Japanese scholars have clearly realized the profound influence of China's ancient culture on Japan, but this epitaph conveys more complicated and far-reaching historical feelings: it reconfirms the origin of Japanese title and China, and also expresses the personal friendship of the Tang Emperor to a Japanese envoy in Tang Dynasty.
More scholars have re-examined the history of Sino-Japanese exchanges for thousands of years through this epitaph.
This is an unusual stone. The cover is bluestone, and the bottom is white stone, which is nearly square with regular script lettering on it.
When Jia Maiming cleaned up the dirt on the stone with a soft brush and read the words clearly, his hands began to tremble. The stone cover is engraved with the words "the name of Japan" and the base has the name of Kaiyuan. "I decided on the spot that this was the epitaph of a Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty."
As the deputy director of the History Museum of Northwest University, Jia Maiming accidentally collected this stone, which proved to be the only epitaph of the Japanese envoy to Tang Dynasty so far in subsequent research.
Jia Maiming was surprised by the sensation caused by the appearance of the epitaph in Japan: in Fujii Temple, the hometown of Tang Dynasty envoys, a relevant research society was established and a commemorative stamp was issued on him, with the intention of taking him as the image of the city. On August 24, 2005, when the epitaph was exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum, the Japanese Emperor personally visited it.
Japanese scholars have clearly realized the profound influence of China's ancient culture on Japan. In the History of Sino-Japanese Exchanges, Takahiko Kimono said: "Everyone thinks that most of Japan's medieval system was created by Japan. However, if you visit Tang Shi, you will know how to imitate the Tang system. "
However, the historical emotion conveyed by this stone is much more complicated. This epitaph not only reconfirmed that the title of Japan was given by China, but also expressed the personal friendship of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty to a Japanese envoy in the Tang Dynasty.
More scholars have re-examined the history of Sino-Japanese exchanges for thousands of years through this epitaph.
Teenagers are called "Tianzong"
Ma Lu Abe, a close friend of Li Bai's, returned to China, using Chinese characters to create a katakana, Shinohara, and Yamato Nagaoka, who perfected the Japanese law. Inoue Shinsei entered the Tang Dynasty at the same time. These celebrities are just a group of children in their late teens.
1200 years ago, Nanpu Port (now Osaka) was a lively scene, and another missionary fleet preparing to cross the sea to China was about to set off. Four huge wooden sailboats are arranged in turn, each of which can carry more than 100 people, and ribbons are fluttering on the side and mast. The Japanese emperor held a banquet and sang a song to see him off.
The courtiers sang farewell poems written by the emperor:
I want you to cross the sea like a flat ground,
Living on a boat is like sitting on a bed.
Four ships fly together,
Come back safely in a few days!
The owner of this epitaph is sitting on one of the giant ships, surrounded by peaceful and long wishes, leaving the port and heading for the vast sea. His name is Jing Zhencheng.
How old was Jing Ke when he left his hometown? There is no record in the epitaph, except that in 734 AD, the talented envoy of the Tang Dynasty died of illness in Chang 'an at the age of 36.
The Book of the New Tang Dynasty records that in 7 17 and 733 AD, many envoys sent to the Tang Dynasty set out from Japan. If he went to sea in 733, Jing Zhencheng was 35 years old. Junzhi Hino, a professor of literature at Nara University in Japan, thinks it is unlikely.
In the Japanese delegation to Tang Dynasty, there were two kinds of people besides the learned monks. One is a young international student, usually eighteen or nineteen years old. They will study in China for twenty or thirty years before they are allowed to return to Japan. The other is to invite Yi Sheng, who are older and have only lived in China 1 year.
"As a person in his thirties, it is hard to imagine that Japan has no official position. After the official enters the Tang Dynasty, his title will be retained on the epitaph. " However, Jing Zhencheng's epitaph does not record his official position before his death, which is what Dongye Zhi Zhi said. Therefore, it can basically be concluded that Jing Zhencheng should have entered the Tang Dynasty in 7 17, which happened to be 19 years old.
