S. RAMESH
Dynasty China was more technologically advanced than the Yoyoi culture
of Japan.
The Japanese are very similar genetically and in physical appearance to
Koreans.74 This would suggest that the Japanese are relatively recent arriv-
als to Japan because insufficient time has passed in order for them to
become more distinct from the peoples of their closest neighbours, the
Koreans and the Japanese. However, if the Japanese are genetically like the
Koreans and perhaps even to the Han Chinese, then it would logically fol-
low that the Japanese language would also be closely related to the Chinese
and the Korean languages just as the English language is related to other
continental European languages such as French and German.75 But the
paradox is that the Japanese language is dissimilar from the Korean and
the Chinese languages, suggesting that its roots are much older than the
emergence of the Japanese people themselves.76 Nevertheless, the Japanese
language has been grouped with Korean, Turkic and Mongolic languages
in the Altaic set of languages because of resemblances in grammar and a
common word order in the context of subject–object–verb.77 However,
the Japanese language differs from the other Altaic languages with regard
to sound system use of prefixes, the use of few consonants and a choice of
open syllables.78 In this regard, Japanese would more resemble the lan-
guages originating from Taiwan, the Austronesian group.79 It could just
be that the Japanese language is a hybrid of the Altaic and Austronesian
group of languages. Nevertheless, to resolve the language paradox, four
distinct theories have emerged.80 The first theory contends that the
Japanese people emerged from early ice age peoples who had colonised
the islands of Japan well before 20,000 BC. According to the second the-
ory, the Japanese people descended Asiatic nomads who reached Japan by
moving through the Korean peninsula in the fourth century, although
remaining distinctive from the Koreans themselves. The third theory
74
75
Ibid.
76
Ibid.
77
Jandt, F. (2004), Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader, Sage
Publications, London.
78
Ibid.
79
Ibid.
80
c ontends that the Japanese are the descendants of Korean paddy field rice
cultivators of the fifth century BC. The final theory contends, on the other
hand, that the Japanese people emerged from the mixing of pre-ice age
settlers, Asiatic nomads and Korean invaders. Despite the existence of
these theories, the earliest Japanese chronicles from the eighth century BC
suggest a fairy tale beginning for the Japanese people.81 According to this
legend the birth of the world coincided with the creation of the islands of
Japan.82 The island of Ono-goro-jima was the first land to be created from
the drips of brine from the sword of the God Izanagi after it emerged from
the cosmic ocean.83 The remaining islands of Japan as well as the forces of
nature were then created through the union of the God Izanagi and the
Goddess Izanami.84 The most prominent of these forces of nature or Kami
was the Sun Goddess Amaterasu.85 It was the great-great grandson of
Amaterasu, Jimmu, who became according to the legend the first emperor
of Japan in 660 BC.86 This legend, fairy tale would become the foundation
of the divine status of the Emperor and his legitimacy in the rule of the
Japanese people.87 However, before Amaterasu became the divine founder
of the imperial family, worship had revolved around several sun deities.88
Furthermore, a legend such as this may also belie the root of the percep-
tion by the Japanese of Japan’s unique linguistic and cultural heritage as a
homogenous people which required a unique and complex process of
development giving them a superior status in comparison to other peoples
and civilisations.89 This would allow for a beneficial interpretation of
archaeological evidence whenever such evidence is open to interpretation.
An example of this would be the movement of people and objects between
81
Ibid.
82
Cornille, C. (1999), Nationalism in New Japanese Religions, Nova Religio: The Journal
of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 228–244.
83
Ibid.
84
Ibid.
85
Ibid.
86
87
Cornille, C. (1999), Nationalism in New Japanese Religions, Nova Religio: The Journal
of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 228–244.
88
Takeshi, M. (1978), Origin and Growth of the Worship of Amaterasu, Asian Folklore
Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 1–11.
89
12 S. RAMESH
the Korean peninsula and the islands of Japan between 300 and 700 AD.90
The Japanese would believe that this was a result of the Japanese conquest
of Korea, while the Koreans would believe the opposite.91 However,
despite the legend, Japan is geographically unique.92 For example, whereas
the island of Britain is only 22 miles from its nearest continental neigh-
bour France, the nearest islands of Japan to continental Asia are located
110 miles further away; and Japan is at least 480 miles away from main-
land China.93 The seas surrounding Japan are also treacherous for a safe
crossing by any potential invaders. The Okhotsk Current and the Black
Stream flow towards the shores of Japan in a north to south direction.94
Furthermore, while the winter monsoon blows towards Japan, the sum-
mer monsoon moves from the southwest to the northeast.95 This would
make sea navigation and sea-based travel through the China Sea from
China very difficult if not impossible. The difficulty for ships of crossing
and of staying in tact even upon reaching Japanese waters can be evi-
denced by the experience of the Mongols in the thirteenth century AD. It
was at this time that the grandson of Genghis Khan, Khubilai Khan, the
Emperor and founder of the Yuan Dynasty of China, sent ships in 1274 AD
and 1281 AD to invade the islands of Japan. However, while the fleet of
1274 AD turned back to Korea due to bad weather, it could have been
either a practice run or a scouting mission for the 1281 AD invasion.96
While the invasion ships of 1274 AD returned to their home ports, the
two fleets which sailed from Korea and the Yangtze River Basin made
landings in Japan.97 The two fleets were meant to meet and make a co-
ordinated landing and attack. But while the fleet from Korea landed in
Hakata Bay, the second fleet landed in Imari Bay. Hakata Bay is present-
day Fukuoka98 on the island of Kyushu, and Imari Bay is present-day
90
Ibid.
91
Ibid.
92
Ibid.
93
Ibid.
94
Sansom, G. (1959), A History of Japan to 1334, Stanford University Press, Stanford,
California.
95
Ibid.
96
Clements, J. (2010), The Samurai, The Way of Japan’s Elite Warriors, Constable &
Robinson Ltd., London.
97
Delgado, J. (2008), Khubilai Khans Lost Fleet, In Search of a Legendary Armada,
University of California Press, Berkeley.
98
Delgado, J. (2010), Kamikaze: History’s Greatest Naval Disaster, The Bodley
Head, London.
Takashima99 on the island of Honshu. After two weeks of battle, when the
Japanese were about to be defeated, an ocean storm destroyed 4400
Mongol ships killing 100,000 Mongol warriors effectively saving Japan
from invasion.100 Moreover, the terrain of the Japanese islands also makes
it difficult to conquer. In this case, 80% of Japan’s landmass is mountain-
ous and unsuitable for agriculture. But the 14% of land suitable for agri-
culture is fertile enough, supported by a wet temperate climate with heavy
rainfall, to support a very significantly sized population.101
Kofun Period (250 AD to 538 AD)

