East Asian cultural sphere

The East Asian cultural sphere or Sinosphere refers to a grouping of countries and regions that were historically influenced by the culture of China. Other names for the concept include the Sinic world, the Confucian world, and the Chinese cultural sphere, though the last is also used to refer particularly to the Sinophone world: the areas which speak varieties of Chinese.

The East Asian cultural sphere shares a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, and historically a common writing system. The core regions of the East Asian cultural sphere are China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, although Mongolia and parts of Central Asia are sometimes included.

The terms East Asian cultural sphere and Chinese character cultural sphere are used interchangeably with "Sinosphere" but have different denotations.

Academic usage

Arnold J. Toynbee

British historian Arnold J. Toynbee listed the Far Eastern civilization as one of the main civilizations outlined in his book, A Study of History. He included Japan and Korea in his Far Eastern civilization, and proposed that it grew out of the Sinic civilization that originated in the Yellow River basin. Toynbee compared the relationship between the Sinic and Far Eastern civilization with that of the Hellenic and Western civilizations. According to Toynbee, the Hellenic and Western civilizations had an "apparentation-affiliation" relationship, while the Far Eastern world was controlled by the "ghost" of the "Sinic universal state."