>>183 Continued

However, the Chinese language did not exist yet, and elsewhere in the world, language probably did not exist yet. Many of the people in Malaysia and Southeast Asia migrated south as well during this period and those people also lack an indigenous written language. Fast forward, several thousands of years to the beginnings of the written script in Asia, in China, during the Shang Dynasty, also collectively known as bone oracle script, circa 1766 BCE. Japan at the same time, was pretty much still in the Jomon period, although the late Jomon, between 4000 to 400 BCE, saw the invention of the Shinto religion, an organized government and agriculture system, architecture and other technological advancements, as well as probably the further development of the spoken word, since spoken word is generally necessary for the advancement of culture. Although sea travel is generally considered to have happened during this period, it is believed that the only cultures to have moved to Japan were Russians (which became the Ainu, forming a unique linguistic isolate) and the Okinawans, from somewhere in the Pacific. Interestingly it seems that the Siberians, South Pacific Islanders and Malay peoples mastered long distance oceanic travel, but the Chinese and Japanese did not. When the Zhou period came around, Western Barbarians, most likely nomadic tribes from Mongolia (not modern day Mongolia, but the region west of China, East of Tibet) attacked and eventually drove the Chinese further south. This period while seeing an increase in artistic works was also plagued by constant warring. The first evidence of Chinese contact comes from Kyushu during the Yayoi period between 900 to 300 BCE to 250 CE, where rice genetics suggest that the strains of rice originating in this period were from China (not Korea, as earlier suggested). Also introduced was a style of pottery and bronze working. During the end of the Yayoi period and the subsequent Kofun, during the beginning of the Nara in Japan, and the beginning of the Tang dynasty in China was went cultural influences started to really become fluid. After the collapse of Rome culture from India poured into China, and rather rapidly, into Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, as the Indians underwent a cultural conquest (which was largely militarily peaceful). Buddhism dominated as a religion, and all the art forms in East Asia reflect this. Also during the Nara period, the first pieces of Japanese writing, borrowed entirely from Chinese occur, although with Japanese grammatical influences, such as word order. During the Heian period, simplifications of Chinese characters then formed the kana systems, which fit the spoken language better, and resulted in writing being more widespread leading to the first novel written, Genji monogatari, as language became more accessible. The this evolved into middle Japanese which eventually led to modern Japanese.