Japan日本

The country of Japan lies east of the Eastern Sea. In old times it was called the country of Wonu. Some say that it disliked its old name and changed its name to Japan, because the country is near the place where the sun comes out. How far its land reaches, the line of its kings, its products and its customs are seen in its own account in the Song shi. As a country Japan is very far from the Central Land, and the great sea lies between. From the Later Han on, through the Wei, the Jin, the Song and the Sui, it always came and brought tribute. In the Yonghui, Xianqing, Chang'an, Kaiyuan, Tianbao, Shangyuan, Zhenyuan, Yuanhe and Kaicheng years of the Tang it sent envoys to court. In the first year of Yongxi of the Song the Japanese monk Chonen (奝然), with five or six of his company, floated over the sea and arrived, offered the tribute of his office, and presented more than ten bronze vessels. Chonen wrote clerical script well, but he did not speak the language of China. When he was asked about the land and its ways he answered only in writing, and he said that in his country there were the books of the Five Classics, the Buddhist scriptures, and the collected works of Bai Juyi in seventy volumes. After Chonen went back, the man of that country who came was Deungmokgil, and the monk who came was Jakusho. Jakusho knew letters, and his copying was very fine. From Xining on, they brought local products one after another, and those who came were all monks.

In the second year of Zhiyuan under Shizu of the Yuan, Jo I and others, men of Goryeo, said that the country of Japan could be reached, and so men fit to be sent as envoys were chosen. In the eighth month of the third year Heidi, Vice Minister of War, was given a tiger tally and made State Envoy, and Yin Hong, Vice Minister of Rites, was given a gold tally and made Deputy State Envoy, and they were sent to Japan bearing a letter of state. The letter said: "The emperor of the Great Mongol State respectfully sends a letter to the king of the country of Japan. I consider that from of old, when the lords of small countries had lands that touched one another, they still took pains to speak of good faith and to cultivate concord. How much more my ancestors, who received the bright command of Heaven and held all of China. Those in far regions and strange lands who have feared their majesty and cherished their virtue cannot all be counted. At the beginning of my reign, because the innocent people of Goryeo had long been worn down by blade and arrow, I at once withdrew the troops, gave back their territory, and sent home their old men and their children. The lord and the officers of Goryeo were moved to gratitude and came to court. In duty we are lord and subject, but in gladness we are like father and son. I reckon that the king and his officers already know this. Goryeo is my eastern fence. Japan lies close upon Goryeo, and from the founding of the country it has from time to time had dealings with China, yet down to my own day there has not been one envoy's carriage to open friendship. Fearing that the king's country may not yet know this clearly, I have sent envoys of set purpose, bearing a letter to make my mind known, and I hope that from now on we may exchange greetings, tie friendship and be close to one another. Moreover the sage makes the four seas one house, and if we do not open friendship with one another, how is that the way of one house? As for coming to the use of arms, who is there that would take pleasure in it? Let the king consider it."

Heidi and the others went by way of Goryeo. Wang Sik, king of Goryeo, acting on the emperor's command, sent Song Gunbi, Vice Commissioner of the Bureau of Military Affairs, and Kim Chan, Acting Vice Minister of Rites, and others to guide Heidi and the other envoys of the edict to Japan, but they did not reach it and came back. In the sixth month of the fourth year the emperor held that Sik had put him off with words and had let the envoys go and return for nothing, and he sent Heidi and the others to Goryeo again to instruct Sik, entrusting him with the business of Japan and setting as his term that the point of it must be got. Sik held that the sea road was perilous and beset and that the imperial envoy (天使) must not be put in danger, and in the ninth month he had Ban Bu, Secretary of the Diarists, and others bear a letter and go to Japan. They stayed six months and came back without getting the point of it either. In the ninth month of the fifth year Heidi and Hong were ordered to bear a letter and go again. They reached Tsushima, but the people of Japan blocked them and would not receive them, and they seized two men, Tojiro and Yajiro, and came back. In the sixth month of the sixth year Kim Yuseong of Goryeo was ordered to send the seized men home, and the Secretariat sent a dispatch to that country, but again there was no answer. Yuseong stayed a long while at the guardian's office of Dazaifu. In the twelfth month Zhao Liangbi, Director of the Palace Library, was ordered to go as envoy. The letter said: "I have heard that for one who is truly king (王者) there is nothing outside. Goryeo and I are already one house, and the king's country is truly a neighboring land, and so I once sent a trusted envoy in haste to cultivate friendship, but he was held back by the officers of the border and did not get through. As for the two men who were seized, I ordered the officials to comfort them and let them go home bearing a dispatch, and after that there was silence again and nothing was heard. I wished to go on exchanging greetings, but just then Im Yeon, a powerful officer of Goryeo, stirred up disorder, and because of this it came to nothing. Did the king also stop sending envoys because of this, or did he send them and the road was blocked midway? Neither can be known.

