Culture and Politics in East Asia

In China, an expanding population and economy stimulated the spread of ideas and goods while, in some ways, raising new challenges for the imperial court. In Japan, the shogunate struggled to control the spread of new ideas and goods.

China: the Challenge of Expansion and Diversity

Between 1500 and 1700, books and ideas exploded in a publishing revolution as centralized control over printing gave way to autonomous commercialized publishing. The state simply could not control what was produced as the demand for books from elites and urban populations alike could not be satiated. Connoisseurship of the arts expanded. Great libraries on a myriad of subjects grew as books and art both became affordable to a new class of urbanites. Some complained that collecting, rather than learning, had become the focus but others noted the prominent role of women writers as a sign of growth.

In rural districts, the Ming regime sought to maintain some control over culture and behavior—appointing village elders to make sure laws were followed, for example—but most peasants continued to be influenced more by local Buddhist and Daoist practice or market gossip. Thus, Ming authorities failed to monopolize cultural transmission there. The secular state, however, had little reason to challenge Buddhist or Daoist institutions, provided they did not challenge the state. Thus, China enjoyed a religious tolerance not seen in the West.

Chinese science and technology reached new heights under the Ming. Chinese astronomers excelled, particularly since they were required to inform the emperor precisely when certain rituals had to be conducted. European science was introduced through Jesuit missionaries, who remained frustrated that Chinese did not better appreciate European contributions. Science in China, as indicated by China’s own cartographic traditions, simply had a different purpose than it did in Europe. China remained relatively uninformed and disinterested in foreign lands or peoples and maintained the view that all things Chinese were superior.

Cultural Identity and Tokugawa Japan

In Japan, Chinese, European, and Japanese culture interacted to stimulate cultural developments reflecting larger changes introduced by global trade. A highly refined and restrained elite culture, informed by the court and samurai class, was joined by an unrestrained, urbanite culture dominated by merchants. Popular culture rejected the principled and disciplined culture of the elites by celebrating entertainers and pleasure. Viewing the more extreme features of this culture as a threat, the shogunate restricted it to the pleasure quarters. There, however, money ruled, allowing merchants to trump the class standing of the samurai.

Fueled by a commercializing economy and rising literacy among townspeople, publishing exploded. Through books and human contact, Chinese Chan Buddhism (called Zen in Japan) and Confucianism expanded, in part to stabilize social hierarchy and legitimize the shogunate. "Native learning," intellectual trends derived from Japan’s own traditions, also thrived. Finally, the spread of European knowledge or "Dutch learning" provided Japanese with a new source of science, geography, and medicine. Unlike China or the Islamic empires, Japan showed no hesitation about borrowing ideas, systems, and knowledge from others.

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