The relationship between China and Japan has experienced many twists and turns. If you look at the current Chinese and Japanese traditions, there are actually many similarities, such as traditional cultures such as tea ceremony and etiquette, as well as writing culture and food culture.
. The biggest reason for this is that Japan once sent a large number of people to China to observe and learn Chinese culture, which is the so-called sent to Tang . During Japan's sending people to China, not only were they treated preferentially, but they also paid a lot of tribute to the dynasty at that time, including beauties.
They once paid tribute to the emperor two princesses, but they didn't expect an accident to occur halfway through. The princess was locked in a cage the next day. What exactly happened?
Picture: Stills from Japan sent people to China
1. A brief discussion on the earliest relationship between China and Japan and the Tang Dynasty
. Today, the difference between China and Japan's relations and the strength of all parties is that in the early years, China has always been at the upper hand, while Japan has compromised and established good relations with China.
1. The time between Japan and China actually first appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is recorded in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty". In 57 AD, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty gave Japan a "King of the Han Japanese Was Slave" snake button golden seal. At that time, the Central Plains region called Japan "Wa". This name alone can see the strength comparison between the two countries.
pictures are from the Internet: "King of the Han Japanese Slaves" snake button golden seal
2. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, China and Japan still maintained a certain relationship. According to the records of Japan in the Book of Han, there were more than a hundred Japanese countries in Japan at that time. In 57 AD, the slave country came to China. Half a century later, another Japanese country in Kitakyushu, the Ido country, sent people to China to establish diplomatic relations with China.
In 238 AD, the Queen of Evil Matai also sent people to China and was received and rewarded by Emperor Ming of Wei . Emperor Ming of Wei gave golden seals imitating Emperor Guangwu of Han, and in addition to this, he also rewarded various rare toys, such as iron swords that cut copper like mud, and bronze mirrors that can reflect human figures.
These things were also renamed by Japan as Kusha Sword and Yata Mirror. The abbreviation of these three things is "sword, mirror, and seal". They have been treasured by the Japanese royal family for thousands of years and are worshipped by the people as tokens.
Judging from this kind of behavior, it is a fact that Japan sent people to China. The reason why they performed this behavior was initially to improve the authority and status of their own country and consolidate their country's status in neighboring countries.
pictures are from the Internet: Grass Shaved Sword, Yata Mirror
3. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, especially Tang Dynasty , the economy and culture were unprecedentedly prosperous and developed. The scale of Japan's sending people to China was gradually expanding, forming a delegation of missions to the Tang Dynasty. According to records, during this period, Japan sent a lot of missions to the Tang Dynasty. According to the background and purpose of the dispatch, it can be divided into four stages. Due to too much content, here we will mainly introduce the first stage to you.
In fact, the first stage was from 630 to 659 AD. During this period, the main purpose of Japan's diplomacy was to learn from the advanced institutional system of the Tang Dynasty. When the envoys of Tang came for the third time, the envoys sent by him were Gao Xiangxuanli, one of the protagonists who had an accident while serving in bed.
Because he had sent a Tang delegation to visit twice before, he probably knew the system of the Tang Dynasty, including the marriage system, and knew that in order to please the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, it would be impossible to just give local Japanese specialties, and perhaps sending princesses to marry relatives would be more effective.
Picture: Stills from the visit of the Tang delegation
2. Two princesses who paid tribute to Japan had an accident
1, Gao sent the princesses to Xuanli to marry
. Different countries and nations have great differences, and this accident clearly reflects this problem. In fact, during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, a small conflict occurred between China and Japan, and finally the exchanges were cut off. It was not until the Zhenguan period that the prosperous Tang Dynasty once again attracted Japan's attention and wanted to send people to continue to come to China. So in the fourth year of Zhenguan, during Li Shimin's reign, he sent the Tang envoy to China for the first time.
When he arrived at Gao Xiangxuanli, he was one of the third envoys to send Tang envoys to China. At that time, Li Shimin passed away. Japan was afraid that after the change of emperor, their chances of sending Tang envoys to study would be interrupted again, so he carefully pleased the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
, Gao Xiangri, as one of the envoys and the person in charge, applied to the Japanese Emperor that in addition to bringing rare treasures, bringing two princesses to the Tang Dynasty to marry each other, which can promote harmonious and friendly relations between the two countries.
