Compare And Contrast Japan And China Essay

chinaware and lacquer, some(prenominal) with thousand geezerhood of ancient culture and civilization history, sh are numerous similarities and differences. Confucianism is a state-controlled based value system which embraces a set of moral codes of air designed to regulate the relationships surrounded by ruler and subject, father and son, friend and neighbor, married man and wife, and brother and brother. Even though both China and Japan engaged Confucianism as the state ideology, there were more features of Confucianism in the two countries that determine separately countrys societies. China and Japan isolated themselves from the quell of the world in the beginning, however later on, the differences in response to the embrace from the West led them to different paths. This essay is going to compare and line of business two main differences between Japan and China, which include a ethnical legacy known as Confucianism and the response to the West in nineteenth century . To begin with, Confucianism stresses crashicular social relationships, but it is also a commonplace moral code, which makes it easy for the Nipponese adoption.However, the Japanese transform it in their bearing and to a certain degree Confucian concepts are applied to relationships carrying a different meaning from those in China. At its most basic of culture, Chinese morality is founded on the family structure, with the most important social ties being that of put forward and tiddler and its blood- related to family clans. The Japanese moral system is founded on a set of kinship relations that go beyond blood ties or extend to members who have no blood relationship, with the primary tie being that between leader and follower. Therefore, Japanese political culture is more group-oriented, more tribal, or more radical. Another example is the paired concepts of obedience and filial religion that characterize the two cultures. These two determine are related both are the du ties we owe to our superiors. Loyalty is our duty to our ruler, and filial piety is our duty to our parents. two came into the Japanese culture as part of the Confucian influence, but they are treated differently in China and Japan. In China, filial piety or reverence for parents is the most important of theserelationships and the one and only(a) that binds the Confucian moral system together. Confucianists assume that if everyone internalizes such family values, society go away come into tune with heaven, and harmony, contentment, and prosperity will ensue as a matter of course (Miller, John H). When there is a conflict between the two, our duty to our parents usually outweighs that to the ruler. In Japan, the Japanese do not hump this tension or contradiction one is a filial child only if one gives loyal service to ones superior. Therefore, devotion is expressed in unquestioning slave-like obedience and implies total selfless faithfulness to ones lord. In other words, loyalty in the Japanese culture usually take precedence over filial piety.In addition, harmony, rather than competition, is one of the core Confucian ideas and the concept that helps to shape both Chinese and Japanese political cultures. Both China and Japan are highly collectivistic societies under the Confucian influence, in which each soulfulness is born and melt into a collective entity either family, clan, group, society, or state, each person knows his or her status and identity in relation to others in social relations, and each person is required to conform to the collective values. However, in Japan, more emphasis is placed on group orientation and loyalty to the group, for it is the group that gives one a social identity, provides a feeling of security, and receives the rewards of service. non only the household and the village but also colleagues, fellow students, neighbors, and level industrial sectors constitute the important groups from which one acquires social status and identity.The bite Imperialism of the 19th century, driven by both America and western sandwich atomic number 63 profoundly affected Africa and Asia. In Asia, both Japan and China were impacted, but in very different ways. Japan was able to ward get done the threats of imperialism, and emerge as a world power. China, on the other hand, suffered the deprivation of sovereignty and status. The elites of both countries responded to the challenges posed by Western penetration by initiating reforms. In Japan, the Meiji regime chose to remake themselves entirely through Westernization, while in China, the Qing government chose instead to hold on to traditionalistic Chinese values and institutions. Chinas efforts at reform, the Self-Strengthening Movements, was in essential traditional answers to traditional problems. There was no significant, large-scale industrialization in China, and they displayedlittle willingness to withdraw from traditional imperial institutions that were inca pable to dealing with contemporary problems.Chinese ethnical pride was just too deeply ingrained, so much so that it became an impediment, blinding many Chinese and preventing them from recognizing the need to learn from the barbarians and for fundamental change. On the other hand, Japanese efforts to adopt foreign technology to meet their legions and industrial needs were largely successful. The Meiji regime, however, saw that military technology and industrialization could not be separated from institutional structures that had produced and accompanied such developments in the West, and showed little hesitation in transforming or abolishing traditional institutions in regard of those that could give Japan the modernity it needed to survive. Overall, the Meiji Restoration was a horrendous success for the Japanese and allowed them to join the ranks of Western new imperial powers. Both nations pursued the goal of a rich nation and strong armament as the way to modernization throu gh the Self-Strengthening Movement in China and the Meiji Restoration in Japan.However, most of the reforms in the Self-Strengthening Movement belonged to the surface story of modernization which included manufacturing technology of military and light and heavier industries, and certain infrastructures. The reforms in the Meiji Restoration not only replicated the material manufacturing technology, but also stirred the inner and deeper parts of Western civilization that included political structures and profound systems, and Western types of philosophy, culture and ways of thinking. China and Japan, due to geographical proximity, historical, and cultural ties, have many similarities and differences. Confucianism played a very important part in both Chinese and Japanese, but their different understandings in many same concepts lead to different cultures and societies.In addition, during the nineteenth century, facing the wring of the West, different responses changes the fate of C hina and Japan. Chinese responded to the Opium Wars and western intrusion through a combination of challenging the West, embracing traditional ways, challenging the Qing Dynasty, or seeking moderate reforms. Japan, though never conquered, responded to the intrusion of West quite a differently. Rather than looking to the past, the Japanese sought to emulate the West. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan modernized. Japan sought to avoid Chinas fate by adopting aspects of Western culture and faced a turning point in its history. whole kit and caboodle CitedMiller, John H. Belief Systems and Religions. Modern East Asia An Introductory History. Armonk, N.Y. M.E. Sharpe, 2008. 19. Print.