The Wa倭

The state of Wa (倭國) lies southeast of Baekje and Silla, three thousand li by water and land, and they live in the middle of the great sea on mountainous islands. In the time of Wei more than thirty of their states had speech with China through interpreters, and all of them styled themselves zi (子). The Yi people do not know distances in li, and reckon only by days. The bounds of their country are five months' travel from east to west and three months from south to north, and each way reaches the sea. The lay of the land is high in the east and low in the west. They dwell at Yamato (邪摩堆), which is the Yamatai (邪馬臺) spoken of in the Wei zhi. It is also said that they are twelve thousand li from the border of Nangnang commandery and from Daebang commandery, that they lie east of Kuaiji, and that they are near Dan'er. Their custom is to tattoo the body, and they say of themselves that they are the descendants of Taibo. Reckoning from Daebang to the state of Wa, one goes by water along the coast and passes the state of Joseon, now south, now east, more than seven thousand li, and only then crosses one sea. More than a thousand li farther south one crosses a sea more than a thousand li wide, named the Hanhai (瀚海), and comes to the state of Iki. Crossing another sea of more than a thousand li, one comes to the state named Matsuro. Five hundred li more overland to the southeast is the state of Ito. A hundred li more to the southeast is the state of Na. A hundred li more to the east is the state of Fumi. Twenty days more south by water is the state of Toma. Ten days more south by water and a month overland is the state of Yamatai, which is where the king of Wa has his capital.

In the time of Emperor Guangwu of Han they sent envoys to court and called themselves grandees. In the time of Emperor An they sent tribute again, and were called the state of Wano. In the Guanghe years of Emperor Ling their country fell into disorder, and they attacked one another turn by turn and went years with no ruler. There was a woman named Himiko (卑彌呼) who could beguile the multitude with the way of spirits, and the people of the country set her up together as their ruler. She had no husband. There were two men who brought the ruler her drink and food and carried her words in and out. That ruler had a palace, towers, and a stockade, and all were held by armed guards, and the law was very strict. In the third year of Jingchu under Wei, after Gongsun Wenyi had been put to death, Himiko first sent envoys with tribute, and the lord of Wei granted her a gold seal with a purple cord. In the Zhengshi years Himiko died, and a male ruler was set up in her place. The country would not submit and they killed one another, so they set up Toyo, a kinswoman of Himiko, as ruler. Afterward a male ruler was set up again, and all of them received rank and commission from China. In the lands south of the river, through Jin, Song, Qi, and Liang, the exchange of envoys did not cease.

When Chen (陳) had been pacified, in the twentieth year of Kaihuang, the king of Wa — his surname Amae, his courtesy name Darisabigo, his title Abaegyemi — sent envoys to the palace gate. The emperor had the office concerned ask after their customs, and the envoy said that the king of Wa takes heaven for his elder brother and the sun for his younger brother, that he comes out before daylight to hear affairs of state and sits cross-legged, and that when the sun rises he stops the work of governing and says he leaves it to his younger brother. Emperor Wen said, "This is altogether without reason," and instructed them to change it. The king's wife is called gyemi, and there are six or seven hundred women in the inner palace. The heir is named Rigamidabulli. They have no walled towns. Within the court there are twelve grades: the first is Greater Virtue, then Lesser Virtue, then Greater Benevolence, then Lesser Benevolence, then Greater Right, then Lesser Right, then Greater Rite, then Lesser Rite, then Greater Wisdom, then Lesser Wisdom, then Greater Faith, then Lesser Faith, and there is no fixed number to them. There are a hundred and twenty gunni (軍尼), like the shepherds and stewards of China. For every eighty households one iniik (伊尼翼) is set, like a village head today, and ten iniik belong to one gunni. As for their dress, the men wear a skirt and a jacket, and the sleeves are somewhat small. Their shoes are like straw sandals in shape, lacquered above and tied to the foot, but the common people mostly go barefoot. They are not allowed to use gold or silver for ornament. In the old days they wore a breadth of cloth crosswise, knotted and joined without sewing, and they had no cap on the head but only let their hair hang down over both ears. Under the Sui their king first made a cap, of brocade and colored silk, adorned with flowers worked in gold and silver. The women bind their hair behind and likewise wear a skirt and a jacket, and the skirts all have a border. They split bamboo and gather it to make combs. They plait grass for mats, cover them with fur of all kinds, and edge them with patterned hide. They have bows, arrows, swords, spears, crossbows, lances, and axes. They lacquer hide for armor and use bone for arrowheads.

