Late Asuka and Nara Politics

Asuka and early Nara:

the Taika and Taihō reforms

Key terms

Soga 蘇我
Mononobe 物部
Nakatomi 中臣
Prince Shōtoku 聖徳太子
Hōryūji
Asuka
Nara
Taika Reforms

Overview

Struggle amongst uji -- Soga, Mononobe, Nakatomi
Increased continental influence in religious and ideas
Consolidation on continent puts pressure on Japan:
- map of East Asia: 4th and 5th century
- map of East Asia: 8th century

Periodization

587 to 645 is Asuka
645 to 710 is Late Asuka or Reform period
710 to 794 is the Nara period
794 to 1185 is the Heian period

Major events

Increasing tension amongst noble families
- Mononobe and Soga seem to have worked together to install Kinmei 欽明 to suceed Keitai 継体大君
- Soga provide consorts to sovereign
- But there are sharp tensions over
  - Balance of power
  - Continental policy
  - Buddhism
587 Soga stage coup force out Mononobe and Nakatomi
- Coup leader is Soga no Umako (??- 622) 蘇我馬子
- Soga install supportive rulers of the imperial line
  - Control succession through marriage politics and murder
    - In 592 organized assasination of Sushun, to install his niece Empress Suiko
    - In 642 Soga murder Prince Yamashiro, Prince Shōtoku's son
- Emp. Suiko shares power with her own nephew Prince Shōtoku (Shōtoku taishi) (lived 574-622)

Key elements of Soga rule

Increased contact with China -- but on new terms
- First diplomatic use of Nihon in 607
  - Sui Imperial query: The sovereign of Sui respectfully inquires about the sovereign of Wa.
  - Japanese response: From the sovereign of the land where the sun rises expresses best wishes to the sovereign of land where the sun sets 「日出處天子致書日沒處天子無恙云云」（日出ずる処の天子、書を日没する処の天子に致す。恙無しや、云々）
  - Use of term tenshi 天子 for Japanese sovereign
Increased patronage of Buddhism
- Instead of great tombs, rulers build great temples
- Prince Shōtoku sponsored the construction of Hōryūji 法隆寺

Hōryūji complex

Yumedono prayer hall

Disciples attending the Buddha as he achieves nirvana

Buddhist trinity

Importation of Buddhist sutras: although understanding is primitive -- see Kwalluk

Change of twelve-step court rank system (603?)

Ranks show clear influence of continental thought
- Virtue
- Benevolence
- Propriety
- Loyalty
- Justice
- Knowledge

Prince Shōtoku's "Constitution"

Introduction of Chinese models of legitimacy
- Ideas of heavenly mandate, natural order, yin/yang, five elements and five virtues
- Tang political tracts: provide second-hand understanding of ancient Confucian texts

End of Soga hegemony
- Death of Soga no Umako leaves power vacuum -- grandson Soga no Iruka 蘇我入鹿 is less skillfully viscious

645 countercoup by Naka no Ōe (later Emp Tenji) and Nakatomi no Kamatari 鎌足-- they kill Soga no Iruka

MAJOR REFORMS -- TAIKA REFORM EDICT (646) AND TAIHŌ CODE (701)

