The Sinosphere, also known as the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically heavily influenced by Chinese culture. The Sinosphere comprises Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Historically, it also included the Ryukyu Kingdom. Singapore and Malaysia might also be included due to modern-era overseas Chinese migration. The Sinosphere is different from the Sinophone world, which indicates regions where the Chinese language is spoken.
Imperial China was a major regional power in Eastern Asia and exerted influence on tributary states and neighboring states, including Japan, Korea and Vietnam. These interactions brought ideological and cultural influences rooted in Confucianism, Taoism and East Asian Buddhism. The four cultures were ruled by their respective emperors under similar administrative systems, furthermore, the adoption of the Confucian-based imperial examination system deeply influenced the bureaucracy and social structure of Korea and Vietnam. Chinese inventions influenced, and were in turn influenced by, innovations of the other cultures in governance, philosophy, science, and the arts. Literary Chinese became the written lingua franca for bureaucracy and communications, and Chinese characters became locally adapted as kanji in Japan, hanja in Korea, and chữ Hán in Vietnam.
The literary importance of classical Chinese was moderated as Japan, Korea and Vietnam invented their own phonographic writing systems, with Japan developing the katakana and hiragana scripts, Korea creating the hangul, and Vietnam initially developing but replacing it with Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet since the 1910s due to French colonization. However Classical Chinese or modified versions of it such as kanbun and the Idu script remained in official use until the modern era. In the 21st century, ideological and cultural influences of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism remain visible in high culture and social doctrines.
Terminology Ancient China was one of the cradles of civilization, with the emergent cultures that arose from the migration of Han settlers from the Yellow River generally regarded as the origin of the East Asian world.
Japanese historian (1919–1998), professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, coined the term to refer to an East Asian cultural sphere distinct from the cultures of the West. According to Nishijima, this cultural sphere—which includes China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam—shared the philosophy of Confucianism, the religion of Buddhism, and similar political and social structures stemming from a background of historical Classical Chinese scholars.Wang Hui, "'Modernity and 'Asia' in the Study of Chinese History," in Eckhardt Fuchs, Benedikt Stuchtey, eds.,Across cultural borders: historiography in global perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 ), p. 322. It has also been informally referred to as the "chopsticks sphere" due to perceived native use of these utensils across the region.
Etymology The term is derived from 'China' ( Sinophone) + , in the sense of the sphere of influence under the influence of a country.
The CJK languages—Chinese, Japanese, Korean—each use cognate terms to translate English sphere: Chinese (; 'circle', 'ring', 'pen') Japanese (; 'sphere', 'circle', 'range', 'radius') Korean (; from )
Unlike with the other languages of the Sinosphere, the corresponding Vietnamese cognate is not used to mean 'sphere' or 'area'. Instead, ('region', 'area') is used. The Chinese is translated in Vietnamese as ().
In the Ryukyuan languages, (; ) is not used to mean 'sphere', 'area', or 'domain' and only appears in kammun texts written by Ryukyuans. Instead, () is used to mean 'world' or 'sphere'. As such, and would be translated as () and (), respectively.
Victor H. Mair discussed the origins of these 'culture sphere' terms.Victor Mair, Sinophone and Sinosphere, Language Log, 8 November 2012. The Chinese () dates to a 1941 translation for the German term , ('culture circle, field'), which the Austrian ethnologists Fritz Graebner and Wilhelm Schmidt proposed. Japanese historian coined the expressions and , which China later re-borrowed as loanwords. The Sinosphere may be taken to be synonymous to Ancient China and its descendant civilizations as well as the "Far Eastern civilizations" (the Mainland and the Japanese ones). In Toynbee's A Study of History (1934–1961), the Sinosphere is presented as among the major "units of study", along with the Western, Islamic, Eastern Orthodox, and Indic civilizations.See the "family tree" of Toynbee's "civilizations" in any edition of Toynbee's work, or e.g. as Fig.1 on p.16 of: The Rhythms of History: A Universal Theory of Civilizations, By Stephen Blaha. Pingree-Hill Publishing, 2002. .
Comparisons with the West British historian Arnold J. Toynbee lists the Far Eastern civilization as one of the main civilizations outlined in his book A Study of History. He proposes that the initial "Sinic civilization" originating in the Yellow River basin gradually grew into the subsequent "Far Eastern civilization", which extended to the Yangzi region and into Korea and Japan. Commonalities within the Far Eastern civilization were the result of developing from a "Sinic universal state". Toynbee contrasts this "affiliation" relationship between the Sinic and Far Eastern civilizations with the "apparentation-affiliation" relationship between the Hellenic and Western civilizations.
American sinologist and historian Edwin O. Reischauer also groups China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam into a cultural sphere that he calls the "Sinic world", a group of centralized states that share a Confucian ethical philosophy. Reischauer states that this culture originated in northern China, and compares the relationship between northern China and East Asia to that of Greco-Roman civilization and Europe. The elites of East Asia were tied together through a common written language based on Chinese characters, much in the way that Latin functioned in Europe.
