Glenn
一切皆苦
- 8 Jan 2004
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This is coming from Cornell, a highly respected school in Japanese studies. See the original text here.
This has a different date for the importation of kanji, but...
Well, this will have to do for now. I'm tired of looking through sites that don't quite have specific information.
1.2 Introduction of writing in Japan; early writing culture
The Japanese were exposed to written matter as early as mid-Yayoi. Thus, inscribed Chinese coins have been unearthed in excavations of sites dating from the first century AD. There is no evidence of any awareness of the function of writing at that early stage, however, and it is likely that also the characters which appear on mirrors and other artefacts produced in Japan through the third and fourth centuries were simple ornaments, in imitation of those found on articles from the continent. To all appearances, writing as such, in the form of Chinese Classics, was introduced into Japan early in the fifth century as part of the great cultural influx from Paekche. Kojiki (Philippi 1968, chapter 104) and Nihon Shoki (Aston 1896, book X, chapter 10) recount this event as the advent of the scribes Wani and Akichi in the years Ôjin 15 and 16 (now thought to be early in the fifth century, possibly 404-5; the traditional dating is 284-5). For some time, writing remained in the hands of hereditary professional scribes (fubito) who were of continental heritage. Through the sixth and seventh centuries Sinitic culture, including Chinese Buddhism, flowed into Japan through Paekche. In the course of this, written Chinese assumed enormous importance in matters of state, philosophy, and religion. Any serious engagement with such matters required knowledge of written Chinese. Likewise, writing was for some time equivalent with writing in Chinese, and in fact, a form of Classical Chinese
remained the medium for much serious writing well into the modern period. Also composition of Chinese poetry became highly regarded
and remained so long into the medieval period. The oldest surviving poetry anthology in Japan is Kaifûsô (ca. 751) which is a compilation of Chinese poetry written in Japan. One reason for the scarcity of Japanese sources from the 9th century is that literary writing in Chinese became very popular and almost replaced writing in Japanese.
This has a different date for the importation of kanji, but...
In the early centuries of the Christian era, the Japanese did not have a writing system of their own. As the Japanese began to interact with the Chinese, they adopted Chinese institutions and adapted them to their own needs. Chinese characters were introduced to Japan via the Korean peninsula in the fourth century A.D. In the next two centuries, Chinese books on philosophy and Buddhism were brought to Japan and studied by the Japanese aristocracy
Initially, the Japanese used the characters for writing in authentic Chinese or a hybrid Japanese-Chinese style. A good example of the latter is the ナ津ηス窶凪?ケL kojiki (Ancient Chronicles) written in 712. Since the Japanese did not have their own script, they soon began to use the characters to write the Japanese language as well. In the early stages, they employed the characters purely for their phonetic values. For example, the native Japanese word yama 'mountain' was written 窶禿ァ窶独? with the first character representing ya and the second ma. This method of writing is referred to as 窶毒凪?杯窶ーツシ窶督シ man'yōgana because it was used extensively in the 窶毒凪?杯ツ集 man'yōshū, an eighth-century anthology of Japanese poems.
Well, this will have to do for now. I'm tired of looking through sites that don't quite have specific information.