If it is not so, Japan has always been called a country that knows ritual. Would the king and his officers lightly do a thing so thoughtless? Of late Im Yeon has been destroyed, the old king restored to his place and his people settled, and so I have made Zhao Liangbi, Grand Master of Palace Counsel and Director of the Palace Library, State Envoy of set purpose, to bear a letter and go. If you send out envoys at once to come together with him, that is to be close to the good and on good terms with a neighbor, a fair thing for a country. If you hang back and it comes to the use of arms, who is there that would do it gladly? Let the king look and consider." When Liangbi was about to go, he begged that the ceremony for meeting that king face to face be fixed. The court deliberated and said that the division of high and low between that country and this was not yet fixed, so there was no ceremonial precedence (禮數) to speak of, and the emperor agreed. In the twelfth month of the seventh year an edict told Sik, king of Goryeo, to escort the State Envoy Zhao Liangbi to open friendship with Japan, setting as his term that he must arrive, and it ordered Hulinshi, Wang Guochang and Hong Dagu to lead troops and escort him as far as the sea, and to be stationed for the time being at Geumju and other places until the State Envoy came back. In the sixth month of the eighth year Cao Jiesheng and the other interpreters for Japan reported: "Goryeo guides the envoys of state by a roundabout road, but there is another short way, and with a fair wind one may arrive in half a day. If it is envoys who go, we dare not go with them. If a great army advances to attack, we ask to be its guides." The emperor said, "If it is so, I shall think on it." In the ninth month Sik, king of Goryeo, sent the interpreter and lieutenant Seo Ching to guide Liangbi's mission to Japan, and Japan for the first time sent a man called Yashiro (彌四郎) to come to court, and the emperor feasted him, comforted him and sent him off. In the second month of the ninth year an officer of the Bureau of Military Affairs said: "Zhao Liangbi, who was sent on mission to Japan, has sent the Recording Officer Zhang Duo to say that in the ninth month of last year he reached the western guardian's office of Dazaifu with Yashiro and other men of the country of Japan.

The keeper there said, 'In days past we were deceived by Goryeo and heard many times that the upper country was coming to attack. How could we have known that the emperor loves life and hates killing, and would first send a traveler to show us the sealed letter? But the royal capital is still far from here, and we ask that a man be sent ahead to follow the mission and bring back word.'" Liangbi then sent Duo with twenty-six of their envoys to the capital to ask for an audience. The emperor suspected that the lord of that country had sent them and that the talk of the guardian's office was a pretense, and by edict he had Helihuosun, Hanlin Recipient of Edicts, put the question to Yao Shu, Xu Heng and the others, and all answered: "It is truly as your majesty reckons. They fear that we will add troops against them, and so they send this crowd to spy out whether we are strong or weak. Show them breadth and kindness, but do not grant them an audience." This was followed. In that month Sik, king of Goryeo, sent a letter to Japan, and in the fifth month he sent a letter again, telling them that they must open friendship with the Great Court (大朝), but to neither was there an answer.

In the sixth month of the tenth year Zhao Liangbi went as envoy to Japan again, reached Dazaifu and came back. In the third month of the eleventh year Xindu, commander of the frontier command for Bongju, and Hong Dagu, Commissioner General of the army and people of Goryeo, were ordered to take three hundred each of thousand-load ships, swift Baduru ships and small water boats, nine hundred ships in all, to load fifteen thousand soldiers, and to attack Japan with the seventh month as their term. In winter, in the tenth month, they entered that country and beat it. But the government army was not in order, and their arrows were spent as well, and they only plundered the four borders and came back.

In the second month of the twelfth year Du Shizhong, Vice Minister of Rites, He Wenzhu, Vice Minister of War, and Sadulading, Officer of Deliberation, were sent to bear a letter again, but again there was no answer. In the fourteenth year Japan sent merchants who came with gold and asked to change it for copper coins, and this was allowed. In the second month of the seventeenth year Japan killed Du Shizhong and the other envoys of state. Xindu and Hong Dagu, Marshals of the Eastern Expedition, asked to lead troops themselves and go to punish them, but the court deliberated and said it should be put off a little for the time being. In the fifth month Fan Wenhu was called and the expedition against Japan was discussed, and in the eighth month an edict called up soldiers to attack Japan.

