DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0277
China and Japan
257
the midst of ancient trees, and the wonderful building of the pagoda at Fatshan
(Fig. 565) shows the corner of the temple behind which it stands. The trees by the temples
are just as inviolable as those which the Chinaman plants about the graves of his fathers,
for the Oriental trait of reverence is particularly widespread and very deeply rooted.
Every Chinese family, except the very poorest, has its family grave, which is sacred to
it; and the surrounding of trees has often grown to be a park. In a country so thickly built
over, where every foot of open land is used for cultivation, these sacred groves are
almost the only preserves for trees.
Japan
The civilisation of Japan is modern compared with that of China, but it is of the
Chinese school, as is unreservedly recognised. The relationship is made very clear by
the fact that the Japanese first obtained a notion of literature when they accepted Bud-
dhism, which happened with astonishing quickness in the fifth century a.d., and it was from
China that this religion overflowed into Japan. The Japanese authors, who had to invent a
written speech, adopted the single-syllable language of the Chinese, by means of which
they wrote their own language phonetically. The Japanese are a surprisingly receptive as
well as a very zealous and diligent people. They absorbed the results of Western civilisa-
tion in a single generation. In the domain of art the Japanese have originality, but in
all else they appear only as an offshoot from the great Chinese tree, and only began
to exist when that tree was independent and full-grown. This is especially true in the case
of painting, and in the garden art which is so intimately connected therewith. China offers
riddle after riddle to an inquiring student, in spite of the fact that m her life and art
there is such remarkable continuity and coherence, and problems occur all through her
history; Japan, on the contrary, has all her cards on the table and allows a greedy inquirer
to make investigations into the innermost recesses of her spiritual history.
At the present time the garden art of Japan is known and admired in Europe. It is
examined and imitated as few others are. This is not simply the result of unrestricted
trade between the nations and the incomparable advantage that the Japanese have them-
selves seen European gardens, but is also and perhaps still more due to their philosophical
type of mind. In life, thought, and action the Japanese have always been m complete
harmony with their environment and history, and the greater part of their literature
consists of works that are meant to be instructive. Many of the national characteristics
that incline the Japanese towards gardening are shared by the Chinese, or indeed by most
of the people of Asia; but we are particularly well informed as to the love felt by the
Japanese for nature and the garden. It is not a mere aesthetic exhibition made by the
aristocracy, although we are dealing with a people so aristocratic that all culture so called
was for a long time confined exclusively to the one class. Delight m the beauty of nature
is expressed in great festivals shared by all classes, and in this particularly festive nation
flower fetes take the first place.
It was a fortunate circumstance in ancient Japanese civilisation that its calendar
was a lunar one and made New Year's Day fall in February, so that the day and the month
of the new year combined to create a feast of welcome. On this happy day the first plum-
blossom, prunus mume, so dear to the Japanese heart, was greeted with great rejoicings.
257
the midst of ancient trees, and the wonderful building of the pagoda at Fatshan
(Fig. 565) shows the corner of the temple behind which it stands. The trees by the temples
are just as inviolable as those which the Chinaman plants about the graves of his fathers,
for the Oriental trait of reverence is particularly widespread and very deeply rooted.
Every Chinese family, except the very poorest, has its family grave, which is sacred to
it; and the surrounding of trees has often grown to be a park. In a country so thickly built
over, where every foot of open land is used for cultivation, these sacred groves are
almost the only preserves for trees.
Japan
The civilisation of Japan is modern compared with that of China, but it is of the
Chinese school, as is unreservedly recognised. The relationship is made very clear by
the fact that the Japanese first obtained a notion of literature when they accepted Bud-
dhism, which happened with astonishing quickness in the fifth century a.d., and it was from
China that this religion overflowed into Japan. The Japanese authors, who had to invent a
written speech, adopted the single-syllable language of the Chinese, by means of which
they wrote their own language phonetically. The Japanese are a surprisingly receptive as
well as a very zealous and diligent people. They absorbed the results of Western civilisa-
tion in a single generation. In the domain of art the Japanese have originality, but in
all else they appear only as an offshoot from the great Chinese tree, and only began
to exist when that tree was independent and full-grown. This is especially true in the case
of painting, and in the garden art which is so intimately connected therewith. China offers
riddle after riddle to an inquiring student, in spite of the fact that m her life and art
there is such remarkable continuity and coherence, and problems occur all through her
history; Japan, on the contrary, has all her cards on the table and allows a greedy inquirer
to make investigations into the innermost recesses of her spiritual history.
At the present time the garden art of Japan is known and admired in Europe. It is
examined and imitated as few others are. This is not simply the result of unrestricted
trade between the nations and the incomparable advantage that the Japanese have them-
selves seen European gardens, but is also and perhaps still more due to their philosophical
type of mind. In life, thought, and action the Japanese have always been m complete
harmony with their environment and history, and the greater part of their literature
consists of works that are meant to be instructive. Many of the national characteristics
that incline the Japanese towards gardening are shared by the Chinese, or indeed by most
of the people of Asia; but we are particularly well informed as to the love felt by the
Japanese for nature and the garden. It is not a mere aesthetic exhibition made by the
aristocracy, although we are dealing with a people so aristocratic that all culture so called
was for a long time confined exclusively to the one class. Delight m the beauty of nature
is expressed in great festivals shared by all classes, and in this particularly festive nation
flower fetes take the first place.
It was a fortunate circumstance in ancient Japanese civilisation that its calendar
was a lunar one and made New Year's Day fall in February, so that the day and the month
of the new year combined to create a feast of welcome. On this happy day the first plum-
blossom, prunus mume, so dear to the Japanese heart, was greeted with great rejoicings.