Between 600 CE and 1450 CE, Buddhism and Confucianism were adopted by Japan and Korea both from China. Both were tributary states of China at some point. While Korea had a more united political structure similar to China, Japan, however, was not able to successfully form one and consequently fell into a feudal system.
At one time or another during this period, both Japan and Korea were both tributary states of China. They overlapped during China’s Tang dynasty. Japan and Korea’s kingdoms sent ambassadors with gifts to prove their loyalty and submission. This status as tributary states to China, allowed Japan and Korea more access to Chinese markets and to trade goods like silks and porcelain, and to Buddhist and Confucian philosophical works.
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Buddhism merged with the Japanese religion, Shintoism. Although Japan never took on a Chinese-style Confucian bureaucracy, Confucian values were used by the feudal elites of Japan to reinforce their social standings.
Whereas Korea adopted a unified political structure based on China, Japan didn’t, and instead developed a decentralized feudal political structure that barely held their civilization together. The reasons for these differences were that Korea’s aristocracy saw political sinification as a way to increase their power, but in Japan, political sinification was resisted because they did not want to lose influence to a strong Japanese emperor. Korea emulated many aspects of China’s politics and culture.
The Korean emperor used the bureaucracy to centralize his power. However, Japan never adopted any features of a Chinese bureaucracy. Though the Taika Reforms of 646 CE proposed political sinification in order to give the Japanese emperor full political power, these reforms rejected. Because of the failed political reforms, Japan shifted to a decentralized political system where feudalism provided the most stability possible to the decentralized