In the first month of the eighteenth year Alahan, Right Chancellor of the Branch Secretariat for Japan, Fan Wenhu, Right Assistant, and Xindu, Hong Dagu and the others were ordered to lead a hundred thousand men and attack Japan. In the second month the generals took leave at the steps, and the emperor commanded them: "At first, because envoys of that country came, the court sent envoys there too, and then they held our envoys and did not send them back. So I make you take this road. I have heard the Han people (漢人) say that to take another man's house and country is to want his people and his land; if you kill all the people, what use is it to get the land alone? There is one thing more that I am truly anxious about, and it is that you may not be of one mind. Suppose that men of that country come and have something to discuss with you. Then you are to plan together with one heart and answer as if from one mouth." In the fifth month Pei Guozuo, Consultant of the Branch Secretariat for Japan, and others said: "When our Right Chancellor Alahan, Right Assistant Fan and Left Assistant Li first came to court with Xindu and Dagu, it was settled in council with the officers of the court that they would lead the naval force to Geumju in Goryeo and join the army of Xindu and Dagu, and then enter and attack Japan. Then, because the winds and waters were not convenient, it was settled again that they would meet at Iki (一岐島). In the third month of this year a Japanese ship was driven here by wind and wave, and its boatmen were made to draw a map, and by it we see that near the west of Dazaifu there is the island of Hirado (平戶島), which has water all around it and where warships may be stationed. This island is not a place they guard. It would be to our advantage to go straight there and hold this island, and to send a man by ship to Iki to call Xindu and Dagu to meet and advance to the attack." The emperor said, "Here we do not know all the matters of that side. Alahan and the rest must know them. Let them settle it themselves."

In the sixth month Alahan could not go because of illness, and Atahai was ordered to take charge of military affairs (軍事) in his place. In the eighth month the generals came back having lost their whole army without so much as seeing the enemy, and they said: "We reached Japan and were about to attack Dazaifu, but a violent wind broke our ships. Even so we meant to discuss battle, but Li Debiao the myriarch, Wang Guozuo the commissioner for subduing, Lu Wenzheng the commander of the sailors and others would not obey orders and suddenly fled away. This Branch Secretariat loaded the rest of the troops, reached Happo, and scattered them home to their villages." Not long after, Yu Chang, a beaten soldier, got away and came back and said: "The government army went to sea in the sixth month, reached Hirado in the seventh month, and moved to Mount Goryu. On the first day of the eighth month the wind broke the ships. On the fifth day Wenhu and the other generals each chose a firm, good ship and boarded it, and left more than a hundred thousand soldiers below the mountain. The crowd deliberated and raised a man called Zhang the centurion to be commander in chief (主帥), calling him Commander General Zhang, and they obeyed his orders. They were cutting wood to make ships and were about to come back when, on the seventh day, the men of Japan came and fought, and all died. The twenty or thirty thousand who were left were carried off as captives. On the ninth day they came to Hakkakushima, and they killed all the Mongols, the Goryeo men and the Han men, and the newly attached troops (新附軍) they called Tang men (唐人) and did not kill, but made slaves of them. Chang and his fellows are these." It was because the officers of the Branch Secretariat would not give way to one another in council that they all abandoned the army and went home. Long after, Mo Qing and a man called Wu Wanwu also fled back, and of the host of a hundred thousand the ones who came back were three men only.

In the twentieth year Atahai was made Chancellor of the Branch Secretariat for Japan, and with Chelitiemu'er the Right Assistant and Liu Erbadur the Left Assistant he called up troops and built ships, meaning to attack Japan again. Angji'er, commissioner for pacification and comfort of Huaixi, reported that the people were worn out and begged that the arms be laid down, and it was stopped. In the twenty-first year, because the customs of that country honored the Buddha, Wang Jiweng was sent as envoy together with Ruzhi, a monk of Mount Putuo. There were men in the ship who did not wish to go, and they plotted together to kill Jiweng, and in the end he did not arrive. In the twenty-third year the emperor said, "Japan has never invaded us. Now Jiaozhi is offending against the border. Japan should be set aside and the business of Jiaozhi attended to alone." In the second year of Dade under Chengzong, Yesuda'er, Manager of Governmental Affairs of the Jiangzhe Branch Secretariat, begged to use arms against Japan. The emperor said, "Now is not the time. I shall think on it slowly." In the third year the monk Ning Yishan (一山一寧) was given in addition the title of Great Master Miaoci Hongji and was sent as envoy to Japan with a merchant ship, but the people of Japan in the end did not come.