Research Action Plan Template

Research question: How did time and location affect the development of the written language during medieval Japan?

Sub-question 1:

What caused Japan to have a writing system slower than China?

Statement of Inquiry:

Time, place and space affect the cultural elements of a society.

Key concept: TIme, place and space

Related concepts: Culture & Globalization

The writing development of Japan

The relation between Japan’s location and its writing development

Japanese cultural evolution

Kanji

Kana

Japan’s cultural diffusion

Development of Chinese

Development of Japanese

Source Name:

Summarise in my words:

Support for / Against my thesis (quotes, ideas, statements) TAKE ALL NOTES HERE

Date read

History alive!: the medieval world and beyond. Rancho Cordova, CA: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2011. Print.

https://student.teachtci.com/shared/sections/14263?program_id=256

Chinese ideas about writing were brought into Japan in 607 CE by the help of Prince Shotoku. Prince Shotoku admired Chinese and Korean culture and encouraged Japan to have closer contacts with these mainland countries. As a result, he sent an official to China in 607 CE to learn about Chinese literature, art, philosophy and government style. After that, Koreans also came to Japan with their understanding of Chinese culture. Moreover, many cultural ideas that originated from China and India were brought into Japan by the Korean Peninsula. All in all, Prince Shotoku’s action helped Japan to be introduced to the modern world and significantly increased the cultural diffusion inside Japan.

Before Chinese literature ideas were brought into Japan, Japan had no writing system except a spoken language. However, as their contact with the mainland countries increased, they adopted the Chinese language into their own language, and used it for writing official documents and records. This Chinese language is known as Kanji. As time goes on, Japanese found out that Kanji does not fit their own language since Japanese and Chinese have different grammar and pronunciations. As a result, they invented their own language in 900 CE, Kana. In Kana, Japanese syllables are represented by simplified Chinese characters. Also, this language that they developed by themselves made them able to write freely and pronounce correctly, and it soon became their everyday language.

All in all, the location of Japan made Japan to be developed slower, but as soon as Prince Shotoku made the contacts between Japan and the mainland countries increase, cultural diffusion were successfully spread out and Japan became a more modern and advanced country. Secondly, time obviously played an important role of Japan’s development in their writing language. Before 607 CE, Japan wasn’t even a country with cultural diffusion. But as time moves on, Japan changed from adopting the exact style of Chinese writing ideas into developing their own suitable writing system.

Jan.10.17

"Duolingo: Learn Spanish, French and other languages for free." Duolingo: Learn Spanish, French and other languages for free. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/9727264

The writing system Kanji that was written based on the Chinese language and characters, is called Hanzi in China. However, Chinese and Japanese are very different, they have different tense, conjugation, phonetics, and syllables. To accommodate the differences between these two languages, the Japanese started to use Chinese characters for both meaning and phonetic purposes. For example, two other writing systems, hiragana and katakana were developed to help conjugate and spell words out. After making changes to the Chinese characters and make it sound more suitable to Japanese, the characters in Kanji developed into two pronunciations, the pronunciation of Chinese reading and Japanese reading. All in all, Kanji is definitely an essential and fundamental part of Japanese.

As a conclude, time affected the development of written language in medieval Japan by having a language adopted from another country being modified, and eventually changed to be more and more fitable to their own language over time.

Jan.10.17

"Cultural Diffusion and Its Effects on Japan." Cultural Diffusion and Its Effects on Japan. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.

https://www.samurai-archives.com/cde.html

The location of Japan had impacted on the slow development of Japan’s writing language. Japan is a country with ocean surrounding each side of it, making it an isolated country. Being an isolated country eventually caused Japan to have slower cultural evolution compared to other countries such as China and Korea. Due to the gradual increase of trade and diffusion between Japan and the countries across the East Sea (The Sea of Japan), cultures were brought into Japan. The time period when Chinese and Korean culture influenced Japan was called the Yamato Period. In this time period, Japan started to develop from many aspects, including writing. Furthermore, Kanji, a writing system in Japan based on Chinese written language was developed in this time period.