Since this period in Japanese history there has been no change in the
genetic make-up of the people of Japan.102 In this case, the modern
Japanese morphology developed from and shares parallels with north east
Asians, from the Korean Peninsula, who migrated to the Japanese islands
during the emergence of the Yayoi culture. During the Kofun period the
building of burial tombs to house the remains of the dead elite was char-
acteristic.103 In fact the Kofun period represented a time in which the
ancient world saw the biggest monument construction projects of the
time, including the tomb of the fifth century ruler Nintoku.104 The latter
was reputedly the sixteenth Emperor of Japan as reported in the early
Japanese chronicles, of the eighth century AD, whose chronology would
place him under ‘legendary time’.105 When Nintoku succeeded his father,
he shifted his capital to Osaka.106 Nintoku’s reign also emphasised the
99
Ibid.
100
Delgado, J. (2008), Khubilai Khans Lost Fleet, In Search of a Legendary Armada,
University of California Press, Berkeley.
101
102
103
Tsude, H. (1990), Chiefly Lineages in Kofun-Period Japan: Political Relations between
Centre and Region, Antiquity, Vol. 64, pp. 923–931.
104
Kaner, S. (2011), The Appropriation of Religious Power By The Tomb-Builders of the
Kofun Period (AD 250–710), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
105
Metevelis, P. (1993), A Reference Guide to the ‘Nihonshoki’ Myths, Asian Folklore
Studies, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 383–388.
106
Takokoshi, Y. (2004), The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilisation of
Japan, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London.
14 S. RAMESH
acquisition of knowledge from Korea and China by employing ethnic

Chinese and Koreans, and making the latter officials through a naturalisa-
tion process.107 Moreover, the acquisition of Korean prisoners during mili-
tary expeditions to Korea and their repatriation to Japan further facilitated
the diffusion of knowledge about Korea and China back to Japan.108 One
hundred years after the collapse of the Chinese Han dynasty, the Chinese
colonies in the north of Korea had been overrun and Korea itself had
become consolidated into three separate kingdoms, Koguryo, Paekche
and Silla.109 The first of these three kingdoms had connections with south-
ern Manchuria and the Yellow Sea region, respectively, with the last king-
dom being the most powerful of the three.110 It was the appeal to Japan by
the Kingdom of Paekche for military assistance against incursions which
gave the Japanese the cause to militarily incur into Korea.111
The use of tombs, known as keyhole tombs, was present in the Yayoi
period as well as in the Kofun period.112 However, what makes each period
distinct and the Kofun period the successor to the Yayoi period is that in
the former period the level of exchanges and interactions between people
was much greater than it was in the latter period. This was only facilitated
by the development of social complexity during the Yayoi Period. It was
this which facilitated the evolution of the first recognisable state on the
Japanese archipelago during the Kofun Period.113 The Kofun period is,
therefore, known as the period of state formation.114 Other characteristic
features of the Kofun period include the use of haniwa or fired clay images
in detailed funeral rites.115 The close relationship between the peoples of
the Korean peninsula and the islands of Japan is supported by a rchaeological
107
Ibid.
108
Ibid.
109
Beasley, W. (1999), The Japanese Experience: A Short History of Japan, University of
California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
110
Ibid.
111
Ibid.
112
113
Mizoguchi, K. (2013), The Archaeology of Japan from the Earliest Rice Farming
Villages to the Rise of the State, Cambridge University Press, New York.
114
115
Ortolani, B. (1995), The Japanese Theatre, From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary
Pluralism, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
evidence of burial tombs and haniwa on the Korean peninsula as well.116

This may also dignify the movement of peoples from the Korean peninsula
to the islands of Japan as well as a diffusion of its culture. This introduced
many new things into the life of the Japanese, such as the production of
ceramics in kilns, horse riding, writing and eventually Buddhism.117
The tombs were more concentrated in the jurisdictions of the contem-
porary prefectures of Nara and Osaka than in either Kyoto, Okayama or
Hyogo prefectures.118 It is due to the concentration of burial tombs in the
contemporary prefectures of Osaka and Nara that this region is referred to
as the Central Court in comparison to the other regions in western
Honshu.119 The Central Court was denoted by different names in differ-
ent time periods.120 In the fourth century it was known as the Miwa Court,
and in the fifth century, it was known as the Kawachi Court. The form of
governance exercised during the Miwa court was based on a ritual author-
ity derived from a religious cult associated with Queen Himiko.121 The
latter was a Shaman Queen who ascended the throne at the age of four-
teen, unifying and ruling large parts of Japan from 180 AD to 248 AD
with her capital in the city of Yamatai.122 Queen Himiko’s power depended
on her Shamanic ability in performing rituals with offerings to the spirits
and the gods such that the people would prosper.123 The religious prac-
tices recreated a set of values which were associated with wealth, respect
for others and oneself, morality, affection, enlightenment and wealth.124
These values enabled a primitive form of governance by codifying people’s
behaviours according to a social hierarchy. This view of a system of gover-
nance based on ritual practices during the Miwa Court is supported by the
writers of the eighth century Japanese chronicles as well as by a rchaeological
116
Imamura, K. (1996), Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia,
University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
117
Ibid.
118
119
Ibid.
120
Ibid.
121
Routledge, London.
122
Hosak, M., and Lubeck, W. (2006), The Big Book of Reiki Symbols, Lotus Press, Twin
Lakes, WI, USA.
123
Ibid.
124
Routledge, London.
16 S. RAMESH
evidence.125 Some scholars assert that during the period of the Miwa
Court and the Kawachi Court, there was a radical political transformation
of the centre, its relationship with the regions and within the regions
themselves.126 The transition from the Miwa Court to the Kawachi Court
in the Middle Kofun period, 400 AD to 475 AD, essentially involved a
change in the nature of burial goods from bronze mirrors and bead stones
to iron tools and weaponry.127 The transition from the Middle Kofun
period to the Late Kofun period, 475 AD to 710 AD, necessitated a tran-
sition from the Kawachi Court to the Yamato Court in the fifth century
AD, the time at which many scholars consider the birth of a unified
Japanese state. The factors which proved essential to this were the long-
held cultural concepts of Kami and Uji.128 These two concepts emerged
from Japan’s pre-history in the third century AD when Japan lacked lit-
eracy and a cohesive and coherent political system.129 However, awareness
of Kami and Uji allowed for state formation. The former referred to the
spirit of the universe which contextually includes deities, royalties and
unexplained natural phenomenon, whereas the latter refers to a clan.130
The Uji or clan is held together by the Uji Chieftain whose authority is
derived from the Uji Kami.131 In the fourth century AD, the Yamato Uji
began to militarily assert itself over the other Uji of the Japanese islands,
while claiming descent from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu.132 Thus, the
Japanese imperial institution of Emperor, which would continue into the
twenty-first century, had been formed by the fifth century AD.133
125
Kaner, S. (2011), The Appropriation of Religious Power by the Tomb-Builders of the
Kofun Period (AD 250–710), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
126
127
Routledge, London.
128
Takayama, K. (1998), Rationalisation of State and Society: A Weberian View of Eraly
Japan, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 65–88.
129
Ibid.
130
Ibid.
131
Ibid.
132
Ibid.
133
Ibid.
Asuka Period (538 AD to 710 AD)

