Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/122

JAPAN

improvements and innovations that came to her by that route would be to tell almost the whole story of her progress.

The seventh and eighth centuries are among the most memorable epochs of Japan's history. They witnessed her passage from a comparatively rude condition to a state of civilisation as high as that attained by any country in the world, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of modern Occidental nations, and they witnessed also a political revolution the exact prototype of that which has made her remarkable in modern times.

Prince Shotoku stands at the head of the movement of progress. Not only did he secure the adoption of Buddhism, but he also organised an administrative system embodying the first germs of practical imperialism, drafted a constitution and compiled the earliest historical essays. His constitution is full of interest as affording a clear outline of the ethical ideals of the time and of the polity that this singularly gifted man desired to establish:—

1. Concord and harmony are priceless; obedience to established principles is the fundamental duty of man. But in our country each section of the people has its own views and few possess the light. Disloyalty to Sovereign and parent, disputes among neighbours, are the results. That the upper classes should be at unity among themselves and intimate with the lower, and that all matters in dispute should be submitted to arbitra-

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