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Summary
Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.
From vol25. The previous trip described the history of the Silk Road and the Plains. This time, I would like to describe a trip to Fujian Province (Min, the ancient name of Fujian Province) in China. As mentioned in the previous “History of the Silk Road and Plains,” there are two trade routes connecting the East and the West: the Silk Road that crosses the Eurasian continent and the Sea Road that was pioneered during the Age of Discovery.
Fujian Province (Min) was the scene of the latter sea route, and is mentioned in Marco Polo’s “Marco Polo’s Travels in the East. It was also the location of the Yue people, who were ancient rice farmers and drifters.
Ryotaro Shiba first went to Shanghai and then flew from Shanghai to Fuzhou in Fujian Province. In Fuzhou, he visited the Fujian Provincial Museum to see the wooden coffin of the “Dokkisyu,” and thought about the ancient times of the country of “Yue,” which was the birthplace of the four-letter idioms (Wu Yue Dong Shu, Wu Yue Tong Shu, Gagui Tamei, etc.) that emerged from the various episodes in the war with the neighboring country Wu in the “Shiji” Confucian scriptures, also described in the article “Hokkaian and Confucian – Order and Freedom.
In Fuzhou, the tour takes a ferryboat ride to the village of Fuhu, home of the Shaw people, and then to Quanzhou via the town of Dehua, home of the “Tenmoku Tea Bowl,” which is now only preserved in Japan. In Quanzhou, the tour will visit the Islamic temple of Purification Temple, the Buddhist temple of Kaiyuan Temple, and the Museum of Overseas Transportation History, which exhibits an excavated ship from the Song Dynasty, and will consider the exchange between Eastern and Western civilizations that took place in Quanzhou.
In Xiamen, the last stop of the trip, he thinks about Zheng Cheng Success (famous for “Kokuseiya Gassen” in Japanese Kabuki and Joruri), who was mentioned in “Kaido Yuku Taiwan Travels,” and about Lu Xun, who fled to Xiamen for a period of time.
Ryotaro Shiba’s Kaido wo Yoru – Bin no Michi begins with the story of Marco Polo. Marco Polo was born in medieval Europe (Republic of Venice) in the 12th and 13th centuries, and became a famous adventurer with his “Book of Eastern Discoveries,” which introduced Central Asia and China to Europe.
The period in which he was active was the time when Genghis Khan created the Yuan Dynasty in China, as described in “Kaido yuku: Travels in Mongolia“, the Kamakura shogunate in Japan, as described in “Kaido yuku: Miura Peninsula Ki“, and the Yuan Pirates, as described in “Kaido yuku: Iki/Tsushima no Michi“, who were about to invade Japan.
As described in “Kaido yuku Sado no Michi“, gold was not recognized as a currency in Japan at that time, while “Kaido yuku Tanegashima, Yakushima and Amami Islands” and “Kaido yuku Shimabara and Amakusa” were written about the various roads of Tanegashima, Yakushima and Amami Islands and Christianity in Japan. brought the monetary value of gold into sharp focus, and large quantities of gold were exported. It was called “Zipangu, the land of gold.
In the 13th century, when Marco Polo arrived in China, the Silk Road, a land route, was closed, as described in “History of the Silk Road and the Plains,” and Muslim voyagers flocked to the coasts of the South China Sea (Fujian and Guangdong), where they exchanged different cultures from East to West.
Marco Polo is being dramatized on Netflix’s Marco Polo.
This trip will visit Quanzhou (Zaitun) in Fujian and also consider the Wu-Yue and Min-Yue (Indochinese people in ancient Fujian) at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the roots of rice cultivation in ancient Japan (or so Ryotaro Shiba thought). Ryotaro Shiba first went to Shanghai and then flew from Shanghai to Fuzhou in Fujian Province.
Fujian was the territory of the ancient Min people, who were called Min-Yue because the Yue royalty fled to Min after being destroyed by the Chu during the Warring States period. The ancient Min people are said to have been built mainly by ethnic groups belonging to the Baek Yue ethnic group in the Yangtze River basin in the south, who were different from the surrounding ethnic groups of the city states in the Yellow River basin, which later became the core of the Han Chinese ethnic formation. They are said to have been Indochinese or Malayo-Polynesian peoples. The Yue are thought to have been descended from the Chuxi, Wu, and other peoples who built the Yangtze River civilization, and they prospered through rice cultivation and the production of copper. The introduction of rice cultivation to Japan is also believed to have come from this Yangtze River basin.
Yue often fought with its neighbor Wu during the Spring and Autumn period, as described in “The Roots of Problem Solving: On Sun Tzu” and destroyed Wu, but was ultimately destroyed by Chuxi. According to the “Zhuangzi” (The Book of Zhuangzi), the people of Yue at that time had a head of hair cut off, were naked and tattooed on their upper bodies, and were known as the “Yue Dynasty”.
In contrast, the Japanese of Himiko’s time, according to the “Biography of Wei Wei,” were also introduced as a people who “crawled into the water to catch fish and shellfish. Moreover, they were writing on their bodies. The reason for this was to scare them when they encountered large aquatic animals in the water. Comparing the two, Ryotaro Shiba noted that the Yue people and the ancient Japanese were very similar.
Fujian’s mountainous terrain, with little arable land, and the lack of arable land, led to a state of overpopulation, and sea trade was prosperous. Many of Taiwan’s current mainlanders and Southeast Asian overseas Chinese are said to be descendants of Fujian migrants.
