Japan in the Heian Period and Cultural History: Crash Course World History 227

Summary

In this episode of Crash Course World History, John Green explores the Heian period in Japan, focusing on its cultural achievements rather than political or economic history. The Heian aristocracy, despite its rigid hierarchy and ceremonial government, produced significant literary works, notably 'The Tale of Genji' by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. The video delves into the lives of elite women, their education, and their influence on culture, providing a unique perspective on a period often overlooked in favor of the more politically tumultuous Tokugawa era.

Takeaways

• 🏰 The video explores Japanese history during the Heian period (782-1167 CE), focusing on culture, especially literature, rather than economic or political history.
• 📖 The Heian period is known for its cultural achievements, particularly the first great Japanese novel, *The Tale of Genji*, written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.
• 👑 Heian Japan’s aristocracy was deeply influenced by Chinese culture, especially the Tang dynasty, which was admired even after its peak.
• 🎨 The Heian aristocracy valued aesthetics, grandeur, ceremony, and ritual, often reflecting Buddhist ideas of the impermanence of beauty.
• 🏙️ The capital, Heian Jyo, was a large, rigidly hierarchical society, where the elite controlled wealth and government posts, though most of the city has since been destroyed.
• 💼 The Japanese aristocracy controlled large estates called manors, supporting themselves with tax-free land revenue, but they didn’t outright own the land like in Europe.
• 👩‍🎨 Women in Heian Japan had significant cultural influence, producing most of the period's literature, and could hold economic power by owning the rights to manors.
• 🎭 Heian nobles engaged in rituals, ceremonies, and cultural pursuits like poetry contests and games, with emotional sensitivity and melancholy being central to aristocratic life.
• ❤️ The elite class had complex romantic and political lives, often involving polygamy and extramarital affairs, which created emotional tension and jealousy.
• 📚 The Heian period’s cultural achievements, led by women, were considerable, even though the political and economic structure of the time was weak and inefficient.

Q & A

What is the focus of the discussion in the video script about the Heian period in Japan?

The focus of the discussion is on the cultural achievements of the Heian period, particularly in literature, rather than economic or political history.

Why is 'The Tale of Genji' significant in the context of the Heian period?

'The Tale of Genji' is significant because it is Japan's first great novel and provides a wealth of information about the Heian aristocracy, as it was written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, a member of that elite class.

How did the Heian aristocracy view Chinese culture and its influence on Japan?

The Heian aristocracy was dominated by a craze for things Chinese, admiring Tang China and blending Chinese ideas, especially Chinese Buddhism, with native traditions.

What was the attitude of the Heian aristocracy towards beauty and its impermanence?

The Heian aristocracy had an attitude characterized by a love of color, grandeur, ceremony, and ritual, tinged with Buddhist-inspired ideas about the impermanence of all things, both beautiful and not.

What was the social structure of the Heian aristocracy like?

The social structure of the Heian aristocracy was rigidly hierarchical, with society divided into about 30 grades based on one's birth, and the top 4 grades reserved for princes.

How did the Heian period's aristocratic women differ from their European counterparts in terms of economic power?

Upper-class Japanese women in the Heian period could hold the rights to a manor, giving them a significant degree of economic power, which was unusual compared to women's roles in much of Europe at the time.

What were the pastimes of the Heian aristocracy as mentioned in the script?

The Heian aristocracy engaged in pastimes such as playing games, participating in poetry contests, board games like Go, and attending ceremonies and rituals.

How did the Heian period's literature reflect the aristocrats' view on the transience of life?

Heian period literature, exemplified by 'The Tale of Genji,' reflected the aristocrats' view on the transience of life by emphasizing the fleeting nature of beauty and existence.

What role did women play in the flourishing of Heian literary culture?

Women played a key role in the flourishing of Heian literary culture, with figures like Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon dominating the period, and their works shaping the cultural narrative.

How did the Heian aristocracy's lifestyle and cultural achievements contrast with their political and economic conditions?