This is the ninth time that Japan sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty, and more than 500 people were crowded in four big ships. These young international students are the children of Japanese middle-level bureaucrats and have to undergo strict selection. They must meet the standards of talent and appearance before they can enter the Tang Dynasty.
Jing Zhencheng is described as "only called Tianzong" in this epitaph.
On the great ship, there is Ma Lu Abe, who will be Li Bai's best friend in the future. After returning home, he used Chinese characters to create Katakana Shimonoseki Shinbei and Nagaoka Yamato, who perfected the law for Japan. They entered the Tang Dynasty at the same time as Jing Zhencheng. At that time, these people who left a great reputation in the history of China and Japan were only a group of children of eighteen or nineteen.
The attitude of the island country
The records of "Japan" and "Twenty-two Years of Kaiyuan (AD 734)" in stone carvings advanced the earliest written record of "Japan" from AD 746 by several decades. Scholars believe that this once again proves that the title of Japan was given by the Tang Dynasty.
The seal cutting well is really an epitaph stone, with a circumference of about 39 cm and only the words 1 17 on it. A few months after its appearance, it was regarded as "first-class historical materials" in the history of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.
The records of "Japan" and "Twenty-two Years of Kaiyuan (AD 734)" in stone carvings advanced the earliest written record of "Japan" from AD 746 by several decades. Scholars believe that this once again proves that the title of Japan was given by the Tang Dynasty.
China, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, was recorded as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, but it is often called "Japan" in history books. Before the early Tang Dynasty, although Japanese envoys were sent to China many times, their attitudes and purposes were quite different from those later.
"From the Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, Japanese envoys to China were mostly for political purposes, and they were arrogant and even arrogant." Wang, a professor at China Ancient History Research Center in Peking University, said.
The credentials submitted by the Japanese ambassador to China for the second time claimed that "there is no son of heaven in the book." The credentials of the third ambassador to the Sui Dynasty were called "East Emperor worships West Emperor". Wang Xiaoyu believes that "those credentials fully show the mentality that this island country wants to compete with China."
Even in the early Tang Dynasty, in 660 AD, Japanese envoys asked Tang Gaozong to let some small countries "pay tribute to their own country every year" to show that they were a big country like China that made Yidi submit. Wang believes that this attitude reflects the Japanese's lack of understanding of China's national strength and cultural progress at that time.
When Jing Zhencheng entered the Tang Dynasty, Japan's understanding of the culture of the Tang Dynasty had changed. This is related to a war near the Korean peninsula.
In 663 AD, in order to help Baekje annexed by the Tang Dynasty to restore the country, Japan went to war with Tang Jun at the mouth of Baicun River. After complete failure, the Japanese discovered the distance with China.
Near the Korean peninsula, Tang Shuijun first arrived at the mouth of Baicun River. Later, the Japanese navy also arrived at the Baicun River from the sea, and the two armies met. At that time, there were more than 10,000 Japanese sailors and more than 1,000 warships 1, while the Tang navy had only 7,000 sailors and 70 warships 1. Although there is a great disparity in the number of people and ships, the ships of the Tang navy are powerful and efficient. In the end, "four wars were successful, 400 ships were burned, smoke rose to the sky, the sea was red, and the thieves and soldiers were defeated."
Japanese scholar Mori's official seal said in his recent book After the White Village River, "The aftermath of the defeat of the White River, like the Meiji Restoration and the Second World War, can be said to be a period when the whole country rushed to introduce the' enemy' national system and culture."
Since then, Japanese diplomatic envoys in China have only devoted themselves to learning the culture of the Tang Dynasty, no longer asked the imperial court for conferring titles, and even were willing to equate with "Guo Fan", and the national policy has also shifted from the past regional political enterprising to the inward, peaceful and developing direction.
It was during this period that the young well really went to sea and embarked on the road of "taking a life far away and galloping to serve the country".
Accompanied by the great ship, there were many Japanese craftsmen who went to the Tang Dynasty to study manufacturing technology. Realizing the gap, Japan began to turn rapidly, learning from China in all aspects, from manufacturing, architecture to legal system.