Picture: Stills of the Emperor of Tang Dynasty
2. Gao Xiang Xuanli's goal is to achieve
. When Gao Xiang Xuanli brought the two princesses to the Emperor of Tang Dynasty, that is, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Li Zhi , Li Zhi was quite satisfied with Gao Xiang Xuanli's performance. After all, there is a big difference between sending a princess and sending an ordinary beauties. He also happily agreed to Gao Xiang Xuanli's request to send a Tang envoy to visit again.
and even Li Zhi agreed to build a special villa for the Japanese envoy sent to Tang to facilitate their observation and study. At this time, Li Zhi and Gao Xiangxuanli must have not expected that there would be an accident in the princess's sleep.
Pictures: Tang Gaozong Stills of Li Zhi
3. After serving in bed, the princess was locked in a cage
0. The night when the princess arrived, Li Zhi favored them. However, early the next morning, the two princesses were not on the bed, but were locked in a cage.
I believe that the princess was put in a cage was also an unexpected thing for Gao Xiangxuanli! On the one hand, I don’t know what the princess did, how could she offend the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and be punished, for fear of affecting the relationship between the two countries and messing up the affairs of the mission. On the other hand, because the princess is valuable, I don’t know how to explain to the Japanese Emperor.
Only after Gao Xiangxuanli paid homage to Emperor Gaozong of Tang, did he understand the whole story. It turned out that Li Zhi favored these two women that night, but when he woke up, he found that the two women around him were covered with white powder, dark teeth, and no eyebrows on their faces, just like female ghosts.
scared Li Zhi very much, so he ordered people to grab the two women in the cage, and these two women were the princesses who paid tribute to Japan.
Picture: Stills of makeup of a Japanese tribute princess
4. Why did the princess be locked in a cage?
In fact, the Japanese princess's dress was not to scare Emperor Gaozong of Tang, but to please Emperor Gaozong of Tang. In Japan, women's dressing is equivalent to a trend, to please men. It is called "beauty makeup", which means applying heavy white powder on the face, shaving off eyebrows and blackening the teeth.
To put it bluntly, this is a misunderstanding, which is caused by cultural differences. In Japan, this is a special culture, but it is not understood in China, but it will scare the other party.
Finally, Emperor Gaozong of Tang realized that this was an accident and did not hold Japan accountable for the envoy of Tang. However, from then on, he no longer had any interest in these two Japanese princesses.
Picture: Li Zhi no longer interested in Japanese princesses Stills
3. About Japan tributes beautiful women to China
In fact, the incident of Japan sending women to Chinese rulers had already appeared as early as the Han Dynasty. According to historical records, in 107 AD, Japan sent envoys to China to pay tribute. In addition to sending envoys to congratulate, it also brought more than 160 slaves as congratulatory gifts.
The more than 160 slaves are all women, and they are all dignified and beautiful. It is said that the emperor was shocked to see this scene and was at a loss. In the end, he gave many gifts again.
Perhaps it was precisely because of the Chinese rulers that the Japanese thought that as long as they gave beautiful women, they could get a lot of gifts. Later, Japan often paid tribute to women, and even gave four handsome men during the Three Kingdoms period, which was really open-minded.
Picture: Stills of Japanese tribute women
Judging from these events, it is indeed true that Japan once paid tribute to Chinese women. Although Japanese scholars have always shown denial about this matter, they probably feel embarrassed! But Japan had no text at that time, so it was normal that these events were not recorded.
Of course, even if there is text, they probably don’t want to record it, or they later felt ashamed and chose to destroy it directly. Due to the cultural differences between the two countries, it is understandable that the princess was locked in a cage. I just don’t know if there were any similar incidents before Emperor Gaozong of Tang? After all, neighboring countries began to pay tribute to beautiful women at that time.
The incident of Japan's visit to China is undeniable that it has great significance. On the one hand, it shows the openness and tolerance of various dynasties in ancient China, and accepts Gentiles to China. On the other hand, it also allows each other's cultures to penetrate each other and promote cultural exchanges and development. Do you have any other opinions on this?
Article Author: Dahui
The entire picture and text are produced by the team of the big star Shushi Studio!