Despite the Heian period not being particularly successful politically or economically, the aristocracy's lifestyle and cultural achievements, including literature and art, were considerable and have had a lasting impact.

What unique perspective does the script suggest is provided by studying the Heian period through literature rather than traditional historical documents?

Studying the Heian period through literature provides a perspective that focuses on the emotions, daily lives, and experiences of the people, particularly women, which is often missing from traditional historical documents that focus on politics and warfare.

Outlines

00:00

🏰 Introduction to Heian Japan and Cultural History

John Green introduces the topic of medieval Japan, specifically the Heian period, which is often overlooked in favor of the Tokugawa period known for ninja and samurai. The focus is on the cultural achievements of the Heian period, particularly in literature, rather than economic or political history. The Heian culture is described as the high culture of the upper-class aristocracy, and the script mentions that our knowledge of this period is largely due to the writings of the elite themselves, notably 'The Tale of Genji' by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. The aristocracy's fascination with Chinese culture and the blending of Chinese ideas with native traditions are highlighted, as well as the Buddhist-influenced attitudes towards the fleeting nature of beauty and life.

05:03

🌿 Heian Aristocracy and Literary Culture

This paragraph delves into the lifestyle and societal structure of the Heian aristocracy, emphasizing the hierarchical nature of society with detailed rules determining even minor aspects like the type of fan one could hold. The aristocracy's dominance in government is noted, along with the ceremonial and ritualistic nature of their work, which often involved wine and leisure. The economic situation is touched upon, with aristocrats accumulating land and living off tax-free estates called manors. The unique position of women in Heian Japan is highlighted, where they could hold economic power and contribute significantly to the literary culture, with 'The Tale of Genji' serving as a prime example. The influence of Buddhism on the aristocratic aesthetic and the importance of sensitivity to art are also discussed.

10:07

📜 Women's Perspectives and Cultural Achievements in Heian Japan

The final paragraph focuses on the unique perspective provided by the literature of the Heian period, much of which was written by women. It discusses the constraints and opportunities available to women, such as their cloistered lives but also their ability to express themselves through literature. The paragraph explores the themes of love, romance, and the emotional complexities of relationships in Heian Japan, including the political dimensions of courtship and marriage. The cultural achievements of the period are emphasized, particularly in literature, and the contrast is drawn between the political and economic failures and the cultural successes of the Heian era. The importance of 'The Tale of Genji' in providing insight into the lives and feelings of the aristocracy is reiterated, offering a relatable perspective on history that often focuses on the experiences of a limited group.

Keywords

💡Heian Period

The Heian Period, spanning from 782 to 1167 CE, is a significant era in Japanese history known for its cultural achievements, particularly in literature and art. This period laid much of the foundation for Japanese culture, as opposed to the Tokugawa period which is often highlighted for its military aspects like ninja and samurai. The video emphasizes the artistic and cultural developments of the Heian Period, setting the stage for understanding the aristocratic lifestyle and the creation of masterpieces like 'The Tale of Genji'.

💡Aristocratic Intrigue

Aristocratic intrigue refers to the complex social and political maneuverings within the elite class of society. In the context of the video, it highlights the focus on the upper-class aristocracy of the Heian Period, whose lives were filled with ceremonies, rituals, and a pursuit of artistic and cultural refinement. The video suggests that this intrigue was a driving force behind the creation of significant cultural artifacts and the shaping of the period's social order.

💡Cultural History

Cultural history is the study of the arts, beliefs, and customs of a society. The video emphasizes the importance of cultural history over economic or political history when discussing the Heian Period. It underscores the artistic achievements, particularly in literature, and how the aristocracy's focus on culture has left a lasting impact on Japanese heritage.

💡The Tale of Genji

'The Tale of Genji' is Japan's first great novel, written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. It is a central text in the video, illustrating the literary culture of the Heian Period and providing insight into the lives and emotions of the aristocracy. The novel is used to exemplify the themes of love, romance, and the transient nature of life, which were prevalent in the period's cultural expressions.