They have troops, but they do not go to war. At the king's audience they always set out the guard of honor and play the music of their own country. The households may be a hundred thousand. In their custom, killing a man, robbery with violence, and adultery are all punished with death. A thief is made to make good the value of what he took, and one with no property is seized in his own person and made a slave. For the rest they are banished or beaten according to the weight of the offense. Whenever they examine a hard case, one who will not confess has his knees pressed with wood, or they draw a stiff bow and saw at his neck with the string. Sometimes they put a small stone in boiling water and make the parties reach for it, saying that the one in the wrong will have his hand scalded; or they put a snake in a jar and make him take it out, saying that the one in the wrong will be bitten on the hand. The people are quiet and settled enough, they seldom go to law, and there are few thieves. In their music they have the five-stringed lute, the zither, and the flute. Men and women all tattoo their arms, dot their faces, and mark their bodies. They dive under the water to catch fish. They had no writing, only notches cut in wood and knots tied in cord, but they revered the law of the Buddha, and when they sought and obtained the Buddhist scriptures from Baekje they first had writing. They know divination by turtle and by stalk, and they trust shamans above all. On the first day of the first month they always have shooting games and drinking, and their other festivals are much the same as in China. They are fond of go, of backgammon, and of dice. The climate is warm, and grass and trees stay green through the winter. The soil is rich and fat, and there is much water and little dry land. They hang a small ring on the neck of a cormorant and send it into the water to take fish, and in a day they get more than a hundred. Their custom has no trays or boards, and they spread oak leaves and eat by picking the food up with their hands. Their nature is straight, and they have a gentle bearing. There are many women and few men. In marrying they do not take one of the same surname, and if a man and a woman please each other they marry. When a bride enters her husband's house she must first step over a fire, and only then does she meet her husband. The women are not loose or jealous. The dead are laid in an inner and an outer coffin, and kin and guests come to the body and sing and dance, while the wife and children and the brothers make mourning clothes of white cloth.

Men of rank are kept in the mourning hall for three years, and the common people choose a day and bury them. When they bury, they set the body on a boat and draw it along the ground, or use a small bier. There is Mount Aso (阿蘇山), whose rock sends up fire to the sky for no reason, and the people hold this a wonder and sacrifice and pray there. There is a wish-granting jewel, blue in color and the size of a hen's egg, that gives light at night, and they say it is the essence of a fish's eye. Silla and Baekje both hold Wa to be a great country with many rare things, and both look up to it, and envoys go back and forth without ceasing.

In the third year of Daye their king Darisabigo sent envoys with tribute. The envoy said, "We have heard that the Bodhisattva Son of Heaven west of the sea has raised up the law of the Buddha again, and so we were sent to pay our respects, and with us some tens of monks have come to study the law of the Buddha." The letter of state said, "The Son of Heaven of the place where the sun rises sends a letter to the Son of Heaven of the place where the sun sets. Are you well?" and so on. The emperor read it and was not pleased, and said to the chamberlain for dependencies, "When there is anything unmannerly in a letter from the barbarians, do not bring it before me again." The next year the emperor sent Pei Shiqing, gentleman of the literary court, as envoy to the state of Wa. He crossed by way of Baekje and came to the island of Jukdo, looked south toward the state of Tamna, and passed the state of Tsushima, far out in the great sea. Going east he came to the state of Iki, and then to the state of Tsukushi. Going east again he came to the state of the Qin king, whose people are the same as those of China, and it is called Yizhou (夷洲), but this is doubtful and cannot be made clear. He passed more than ten states more and reached the seashore. East of the state of Tsukushi all are subject to Wa. The king of Wa sent Habaedae of the Lesser Virtue rank with a following of several hundred to set out the guard of honor and come to meet him with drums and horns sounding. Ten days later he sent Gadabi of the Greater Rite rank with a following of more than two hundred horse to greet him outside the city. When he reached their capital, the king met with Shiqing. They came and presented the products of their land. After this it was broken off.