Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/18



Writing.—The art of writing is one of the numerous elements of civilization for which Japan is indebted to China. The date of its first introduction is not definitely known. There are indications that some acquaintance with the Chinese written character was possessed by individuals in Japan during the early centuries of the Christian era, but the first positive information on the subject belongs to A.D. 405, for which an erroneous date corresponding to A.D. 285 is given in the Nihongi. In this year a Corean named Wani or Wangin was appointed tutor in Chinese to a Japanese Imperial Prince. He was the first of a succession of teachers from that country whose instructions paved the way for a revolution in Japanese institutions and manners, not less profound and far-reaching than that produced in our own time by the influence of European ideas.

From its geographical position, Corea was the natural intermediary by which China became known to Japan. In these early times there was no direct sea communication between the two last-named countries. Travellers crossed the Strait from Japan to Corea, and pursued the rest of their journey by the circuitous overland route. But the Corean national genius seems to have left no impress of its own on the civilization which it received from China and handed on to Japan. Medicine, Buddhism, painting, and the mechanic arts were transmitted, as far as we can see, without modification, and there is little trace of any special Corean character in the knowledge of Chinese literature and science which Coreans communicated to Japan. They had themselves taken up this study only thirty years before Wani's departure.