💡Chinese Influence

The script mentions the aristocracy's craze for things Chinese, reflecting the influence of Chinese culture, particularly from the Tang Dynasty, on Japan during the Heian Period. This influence is evident in the adoption of Chinese Buddhism, literature, and art, which were blended with native Japanese traditions to form a unique cultural synthesis.

💡Impermanence

Impermanence is a central theme in the video, derived from Buddhist philosophy, which posits that all things, beautiful or not, are fleeting. This concept is deeply ingrained in the Heian aristocracy's aesthetic and emotional sensibilities, influencing their art, literature, and daily life. The video uses this theme to explain the aristocrats' melancholic tendencies and their appreciation for the transient beauty of life.

💡Kugyō

The Kugyō refers to the highest three ranks of the aristocracy during the Heian Period. These individuals held the most important privileges, including governmental posts and revenues from special rice lands. The video uses the Kugyō to illustrate the rigid social hierarchy and the concentration of power and wealth within a tiny fraction of the population.

💡Manors

Manors were tax-free estates held by the aristocracy, providing them with significant economic power. The video explains that while the nobles did not technically own the land, they held rights to the income from it, which could be passed on to their heirs. This system allowed for the accumulation of wealth and influence by the aristocracy, including women who could hold manor rights.

💡Polygamy and Extramarital Affairs

The video discusses the social norms of polygamy and extramarital affairs among the Heian aristocracy, which were common and expected behaviors for men. This context is used to explore the emotional complexities and power dynamics within relationships, as well as the potential for jealousy and fear of abandonment that could arise from these social practices.

💡Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power and women's roles are defined in relation to men. The video uses the concept of patriarchy to analyze the constraints and opportunities available to women in the Heian Period. Despite their limited education and circumscribed lives, women like Murasaki Shikibu were able to wield influence and express themselves through literature and the arts, providing a unique perspective on the period.

Highlights

The Heian period (782-1167 CE) is foundational to Japanese culture, with a focus on artistic achievements, particularly in literature.

Heian culture was the high culture of the upper-upper-class aristocracy, reflecting their lifestyle and interests.

The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu is a key source of information about the Heian aristocracy.

The Heian aristocracy was influenced by Chinese culture, especially Tang China, and blended these ideas with native traditions.

Aristocratic life was characterized by a love of color, grandeur, ceremony, and ritual, with Buddhist-inspired ideas of impermanence.

Heian Jyo, the capital, was a large city for its time, possibly with a population of up to 100,000 people.

Society was rigidly hierarchical, with about 30 grades based on birth, and the top grades reserved for princes and the Kugyō.

Aristocrats had significant privileges, including access to education, ceremonial dress, and lighter punishments for crimes.

The Heian economy was characterized by little trade, failed land reforms, and aristocrats accumulating large agricultural land holdings.

Upper-class Japanese women could hold rights to a manor, giving them a degree of economic power.

Heian aristocrats were expected to feel melancholy over the transience of existence, a sentiment reflected in their literature.

Aristocratic pastimes included games, contests, poetry contests, board games like Go, and participation in ceremonies and rituals.

Heian period women, particularly Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon, played a key role in the flourishing of literary culture.

Upper-class women in Heian Japan were literate and educated, with an education focused on cultural skills that would make them attractive to men.

Despite their privileged status, Heian women lived constrained lives, with limited opportunities for social interaction with men.

The cultural achievements of the Heian period, especially in literature, were considerable and have continued to shape Japanese culture.

The Heian period provides a different perspective on history, focusing on the lives and feelings of a limited group of people, rather than political or economic events.

Transcripts

Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course World History and today we’re going to return to medieval times.

Mr. Green? Mr. Green? Finally, we get to watch jousting and eat with our hands and root for the Blue Knight.

