Sino-japanese City Culture ¤Î Comparative Study

The comparison of the Chinese and Japanese city wall culture serves as a tentative exploration, conducted from multiple perspectives of archaeology, history, culture, military and etc. Unfortunately, the Japanese imitation of the Chinese capital city construction rests simply on the exterior appearance but not on the internal charm. To explain the phenomenon, this paper tries to get to the essence through appearances step by step in terms of culture transmission, and finds out that the Japanese imitation of the overall layout is just physical, and the inadequate adoption of the Confucian civility is actually the internal cause for the missing charm. The research of culture cannot be isolated from its corresponding political and historical background. Unlike the Chinese centralization of state existing continuously for thousands of years, the power of the emperor was diminished gradually after the Lian Cang shogunate established the military political regime in Japan's history, thus the unitary reign centered on the emperor was transformed into the binary one of the royal and the military. Under the background of changed political situation, Japan's capital city was gradually deprived of its status as the political center. As was said in an ancient Chinese book The Chronicle of Wu Yue, the inner city wall was built to protect the emperor, while the outer city wall was built to guard the civilians. The Japanese castles were also called city walls, which functioned to defend against the palace guards within the castles, while the farm fields outside the city wall were not included in the defense system. It is believed in the paper that, in the final analysis, the varied constructions stem from the difference between Chinese and Japanese Confucian cultures. Chinese Confucianism gives priority to benevolence, whereas a variation of Confucianism centered on "loyalty" is reflected in the Japanese castle culture. According to Confucius, a country with civil administration must also be equipped with military preparations. Moreover, this paper still holds that what is paid equal attention to with Confucianism within the city wall culture is the military culture. The Confucian philosophy of caring for the people can find full evidence in the military tactic that to win the hearts of the people inside the city should be considered as a better choice than attack the city itself. Then a conclusion is finally reached that city wall culture is indeed human culture. To sum up, the paper starts with the exploration into the key philosophy of Chinese and Japanese city wall cultures, and then demonstrates the above arguments through analysis and comparison.