Promulgation of Reform Edict of 646 (also known as Taika reforms): this document seems too tidy to have been put together so soon after a bloody coup -- it has probably been edited by later compilers
- uji and other nobles lose their special powers over land and people: instead of supporting themselves through levies on be the nobility are now to be supported through "sustenance households"
- new administrative districts are to be established -- officials are to be selected with an eye to their competence and character
- national household registery -- a crude national census grouping ever 50 households into one village
- systematic national taxation -- taxes included fixed payments of:
  - cloth
  - local produce
  - weapons
  - corvée
  - women (high ranking officials had to provide a good looking sister or daughter to serve as courtesan at the imperial court)
- IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT MOST OF THESE REFORMS WERE NOT EFFECTIVELY INSTITUTED UNTIL THE 700s -- WHY?
  - NO ADMINISTRATION TO IMPLEMENT REFORMS
  - INSUFFICIENT DETAIL TO HAVE SYSTEM WORK
Taihō code
- this does not survive in its 701 edition -- it is sometimes called to Taihō/Yōrō code because it has been reconstructed from the Yōrō; code of 718 -- BUT this legal code remained in effect until 1868
- Taihō code former the legal foundation of the RITSURYō system -- ritsu is criminal law and ryō is administrative code
- Key aspects of the Taihō code:
  - a new centralized administration with distinct lines of authority -- see diagram
  - new system of government ranks -- these are modelled after T'ang meritocracy, but they carry aristocratic meaning in Japan
  - class system
    - imperial family
    - free subjects
      - aristocracy
      - tenants
    - unfree subjects -- several classes of slave
  - three major types of land
    - taxable land
      - some periodically reallocated -- kubunden system
      - some held long-term, i.e. merit land or rank land (held by aristocrats)
    - government land -- held by the imperial house, or government agencies
    - tax-exempt land
      - shrines
      - temples
      - high government officials
  - systematic division of land -- the kubunden system
    - kubunden land was to be reallocated every 6 years to all subjects 6 or older
    - size fixed by class and gender
      - male -- 2 tan (0.6 acres)
      - female -- 1 and 1/3 tan (0.4 acres)
      - male slaves -- 2/3 tan (0.2 acres)
      - female slaves -- 1/2 tan (0.15 acres)
      - land is divided into grids to facilitate division -- # number of large squares (jō; and ri) is arbitrary -- large squares are about 107 acres -- 360 small strips -- each small strip is one tan (0.3 acres)
  - centralized national taxation with a national treasury
    - land tax -- paid locally -- 2 sheaves and 2 hands per tan
    - local produce tax -- paid to the capital in silk, cotton, flax
    - corvée -- ten days of work at the captial per healthy male
    - corvée could be commuted to 26 feet of cloth
    - local corvée -- 60 days per years for the provincial governor
    - military service -- 1 year as capital guard and 3 years frontier guard
    - THE TOTAL IS EXTREMELY ONEROUS
  - systematic regional districts
    - the entire country is to be redraw into standardized districts -- 50 households = one village; standard numbers of villages to districts (large, medium and small)
    - new provincial boundaries are drawn -- each province is to have a capital, a provincial monastery, provincial nunnery -- each capital was to have administrative offices, storehouses, and a military garrison

The moving capital

587- 645 -- during the reign of the Soga, emperors and empresses have their palaces in Asuka
645 -- capital moves to Naniwa
654 -- capital moved back to Asuka
667 -- capital moved to Ōtsu
672 -- capital moved to Asuka no kiyomihara (exact location unknown)
694 -- capital moved to Fujiwara
710 -- capital moved to Nara (Heijō)
740 -- capital moved to Kuni
744 -- capital moved to Naniwa
744 -- capital moved to Shigaraki
745 -- capital moved back to Nara
784 -- capital moved to Nagaoka
794 -- capital moved to Kyōto (Heian)

View Larger Map

NEW CHINESE STYLE CAPITALS
- Nara (Heijō; - 710)
- Kyōtō (Heian - 794)
Conclusions
Factors promoting ritsuryō; system and Chinese style reform
- several emperors are personally powerful -- they are intimidating -- this speeds reform process: ie. Prince Naka no ōe (emp Temji) and emperor Tenmu (r. 673-686)
- defeat of Japan in battles on Korean peninsula -- Japanese navy is destroyed (loses 400 ships) in fight with Paeckche against T'ang and Silla
Factors impeding ritsuryō; system and Chinese style reform
- it is more government than Japan needs
- it requires more administrators than Japan can produce -- contrast with China and exam system
- it is burdensome on the people


Hōryūji complex	Yumedono prayer hall	Disciples attending the Buddha as he achieves nirvana	Buddhist trinity