In his book The Clash of Civilizations, American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington considers the Sinic world as one of the modern (post–Cold War) civilizations. He notes that "all scholars recognize the existence of either a single distinct Chinese civilization dating back to at least 1500 B.C. and perhaps a thousand years earlier, or of two Chinese civilizations, one succeeding the other, in the early centuries of the Christian epoch".The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996; ), p. 45 Huntington's Sinic civilization includes China, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam, and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Of the many civilizations that Huntington discusses, the Sinic world is the only one that is based on a cultural, rather than religious, identity. Huntington theorizes that in a post–Cold War world, humanity "[identifies] with cultural groups: tribes, ethnic groups, religious communities [and] at the broadest level, civilizations". One exception is Japan, which Huntington considers as a distinct civilization.
Culture
Cultural commonalities among the Sinosphere countries reflect their shared source of influence from Imperial China.
Structure of the personal name
The structure of personal names in the Sinosphere follows the surname-first order, also known as the Eastern name order. Additionally, Korean and Vietnamese personal name share a structure similar to the Chinese one, in that they have many monosyllabic surnames in common (e.g. Lee, Chen,..), and full names typically consist of about two to four monosyllables, corresponding to Sino-Xenic morphemes historically derived from Chinese characters.
Arts
Architecture: Countries of the East Asian cultural sphere (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, China) share a common architectural style stemming from the architecture of ancient China. Calligraphy: Caoshu is a cursive script style used in Chinese and East Asian calligraphy. Cinema: see Hong Kong cinema, Taiwanese cinema, Chinese cinema, Japanese cinema, Korean cinema, Vietnamese cinema Comic: see manga (Japanese comics), manhua (Chinese comics), manhwa (Korean comics), truyện tranh (Vietnamese comics) Gardening: The art of cultivating miniature trees and landscapes: see bonsai (Japanese), penjing (Chinese), bunjae (Korean), hòn non bộ (Vietnamese) Martial arts: see gōngfu (kung fu; Chinese martial arts); taekwondo and hapkido (Korean martial arts); karate, aikido, judo, jujutsu and sumo (Japanese martial arts); vovinam and nhất nam (Vietnamese martial arts) Music: Chinese musical instruments, such as the erhu, have influenced those of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam and Yazheng influenced Japan (koto), Korea(gayageum) and Mongolia (yatga). Clothing: Hanfu, hanbok, việt phục, and wafuku all use silk. Jade jewelry and ornaments are also highly valued throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Cuisine
The cuisine of East Asia shares many of the same ingredients and techniques. Chopsticks are used as an eating utensil in all of the core East Asian countries. The use of soy sauce, which is made from fermenting soybeans, is also widespread in the region.
Rice is the staple food in all of East Asia and is a major focus of food security. Moreover, in East Asian countries such as Japan (; ), Korea (; bap), and Vietnam (cơm; 𩚵 or ), the word for "cooked rice" can embody the meaning of food in general.
Popular terms associated with East Asian cuisine include boba, kimchi, sushi, hot pot, tea, dim sum, ramen, as well as phở, sashimi, udon, and chả giò.
Traditions Fashion: see hanfu and cheongsam (or ) (Chinese and Manchu); việt phục and áo dài (Vietnamese); (deel) (Mongolian); hanbok (Korean); kimono and wafuku (Japanese) Dance: The lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other East Asian countries, in which performers in a lion costume mimic a lion's movements to bring good luck and fortune. Aside from China, versions of the lion dance are found in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Taiwan. Lion dances are usually performed during Lunar New Year celebrations. New Year: China (Zhōngguó Xīn Nián), Korea (Seollal), Vietnam (Tết Nguyên Đán), Mongolia (Tsagaan sar), Japan (Koshōgatsu), and Taiwan traditionally observe the same Lunar New Year. However, Japan has moved its New Year () to fit the Western New Year since the Meiji Restoration. Although mainland Japan no longer celebrates Lunar New Year, some indigenous minority ethnic groups in Japan still do, such as the Ryukyuan people (Okinawans). Okinawa has traditionally observed the Lunar New Year because of heavy Chinese influence in its past. Okinawans still celebrate and partake in many traditions for Lunar New Year, though to less of an extent than Western New Year.
Literature
East Asian literary culture is based on the use of Literary Chinese, which became the medium of scholarship, administration, and government across the region. Although Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed vernacular writing systems for their languages, these were limited to popular literature. Literary Chinese remained the medium of formal writing until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was swept away by rising nationalism and displaced by vernacular writing.
Though they did not use Chinese for spoken communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud, the so-called Sino-Xenic pronunciations, which provide clues to the pronunciation of Middle Chinese. Chinese words with these pronunciations were also borrowed extensively by local vernaculars and today comprise over half their vocabularies. Vernacular or standard Chinese encompassing varieties of Chinese also developed alongside the use of Literary Chinese.