Japan日本

Japan is a separate branch of Wa. Because that country lies on the side where the sun rises, it took Japan for its name. Some say, "Wa itself hated the name as not elegant, and changed it to Japan." Others say, "Japan was of old a small country, and it took in the land of Wa." Many of the men of that country who come to court boast and make themselves great and do not answer according to the fact, and so China doubts them. It is also said, "The bounds of that country are several thousand li each way, east and west and north and south. The western border and the southern border all reach the great sea; the eastern border and the northern border are held in by great mountains, and beyond the mountains is the country of the Moin (毛人)."

In the third year of Chang'an their great minister Ason Mahito (朝臣真人) came and offered the products of his land. Ason Mahito is like the Minister of Revenue in China. He wore a jindeok cap whose crown was made into a flower, parted and spread out four ways. On his body he wore a purple robe, and he made his waistband of silk. Mahito loved to read the classics and the histories (經史), he knew how to compose writing, and his bearing was mild and refined. Zetian feasted him in the Linde Hall, gave him the office of Chamberlain for the Imperial Table, and sent him back to his own country. At the beginning of Kaiyuan they again sent an envoy to court, and he asked that a scholar teach them the classics. By edict Zhao Xuanmo, assistant instructor of the School of the Four Gates, went to the Court of State Ceremonial and taught them. Then they gave Xuanmo a broad width of cloth as the gift due to a teacher (束脩), and on it was written, "Cloth of the tax of the first year of Baekgu (白龜)." People suspected that this inscription too was false. All that they received in gifts they spent on books, and they sailed the sea and went home.

Their deputy envoy Ason Nakamaro (仲滿) longed for the ways of China, and so he stayed and did not leave. He changed his name to Chao Heng (朝衡), and he held office as Rectifier of Omissions of the Left and as Companion to the Prince of Yi. Heng stayed in the capital for fifty years and loved books, and when he was released to go home to his own village he lingered and would not go. In the twelfth year of Tianbao they again sent an envoy with tribute. In the Shangyuan years Heng was raised to be Cavalier Attendant-in-ordinary of the Left and Protector-General of Zhennan.

In the twentieth year of Zhenyuan they sent an envoy to court, and left behind the student Tachibana no Hayanari and the student monk Kukai. In the first year of Yuanhe Takashina no Mahito, administrative assistant to the envoy of Japan, said to the throne, "The students named above have nearly finished their studies and wish to return to their own country. I beg that they be allowed to go back together with your servant." This was granted. In the fourth year of Kaicheng they again sent an envoy with tribute.