Japan. Various

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Tradition says that, as the Kumaso of Tsukushi, Kiushū, again rose in arms, the Emperor Chūai proceeded thither in person, and, through his minister, prayed for the guidance of the gods. Thereupon the latter inspired the empress, who had joined the imperial expedition, to declare that if Shiragi was first conquered, the Kumaso would submit without further resistance. The emperor, however, hesitated to take this divine counsel, and the deities punished his disobedience by death. Awed by this startling event, the empress gave directions that her consort's death should be kept secret, and having intrusted to his generals the duty of guarding the temporary palace at Tsukushi, she sent Takenouchi to convey the emperor's remains to Nagato by sea, while she herself remained to mourn the death of her husband in his prime. Sacrifices were again offered to heaven, and prayers again addressed to the deities, to which the reply was the same as before. After subduing several rebel tribes, the empress came to a river, where she sought by fishing to obtain an omen as to whether the conquest of Korea should be attempted. The indications being in the affirmative, she finally resolved to lead an expedition in person across the sea. Sacrificial rites were again performed to all the deities, and the empress, returning to Kashihi Bay, ordered the people to build ships, and sent sailors westward to reconnoiter the land which she contemplated invading. By and by, a lucky day having been chosen, the Japanese fleet set out from Wanizu in Tsushima, and, aided by a favorable wind, soon reached the coast of Shiragi. Hasankin, the king of Shiragi, was so much alarmed by the appearance of the invading force that, without offering any resistance, he came to sue for peace, and made a solemn pledge that he would henceforth serve the ruler of Japan as a groom and send her annual tributes. Shiragi, he declared, would abide by his oath, "till the river Yalu flowed backward and sands rose to sky and became stars." The kingdoms of Koma and Kudara followed the example of Shiragi, so that the three principal divisions of southern Korea became tributary to Japan.

      It should be noted, however, that from this time on neither was Korea always obedient nor did the Kumaso cease to be rebellious. In the meantime, however, an important event in an entirely different direction resulted from Japan's intimate relations with Korea. It was the introduction through Korea of the Chinese art of writing. Many Koreans accompanied the commissioners who brought the annual tribute to Japan, and the literature and art of the west were gradually introduced. Annals attribute the beginning of Chinese learning in Japan to the reign of the Emperor Ojin, son of the Empress Jingō, when in 218 A. D. a celebrated Korean scholar, Achiki, visited Japan and was appointed by the emperor tutor to his son, Wakairatsuko. At the suggestion of Achiki, another learned man named Wani was sent for, who is said to have brought with him blacksmiths, weavers, and brewers, as well as ten copies of the "Lun-yu" (the Confucian Analects) and a copy of the "Chien-tze-wen" (the book of one thousand characters). Achiki and Wani were naturalized in Japan and received official positions, and their descendants continued to hold professorships at court. About 110 years after the introduction of Chinese literature, the Emperor Richū appointed historiographers in all the local districts to chronicle the chief events of the locality. This was, so far as we know, the first organized attempt to compile regular records. Subsequently, as the administrative machinery grew more complex, the necessity of writing became more imperative, and to a service of this kind none were more fitted than the descendants of the naturalized Korean scholars, who kept up their intellectual heritage and occupied important posts at the court. Fresh scholars also arrived from Korea in increasing numbers. Thus, in the reign of the Emperor Keitai, there came from Kudara two doctors in the Five Classics, and a little later doctors in medicine and astronomy and other savants settled in the country and opened classes to instruct the Japanese in their special branches of study. The introduction of Buddhism from Korea, which soon occurred, and the circumstances of which will presently be narrated, gave an added impetus to the learning. Some of the gifted men of the court, particularly the wise Prince Shōtoku, began to distinguish themselves as accomplished scholars in Chinese classics and Buddhist canons. As yet, however, the native language and the Chinese grammar, which are so radically different from each other, did not begin their long history of struggle to reconcile themselves to one another. The vernacular could hardly lend itself to expression in Chinese characters, and histories and inscriptions were written only in the pure Chinese style.

