Prior to the 19th century Europe had little impact on East Asian Essay

Prior to the 19th century Europe had little impact on East Asian developments - Essay Example White presence in the countries of the Far East was predominantly commercial and confined to the coastal settlements where traders and soldiers got together under the auspices of Western men-of-war, yet in truth relied on their hosts’ goodwill. For the major empires of China or Tokugawa Japan shogunate they were both strategically and politically marginal and insignificant1. Furthermore in China, Joseon Korean kingdoms and in Japan religious and social structures were rather resistant to rapid change and conferred much stability continuity. The systems of Buddhism and Taoism were taking hold along with Confucianism that emphasized individual moral obligations to the society. Neither in China nor in Korea nor in Japan was an individual viewed as ultimately autonomous. Furthermore these societies did not focus on individual freedoms. Nevertheless continuity and stability are relative notions. Asian cultures developed a curious patchwork of social customs, languages, religious be liefs and different ways of thinking. Ancient varieties of astrology, geomancy and animism were still omnipresent, particularly in rural areas where pantheism offered plenty of opportunities for religious tolerance. In China, Korea and in Japan reverence for elders, ancestors and deities of nature, dating from thousands of years before Christ, were considerably amalgamated into newer mode of thinking. In most places religious systems were linked to the complicated social structures. These cultures were not fit to separating political and social affairs from belief or faith. Such distinctions made no sense in most parts of East Asia. Likewise they make no sense nowadays either. Religious and quasi-religious systems are present in all aspects of human life: in politics, family and social relations, in philosophy2. For example, Confucianism is notable for both being a system of political, personal and social ethics as well as for being an effort to explain the world as a whole in ratio nal terms. It lays down a rule of life that tends strongly to keep social hierarchy and order. It has long existed side by side with Buddhism, Taoism and even with Marxism. There even have been several religious wars in Japan and in China similar top those in Europe. The imperial â€Å"Celestial† monarchy of China went on to look predominantly inwards. Within a period between 750 and 1100 the population of almost doubled so by the beginning of the 16th century China, with her 100 million people, had already had the largest number of subjects than any kingdom of that time civilized world. Yet in 1386 the Chinese Ming defeated the heirs of Mongol Kublai Khan, expelled Mongols and assumed the imperial power. They developed sciences, arts and various technologies to rather high level. At the beginning for the fifteenth century, they moved their capital northward from Nanjing to Beijing. This 800-mile transfer involved great expenses for new walls palaces and for the transport. Fo r all those cultural developments, nevertheless, there was much ossification. As for Europeans time has always been linear for the people of Far East cultures time have been cyclical. European societies tended toward the rule of law. Their despotisms were mollified by custom, privileges, charters and rights of towns and after all by law. Celestial Empire in its turn developed bureaucratic and centralized methods of