of Kiyomihara did he ascend to the Heavenly seat: in morality he outstripped Ken-Kō, in virtue he surpassed Shiū-Ō. Having grasped the celestial seals, he was paramount over the Six Cardinal Points; having obtained the heavenly supremacy, he annexed the Eight Wildernesses. He held the mean between the Two Essences,[1] and regulated the order of the Five Elements. He established divine reason wherewith to advance good customs; he disseminated brilliant usages wherewith to make the land great. Moreover the ocean of his wisdom, in its vastness, profoundly investigated the highest antiquity; the mirror of his heart, in its fervour, clearly observed former ages.
Hereupon the Heavenly Sovereign commanded, saying: “I hear that the chronicles of the emperors and likewise the original words in the possession of the various families deviate from exact truth, and are mostly amplified by empty falsehoods. If at the present time these imperfections be not amended, ere many years shall have elapsed, the purport of this, the great basis[2] of the country, the grand foundation of the monarchy, will be destroyed. So now I desire to have the chronicles of the emperors selected and recorded, and the old words examined and ascertained, falsehoods being erased and the truth determined, in order to transmit [the latter] to after ages.”[3] At that time there was a retainer whose surname was Hiyeda and his personal name Are. He was twenty-eight years old, and of so intelligent a disposition that he could repeat with his mouth whatever
- ↑ The text literally reads thus: “He rode in the exactness of the Two Essences.” But the author’s intention is to tell us that Tem-mu acted according to the golden mean, keeping the balance even, and not inclining unduly either to the Active or the Passive side.
- ↑ Literally “warp and woof,” i.e., canon, standard, mainspring, first necessity.
- ↑ This is the imperial decree ordering the compilation of the “Records of Ancient Matters.” The expressions “original words” (本辭) and “old words” (舊辭) are curious, and Motowori is probably right in arguing from the emphatic manner in which they are repeated that the Emperor Tem-mu attached special importance to the actual archaic phraseology in which some at least of the early documents or traditions had been handed down.
denote the year and the month mentioned, uses the periphrases 歲次大梁 and 月踵夾鍾, but doubtless without any reference to the original proper meaning of those terms.
