A Study of Cultural Diversity and Its Origins in the World of Seventh-Century East Asia

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13284
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Asia and Africa
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: SAGAWA Eiji 東京大学, 大学院人文社会系研究科(文学部), 教授 (00343286)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 河上 麻由子 奈良女子大学, 人文科学系, 准教授 (50647873) ; 小尾 孝夫 大東文化大学, 文学部, 講師 (90526675)
• Research Collaborator: KOUCHI Haruhito ; TOGAWA Takayuki ; KIM Byungjoon ; CHO Sungwu ; WEI Bin
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 中国古代史 / 都城 / 東アジア史 / 古代末期

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In 589, the Sui overthrew the Chen and unified China, and the Sui-Tang established its position as China’s legitimate dynasty. But in recent years some researchers of Japanese history have been saying that in the seventh century Japan was still absorbing, via the countries on the Korean peninsula, a multilayered continental culture going back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and that it was only with the Taiho Code (Taiho ritsuryo) completed in 701 (Taiho 1) that Japan finally began to incorporate the systematic institutions of the Tang. One fact indicative of this is changes in the plans for capital cities, to be seen in the shift from Fujiwarakyo , said to have followed the Zhouli model, to Heijokyo, said to have followed the model of the Tang city of Chang’an. This study shows that the origins of this cultural diversity in East Asia lay in the diffusion and multipolarization of cultural centres in the East Asian world from the third century onwards.

Free Research Field

中国古代史