Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/124

Rh The Japanese have a peculiar char- acter. When they come in contact with a foreign civilization they always go through three stages of evolution: First, they pass through the stage of imita- tion. At this period they imitate every- thing that comes from a foreign source, and I might say that they blindly copy. But after some years of imitation they arrive at the stage of adaptation ; then at last they reach the stage of origina- tion. These three stages are clearly shown by our history, if we only ex- amine into the inner workings of Japa- nese mind.

About 1,500 years ago, when we in- troduced the Chinese civilization into our country, we copied everything after Chinese fashion. At that time we had no national alphabet. There were some sorts of signs to express ideas in writ- ing, and even these signs differed in different parts of the country. The Chinese had a highly developed type of hieroglyphics to express their ideas; therefore at one time the Chinese hiero- glyphics took such a hold on the mind of the Japanese that we adopted them as our national language. The imperial edicts were written in Chinese hieroglyphics and government records were kept in that language; even Chinese scholars were employed in the govern- ment service as clerks and secretaries, and the Japanese language was almost on the verge of destruction and ruin. This same phenomenon was found even in England when she introduced the Norman- French civilization. The Norman-French language was taught in schools and was spoken at the palace, as well as in. the upper circles. The legal briefs in the courts were prepared in the Norman-French, and the judg- ments of the court were given in that language. Take, as an example, meat. When an animal is found in the field it is called an ox; but when it is prepared and served on a nobleman's table it is called beef, which comes from M beuf " of the Norman-French. So, again, when prepared on the table it is called mutton — ' ' mouton, ' ' from the Norman- French; but when found in the field it is called a sheep. In Japan we went on exactly in the same way as the En- glish people. Among the upper classes, as well as at the court, we used entirely the Chinese hieroglyphics. Every doc- ument of the government was kept in Chinese hieroglyphics, and the Japanese language was only spoken among peas- ants and in a remote part of the coun- try, where the Chinese civilization did not reach.

Therefore this period might be called the era of imitation. Did our country remain long at that stage? Fortunately there came a scholar — the most famous scholar we ever had — by the name of Mabie, who returned from China in 735 A. D. He was in China many years for his education at Chinese schools. When he came back he saw what was most needed in his native country, and he invented out of the Chinese hieroglyphics the forty-seven characters of our alphabet, founded upon the principle of phonetic language. As you know, the Japanese language is phonetic, whereas the Chinese is hieroglyphic. This alphabet is called Shin Kana, which means a genuine alphabet, in order to distinguish from another and later invention of alphabet called Kata Kana. This period might be considered as the dawn of our era of adaptation, for we did not remain long in the stage of imitation, but soon began to realize the future of our civilization, and became conscious of the necessity of our national linguistic independence. Therefore the invention of the alphabet of 47 letters is always considered to have given birth to the Japanese literature, and is reckoned as the beginning of Japanese civilization.