Yeah, No, Me from the Past, for starters, Medieval Times doesn't closely reflect Europe in medieval times.

And furthermore, we’re not going to be talking about Europe in medieval times, although we will be talking about kings and courts and aristocratic intrigue, but we're gonna be talking about all those things in Japan.

[Theme Music]

So discussions of Japanese history often focus on the Tokugawa period because it's got ninja and samurai, but much of the foundation of Japanese culture dates to the Heian period between 782 and 1167 CE.

And when I say Japanese culture, I do mean culture, because the achievements of the Heian period were primarily artistic, especially in literature.

So for most of this episode, we'll be looking at cultural history as opposed to like economic or political history.

As a novelist, and also a consumer of culture, I'm a big fan of cultural history.

What I love about it is that it embraces the human imagination. I mean, you can't just make up economic theories. Just kidding, you can.

Anyway, for our purposes, Heian culture is the high culture of the upper-upper-class aristocracy, and obviously focusing on this tiny sliver of the upper class leaves out the experience of most Japanese people.

But we know a lot more about the elite than we know about everyone else because it was the elite who were doing all of the writing things down and they were writing about the people they found the most interesting - themselves.

In fact one of the reasons we know a great deal about the Heian aristocracy is because of Japan's first great novel: The Tale of the Genji, by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.

Now the historian James Murdoch called the Heian aristocracy

"An ever-pullulating brood of greedy, needy, frivolous dilletanti - as often as not foully licentious, utterly effeminate, incapable of any worthy achievement".

But when you boil all the unnecessarily fancy words out of that quote, that sounds like people I'm very interested in learning about. In fact, I love some fallicentuousness.

So one of the first things we learn from texts about the Heian aristocracy is that the aristocracy was dominated by a craze for things Chinese.

Now Chinese visitors to Japan thought the country was backwards and out of the way and uncivilized.

But one of the reasons the Japanese seemed backwards to Chinese visitors is that the Japanese in the 10th century admired Tang China, which had flourished a couple of hundred years earlier.

But there was also the fact that the Japanese blended Chinese ideas, especially Chinese Buddhism, with native traditions.

In fact one of the most interesting aspects of Heian Japan was the overall attitude of the aristocracy, which was characterized by a love of color, and grandeur, and ceremony,

and ritual, that was tinged with some Buddhist-inspired ideas.

You know, it's sort of like how everyone in Canada wears powdered wigs and knee breeches to look like 18th century England.

And one of the central ideas in Buddhism is that everything beautiful, and also everything not beautiful, is fleeting. Like historian Ivan Morris wrote that in the literature of the time, there was a quote

"feeling that the familiar order of things will soon come to an end." Which by the way is always an appropriate feeling.

So the center of aristocratic court life was the capital, Heian Jyo, which during the Heian golden age may have had a populations as high as 100,000 people, making it much larger than most European cities at the time.

It may have been a glorious capital but we don’t really know because most of the city was destroyed by earthquakes, or possibly fires, or possibly wars, or just the desire for new construction.

We're not sure. We also know that the Heian aristocracy was rigidly hierarchical, with society divided into about 30 grades based on one's birth.

The top 4 grades were reserved for princes, and the top 3, known as the Kugyō, received all the most important privileges, including governmental posts and revenues from special rice land.

These people in the highest ranks could send their children to university, wear ceremonial dress, they were given lighter punishments when they committed crimes.

Can you imagine a world in which rich people systemically receive lighter sentences for crimes committed than poor people?

These rules were so detailed that they even determined what type of fan you could hold.

The top 3 ranks got to hold 25-fold fans.

But when The Tale of the Genji was written, this rank system, like all those ranks, applied to less than 1/10th of 1% of the total population, so we’re really talking about the elites.

As Ivan Morris put it:

"Members of the upper class are almost all related to each other. They are totally uninterested in everyone outside their charmed circle and exceedingly sensitive in judging the precise social level of each person who does belong.

