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For tens of days they can run
without showing fatigue. In camping, they divide into many companies,
and thus they can make a siege effective. Against our positions they
begin by sending a few men who by swift and deceptive movements cause
our troops to exhaust all their projectiles fruitlessly, and then the
assault is delivered. They are clever in using ambushes, and often
when they seem to be worsted, their hidden forces spring up in our
rear and throw our army into a panic."

There is no reason to doubt the truth of these records, naive as are
some of the descriptions. Unquestionably the Wokou were a terrible
scourge to the Chinese on the eastern littoral.

INTERCOURSE WITH RYUKYU

Japanese annals say that the royal family of Ryukyu was descended
from the hero Minamoto Tametomo who was banished to the island in
1156, and certainly the inhabitants of the archipelago are a race
closely allied to the Japanese. But in 1373, the then ruler, Chuzan,
sent an envoy to the Ming Court and became a tributary of the latter.
In 1416, however, an ambassador from the islands presented himself at
the Muromachi shogunate, and twenty-five years later (1441), the
shogun Yoshinori, just before his death, bestowed Ryukyu on Shimazu
Tadakuni, lord of Satsuma, in recognition of meritorious services.
Subsequently (1471) the shogun Yoshimasa, in compliance with a
request from the Shimazu family, forbade the sailing of any vessel to
Ryukyu without a Shimazu permit, and when, a few years later, Miyake
Kunihide attempted to invade Ryukyu, the Shimazu received Muromachi's
(Yoshitane's) commission to punish him. Historically, therefore,
Ryukyu formed part of Japan, but its rulers maintained a tributary
attitude towards China until recent times, as will presently be seen.

LITERATURE DURING THE MUROMACHI PERIOD

Throughout the Muromachi period of two and a half centuries a group
of military men held the administration and reaped all rewards and
emoluments of office so that literary pursuits ranked in
comparatively small esteem. Some education was necessary, indeed, for
men of position, but eminent scholars were exceptional. Noteworthy
among the latter were Nijo Yoshimoto, Ichijo Fuyuyoshi, Doin Kinsada,
Sanjonishi Sanetaka, and Kiyowara Naritada. Most renowned was Ichijo
Kaneyoshi. Equally versed in the classics of China and Japan, as well
as in Buddhism and Confucianism, he composed several works of high
merit. A feature of the period was the erudition of the priests.
Gen-e, a bonze of the temple Hiei-zan, adopted the commentaries of
the Sung savants, Chengtzu and Chutsu, rejecting those of the earlier
Han and Tang writers. In other words, he adopted the eclectic system
of Buddhism and Confucianism as compounded by the scholars of the
Sung and the Yuan epochs, in preference to the system of earlier
pundits. The Emperor Go-Daigo invited Gen-e to Court and directed him
to expound the Sutras. Thereafter, the Sung philosophy obtained wide
allegiance, being preached by the priests of the Five Great Temples
in Kyoto, and by all their provincial branches. On the other hand,
the hereditary schools of Oye and Sugawara, adhering to their old
dogmas, fell behind the times and declined in influence.

The feature of the age in point of learning was that scholarship
became a priestly specialty. From the Five Temples (Go-zari) students
constantly flocked to China, where they received instructions in the
exoterics and esoterics of Buddhism, as modified by the creed of
Confucius, laying the foundations of systems upon which philosophers
of later ages, as Kazan and Seiga, built fair edifices. These priests
of the Five Temples were more than religious propagandists: they were
ministers of State, as Tenkai and Soden were in after times under the
Tokugawa, and they practically commanded the shoguns. One reason
operating to produce this result was that, in an age when lineage or
military prowess was the sole secular step to fortune, men of civil
talent but humble birth had to choose between remaining in hopeless
insignificance or entering the priesthood where knowledge and virtue
were sure passports to distinction. It was thus that in nearly every
monastery there were found men of superior intellect and erudition.
The fact was recognized. When Ashikaga Takauji desired to take
counsel of Muso Kokushi, he repaired to that renowned priest's temple
and treated him as a respected parent; and Yoshimitsu, the third of
the Ashikaga shoguns, showed equal respect towards Gido, Zekkai and
Jorin, whose advice he constantly sought.