As a conclude, Japan developed their writing system really late due to its isolation from other countries, which leads to slow cultural evolution.

Jan.10.17

"Ancient Scripts: Japanese." Ancient Scripts: Japanese. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/japanese.html 

When Japan adopted the Chinese language into their own, which is known as kanji, they found out that these two languages have very different grammar, sound, and pronunciation. As a result, they keep using the kanji characters but changed them into their own grammar. However, they soon found out that these two languages still can’t fit each other because of the extra grammatical units in Japanese, so they made some kanji characters remain their own Chinese pronunciation. But this makes Japanese hard to tell whether these characters needs to be pronounced in Chinese or Japanese. As a result, kana was invented, and it is combined by two different writing systems, hiragana and katakana. Hiragana was first a language only for women because they were not allowed to learn official Chinese characters. However, the problem was soon solved and hiragana became a literary script. On the other hand, katakana is for writing non-Chinese loanwords. Until today, these three ways of writing are still being used in Japan.

As a conclude, time has obviously played an important role of the evolution of the writing language of Japan: From Kanji, when Japanese adopted the exact Chinese characters and grammar to write their own language; to modified kanji, when Japanese made many changes to Kanji to make the Chinese characters sound alike as their own; and lastly, to kana, an everyday language that is combined by hiragana and katakana, which the former one is an official literary script, and the later one is a writing system for non-Chinese loanwords. Until today, none of these writing systems (kanji, hiragana, katakana) are eliminated in the Japanese language, and are all widely used today.

Jan.10.17

Source

Analysis OPVL

textbook

O: Book was published in the USA, authors are American, online/print version 2017

P: to teach middle school students about the world history

V: written objectively, didn’t persuade the readers to believe anything. Had been thoroughly researched in order to publish this book. Included bibliography at the last page of the book. Gives evidence based on historic events. Analyzed the cause and effect of a historic event.

L: only provide the basic information of the event, topic is only briefly researched

duolingo

O: was published in 2016

P: to present an alternative view about the relationship between Chinese and Japanese

V: even though its purpose is to present an alternative view, but it was written objectively by giving facts that lead to the publisher’s conclusion. Had been thoroughly researched about the topic in order to explain the topic to the readers. Used valid evidences to prove the readers the relationship between the two languages. Mentioned the writing developments throughout the Japanese history. Analyzed the cause and effect of the topic

L: did not include bibliography

Cultural Diffusion and Its Effects on Japan

O: --didn't mention about this--

P: written for students and the general public who are interested in history

V: written objectively, used the 3rd person perspective to write the essay. Thoroughly researched about the topic. Used many valid sources to strengthen the writing. Evidence based on historic events. Analyzed the cause and effect of the main idea

L: --doesn’t meet any of the points--

Ancient Scripts: Japanese

O: author is American, published in America in 2013

P: written for student and the general public who are interested in history especially ancient scripts

V: written objectively, only give facts. Thoroughly researched each topic and combined them in different pages of this website. Used many other valid sources from the internet to strengthen his writing. Studied the historic events.

L: --does not meet any of the points--

Question: How did time and location affect the development of the written language during medieval Japan? (concept: time, place and space)

The development of the written language during medieval Japan is related to time and Japan’s location.

