The fleet opened Japan's closed door, making it change its national policy and strive to leave Asia and enter Europe. But until today, the understanding and inheritance of China's historical and cultural knowledge remaining in the consciousness of ordinary Japanese people has gone deep into the muscle marrow. Most Japanese people know China's classic works, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Journey to the West, Water Margin and Dream of Red Mansions. Especially the first two, it can be said that women and children are well known. Many Japanese people are familiar with some characters and storylines in these China classics. Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms; The Monkey King, Tang monk meat, Pig Bajie, Friar Sand, etc. It is almost a household name on the westward journey. Some Japanese young people are even ashamed of their familiarity with China's history and literature. Kato Jun was one of my classmates when I was a master. His undergraduate major is management, and his master's degree is labor economics like me. But his knowledge of China's history surprised me. Because Kato is not a bookworm type student, he even acts naive and seems to be addicted to video games all day. Before that, I even thought he was a gangster with no ink in his chest.
One day, only Kato and I walked together. On the way to the subway station, he suddenly asked me, "Do you know Wen Tianxiang?"
Hearing this, I was shocked. "Which Wen Tianxiang?" I'm afraid I heard wrong. "It is Wen Tianxiang, the national hero of the Southern Song Dynasty in China." Hearing this, I was even more surprised: "How do you know Wen Tianxiang?" Incredible surprise was involuntarily written on my face. "Wen Tianxiang has a lot of national integrity. He died heroically and I admire him very much. " Then, Kato told me the story of Wen Tianxiang in great detail. After listening to it, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect Kato to have these two down sons. Many Japanese young people have forgotten the history of their ancestors, let alone their understanding of foreign history and culture. When I recite Wen Tianxiang's famous sentence, "Who hasn't died since ancient times? Take care of your heart and shine on your history. "Kato quickly took out his notebook and wrote it down carefully.
Kato's familiarity with China's historical knowledge surprised me.
Once, on the electric train to the outskirts of Tokyo, Kato showed me a Japanese version of Yanzi, and told the stories of Yanzi Zuochu and Yanzi Chunqiu with great interest. He asked me some questions intermittently about the difference between Yan Zi and Guan Zhong in China. And take this opportunity to start a topic, from the Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor in China to the Qin and Han Dynasties, from Zhao Gao calling a deer a horse to Qin Gui framing loyalty. From Tang Zong Song Zu to Genghis Khan, from the "Four Kings of Warring States" to the four beauties in ancient China. Then, I talked endlessly about the romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the characters in it were as authentic as treasures. According to my own opinions, I evaluated the abilities of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms one by one. For example, speaking of Liu Bei, he thinks that Liu Bei's intelligence is 85%.
Power is 70%
And the charm is 100%.
The evaluation of Cao Cao, who has both cultural relics, is intelligence: 96%
Strength: 90%
Charm: 98%
. Regardless of whether his evaluation is objective and correct, I can't help but marvel at the systematic and extensive understanding of China's historical knowledge just by reading the Three Kingdoms alone.
Kato doesn't know Chinese, but he has a soft spot for China's history and culture since he was a child. Almost all Japanese books on the history of China have been destroyed.
If Kato is a special case, once a Japanese student studying economics played a prank in a Japanese class for foreign students, which made me realize that China culture has a deep influence on the Japanese. Before Japanese class, the students are waiting for the teacher. Suddenly, a Japanese student ran into the classroom. He talked about the creative principle of China's poems, "inheritance", and wrote these four Chinese characters on the blackboard. Finally, he said that this grammar was influenced by China's literary writing style. And extended a dream of red mansions about China. At that time, many students from other countries, including me, thought he was a young lecturer in the Department of Literature. As a result, he made it clear that he had come to play a prank and just wanted to taste the fun of being a teacher. However, his accurate understanding and vivid introduction of the characteristics of China literature made me feel proud and incredible.
In addition, when contacting Japanese at different levels, we often hear them talk about China's four classical novels and related historical stories. Some employees talk about enterprise management, and even cite China's Confucianism and Laozi's Taoism, as well as the history of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Rule of Zhenguan to compare the past with the present.
In modern times, although Japan advocates western civilization, the influence of China culture on the Japanese nation for thousands of years is subtle and lingering. In addition, many Japanese animation game software development companies often use China's historical or literary themes to develop their works, which is also invisible. Since the Japanese teenagers' generation, they have popularized the history and culture of China. This is probably why many Japanese people have a certain understanding and cognition of China's historical classics.