platters,[1] and must scatter them all on the waves of the great sea, that thou mayest cross over.” So when [she] punctually fulfilled these instructions, equipped an army, marshalled her vessels, and crossed over, the fishes of the sea-plain, both great and small, all bore the august vessel[2] across on their backs, and a strong favourable wind arose, and the august vessel followed the billows.
[Sect. XCVIII.—Emperor Chiū-ai (Part IV.—The Empress Jin-gō Conquers Korea).]
So the wave[3] of the august vessel pushed up onto the land of Shiragi,[4] reaching to the middle of the country. Thereupon the chieftain[5] of the country, alarmed and trembling, petitioned[6] [the Empress], saying: “From this time forward obedient to the Heavenly Sovereign’s commands, I will feed his august horses and will marshal vessels every year, nor ever let the vessels’ keels[7] dry or their poles and oars dry, and will respectfully serve him without drawing back while heaven and earth shall last.”[8] So therefore the Land of Shiragi was constituted the
- ↑ I.e., broad shallow platters made of the leaves of the oak-tree, and used for placing food on.
- ↑ Viz., that in which the Empress herself took passage.
- ↑ I.e., “the wave on which the august vessel was riding.”
- ↑ In Sinico-Japanese Shin-ra (新羅), one of the three states into which Korea was anciently divided, the other two being known in pure Japanese as Kudara and Koma (in Sinico-Japanese Hiyaku-sai and Kō-rai, 百濟 and 高麗). Shiragi is evidently a mere corruption of the Sinico-Japanese form, which closely resembles the native Korean Sin-la. The origin of the pure Japanese forms of the other two names is obscure.
- ↑ The editions previous to Motowori’s have “King” (王 instead of 主); but as the latter character is used in all parallel passages of this work, we must attribute the occurrence of the former in this single place to a copyist’s error, and accuse the author rather than his commentator of the ill-natured degradation of the Korean King into a mere chieftain (more literally a “master”).
- ↑ The character 奏, which is here used, is that employed in speaking of a subject’s addressing his sovereign.
- ↑ Literally “bellies.”
- ↑ Literally, “with heaven and earth.”
