The formation and fruits of East Asian maritime interactions

Simple trade activities existed among different areas in the East Asian region as early as 2000 BCE. Around the first century CE, maritime connections within the region became institutionalized. Initially, the navigation routes were located along the coastline, with islands and the mainland in visible range. Military conflicts between Baekje and Goguryeo made it difficult to sail along the coastline, resulting in the creation of a new route across the Yellow Sea, which started at Wendeng in the Shandong Peninsula, reached Baengnyeong Island in the west of the Korean Peninsula, and terminated at Hakata, Japan.

Before the eighth century, official communications – diplomatic envoys from Silla and Japan – were the main reason for travel. After the eighth century, private trade started to play a more influential role. Between the tenth and thirteenth century, private trade flourished thanks to the commercially open mindset of China’s Song Dynasty. There were two major routes from China to the Korean Peninsula: one across the Yellow Sea, and the other between Mingzhou (today’s Ningbo) and the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. After the Mongols occupied China, official exchanges between China and the Korean Peninsula mainly used the land passage, while private trade continued using the sea routes. The prosperous regional exchanges started to decline from the fifteenth century, due to embargos all over the region. The Ming rulers banned private trade; Japan left only the port of Nagasaki for foreign trade; and the Joseon Dynasty put a ban on maritime trade. However, cultural communication was sustained and left behind a number of heritage sites which bear witness to the collective memory of the peoples of the region.

Chinese porcelain had been exported to foreign countries from the ninth century, but became more popular during the Song and Yuan dynasties. Kilns specializing in export porcelain were founded in the southeastern coastal areas, and inland kilns were relocated to the coastal areas to boost export. Also, early Korean celadon imitated, in terms of glaze color and shape, similar vessels produced in Zhejiang’s Yue Kiln. The Korean technique of pottery became increasingly more sophisticated, culminating in its own worldly famous brand, Korean celadon, which was introduced back to China. The prosperity of porcelain trade has been extensively explored by scholars, and is regarded as a fundamental basis for the sustainability of the Maritime Silk Road.

In the middle of the sixth century, Buddhism was introduced from China to Silla and Japan. After the eighth century, many Japanese and Silla monks went to China to study Buddhism, while Chinese monks also spread Buddhism eastwards. For instance, the Buddhist Monk Jianzhen arrived in Japan during the Tianbao Period of the Tang dynasty. He founded Risshū, one of the six schools of Nara Buddhism in Japan, which also influenced the establishment of the Tendai school. During the Song and Yuan dynasty, after visiting China, Japanese monks usually returned home bringing with them elements of scripture, tea ceremony, poems, calligraphy, and painting. For example, two Japanese monks, Yosai and Dogen, returned by sea with the Dharma acquired from Tiantong Buddhist Temple in Mingzhou, and founded the Rinzai school and the Soto school, respectively. Many Chinese monks also visited Japan during the Ming and Qing dynasty, partly because of the continuous domestic wars in China. Confucianism, which originated in China, was also widespread in Japan and Korea. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the main agents of Sino-Japanese cultural exchange were Chinese scholars. In 1619, Chen Yuanyun settled in Japan, where he introduced Chinese literature and martial arts, and created Judo. Zhu Shunshui arrived at Nagasaki in 1659, where he actively introduced Chinese culture, namely Confucianism. He was honored by Japanese scholars as a ‘sage of culture’.

Heritage sites are witnesses to the formation of common culture in East Asia, represented especially by Buddhist temples. Chinese traditional architectural techniques, manifested in Buddhist temples, reached Japan and Korea through the maritime routes. Buddhist temples of the Song dynasty, exemplified by Tiantong Buddhist Temple in Mingzhou, exerted huge influences upon Buddhist architectural technology and art in Japan and Korea. By the middle of the thirteenth century, monks from Japan visited famous Chinese temples in the Jiangnan region. They drew The Map of Five Mountains and Ten Temples, which presented the architectural layouts of various temples and was subsequently used as the blueprint for the organizing and building regulations of Japanese Buddhist temples. Simply put, a number of traditional Chinese-style buildings with deep cultural origin, which presently exist in China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula, show the common values of the ancient East Asian cultural sphere that are linked by Buddhism.

The East Asian maritime sphere was the outgrowth of ancient peoples using traditional sailing techniques that opened up connections through maritime passages. Based on coastline nodes and navigation technology, people were able to trade and exchange elements of cultures. The region has been tightly connected via the maritime interactions, by which collective memories and common cultural sphere have been formed.

Haiming Yan, Associate Research Fellow, Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, haimingyan@outlook.com