During the Asuka Period at the start of the sixth century AD, the knowl-
edge and the practice of Buddhism flowed to Japan from India via China
and Korea.134 However, this only encompassed part of the knowledge dif-
fusion from China and Korea to Japan. For example, cultural and scholarly
knowledge also diffused to Japan from China and Korea including archi-
tectural knowledge and the knowledge of Chinese written language.135
The latter began to be incorporated into the Japanese language. Prince
Shotoku, the Regent, was so influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism
that he proposed a constitutional government as well as other political
reforms in 604 AD.136 Shotoku was Prince Regent to the Empress Suiko,
592 AD to 628 AD, governing Japan as a statesman as well as a warrior.137
He defeated the Mononofu and ruled Japan according to Buddhist doc-
trine.138 In early Japanese history the Mononofu were defined as coura-
geous warriors, well trained and able to use weapons.139
The development of the constitution in Japan should be seen in con-
trast to western civilisation where in England in 1215 the notion of a
constitution was forced upon King John by the nobility, but in the case of
sixth century AD Japan, a constitution was prepared by a noble man,
Prince Shotoku himself.140 Shotoku is believed to have implemented
Japan’s first imperial laws in the sixth century AD as well as writing the
seventeen articles of the constitution of a centralised Japanese state which
emphasised the need to achieve and maintain societal harmony and not
discord.141 However, the codification and the enforcement of laws were
134
Alt, M., Yoda, H., and Joe, M. (2012), Japan Day by Day, Wiley & Sons Inc., New
Jersey, USA.
135
Ibid.
136
Ibid.
137
Tanaka, F. (2003), Samurai Fighting Arts: The Spirit and the Practice, Kodansha
International, Tokyo.
138
Ibid.
139
Musashi, M. (2010), The Complete Book of Five Rings, Tokitsu, K. (Ed), Shambhala
Publications Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
140
Maruta, Y. (1980) The Management of Innovation in Japan: The Tetsuri Way, Research
Management, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 39–41, DOI: 10.1080/00345334.1980.11756587.
141
Sakamoto, T. (1980), Japanese History, International Society for Educational
Information Press, Tokyo.
18 S. RAMESH
secondary to an emphasis on moral and spiritual values.142 Furthermore,

Shotoku’s constitution was merely a synthesis of continental Asian reli-
gious thought and its institutions with traditional Japanese cultural and
social values.143 The principles of the constitution laid out in its articles the
need for debate and wise counsel in the process of taking decisions as well
as the importance of teamwork based on the dignity and equality of the
individual.144 These ideals were in keeping with the traditional Japanese
cultural value of the achievement of societal harmony, and the Buddhist
belief that the primary goal of society should be the removal of interper-
sonal conflict.145 Moreover, according to traditional Japanese cultural
belief, the right of the individual should be superseded to the good of
society, in other words disputes were unproductive while societal harmony
was productive in achieving the needs of society.146 Thus, Shotoku believed
that everyone should be able express their views in an environment in
which a spirit of harmony permeated discussion.147 As Shotoku can be
regarded to be a Confucian scholar, the values of Confucianism were also
reflected in the constitution.148
Prince Shotoku, 572 AD to 621 AD,149 also sent Japanese scholars to
China to study Buddhism as well as starting a programme of Buddhist
temple building in 607 AD, and establishing a spy network called the
Shinobi.150 Furthermore, Shotoku encouraged the use of chopsticks for
142
De Bary, WT. (1988), East Asian Civilisations: A Dialogue in Five Stages, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
143
De Bary, WT. (1995), The Constitutional Tradition in China, Journal of Chinese Law,
Vol. 9, p. 7.
144
Sakamoto, T. (1980), Japanese History, International Society for Educational
Information Press, Tokyo.
145
Nakamura, H. (1969), A History of the Development of Japanese thought from AD
592 to AD 1868, Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, Tokyo.
146
Callister, R., and Wall, J. (1997), Japanese Community and Organisational Mediation,
Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 311–328.
147
Bhatta, C. (2005), Leadership Excellence: The Asian Experience, Asia-Pacific Business
Review, Vol. 1, No. 1.
148
Durlabhji, S. (1993). The Influence of Confucianism and Zen on the Japanese organi-
zation. In Durlabhji, S. & Marks, N. (Eds.), Japanese Business: Cultural Perspectives, State,
University of New York Press, Albany, New York.
149
Kimio, I. (1998), The Invention of Wa and the Transformation of the Image of Prince
Shotoku in Modern Japan, IN Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan,
Vlastos, S. (Ed), University of California Press, Berkeley.
150
Alt, M., Yoda, H., and Joe, M. (2012), Japan Day by Day, Wiley & Sons Inc., New
Jersey, USA.
eating food, as it would be more hygienic and the Japanese would appear
less barbaric.151 Before the introduction of chopsticks, food in Japan was
either eaten using one’s hands or by using leaves.152 In the spirit of
Buddhist enlightenment, Shotoku also engaged in enterprise for social
relief by providing facilities to help the poor and the destitute within
Buddhist temples.153 For example, the Shitenno-Ji Temple in Osaka was
established by Shotoku; and it housed areas specially reserved for the
reception of the poor and to cure the sick without charge.154
The cultural knowledge exchange between China, the world’s most
advanced civilisation at that time, and the peoples of the Japanese islands
facilitated the diffusion of the knowledge of chopsticks from China to
Japan. The use of chopsticks for eating food was in vogue in Japan at the
time.155 Historically, Prince Shotoku has been held to be a symbol of
Japanese nationalism, and great emphasis was placed on this in the context
of Japan’s perceived superiority over China during the 1930s’ occupation
of Manchuria.156 However, in this case the principles by which Japan
should have been led as laid down by Shotoku in the sixth century AD had
become lost with the advent of Shintoism which eventually led Japan into
World War 2.157
Nara Period (710 AD to 794 AD)

