Confucian-Influenced

The Confucian-Influenced group includes the Chinese regional cultures, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Vietnamese. Imperial China's tributary relations carried Confucian thought, Daoism and Buddhism to its neighbours. Literary Chinese became their common language of official business, and Chinese characters were borrowed and adapted in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Local scripts followed: the kana syllabaries in Japan, the Nôm script in Vietnam and the hangul alphabet in Korea, promulgated in 1446. Korea's Joseon dynasty, founded in 1392, made Neo-Confucianism its state doctrine. The imperial examination system, modelled on China's, shaped the bureaucracy and social order of Korea and Vietnam.