      The coming of Buddhism was an incident which accelerated the progress of a profound change in the history and civilization of Japan, already started by her close relations with the continent of Asia. Buddhism was first introduced early in the sixth century by a Chinese scholar, Sumatah, who, however, made little progress in propagating the alien faith among the people of Yamato. Afterward, during the reign of the Emperor Kimmei, in the year 552 A. D., the king of Kudara, in Korea, sent the emperor of Japan an envoy bearing an image of Buddha and a copy of the Sutras, together with a message that the creed of Buddha excelled all religious beliefs, and that boundless happiness in this world, as well as in the next, was insured to its disciples, among whom were already all the nations from India to Korea. The emperor was greatly impressed and summoned his ministers to a deliberation over the proper attitude to be assumed by Japan regarding this new problem of the western civilization. Soga-no-Iname, minister president, counseled the acceptance of the foreign faith, saying that Japan should not alone stand aloof when all nations in the west had embraced Buddha's doctrine. Against this view Mononobe-no-Okoshi and Nakatomi Kamako, ministers of state, argued that from the most ancient times the Japanese had worshiped the celestial and terrestrial gods, and that if reverence were paid now to any alien deity, the wrath of the tutelary gods of the land might be provoked. The emperor approved the latter view, but gave the image of Buddha to Iname with permission to worship it by way of trial. Iname was greatly pleased with the behest, and lost no time in converting his residence into a temple, where he placed the image. Soon afterward a pestilence visited the country, sweeping away numbers of people. The opponents of Buddhism thereupon having represented to the sovereign that this was obviously a punishment inflicted by Heaven, the temple was burned down and the image thrown into the canal in Naniwa. The emperor, however, did not altogether abandon his predilection for the worship of Buddha, and Iname sent secretly to Korea for another image. Thus, in the reign of the Emperor Bidatsu, images of Buddha, copies of the Sutras, priests, and manufacturers of Buddhist paraphernalia came from the kingdoms of Kudara and Bidatsu. Subsequently (584 A. D.), Soga-no-Umako, who had succeeded his father, Iname, as minister president, built temples and pagodas dedicated to Buddha. Another pestilence came to revive the anti-Buddhist movement, under the influence of which an imperial edict was issued prohibiting the worship of Buddha; all the temples and pagodas were demolished or burned, and the images of Buddha were thrown into the canal. The people's sufferings were, however, not relieved. A plague of boils ensued, and inasmuch as the pain caused by the sores resembled that of burning or beating, old and young alike concluded that they were the victims of a punishment of burning inflicted by Buddha. From this it may be inferred that Buddhism had already established a hold upon the popular imagination. Shortly afterward Soga-no-Umako, having applied for permission, was allowed to worship Buddha with his own family.

      When the Emperor Yōmei ascended the throne in 586, he suffered so much from bodily infirmity that he felt tempted to worship Buddha. By this time the influence of Buddhists had grown so strong that they, on the pretext that their opponents were disloyal to the wishes of the throne, took this occasion to destroy the two most powerful anti-Buddhists. Then, by the combined energy of Prince Shōtoku and the minister president, Soga-no-Umako, the propagation of Buddhism made great strides, until the Empress Suiko openly encouraged its acceptance among the people of all classes. In 607, in order to obtain copies of the Sutras, there was sent for the first time in history an imperial envoy directly to China, where the Sui dynasty had just unified the long disrupted empire. This was the commencement of intercourse with China. The preamble of the dispatch sent on that occasion from the empress of Japan to the sovereign of China was couched in the following words: "The Sovereign of the Empire of the Rising Sun to the Sovereign of the Empire of the Setting Sun sends greetings." Doubtless the name "Nippon" (Land of the Rising Sun) had its origin in this incident. By and by, as the number of priests and nuns increased, disorders occurred among them, and for purposes of superintendence the offices of Sōjō (archbishop) and Sōzu (bishop) were established. From the introduction of Buddhism in the reign of the Emperor Kimmei to the time of which we are now speaking, seventy-five СКАЧАТЬ