The Nara Period takes its name from the imperial capital of Nara which
was founded in 710 AD. However, in 784 AD, the Emperor Kammu
ordered the construction of a new capital at Nagaoka, but after ten years
of construction, he once again ordered that the capital should be moved
151
Seligman, L. (1994), The History of Japanese Cuisine, Japanese Quarterly, Vol.
41, No. 2.
152
Ibid.
153
Bhatta, C. (2005), Leadership Excellence: The Asian Experience, Asia-Pacific Business
Review, Vol. 1, No. 1.
154
Ibid.
155
Ibid.
156
Kimio, I. (1998), The Invention of Wa and the Transformation of the Image of Prince
Shotoku in Modern Japan, IN Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan,
Vlastos, S. (Ed), University of California Press, Berkeley.
157
Maruta, Y. (1980) The Management of Innovation in Japan: The Tetsuri Way, Research
Management, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 39–41, DOI: 10.1080/00345334.1980.11756587.
20 S. RAMESH
to Kyoto.158 The latter stayed as Japan’s imperial capital until 1869 when
the Meiji Emperor shifted it to Edo which became to be known as
Tokyo.159 It is thought that the Emperor Kammu may have ordered the
move of the imperial capital away from Nara due to the growing influence
of Buddhist institutions and clergy there on the imperial house.160 The
shift of the imperial capital from Nara seems coincidental with the timing
of the Dokyo incident in which the Buddhist monk Dokyo charmed the
Empress Shotoku into giving him more political and religious power.161
This can be seen as an attempt by the Buddhist clergy of Nara to replace
imperial power with a sovereign whose power base would be Buddhist
theocracy.162 However, with the death of the Empress Shotoku, the monk
Dokyo lost the basis of his power and was no longer a threat to the impe-
rial hegemony over Japan. Nevertheless, Nara remained a hotbed of
Buddhist Monasticism and therefore a threat to imperial power.163 It was
for this reason that the imperial capital was eventually moved to Kyoto
where a new form of Buddhist monasticism developed, the Tendai Sect,
which was more favourable and loyal to legitimising the divinity of the
Emperor and imperial power.164
The century which encompasses the Nara Period starts with the period
which includes the Jinshin Revolt of 672 AD as well as the period at which
the Imperial capital was moved from Nara in 784 AD.165 It was a period in
which the contemporary practices of T’ang China were imported, copied
and implemented by the Japanese aristocracy in the embryonic Japanese
state. The Nara Period in Japanese history was a time in which the Japanese
aristocracy imitated the contemporary developments and practices of
T’ang China with regard to culture, religion, institutions and military
practice. In this case, during the Nara Period, the Japanese aristocracy
focused on bringing Japanese cultural and political norms to comparable
158
Toby, R. (1985), Why Leave Nara?: Kammu and the Transfer of the Capital, Monumenta
Nipponica, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 331–347.
159
Ibid.
160
Tucker, J. (2000), Nation Building, IN Encyclopedia of Monasticism,
Routledge, London.
161
Ibid.
162
Ibid.
163
Ibid.
164
Ibid.
165
Brown, D. (1993), The Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 1, Ancient Japan,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
T’ang levels in three respects.166 Firstly, there was an emphasis on the

development of Shinto and Buddhist rights and rituals which would serve
to legitimise the divine nature of imperial rule and the power of the
Emperor. Secondly, there was a focus on the building of contemporary
T’ang style capitals to politically legitimise imperial power over the emer-
gent centralised Japanese state. Lastly, T’ang style governmental adminis-
trative procedures were put in place so that the people and the use of the
land could be more efficiently controlled. However, the knowledge of the
principles of Chinese governance was brought to Japan by Japanese schol-
ars who had already spent twenty-five years in China.167 It was these schol-
ars whose knowledge of contemporary Chinese governance helped with
the development and the implementation of the Taika Reform in
645 AD.168 The Taika Reform involved the opening up of Japan to Chinese
T’ang dynasty Confucianism, technology and institutions including gov-
ernment bureaucracy and temples.169 As a result, the Confucian values of
sincerity, harmony, faithfulness, loyalty and benevolence were introduced
to Japan.170 The Taika Reform is often viewed as one of the pivotal occa-
sions in Japanese history alongside the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the
American occupation of Japan after World War 2.171 As the centralised
Japanese government institutions, imitated from T’ang Dynasty China,
began to develop and grow, there was a need for more educated bureau-
crats to run them.172 As a result a university was established in Nara to
train bureaucrats based on Confucian values. University examinations
revolved around a test of knowledge of the Confucian classics, the laws of
the state which were based on Confucian principles and the capability to
apply and use Confucian theory to resolve real world problems.173 While it
was easier for the sons of aristocracy to enter the government bureaucracy,
166
Ibid.
167
Mason, R., and Caiger, J. (2011), History of Japan: Revised Edition, Tuttle Publishing.
168
Ibid.
169
Zhu, Z. (2000), Cultural Change and Economic Performance: An Interactionistic
Perspective, International Journal of Organisational Analysis, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 109–126.
170
Morishima, M. (1982). Why has Japan “Succeeded”? Western Technology and the
Japanese Ethos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
171
Zhu, Z. (2000), Cultural Change and Economic Performance: An Interactionistic
Perspective, International Journal of Organisational Analysis, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 109–126.
172
Mason, R., and Caiger, J. (2011), History of Japan: Revised Edition, Tuttle Publishing.
173
Ibid.
22 S. RAMESH
promotion was based on merit in the context of attainment in schol-

arly exams.174
Following the death of Emperor Tenjin, there was a war of succession
to the imperial throne between Prince Oama and Prince Omoto which
culminated at the Battle of Jinshin in 672 AD.175 Prince Oama won and
ascended the imperial throne as Emperor Tenmu. In that capacity Tenmu
wanted to cement his legitimacy and did so by facilitating the publication
of the Kojiki in 712 AD and the Nihon Shoki in 720 AD.176 The Kojiki
chronicled negotiations between China and Japan but did not discuss
Buddhism.177 On the other hand, the Nihon Shoki detailed events in
chronological order; and it was written in classical Chinese.178 Moreover,
while the Nihon Shoki showed an acceptance of Chinese norms in Japanese
civilisation, the Kojiki was written using a mythological Japanese frame-
work.179 From this perspective, the writing of the Kojiki can be thought of
as an attempt to maintain Japanese influence at a time when Chinese
norms and culture were pervading into an ancient and traditional Japanese
society.180 Due to the advancement of Japanese society, it is inevitable that
its forward looking embrace with the real world would hold the Nihon
Shoki more to heart than the Kojiki.
Heian Period (794 AD to 1185 AD)

