Historically, premodern eras are referred to the times in which the nations lived in ancient times.
Part of life that defined these eras are the civilizations of the countries, especially the ones of the East Asian countries. Japan and China are part of these countries. The essay will discuss focusing on the various civilizations that defined the nations. History states that despite the difference in geographical locations, Japan and China have differences in political and social features. Also, each of these countries has unique histories of their civilizations. The essay will analyze the difference between the civilizations of Japan and China.
Japan was different from China during the premodern eras due to political and social isolation. Japan handled its issues on its own since it did not aloe entry of foreign cultures until the mid-1800. On the other hand, China had allowed foreign cultures that resulted in civil instability and unrest (Von Glahn pp. 35).
The other difference between the two countries that was recorded during the premodern era is that in Japan, wealth was equally distributed among the citizens of the nation compared to that of China in which the gap between the rich and the poor continued to grow wide (Schirokauer et al., 2012). The other difference that is noted in the premodern eras of these two countries is based on religions. The religion of ancient Japanese named as Shinto religion while that of China was commonly known as Buddhism. Some of these cultures that were practised in these eras are still adhered to in the modern days of these countries. Based on art and architecture, the difference between these two countries is highly evident. Japanese architecture involved art objects known as haniwa figurines and the oldest vessel of pottery found in the world. In China, some of these arts included Buddhist art.
The civilizations between the two countries are varied, although there are some similarities that are very limited. For example, when Japan and China interacted, the two shared the Buddhism religion a similarity that became part of the countries. The essay will take the position that the civilizations of these two countries were different and distinct. History states that the civilizations are different based on architecture, religion, division of labour and other factors of life (Dorothy et al., 28). For example, History of ancient China explains that the country was rich in culture where small farming defined some of the Chinese communities. Some of the Chinese communities involved in small farming were Ming, Qin and Zhou.
Dynasties like Zhou standardized writing, and it is in which thinkers like Sun Tzu and Confucius shared their major philosophies. In Japan, there were no dynasties, and politics were unstable. Based on the issue of religion, the difference between the two is distinct. In Japan, the communities believe in Shinto, although there was the introduction of Confucianism and Buddhism were introduced later from China (Hane pp. 15). China’s religion focused on Buddhism that was introduced to Japan during the entry of foreign cultures into the country that allowed the religious culture of China to spread. These differences and the ones mentioned in the paragraph above show that the civilizations between these two countries were very different.
In conclusion, varied civilizations among countries were used to determine the culture of these Asian countries. Each country had its unique of living, and it was noted in the history of the countries. The essay has mentioned the differences between these two Asian countries. Once interactions were allowed among the individual’s conflicts would be noted. The reason was that people demanded the rights to adhere to their cultures and interactions would alter. An example is how interactions changed religion in Japan to Buddhism.