Firstly, time obviously played an important role of the evolution of the writing language of Japan since the written language of Japan have been developed and modified a lot over time. For example, before Chinese literature ideas were brought into Japan, Japan had no writing system except a spoken language. However, as their contact with the mainland countries increased, they adopted the Chinese language into their own language, and use them for writing official documents and records. This Chinese language is known as Kanji, which is called Hanzi in China. As time goes on, Japanese found out that Kanji does not fit their own language because Japanese and Chinese have different tense, conjugation, phonetics, and syllables. To accommodate the differences between these two languages, Japanese started to use Chinese characters for both meaning and phonetic purposes. For example, they reserved the kanji characters but changed them into their own grammar. However, they soon found out that these two languages still can’t fit together because of the extra grammatical units in Japanese, so they made some kanji characters remain their own Chinese pronunciation. But this makes Japanese difficult to tell whether the characters need to be pronounced in Chinese or Japanese. Eventually, these changes made over time in the kanji even made it developed into two pronunciations, the pronunciation of Chinese reading and Japanese reading. However, no matter what, kanji is definitely an essential and fundamental part of the development of Japanese. Japanese later invented their own language in 900 CE, which is known as Kana. In Kana, Japanese syllables are represented by simplified Chinese characters. Also, it is formed by two different writing systems, hiragana and katakana. These two sets were developed to help conjugate and spell the confusing words in kanji out. For example, hiragana is for avoiding the pronunciation mistakes of the kanji characters (by showing the pronunciation under each character), and katakana is for writing non-Chinese loanwords. All in all, Japan soon developed into a country with three different sets of writing: kanji, hiragana and katakana. Until today, these three ways of writing are still being used in Japan. As a conclude, the reason time played an important role of the evolution of the writing language of Japan is because time made the writing system changed over time, and it became more and more fitable for Japanese themselves. For example, it firstly started as Kanji, when Japanese adopted the exact Chinese characters and grammar to write their own language; to modified kanji, when Japanese made many changes to Kanji to make the Chinese characters and grammar sound alike as their own; and lastly, to kana, the everyday language of Japan that is combined by hiragana and katakana, which the former one is a writing system for correct pronunciation, and the later one is a writing system for non-Chinese loanwords. Until today, none of these writing systems (kanji, hiragana, katakana) are eliminated in the Japanese language, and are all widely used in the present day Japan.

Secondly, Japan’s isolation (location) with the mainland countries also impacted on the slow development of its written language. For example, Japan is a country placed in the oceans, making it isolated from other countries such as the mainland countries, China and Korea. Being an isolated country caused Japan to have slower cultural evolution compared to other countries such as China and Korea, since these mainland countries are in contact with each other, they could trade with each other really easily because there isn’t an ocean between them that makes them hard to approach each other. So ideally, the mainland countries started trading and have cultural diffusion earlier than Japan for more than a thousand years. However, the gradual increase of trade and diffusion between Japan and the countries across the East Sea (The Sea of Japan) after 607 CE made cultural ideas from China and Korea to be brought into Japan. Furthermore, Chinese ideas about writing were brought into Japan in 607 CE by the help of Prince Shotoku. Prince Shotoku admired Chinese and Korean culture and encouraged Japan to have closer contacts with these mainland countries. As a result, he sent an official to China in 607 CE to learn about Chinese literature, art, philosophy and government style. After that, Koreans also came to Japan with their understanding of Chinese culture. Moreover, many cultural ideas which originated from China and India were brought into Japan by the Korean Peninsula. All in all, Prince Shotoku’s action helped solved the disadvantage of Japan’s location, and helped Japan to be introduced to the modern world. Also, it helped the cultural diffusion of Japan to be considerably increased, and made Japan entered the Yamato Period, which is the period when Chinese and Korean cultural ideas influence Japan. In this time period, Japan started to develop from many aspects, including writing. For example, the writing system Kanji that is based on Chinese written language was developed in this time period. As a conclude, the location of Japan made Japan to have slow cultural evolution on every cultural aspect including the development of its written language, but as soon as Prince Shotoku made the contacts between Japan and the mainland countries increase, cultural diffusion were considerably quickened and Japan became a more modern and advanced country.

In conclusion, time affected the development of the written language of medieval Japan because the writing systems were modified and created over time, making it clearer and clearer to become a communicable and understandable language for Japanese. On the other hand, the location of Japan made it an isolated country. The ocean surrounding Japan even though made them easy to defend themselves, but is also a barrier between them and the mainland countries, which made their trading to be harder and was also developed later than China.