Japan. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ gross produce. Of the other two kinds of taxes one was called yō and the other chō. The former may be regarded as a species of corvée. After a man attained the age of twenty-one he was required to perform ten days' public work annually, which service, however, he was at liberty to commute for one piece of cloth (nuno). The chō was levied on silk, fish, cloth, and generally speaking on objects produced or obtained in considerable quantities. The proceeds of the rice-tax were applied to defray the expenses of local administration, while the outlay of the central government was met by the proceeds of the two other taxes, yō and chō.

      As regards local administration, the old names of local divisions, kuni (provinces) and kōri (districts), were retained, while towns, sato, were organized generally by grouping together fifty houses under a town-head. Along the principal roads relays of post horses were maintained for public service, and every person traveling in the interior was required by law to carry a hand-bell and a document similar to a passport. At important places guard-houses were established, with duly appointed lookouts and garrisons for preserving order. Government business was transacted in the provinces under the control of officials collectively called kokushi, and in the districts under that of gunshi. The former set of officers were appointed by the central government from among the nobler families, while the latter seem to have been largely supplied by the descendants of old local magnates. In those days the empire comprised 58 kuni, over 500 kōri, and about 13,000 sato, but subsequent changes resulted in 66 kuni and more than 700 kōri, which numbers continued till the beginning of the present reign.

      Finally, as to the central government, its ultimate control was vested in the hands of three principal officials, namely, the ministers of the left, of the right, and of the interior; but this organization subsequently underwent considerable modification. The eight departments of administration were Department of Records (Nakatsukasa), Department of Ceremonies (Shikibu), Department of Administration (Jibu), Department of Home Affairs (Mimbu), Department of Military Affairs (Hyōbu), Department of Justice (Kyōbu), Department of Finance (Ōkura), and Department of the Imperial Household (Kunai). Each was comprised of three bureaus, between which the functions of the department were distributed. Over and above the eight departments stood the two highest offices, grand council (Daijō-kwan) and religious rites (Jingi-kwan).

      The administrative organization having been thus determined, steps were taken to make suitable selection of personnel for the various official posts, and in connection with this a body of rules was compiled, fixing the ranks of officials of all kinds. The system of selection by merit was in this manner substituted for that of hereditary succession. But the change did not find complete expression in practice, for noble families, though nominally deprived of exclusive official privileges, still benefited by the conservatism of custom. Various ranks of officials were minutely graded, and rigidly marked by means of the colors of garments and head-gear or by patents, but these insignia underwent subsequent changes in minor details.

      Such, in brief, were the principal features of the Taikwa reforms. The government, however, did not confine itself to the realm of enactment, for instructions of an admonitory character were issued with a view to improving the manners and customs of the agricultural classes. Diligence in the pursuit of their occupations, economy, integrity, exclusion of mercenary motives from contracts of marriage, simplicity of funeral rites, persistence in habits of industry even during periods of mourning—such were the virtues recommended to farmers by official proclamation. At the same time, in order to establish contact between the ruling classes and the ruled, boxes were set up at various places wherein the people were invited to deposit any statement of grievances from which they suffered, and it was provided that a man who desired to bring a complaint speedily to the notice of the authorities should ring a bell hung in a public building.

      On the decease of the Emperor Kōtoku, after a reign of ten years, the previous empress, Kōkyoku, reassumed the scepter under the name of Saimei. This was the first instance of a sovereign occupying the throne twice. Prince Naka-no-ōye, who throughout both reigns had remained heir-apparent, succeeded the Empress Saimei under the name of Tenchi. This sovereign, who before ascending the throne had greatly distinguished himself, is not noted for any conspicuous deeds while in possession of the scepter. Throughout his reign the country enjoyed profound internal tranquillity. Its foreign affairs, however, assumed a complexion worthy of special notice.

      Since the conquest of southern Korea, which tradition attributes to the Empress Jingō, its kingdoms not only rendered tributes of valuable articles, but also conferred no small benefit on their suzerain by contributing to the latter's material and moral civilization. Nevertheless, the interval that separated the two countries made communication difficult, and although Japan established a branch government in Korea at a place called Mimana, the Koreans, relying upon the distance of the latter from headquarters, frequently acted in a rebellious manner. During an interval of 460 years after the legendary invasion of the Empress Jingō, no less than thirty instances are recorded when the Koreans either failed to send tribute, insulted Japanese envoys, or broke into open revolt. On every occasion Japan sent embassies to demand explanation and redress, or reasserted her supremacy by force of arms. Shiragi, which in those days stood at the head of the districts into which Korea was divided, rose in 562 against Mimana and succeeded in expelling the Japanese officials and obtaining possession of the place. This disaster weighed greatly on the mind of the Emperor Kimmei, whose last behest uttered on his deathbed was that Mimana should be recovered. A great army was accordingly sent against Shiragi, but success did not attend the Japanese arms. Not only was it found impossible to reduce Shiragi, but even the maintenance of the local government at Mimana proved a task beyond the military strength of the time. Thenceforth the recovery of Mimana became an object upon which Japan's attention was ever concentrated. When in 618 China fell under the powerful sway of the T'ang dynasty, the people of Shiragi, relying on Chinese assistance, conceived the project of bringing under their rule the neighboring district of Kudara. Reduced to extremities, Kudara in 660 sent envoys to seek succor from Japan. After considerable discussion, the Japanese Government resolved to undertake an expedition against Shiragi on a large scale. Great preparations were set on foot. The sovereign himself proceeded to Tsukushi and oversaw the dispatch thence of a fleet of a hundred war vessels under the command of Azumi-no-Hirafu, whose instructions were to attack Shiragi and rescue Kudara. But the latter was found to be in a helpless condition. Invaded simultaneously by the forces of China and Shiragi, it was also torn by internal dissensions, and could not coöperate in any effective manner with the Japanese navy, which consequently withdrew, leaving Kudara to its inevitable fate. The final fall of Kudara occurred in 670, and a few years later the third Korean district of Koma was also defeated by China. Shiragi subsequently sent occasional tribute to Japan, but was never afterward included in the Japanese dominions. The Emperor Tenchi, reviewing the history of his country's relations with Korea, seems to have arrived at the definite conclusion that the wisest policy was on the side of abandoning all idea of recovering Kudara, and devoting Japan's energies solely to organizing measures of defense against foreign attack. He accordingly adopted every possible means of promoting military efficiency. It should be remembered that Japan had not only lavished money and blood for Korea, but also had outlived the days when the civilizing influence of the continent had to come by way of the peninsula and had already been in communication with the source of enlightenment, China. It was during the reign of the same Emperor Tenchi that China sent an envoy to the court of Japan, and the latter country dispatched an embassy in return, so that the two empires were brought into more friendly relations than before.

      If, however, the extent of the Japanese dominions suffered reduction in the west, it in the meantime received an increment in the north by the subjection of some recalcitrant tribes. It will be recalled that the uprising of these people, called Emishi, or Ebisu, had been suppressed by Prince Yamato-dake, but further north in the island of Ezo, the present Hokkaidō;, the imperial sway received only partial acknowledgment. There the Emishi not only were restless, but also generally had the sympathy and support of their kinsmen across the waters, just as in earlier times, the Kumaso, the autochthons of Kiushū, СКАЧАТЬ