The Heian Period can be divided into three sub-periods, the early Heian
(794 AD–967 AD), the Mid or Fujiwara Heian (967 AD to 1068 AD)
and the late Heian (1068 AD to 1185 AD).181 The Heian Period was an
epoch in which there were innovations in the arts as well as in literature,
the solidification of aristocratic rule in the capital Kyoto and the evolution
174
Ibid.
175
Kazuo, M. (2006), Ancient Japan and Religion, IN Nanzan Guide To Japanese
Religions, Swanson, P., and Chilson, C. (Eds), University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
176
Ibid.
177
Ibid.
178
Ibid.
179
Kazuo, M. (2006), Ancient Japan and Religion, IN Nanzan Guide To Japanese
Religions, Swanson, P., and Chilson, C. (Eds), University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
180
Ibid.
181
Meyer, M. (2009), Japan: A Concise History, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Inc.,
New York.
of court partisanship and religious institutions.182 However, central rule

from the imperial capital, Osaka, brought challenges from the provinces
which brought doubt to the belief that central rule was best.183 This may
have been why central government and a central bureaucracy, which also
encompassed the land owning aristocracy in the Heian Period, went
through a process of decentralisation.184 This was evidenced by the loss of
control over two types of human labour.185 The first associated with agri-
cultural production and the second with the provision of a centrally com-
manded military force. Over the course of the tenth century AD, there
was an increase in the fragmentation of agricultural land over which gov-
ernment could collect taxes as well as an increase in the number of ‘pri-
vate’ armies.186 The aristocracy took advantage of the lapse of central
control over the provinces by claiming suzerainty in their own name, but
on behalf of the Emperor, over the lands which they held.187 The usurping
of power away from the Emperor and the imperial court was further evi-
denced by the rise of the permanent regency especially during the late
Heian Period. While the Regent was titular in nature, his only prerogative
being to provide consorts to the royal household to produce heirs to the
throne, it became monopolised by a single clan, the northern Fujiwara.188
The emergence of the Regent signalled a period in which the holder of
authority and the power to disperse it became separated.189 This was also
a feature of land ownership and possession in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries AD, in which case a member of the aristocracy associated with
the imperial court may have owned the land, but possession of the land
was in the hands of a custodian in a perpetual hereditary agency.190 In a
182
Adolphson, M., and Kamens, E. (2007), Between and Beyond Centers and Peripheries,
IN Heian Japan: Centers and Peripheries, Adolphson, M., Kamens, E., and Matsumoto,
S. (Eds), University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
183
Ibid.
184
Kiley, C. (1974), Estate and Property in the Late Heian Period, IN Medieval Japan:
Essays in Institutional History, Hall, J., and Mass, J. (Eds), Stanford University Press,
Stanford, California.
185
Ibid.
186
Ibid.
187
Ibid.
188
Kiley, C. (1974), Estate and Property in the Late Heian Period, IN Medieval Japan:
Essays in Institutional History, Hall, J., and Mass, J. (Eds), Stanford University Press,
Stanford, California.
189
Ibid.
190
Ibid.
24 S. RAMESH
similar fashion, the institution of the Fujiwara dynasty can be seen to have
possessed the assets which were under the ownership of the imperial
dynasty.191 This incentivised political factionalism and battles between fac-
tions to gain possession, because possession meant power. Factionalism
also gave way to the institution of property rights due to the perceived
weakness of the central state to be able to distribute rewards to the fac-
tions on a fair basis.192 The emergence of the institution of property rights
occurred because factions which lost out by not winning a political argu-
ment, perhaps because some factions were not as strong as others, were
sweetened by the grant of property which was frequently in the form of
land.193 A characteristic feature of this behaviour was that once the right to
ownership of land had been given to a faction by the Regent, by the cen-
tral government, it could not be rescinded.194 However, despite its dimin-
ished capacity, the central state still retained the ability to act as an
institution by which important assets such as food stocks and a military
force could be garnered.195 The exercise of judgement by the state as to
which assets were garnered and how factions should be rewarded and
compensated reflected its judicial capacity rather than its administrative
one. Nevertheless, the judicial authority of the central state was weak and
Japanese society was not presented with stability and peace. In such an
environment, the central government was ill placed to enforce claims on
resources such as land.196 This judicial void was filled by the temples, and
the monasteries, which being exempt from tax, had the financial and
human resources to enforce claims on land ownership and to settle dis-
putes.197 In return parties to claims would sign over a percentage of future
harvests to the monasteries as compensation.198
The period encompassing 794 AD to 894 AD represents a time which
saw the emergence of a unique Japanese cultural identity which resulted
from the process of the assimilation of cultural, political, economic,
191
Ibid.
192
Ibid.
193
Ibid.
194
Ibid.
195
Ibid.
196
Adolphson, M., and Ramseyer, J. (2009), The Competitive Enforcement of Property
Rights in Medieval Japan: The Role of Temples and Monasteries, Journal of Economic
Behavior and Organisation, Vol. 71, pp. 660–668.
197
Ibid.
198
Ibid.
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Title: Advice to a wife and mother in two parts

Embracing advice to a wife, and advice to a mother
Author: Pye Henry Chavasse
Release date: October 15, 2023 [eBook #71887]
Language: English
Original publication: Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co, 1881
Credits: Richard Tonsing, MFR, and the Online Distributed

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVICE TO

A WIFE AND MOTHER IN TWO PARTS ***
Transcriber's Note:
New original cover art included with this eBook is
granted to the public domain.
ADVICE
TO A
WIFE AND MOTHER.

IN TWO PARTS.
EMBRACING
ADVICE TO A WIFE,
AND
ADVICE TO A MOTHER.
BY
PYE HENRY CHAVASSE.
SEVENTEENTH EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1881.
ADVICE TO A WIFE
ON THE
MANAGEMENT OF HER OWN HEALTH,
AND ON THE
TREATMENT OF SOME OF THE COMPLAINTS
INCIDENTAL TO
PREGNANCY, LABOR, AND SUCKLING;
WITH AN
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ESPECIALLY ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG
WIFE.
BY
PYE HENRY CHAVASSE,

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND; FELLOW
OF THE OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF
QUEEN’S COLLEGE MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY, BIRMINGHAM;
AUTHOR OF “ADVICE TO A MOTHER ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HER
CHILDREN.”
“Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of thine house.”
SEVENTEENTH EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1881.
TO
MY BIRMINGHAM PATIENTS,
MANY OF WHOM I HAVE ATTENDED FOR A PERIOD OF
UPWARDS OF THIRTY YEARS; SOME OF WHOM, HAVING
USHERED INTO THE WORLD, I AFTERWARD ATTENDED IN
THEIR OWN CONFINEMENTS; AND FROM ALL OF WHOM I
HAVE RECEIVED SO MUCH CONFIDENCE, COURTESY, AND
KINDNESS,
This little Volume is Dedicated,
BY THEIR SINCERE FRIEND,