In Kaido wo Yori, Ryotaro Shiba describes the relationship between Japanese Chinese characters and Fujian.
Japanese kanji characters have both Wu- and Han-tones. The reading of “New Year” as “Shogatsu” is Wu-ton, and the reading of “Seigetsu” as “Seigetsu” is Han-ton. In China, after the Three Kingdoms period, there was a long period of disunity until the establishment of the Sui and Tang empires. The culture of the Six Dynasties that rose and fell in the Yangtze River basin was the highest, and their region was called “Wu,” and the Wu sound was the representative sound of this Wu country.
At that time, Baekje was in contact with the Six Dynasties (Wu) across the Yellow Sea, and the Chinese characters were first introduced to Japan through the Wu sound. Buddhism was also introduced from Baekje at the same time, and Buddhist scriptures were mainly read in the Wu language.
Later, with the establishment of the Sui and Tang empires, the government shifted to the north where the Han Chinese were located, and the Han sound became the predominant character sound. During that period, Japan began to actively learn Han sounds, calling them “new sounds,” through exchanges such as the Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty envoys.
At one point during the Nara period (710-794), the Imperial Court apparently attempted to unify the Japanese language using the Han sound, but as mentioned above, the Wu sound was the mainstream in the Buddhist world, and the priests of large temples such as Kofukuji Temple, mentioned in “Kofukuji Temple and the Sacred Place of Martial Arts“, opposed this idea. For example, “New Year’s Day” was called “Genjitsu” in the Han script, and “Gan-nichi” was read as “Ganjitsu” in the Han script, instead of “Wu”.
In Japan, at the end of the 9th century (early Heian period), with the abolition of the dispatch of envoys to the Tang Dynasty, the influx of Chinese sounds ceased, and the use of either the Tang Chang’an or the Six Dynasties (Wu) sounds fixed the operation of Chinese characters. Later, due to trade with China from the end of the Heian period to Muromachi period and the importation of Zen Buddhism as described in “History of Zen, Temples and Kamakura (Rinzai Zen and the Five Mountains of Kamakura)” the sounds of the Song and Yuan dynasties were also introduced, but they did not affect Japanese kanji sounds, only the reading of idioms such as “noren,” “futon,” “chair” and “udon. In China, on the other hand, the Chinese did not have the same effect on the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters.
For example, the last dynasty in China was the Qing dynasty in Kyoto, which was not Han Chinese, but the Manchu Tungusic people of the Northeast (Manchuria) region, and their language belonged to the Altaic language family, which is completely different from Chinese, For example, “People’s Liberation Army” was pronounced “Kai” (解) and “Gun” (軍) became “Chun” (軍) and “Renmin Che Fan Cheng” (レンミンチェファンチェン), etc.
Incidentally, the Tungusic culture is said to have influenced the Northeastern region of Japan, where “kyo” (today) is called “chou” in some areas.
In contrast, in Fujian Province, the ancient pre-Ch’ing pronunciation remains, and is said to be similar to the Japanese character sound. The reading of “People’s Liberation Army” mentioned earlier is “jin min kai fong gung,” which is quite close to the Japanese pronunciation.
Here we return to our journey on the road. In Fuzhou, we took a ferry to the village of Fuhu, where the Shaw people live, and then to Quanzhou via the town of Dehua, home of the “Yohantenmoku Tea Bowl,” of which there are only three left in the world today.
When you look into a Yohhen Tenmoku teacup from above, a lapis lazuli-colored universe spreads out in a jet-black space, and star-like spots called hoshimon (star patterns) become visible. Moreover, the universe is not only lapis lazuli in color, but also has vivid colors that intersect with each other depending on the angle of view, creating a fantastical play. The more you look at it, the more you are drawn into the dreamy world of this mysterious teacup–that is Yohhen Tenmoku.
Usually, Tenmoku teacups turn black or brown when fired in a kiln. However, when certain conditions are met, a beautiful lapis lazuli color is produced on rare occasions. This is something that cannot be easily achieved even if it is intended, and should be called a miracle of nature beyond human knowledge, but surprisingly, it was not always highly valued in China, where it was produced.
It was believed that the “discoloration” of Tenmoku tea bowls was a sign of bad luck, and as soon as it occurred, the bowls were destroyed and only those that escaped destruction were brought to Japan.
The charm of yohhen-tenmoku is timeless, and many potters, fascinated by its rare beauty, have tried to revive it in the modern age, but have yet to do so. In Japan, Yohantenmoku can be seen at the Fujita Museum of Art in Osaka, Ryuko-in, the pagoda of Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto, as described in the book, “On the Road to Kyoto: A Tour of Dada, Zen, and Rest,” and at the MIHO MUSEUM in Koka, Shiga, as described in the book, “On the Road to Koga and Iga: The Shigaraki Way in Koga. The end of the trip is a special economic zone.
The trip will end with a visit to Xiamen, the hometown of overseas Chinese in Fujian, which has developed greatly as a special economic zone.
Xiamen was occupied by British troops in 1841 (Douguang 21) during the Opium War, and a British concession was established in 1862 (Tongji 1) and a joint concession in 1902 (Kou 緖 28) in Gulangyu, where foreign trading posts were established and the trip ended with hopes of seeing the exotic streets that remain in the old city.
Today, Xiamen has become famous as one of China’s leading tropical resorts.
In the next article, I will describe my journey in Totsukawa-go, which stretches deep into the mountains of Yoshino, Nara.
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