retentive memory. Before the work of compilation was finished the emperor
died; but the Empress Gemmyo, who after an interval succeeded him, carried
it on to its completion in A.D. 712. By her direction the traditions were
taken down from Are's dictation in the form in which we now have them. It
is by no means a pleasing or attractive work, even in the opinion of the
Japanese. It is bald and archaic in its form and composition. It is,
however, notable as being freer from the admixture of Chinese learning,
and therefore a better index of the native culture of the race than the
works which followed it.(94) Much of it consists of mere genealogies of
the emperors and naked statements of leading events, but there are besides
this many legends and poems which bear evidence of having been handed down
in essentially their present form. As an authority for the chronology of
the early events it is, of course, of small value. It is evident that
where a narrative of events has been carried through many centuries by
tradition alone, without written records to check or assist it, no
dependence can be placed on the chronology of the events, further than,
perhaps, on the order of sequence.

Only eight years after the publication of the _Kojiki_, a second work
termed _Nihongi_ or Chronicles of Japan was issued. It was prepared by
imperial command and appeared in A.D. 720 in the reign of the Empress
Gensho. It differs from the older book in being composed in the Chinese
idiom, and in being much more tinctured with the ideas of Chinese
philosophy. These two works, so nearly contemporaneous, both of them
composed in so great a degree of the legendary elements of Japanese
history, must be looked upon as marking a distinct epoch in the story of
Japan.

CHAPTER VI. THE MIDDLE AGES OF JAPAN.

The theory of the Japanese government during the greater part of its long
career has been that of an absolute monarchy. The emperor was supposed to
hold in his hands the supreme authority, and to dispose, as he saw fit, of
honors and emoluments, offices and administrative duties. There was no
fundamental law of succession, by which the order of accession to the
throne was regulated. The reigning emperor usually selected during his
lifetime some one of his sons, or, if he had no sons, some other prince of
the imperial family, who became the crown prince during the life of the
emperor, and on his death succeeded to the throne.(95) The selection