PYE HENRY CHAVASSE
Priory House, Old Square,

Birmingham.
PREFACE.
The sale of copies of this book is now to be reckoned by its tens of

thousands! The last, the Seventh Edition, comprising five thousand
copies, has been rapidly exhausted; a new Edition, the Eighth, is
now urgently called for; and as the sale of the work is so enormous,
and so extending, my worthy Publishers have deemed it advisable to
publish of this edition at once seven thousand copies,—thus making
of the two last editions alone twelve thousand copies; the two last
editions being, in fact, equal to twelve ordinary editions! Moreover,
this book has made me troops of friends, thus proving how much
such a work was needed, and how thoroughly my humble efforts
have been appreciated.
I have, in the Introductory Chapter especially addressed to a
Young Wife, had some plain and unpalatable truths to tell; but it is
absolutely necessary for a surgeon to probe a serious and deep-
seated wound to the bottom before he can perform a cure; he is
sometimes compelled to give pain before he can cure pain; he is
frequently obliged to administer bitter medicine before sweet health
can be restored. I have not shrunk from my duty; I have not uttered
an “uncertain sound:” but have, without fear or favor, boldly spoken
out, and have proclaimed what I have deemed to be the truth; the
vital importance of my subject must excuse my plain-speaking and
earnestness. When a person is on the edge of a precipice, and is
ready at any moment to topple over, the words of warning must not
be in the tones of a whisper, bland and gentle, but in the voice of
thunder, bold and decisive. I have had to discourse on matters of the
greatest moment to the well-being of wives; and have, therefore, in
order not to be misapprehended, had to call things by their right
names—the subject being of far too much importance to write in a
namby-pamby style, or to use any other language than that of the
plainest English.
The Introductory Chapter is, I trust, greatly improved; many of the
quotations are either curtailed, or are altogether suppressed, in order
to make room, without materially increasing the size of the book, for
much new and important matter. The remaining pages have all been
carefully revised and corrected, and made more clear, and additional
advice, where needed, has been supplied. I therefore hope that this
edition will be still more worthy of its great and extending success,
and be the humble instrument of sowing broadcast through our land
advice most necessary for wives to know; and at the same time be the
means of dispelling prejudices which, in the lying-in room, are even,
in this our day, most rife and injurious.
Barren wives! delicate wives! unhealthy wives! are the order of the
day—are become institutions of the country—are so common as not
to be considered strange, but to be, as a matter of course, as part and
parcel of our everyday life! Should such things be? I emphatically say
No! But then a thorough change, a complete reformation, must take
place in the life and habits of a wife. It is no use blinking the
question; the truth, the whole truth, must come out, and the sooner
it is told the better. Oh! it is sad that the glorious mission of a wife
should, as it often does, end so ingloriously! Broken health, neglected
duties, a childless home, blighted hopes, misery, and discontent.
What an awful catalogue of the consequences of luxury, of
stimulants, of fashion, of ignorance, and of indolence—the five
principal wife and babe destroyers! Sure I am that the foregoing
melancholy results may, in the generality of cases, by timely and
judicious treatment, be prevented.
This is an age of stimulants—’tis the curse of the day; wine, in
excess, instead of being an element of strength, is one of weakness;
instead of encouraging fecundity, is one of its greatest preventives. A
lady who drinks daily five or six glasses of wine, is invariably weak,
low, hysterical, and “nervous,”—complaining that she can neither
eat, nor sleep, nor take exercise; she is totally unfit for the duties and
responsibilities of either wife or mother. I shall endeavor in the
following pages to prove the truth of these bold assertions.
Many young married ladies now drink as much wine in a day as
their grandmothers did in a week; and which I verily believe is one
cause of so few children, and of so much barrenness among them. It
is no use: the subject is too important to allow false delicacy to stand
in the way of this announcement; the truth must be told; the ulcer
which is eating into the vitals of society must be probed; the danger,
the folly, the wickedness of the system must be laid bare; the battle
must be fought; and as no medical man has come forward to begin
the conflict, I myself boldly throw down the gauntlet, and will, to the
best of my strength and ability, do battle in the cause.
It is the abuse and not the use of wine that I am contending
against. I am not advocating teetotal principles—certainly not. The
one system is as absurd and as wrong as the other; extremes, either
way, are most injurious to the constitution both of man and woman.
The advice of St. Paul is glorious advice: “Use a little wine for thy
stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities;” and again, when he says,
“be temperate in all things.” These are my sentiments, and which I
have, in the following pages, so earnestly contended for.
A lady who “eats without refreshment, and slumbers without
repose,” is deeply to be pitied, even though she be as rich as Crœsus,
or as beautiful as Venus! Nothing can compensate for the want of
either sleep or appetite; life without proper appetite and without
refreshing sleep will soon become a wearisome burden too heavy to
bear. It is high time, when there are so many of the Young Wives of
England, alas! too many, who daily “eat without refreshment,” and
who nightly “slumber without repose,” that the subject was
thoroughly looked into, and that proper means were suggested to
abate the calamity. One of the principal objects of this book is to
throw light upon the subject, and to counsel measures to remedy the
evil.
The large number of barren wives in England has, in these pages,
had my careful and earnest consideration. I have endeavored, to the
best of my ability, to point out, as far as the wives themselves are
concerned, many of the causes, and have advised remedies to abate
the same. It is quite time, when the health among the wives of the
higher classes is so much below par, and when children among them
are so few, that the causes should be thoroughly inquired into, and
that the treatment should be extensively made known. The subject is
of immense, indeed I might even say, of national importance, and
demands deep and earnest thought and careful investigation, as the
strength and sinews of a nation depend mainly upon the number and
healthfulness of her children.
Barren land can generally, with care and skill, be made fertile; an
unfruitful vine can frequently, by an experienced gardener, be
converted into a fruit-bearing one; a childless wife can often, by
judicious treatment, be made a child-bearing one. Few things in this
world are impossible: “where there is a will there is generally a way;”
but if there be a will, it must be a determined and a persevering will;
if there be a way, the way, however rough and rugged, must be
trodden,—the rough and rugged path will, as she advances onward,
become smooth and pleasant.
It is not the poor woman, who works hard and who lives hard, that
is usually barren—certainly not: she has generally an abundance of
children; but it is the rich lady—the one who is indolent, who lives
luxuriously, and fares sumptuously every day—who leads a
fashionable, and therefore an unnatural life—who turns night into
day, who at night breathes suffocatingly hot rooms, who lives in a
whirl of excitement, who retires not to rest until the small hours of
the morning,—such a one is the one that is frequently barren; and
well she might be,—it would be most strange if she were not so. One
of the objects of this book will be to point out these causes, and to
suggest remedies for the same, and thus to stem the torrent, and in
some measure to do away with the curse of barrenness which in
England, at the present time, so fearfully prevails.
I have undertaken a responsible task, but have thrown my whole
energy and ability into it; I therefore have no excuse to make that I
have not thought earnestly and well upon the subject, or that I have
written unadvisedly; my thoughts and studies have for years been
directed to these matters. I earnestly hope, then, that I have not
written in vain, but that the seeds now sown will, in due time, bring
forth much fruit.
Although my two books—Advice to a Wife and Advice to a Mother
—are published as separate works, they might, in point of fact, be
considered as one volume—one only being the continuation of the
other. Advice to a Wife, treating on a mother’s own health, being, as
it were, a preparation for Advice to a Mother on the management of
her children’s health; it is quite necessary that the mother herself
should be healthy to have healthy children; and if she have healthy
offspring, it is equally important that she should be made thoroughly
acquainted how to keep them in health. The object of Advice to a
Wife and Advice to a Mother is for that end; indeed, the acquisition
and the preservation of sound health, of mother and of child, have, in
both my books, been my earnest endeavor, my constant theme, the
beginning and the ending, the sum and the substance of my
discourse, on which all else beside hinges.
I again resign this book into the hands of my fair readers, hoping
that it may be of profit and of service to them during the whole
period of their wifehood; and especially during the most interesting
part of their lives—in their hour of anguish and of trial; and that it
may be the humble means of making a barren woman “to be a joyful
mother of children.”
PYE HENRY CHAVASSE
Priory House, Old Square,

