Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/125

 They grasped the reality of administrative power, leaving its shadow only to the sovereign, who, cut off, on the one hand, from all direct communication with the people, was condemned, on the other, to see his authority abused for purposes of oppression and extortion. The state of the lower orders was pitiable. They were little better than serfs. The products of their toil went almost entirely to defray the extravagant outlays of the patrician clans, and if sometimes they rose in abortive revolt, their more general resource was to fly to mountain districts beyond the reach of the tax-collector. Permanent escape was impossible, however. They were sought out, and forcibly compelled to return to their life of unremunerated labour. Prince Shotoku saw that the remedy for these wretched conditions, which threatened even the stability of the throne, was to crush the power of the patrician class and bring the nation under the direct sway of emperors governing on constitutional principles. He inculcated the spirit of that most enlightened reform, but did not live to see its practical consummation.

Within a quarter of a century after his death, however, the last of the great office-owning clans was annihilated, and for the first time in Japanese history the Emperor became a real ruler. This happened in the middle of the seventh century. History calls it the "Taikwa Reform." A long series of changes were crowned by an edict un