How to inherit and develop our cultural heritage?-the feedback from "The influence of Chinese culture on Japanese culture

Here is the original article I read: The Influence Of Chinese Culture On Japanese Culture (http://www.char4u.com/article_info.php?articles_id=47 recess date 26/10) by Char4U.com

The Chinese civilization was a much older civilization than the Japanese civilization. The Chinese and the Japanese had cultural and commercial relations that date back to 200 A.D. Chinese culture flowed out of China and into Japan to influence Japanese culture in several waves. The degree to which the Japanese adopted Chinese cultural influences depended on the receptivity of the latter at that particular historical juncture. Chinese influence on Japanese culture is readily apparent. Some of these influences are: Language. The Japanese had no written language at the time of their first contact with the Chinese and their use of Chinese proved important for the purpose of political unification under the Japanese Emperor. Religion. Buddhism and Confucianism are important features of Chinese culture. As a systematic belief system, Buddhism forced the local Japanese religions, which were less coherent systems, to define themselves in relation to Buddhism. Confucianism, a systematic religious belief system, had a lot to say about governance and society and proved attractive for the Japanese. Consequently it had an important influence on Japanese culture. System of government. The method of organization of the Imperial Court, a significant element of ancient Chinese culture, was also adopted by the Japanese. The Japanese Imperial Court as well as its bureaucracy, including titles, ranks and functions, soon came to be modeled after Confucian principles. City-planning is also an aspect of Chinese culture borrowed by the Japanese. Kyoto and Nara, capital cities constructed along these lines, are examples. Several localities around these old capital cities reveal a system of fields and irrigation systems divided into even rectangles based on the ancient Chinese model of city planning. The use of a road system to hasten communication and control rebelling localities are also important features of this system of planning. Summery: This article argued that Japanese culture had been highly influenced by Chinese. It says Chinese culture and Japanese culture related to each other since 200 A.D. How much influence that Japanese people received? The author point out : " The degree to which the Japanese adopted Chinese cultural influences depended on the receptivity of the latter at that particular historical juncture." It conclude three main influences that China provided,language,religion and system of government. For language aspect, lots of Japanese words are from chinese complicated characters writing in that period. Secondly,Buddhism and Confucianism offered a huge impact to Japan, these religions originally from Chinese.Most importantly, Japan also had been affected with system of government. Imperial Court and City-planning, Japanese government gained lots of benefit from these methods Response: Firstly, I definitely agree that Japan and Japanese culture, had received a great influence and impact from Chinese. For illustration, " Ping Jia Ming "(ひらがな，Hiragana) is an important pronounce symbol, it originally from Chinese calligraphy. Wikipedia says:” The Japanese language is written with a combination of three scripts: Chinese characters called kanji (漢字), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (ひらがな or 平仮名) and katakana (カタカナ or 片仮名).” I'm not familiar with religion and government system, but one thing I can sure as a musician that Japanese music received lots of invaluable influences from China especially in Tang dynasty.Further more, the influences include almost every single aspect:music form,music score,music instrument even the basic music scale. I do not want conclude my response as " Japan received such a great influence", which is not benefit to our country. I just thinking about, all these exclusive cultural heritage are so important to ourself. How to inherit and develop them? These are the questions that we should to think about. Tang Renzhu