In Murasaki's milieu, to determine a person's milieu was no simple diversion, but a matter of overriding importance."

Now that description reminds me a lot of my high school experience.

Aristocrats dominated the government, which over time became more and more ceremonial and ritualistic.

In fact by the 10th century, much government work was carried out at night and consisted almost entirely of ceremonies.

The nice thing about doing boring ceremonial work at night though: there was a lot of wine.

So yeah, that doesn't make for like, excellent government efficiency. Heian Japan's economy was not much better than its governance.

There was very little trade and attempted land reform, which was supposed to grant every citizen a parcel of public domain land, totally failed.

Meanwhile, aristocrats accumulated vast agricultural land holdings, and by the 10th century court nobles were largely supported by these tax-free estates called manors.

Now interestingly, the nobles didn't technically own the land outright, as they did in much of Europe.

Instead they owned the rights to income from the land and then those rights could be transferred to their heirs, so it was similar to ownership, but it wasn't quite ownership.

Also different from Europe: upper-class Japanese women could hold the rights to a manor, and thus have a rather impressive degree of economic power.

And that matters a lot because women played a key role in the flourishing of Heian literary culture that makes this period of history so interesting to study in the first place.

Like over all this inefficient corrupt cronyism of Japan's government and economy definitely weakened this state.

But it also provided time and money for the aristocracy to make beautiful and interesting things.

Let's go to the Thought Bubble.

Heian aristocrats were expected to feel melancholy over the transience of existence.

"In Murasaki's time," according to Ivan Morris "periodical protestations of melancholy and gloom were essential for people who regarded themselves as sensitive,"

and sensitivity especially to art was the hallmark of aristocratic breeding.

The aristocratic gentleman is exemplified by prince Genji himself: quote

"With his gentle nature, his sensitivity and his wide range of artistic skills, who represented the ideal of the age and who set the tone for the social and cultural life of the good people"

Buddhism was very influential on the aristocrats aesthetic ideal that beauty must be cultivated because it is so impermanent.

This quote from the tale of Genji illustrates this focus on impermanence:

"'Like the waterfowl that play there on the lake, I too am floating along the surface of a transient world' I could not help comparing them with myself.

For they too appeared to be enjoying themselves in the most carefree fashion; yet their lives must be full of sorrow."

Stan, are you sure that's from the tale of Genji? I think I've seen that quote attributed to me on Tumblr.

But we don't only know about the emotional state of the aristocracy, we also know about their pastimes.

We refer to nobles as the leisure class for a reason after all, they spent a lot of time playing games, and engaging in contests.

Poetry contests were popular, as were board games, like Go, and much of their time was taken up with ceremonies and rituals.

Here is an example from the court calendar:

"18th day: Bowman's Wager, the new year's celebrations are concluded by an archery contest which is held in his majesties presence between officers of the inner and middle palace guards.

This is followed by a banquet during which court dances are performed and prizes awarded to the winning side. Members of the losing side are forced to drink the cup of defeat."

Thanks, Thought Bubble. I'd like to make an announcement here at Crash Course from now on whenever we refer to anyone losing anything we will say that they were forced to drink from the cup of defeat.

So you know other than pure Game of Thrones style drama, this highly ritualized very insular social order of the elites of the elites of the elites isn't usually the kind of stuff we'd study at Crash Course.

But first, thinking about the lives of the Heian aristocracy tells us something about the lives of the rich and powerful generally.

Like obviously they had to increasingly separate themselves from each other to feel more and more wealthy and powerful.

Which progressively led to them being more and more separated from, you know, the vast, vast majority of people living in Japan.

But also they produced and consumed cultural artifacts that came to define the style of the age but also have continued to shape culture.

Heian aristocracy and the documents that describe it tell us a lot about women, who as we've seen are often left out of historical narratives.

The Heian period, at least culturally, was dominated by women, particularly Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon.

So in some ways at least, unlike almost everything we've studied, our view of the period is dominated by women's perspectives, although it is the perspective of the most privileged women.

