eater and the Lesser. Thus there were twelve
distinctions in this system. It was introduced in the reign of the Empress
Suiko, A.D. 604, and is generally attributed to the Regent Shotoku, who
was a great admirer of the continental civilization. It existed in this
form until the time of the Emperor Kotoku, when, A.D. 649, it was extended
to nineteen distinctions. These were not given to the individual in
recognition of talent, but to families to be by them transmitted to their
posterity as hereditary rank.

For many years during this period of active intercourse with China and
Korea, Dazaifu, situated on the west coast of Kyushu, north of the present
situation of Nagasaki, was the recognized port where strangers were
received. This city was the seat of a vice-royalty, having control over
the nine provinces of Kyushu. The office of vice-governor was considered a
place of honorable banishment to which distinguished men who were
distasteful at court could be sent.

These continental influences continued for many years and indeed have
never ceased. There has always existed a class of scholars who looked upon
Chinese learning as the supreme pinnacle to which the human mind could
attain. This was especially true of the admirers of Confucius and
Confucianism. Although it was not until a much later period that the
culture of a Chinese philosophy attained its highest mark, yet even in the
early arrangement of the studies in the university we see the wide
influence which the writings of the Chinese classics exerted.

We close this chapter with an event which evinced the advance which
Japanese civilization had made, and aided greatly in promoting this
advance in the subsequent centuries. This event was the publication of the
_Kojiki_ (Record of Ancient Things) and the _Nihongi_ (Chronicles of
Japan). A book still older than these is said to have been composed in
A.D. 620, but it perished in a fire in A.D. 645, although a fragment is
said to have been rescued. The circumstances attending the preparation of
the _Kojiki_ are given by Mr. Satow in his paper(92) on the "Revival of
Pure Shinto," and also by Mr. Chamberlain(93) in his introduction to the
translation. The Emperor Temmu had resolved to take measures to preserve
the true traditions from oblivion. He had the records carefully examined
and compiled. Then these collated traditions were one by one committed to
one of the household officers, Hiyeda-no-Are, who had a marvellously