It was strange, indeed, that in an age when the sword was the
paramount tribunal, the highest dignitaries in the land revered the
exponents of ethics and literature. Takauji and his younger brother,
Tadayoshi, sat at the feet of Gen-e as their preceptor. Yoshimitsu
appointed Sugawara Hidenaga to be Court lecturer. Ujimitsu, the
Kamakura kwanryo, took Sugawara Toyonaga for preacher. Yoshimasa's
love of poetry impelled him to publish the Kinshudan.* Above all,
Yoshihisa was an earnest scholar. He had a thorough knowledge of
Chinese and Japanese classics; he was himself a poetaster of no mean
ability; he read canonical books even as he sat in his palanquin;
under his patronage Ichijo Kaneyoshi wrote the Shodan-chiyo and** the
Bummei Ittoki; Fujiwara Noritane compiled the Teio-keizu; Otsuki
Masabumi lectured on the analects and Urabe Kanetomo expounded the
standard literature of the East.

*The Embroidered Brocade Discourse.

**Rustic Ideals of Government.

Yet, side by side with these patrons of learning stood a general
public too ignorant to write its own name. Military men, who formed
the bulk of the nation, were engrossed with the art of war and the
science of intrigue to the exclusion of all erudition. The priests
were always available to supply any need, and the priests utilized
the occasion. Nevertheless, it stands to the credit of these bonzes
that they made no attempt to monopolize erudition. Their aim was to
popularize it. They opened temple-seminaries (tera-koya) and exercise
halls (dojo) where youths of all classes could obtain instruction and
where an excellent series of text-books was used, the Iroha-uta* the
Doji-kyo, the Teikin-orai** and the Goseibai-shikimoku.*** The
Doji-kyo has been translated by Professor Chamberlain (in Vol. VIII
of the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan"). A few
extracts will serve to show the nature of the ethical teaching given
to Japanese children in medieval days:

*A syllabary of moral precepts like the ethical copy-books of
Occidentals.

**A model letter-writer.

***The criminal laws of Hojo Yasutoki. All these text-books remained
in use until the Meiji era.

Let nothing lead thee into breaking faith with thy friend, and depart
not from thy word. It is the tongue that is the root of misfortunes;
if the mouth were made like unto the nose, a man would have no
trouble till his life's end. In the house where virtue is accumulated
there will surely be superabundant joy. No man is worthy of honour
from his birth; 'tis the garnering-up of virtue that bringeth him
wisdom and virtue; the rich man may not be worthy of honour. In thin
raiment on a winter's night, brave the cold and be reading the whole
night through; with scanty fare on a summer's day, repel hunger and
be learning the whole day long. . . . A father's loving kindness is
higher than the mountains; a mother's bounty is deeper than the sea.
. . . He that receiveth benefits and is not grateful is like unto the
birds that despoil the branches of the trees they perch on. . . .
Above all things, men must practise charity; it is by almsgiving that
wisdom is fed; less than all things, men must grudge money; it is by
riches that wisdom is hindered. . . . The merit of an alms given with
a compassionate heart to one poor man is like unto the ocean; the
recompense of alms given to a multitude for their own sake is like
unto a grain of poppy-seed.

This text-book, the Doji-kyo, was compiled by a priest, Annen, who
lived in the second half of the ninth century. Its origin belongs,
therefore, to a much more remote era than that of the Muromachi
shoguns, but, in common with the other text-books enumerated above,
its extensive use is first mentioned in the Ashikaga epoch. The Five
Temples of Kyoto--to be spoken of presently--were seats of learning;
and many names of the littérateurs that flourished there have been
handed down. Not the least celebrated were Gido and Zekkai, who paid
several visits to China, the fountain-head of ideographic lore. But
these conditions were not permanent. The Onin War created a serious
interruption. Kyoto was laid in ruins, and rare books lay on the
roadside, no one caring to pick them up.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES

Throughout the Ashikaga period the Kyoto university existed in name
only, and students of Japanese literature in the provinces
disappeared. A few courtiers, as Nakahara, Dye, Sugawara, Miyoshi,
etc., still kept up the form of lecturing but they did not receive
students at large. Nevertheless, a few military magnates, retaining
some appreciation of the value of erudition, established schools and
libraries. Among these, the Kanazawa-bunko and the Ashikaga-gakko
were the most famous. The former had its origin in the closing years
of the Kamakura Bakufu. It was founded during the reign of Kameyama
(1260-1274) by Sanetoki, grandson of Hojo Yoshitoki. A large
collection of Chinese and Japanese works filled its shelves, and all
desirous of studying had free access. Akitoki, son of Sanetoki,
adopted Kanazawa as his family name and added largely to the library.
He caused the ideographs Kanazawa-bunko to be stamped in black on all
Confucian works, and in red on Buddhist.

It is recorded in the Hojo Kudaiki that men of all classes, laymen
and priests alike, were shut up daily in this library where they
studied gratis, and that Akitoki's son, Sadaaki, was as ardent a
student as his father, so that men spoke of him as well fitted to be
regent (shikken), thus showing that literary skill was counted a
qualification for high office.