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To amplify what impendia said, Hiragana[1] is mostly used for participles and conjugation. Most words are written with the Kanji, which are very similar to Chi

To amplify what impendia said, Hiragana[1] is mostly used for participles and conjugation. Most words are written with the Kanji, which are very similar to Chinese Hanzi. Japanese printers didn't actually have a job that was any easier than Chinese printers. I won't say that have an ideogram writing system wasn't a disadvantage, but it wasn't a huge one and China's vibrant literary scene shows that they could overcome it. The emphasis of the Chinese exam system on the classics was also a problem, though having a bureaucracy selected by what was essentially an IQ test was a pretty huge advantage in general. But intelligence is no guarantee of probity, and by the time of the opium war 25% of the Chinese GDP was being collected in taxes... but only a fifth of that was going into government coffers. Top down control matched with an absence of credible external threats was a recipe for corruption. In Japan, by contrast, you had the Shogunate which was suzerain over Japan but only sovereign over a relatively small portion of it. The Tokugawas worked hard to prevent the Daimyos from taxing their peasants too hard (as a means of restricting their power), which resulted in a lot of commercial growth in the pre-Meiji period. In the modern West we have methods of taxation that are generally[2] fairly efficient in terms of transferring wealth from the citizens to the state with not much loss, and the things that the money is spent on are fairly useful. These things are far less true of taxation back in the 18th century. And you could look at lots of other issues too. Like the fact that the Qing dynasty was still viewed as a bunch of foreign barbarians by many meant that they had to be very traditional, and didn't have enough legitimacy to spend on modernization. [1] Katanana, the other syllabary, is used for non-Japanese sounds such as those made by the wind or Americans. [2] Except the US's corporate income tax.

kyllo 12y ago
And you could look at lots of other issues too. Like the fact that the Qing dynasty was still viewed as a bunch of foreign barbarians by many meant that they had to be very traditional, and didn't have enough legitimacy to spend on modernization. Not just the Qing. China's entire history for the last 2,000 years is basically one of an agricultural society being repeatedly conquered and subjugated by foreign invaders. For a long time it was pastoral "barbarians" from the north, but then it was Japan and the European powers. There are all kinda of theories on why the West became hegemonic instead of China, but China's geography likely had something to do with it. Raids from the north resulted in constant upheaval and frequent wars. Hence the building of the Great Wall as an futile attempt to keep the northern invaders out.
- Symmetry 12y ago
  Sometimes. Sui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. But the Ming, Tang, Song, and Han all started when someone led a successful rebellion or otherwise conquered China from within. As far as I can tell the Great Wall was more about stopping raids than invasions.
  - kyllo 12y ago
    Sui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. Can't forget the Jin, Liao, Xia, and Yuan. Also, another geographic factor I forgot to mention was the fact that much of China's land is just unsuitable for the kind of modern farming technology that was developed in the west. (Try running a harvesting combine over this: http://www.jacobsexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MJP_5596.jpg http://www.jacobsexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MJP... or, for another matter, this: http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/content/China_drought.jpg http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/content/China_drough... ) South China is too hilly and has too much water, meanwhile North China has never had enough water. The relatively poor rice/grain farming productivity in China was a pretty major obstacle to technological progress. Too much of the population had to rely on subsistence farming, and famine was a constant threat from time immemorial up until about the 1980s.

kyllo 12y ago

And you could look at lots of other issues too. Like the fact that the Qing dynasty was still viewed as a bunch of foreign barbarians by many meant that they had to be very traditional, and didn't have enough legitimacy to spend on modernization. Not just the Qing. China's entire history for the last 2,000 years is basically one of an agricultural society being repeatedly conquered and subjugated by foreign invaders. For a long time it was pastoral "barbarians" from the north, but then it was Japan and the European powers. There are all kinda of theories on why the West became hegemonic instead of China, but China's geography likely had something to do with it. Raids from the north resulted in constant upheaval and frequent wars. Hence the building of the Great Wall as an futile attempt to keep the northern invaders out.

Symmetry 12y ago
Sometimes. Sui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. But the Ming, Tang, Song, and Han all started when someone led a successful rebellion or otherwise conquered China from within. As far as I can tell the Great Wall was more about stopping raids than invasions.
- kyllo 12y ago
  Sui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. Can't forget the Jin, Liao, Xia, and Yuan. Also, another geographic factor I forgot to mention was the fact that much of China's land is just unsuitable for the kind of modern farming technology that was developed in the west. (Try running a harvesting combine over this: http://www.jacobsexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MJP_5596.jpg http://www.jacobsexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MJP... or, for another matter, this: http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/content/China_drought.jpg http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/content/China_drough... ) South China is too hilly and has too much water, meanwhile North China has never had enough water. The relatively poor rice/grain farming productivity in China was a pretty major obstacle to technological progress. Too much of the population had to rely on subsistence farming, and famine was a constant threat from time immemorial up until about the 1980s.