Birmingham.
CONTENTS.
PAGES
Dedication iii
Preface to Eighth Edition v–x
Introductory Chapter 13–102
PART I.
On Menstruation 103–116
PART II.
On Pregnancy 117–198
PART III.
On Labor 199–254
PART IV.
On Suckling 255–300
Index 301–309
Advice to a Wife.
A good wife is Heaven’s last, best gift to man—his angel and minister of graces
innumerable—his gem of many virtues—his casket of jewels. Her voice is sweet
music, her smiles his brightest day, her kiss the guardian of his innocence, her
arms the pale of his safety, the balm of his health, the balsam of his life; her
industry his surest wealth, her economy his safest steward, her lips his faithful
counselors, her bosom the softest pillow of his cares, and her prayers the ablest
advocate of Heaven’s blessings on his head.—Jeremy Taylor.
Of earthly goods, the best is a good Wife;

A bad, the bitterest curse of human life.—Simonides.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
1. It may be well—before I enter on the subjects of menstruation, of

pregnancy, of labor, and suckling—to offer a few preliminary
observations, especially addressed to a Young Wife.
2. My subject is health—the care, the restoration, and the
preservation of health—one of the most glorious subjects that can be
brought before a human being, and one that should engross much of
our time and of our attention, and one that cannot be secured unless
it be properly attended to. The human frame is, as every one knows,
constantly liable to be out of order; it would be strange, indeed, if a
beautiful and complex instrument like the human body were not
occasionally out of tune:
“Strange that a harp with a thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long.”
3. The advice I am about to offer to my fair reader is of the greatest

importance, and demands her deepest attention. How many wives
are there with broken health, with feeble constitutions, and with
childless homes! Their number is legion! It is painful to contemplate
that, in our country, there are far more unhealthy than healthy
wives! There must surely be numerous causes for such a state of
things! A woman, born with every perfection, to be full of bodily
infirmities! It was ordained by the Almighty that wives should be
fruitful and multiply! Surely there must be something wrong in the
present system if they do not do so!
4. It will, in the following pages, be my object to point out many of
the causes of so much ill health among wives; ill health that
sometimes leads to barrenness; and to suggest remedies both for the
prevention and for the cure of such causes.
5. It is an astounding and lamentable fact, that one out of eight—
that twelve and a half per cent. of all the wives of England are barren,
are childless! A large majority of this twelve and a half per cent.
might be made fruitful, if a more judicious plan of procedure than is
at present pursued were adopted.
6. My anxious endeavors, in the following pages, will be to point
out remedies for the evil, and to lay down rules—rules which, I hope,
my fair reader will strenuously follow.
7. My theme, then, is Health—the Health of Wives—and the object
I shall constantly have in view will be the best means both of
preserving it and of restoring it when lost. By making a wife strong,
she will not only, in the majority of cases, be made fruitful, but
capable of bringing healthy children into the world. This latter
inducement is of great importance; for puny children are not only an
anxiety to their parents, but a misery to themselves, and a trouble to
all around! Besides, it is the children of England that are to be her
future men and women—her glory and her greatness! How desirable
it is, then, that her children should be hardy and strong!
8. A wife may be likened to a fruit tree, a child to its fruit. We all
know that it is as impossible to have fine fruit from an unhealthy tree
as to have a fine child from an unhealthy mother. In the one case, the
tree either does not bear fruit at all—is barren—or it bears
undersized, tasteless fruit,—fruit which often either immaturely
drops from the tree, or, if plucked from the tree, is useless; in the
other case, the wife either does not bear children—she is barren—or
she has frequent miscarriages—“untimely fruit”—or she bears puny,
sickly children, who often either drop into an early grave, or, if they
live, probably drag out a miserable existence. You may as well expect
“to gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles,” as healthy children
from unhealthy parents!
9. Unhealthy parents, then, as a matter of course have unhealthy
children; this is as truly the case as the night follows the day, and
should deter both man and woman so circumstanced from marrying.
There are numerous other complaints besides scrofula and insanity
inherited and propagated by parents. It is a fearful responsibility,
both to men and women, if they be not healthy, to marry. The result
must, as a matter of course, be misery!
10. If a wife is to be healthy and strong, she must use the means—
she must sow before she can reap; health will not come by merely
wishing for it! The means are not always at first agreeable; but, like
many other things, habit makes them so. Early rising, for instance, is
not agreeable to the lazy, and to one fond of her bed; but it is
essentially necessary to sound health. Exercise is not agreeable to the
indolent; but no woman can be really strong without it. Thorough
ablution of the whole body is distasteful and troublesome to one not
accustomed to much washing—to one laboring under a kind of
hydrophobia; but there is no perfect health without the daily
cleansing of the whole skin.
11. But all these processes entail trouble. True: is anything in this
world to be done without trouble? and is not the acquisition of
precious health worth trouble? Yes, it is worth more than all our
other acquisitions put together! Life without health is a burden; life
with health is a joy and gladness! Up, then, and arouse yourself, and
be doing! No time is to be lost if you wish to be well, to be a mother,
and to be a mother of healthy children. The misfortune of it is, many
ladies are more than half asleep, and are not aroused to danger till
danger stares them in the face; they are not cognizant of ill health
slowly creeping upon them, until, in too many cases, the time is gone
by for relief, and ill health has become confirmed—has become a part
and parcel of themselves; they do not lock the stable until the steed
be stolen; they do not use the means until the means are of no avail:
“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to Heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.”[1]
12. Idleness is the mother of many diseases; she breeds them,