And what we see is consistent with a lot of upper-class mores: these women are obsessed with their looks, and especially with their clothes which were cumbersome and heavy.

They were expected to wear their hair very long, preferably reaching to the ground.

They had to powder their faces and blacken their teeth and they lived the circumscribed lives typical of upper-class women throughout the world.

Although there were some legal protections that they enjoyed: like we talked about how they could have income from property.

Laws also protected them from physical violence, specifically prohibiting a husband from beating his wife, which might not sound like that big of a deal but compared to women's lives in Europe, that was a big improvement.

And upper-class women in Heian Japan were all literate and educated, although their education was limited to the types of cultural skills that would make them attractive to men: poetry, music, calligraphy, maybe some literature.

Disciplines like history and law and philosophy were mostly off limits.

And that brings me to something I want to talk about:

all of these privileges: from the heavy, cumbersome clothes that make it difficult to move to the kinds of education women could have or the kinds of limited legal protections they could have, all of that is evidence of a patriarchy.

So we see through these women's stories the way that they were able to express themselves and their philosophies and the way that they lived in the world.

So women like Murasaki Shikibu lived constrained, cloistered lives, but of course there were opportunities available to them that weren't available to men.

And that's what's so exciting about being able to read their narratives. We just don't have many equivalents to that in Europe at the time.

That noted, these women, like their male counterparts, spent most of their lives indoors, and communicated mostly by intermediaries or letters.

Women couldn't show themselves to men or make conversation with them.

But there was a great deal of interest and intrigue around love and romance, not least because Heian gentlemen were expected to be polygamous and also to engage in extramarital affairs.

But just because sexual relations were often divorced from marriage and love affairs were common doesn't mean that they lacked emotional consequences.

In the stories you read about Heian Japan everybody is always worried that they're going to like, fall out of favor with their lover or their husband or their whatever.

It's so exciting! To read about, I mean, I'm sure if you're living inside of it it would make you very anxious.

Also when courtship and marriage had political dimensions, as they did in the highest noble ranks, women were often in danger of being displaced by a more advantageous match.

And we know from the stories that all of this combined into pangs of jealousy and fear of being abandoned and then pain when you actually were abandoned.

And those kinds of stories, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, have a kind of universality about them.

The last thing I want to say here is that power works differently when you're not in power, right?

Like if you're a student in a high school classroom the teacher has the power, but you have some power.

And the most interesting thing about the stories from the Heian aristocracy is the ways that women used the power that they did have to bring about change in their own lives and in their communities.

So by looking at history through the lens of literature we get a very different perspective than if we were to focus on government documents, or archaeology, or descriptions of war.

This helps us to try to develop a sense of how people at the time felt, although we're only dealing with a very limited group of people, obviously.

The cultural achievements of the Heian Period, described and exemplified by The Tale of Genji, were considerable, especially when compared to what Europeans were accomplishing at the time.

And it's another reminder that we need to be careful when we talk about the 9th and 10th centuries as the Dark Ages.

It's also interesting that the Heian Period in Japan wasn't particularly successful politically or economically, but that it did lead to great cultural achievements.

And almost all of the literary achievements were made by women, which as Morris points out is "a rare, if not unique, phenomenon in cultural history."

For Heian Japan the historical record was written primarily by women.

And while The Tale of Genji doesn't discuss politics or economics the way that we usually imagine them, and while it describes a world that leaves out 99% of Japanese people during the period,

it has a lot to tell us about the way that at least some people felt and lived, which is more than can be said for a lot of history books.

And that's a type of history that most of us can relate to more than stuff with generals and kings in it.

For instance when I look at the history of my own life I find that generals and kings have played a very minor role. Jealously on the other hand: not insignificant.

Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week.

Crash Course is filmed here in the Chad & Stacey Emigholz Studio in Indianapolis.

Thank you for watching and as we say in my hometown: don't forget to be awesome.