How and why did cultures develop both unique and shared characteristics including art, religion, customs, government and structure in ancient china?

How and why did cultures develop both unique and shared characteristics including art, religion, customs, government and structure in ancient China?
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The Spread Of Chinese Civilization To Japan
Author: Stearns, Peter N.
Date: 2000

The Spread Of Chinese Civilization To Japan

Although its full impact on global history has not been felt until the
last century or so, the transmission of key elements in Chinese culture to the
offshore islands that came to make up Japan clearly provides one of the most
important examples of the spread of civilization from a central core area to
neighboring or overseas peoples. In the 1st centuries A.D., the peoples of
Japan imported a wide range of ideas, techniques of production, institutional
models, and material objects from the Chinese mainland. After adapting these
imports to make them compatible with the quite sophisticated culture they had
previously developed, the Japanese used what they had borrowed from China to
build a civilization of their own. New patterns of rice growing and handicraft