feeds them, and fosters them, and is, moreover, a great enemy to
fecundity. Idleness makes people miserable. I have heard a young
girl—surrounded with every luxury—bemoan her lot, and complain
that she was most unhappy in consequence of not having anything to
do, and who wished that she had been a servant, so that she might
have been obliged to work for her living. Idleness is certainly the
hardest work in the world.
13. It frequently happens that a lady, surrounded with every luxury
and every comfort, drags out a miserable existence; she cannot say
that she ever, even for a single day, really feels well and strong. This
is not to live—
“For life is not to live, but to be well.”[2]
14. If a person be in perfect health, the very act of living is itself

thorough enjoyment, the greatest this world can ever bestow. How
needful it therefore is that all necessary instruction should be
imparted to every Young Wife, and that proper means should, in
every way, be used to insure health!
15. The judicious spending of the first year of married life is of the
greatest importance in the making and in the strengthening of a
wife’s constitution, and in preparing her for having a family. How
sad it is, then, that it is the first twelve months that is, as a rule,
especially chosen to mar and ruin her own health, and to make her
childless! The present fashionable system of spending the first few
months of married life in a round of visiting, of late hours, and in
close and heated rooms, calls loudly for a change. How many
valuable lives have been sacrificed to such a custom! How many
miscarriages, premature births, and still-born children, have resulted
therefrom! How many homes have been made childless—desolate—
by it! Time it is that common sense should take the place of such
folly! The present system is abominable, is rotten at the core, and is
fraught with the greatest danger to human life and human
happiness. How often a lady is, during the first year of her wifehood,
gadding out night after night,—one evening to a dinner party, the
next night to private theatricals, the third to an evening party, the
fourth to the theater, the fifth to a ball, the sixth to a concert, until in
some cases every night except Sunday night is consumed in this way,
—coming home frequently in the small hours of the morning,
through damp or fog, or rain or snow, feverish, flushed, and excited
—too tired until the morning to sleep, when she should be up, out,
and about. When the morning dawns she falls into a heavy,
unrefreshing slumber, and wakes not until noon, tired, and unfit for
the duties of the day! Night after night—gas, crowded rooms,
carbonic acid gas, late hours, wine, and excitement are her portion.
As long as such a plan is adopted the preacher preacheth but in vain.
Night after night, week after week, month after month, this game is
carried on, until at length either an illness or broken health
supervenes. Surely these are not the best means to insure health and
a family and healthy progeny! The fact is, a wife nowadays is too
artificial; she lives on excitement; it is like drinking no wine but

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China's Economic Rise: Lessons from

Japan’s Political Economy 1st ed.

The Rise of Empires: The Political Economy of

The Political Economy of Human Behaviour and Economic

The Political Economy of the China-Pakistan Economic

African Special Economic Zones: Lessons and Investments

Life in Treaty Port China and Japan 1st ed. 2018

The Political Economy of Hydropower in Southwest China

The Political Economy of Devolution in Britain from the

Making Meritocracy: Lessons from China and India, from

ISBN 978-3-030-49810-8 ISBN 978-3-030-49811-5 (eBook)

government intervention and the use of private capital towards bureau-

a globally co-ordinated economic policy response which involved the use

smaller at $300 billion.8 Moreover, the size of Eurozone household debts

Hungary,17 acted to lower the wages of UK skilled and semi-skilled work-

Japanese society. The transition to bureaucratic fascism was made easier

Chinese firms are under attack by western governments due to security

Oxford, UK Sangaralingam Ramesh

Fletcher, L. (2019), Global debt – when is the day of reckoning? https://www.

I would like to thank Wyndham Hacket Pain, Editor (Economics),

1 Introduction: The Rise of a Nation 1

2 The Kamakura Period (1185–1333): Emergence of

3 The Muromachi Period (1333–1568) and the Azuchi–

4 The Tokugawa Period (1600–1868): Isolation and Change101

5 The Meiji Period (1868–1912): Industrialisation and

6 The Taisho Period (1912–1926): Transition from

7 The Showa Period (1926–1989): War and the Emergence

8 The Heisei Period (1989–2019): Economic Stagnation and

9 Conclusion: Lessons for Contemporary China281

Introduction: The Rise of a Nation

© The Author(s) 2020 1

Palaeolithic, Jomon and Yayoi Periods

ago.21 Analysis of the cranium of the Minatogawa population indicates

i­nherited the physical characteristics of the mid to late Pleistocene peri-

innovation or diffuse of innovation again occurred on the island of Kyushu,

Kofun Period (250 AD to 538 AD)

acquisition of knowledge from Korea and China by employing ethnic

evidence of burial tombs and haniwa on the Korean peninsula as well.116

Asuka Period (538 AD to 710 AD)

secondary to an emphasis on moral and spiritual values.142 Furthermore,

Nara Period (710 AD to 794 AD)

T’ang levels in three respects.166 Firstly, there was an emphasis on the

promotion was based on merit in the context of attainment in schol-

Heian Period (794 AD to 1185 AD)

of court partisanship and religious institutions.182 However, central rule

Title: Advice to a wife and mother in two parts

Author: Pye Henry Chavasse

Release date: October 15, 2023 [eBook #71887]

Original publication: Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co, 1881

Credits: Richard Tonsing, MFR, and the Online Distributed

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVICE TO

WIFE AND MOTHER.

PYE HENRY CHAVASSE,

This little Volume is Dedicated,

BY THEIR SINCERE FRIEND,

Priory House, Old Square,

The sale of copies of this book is now to be reckoned by its tens of

Priory House, Old Square,

Of earthly goods, the best is a good Wife;

1. It may be well—before I enter on the subjects of menstruation, of

3. The advice I am about to offer to my fair reader is of the greatest

12. Idleness is the mother of many diseases; she breeds them,

14. If a person be in perfect health, the very act of living is itself

Oxford, UK Sangaralingam Ramesh

1 Introduction: The Rise of a Nation 1

2 The Kamakura Period (1185–1333): Emergence of

3 The Muromachi Period (1333–1568) and the Azuchi–

4 The Tokugawa Period (1600–1868): Isolation and Change101

5 The Meiji Period (1868–1912): Industrialisation and

6 The Taisho Period (1912–1926): Transition from

7 The Showa Period (1926–1989): War and the Emergence

8 The Heisei Period (1989–2019): Economic Stagnation and

9 Conclusion: Lessons for Contemporary China281

inherited the physical characteristics of the mid to late Pleistocene peri-