(XXV. 57.) Shō-otsu rank, Daihaku, Okizome no Muraji, Oyu, Nakatomi no Hashibito no Muraji, of Lower Shō-otsu rank, Tori, Tabe no Fubito, and others. They embarked separately on two ships. Having delayed for several months, they proceeded by way of Silla, and anchored at Laichou.[1] At last they reached the capital, where they had an audience of the Emperor. Thereupon Kuo Wēn-chü, superintendent of the guards of the Prince Imperial's Palace, inquired particularly of them regarding the geography of the Land of Japan, and the names of the Gods of the beginning of the country. To all which inquiries suitable answers were given.
The Controlling Envoy Takamuku no Kuromaro died in Great Thang.
Yuki no Hakatoko says:—"The student-priest Yemyō died in Thang; Chisō died at sea; Chikoku died at sea; Chisō[2] returned in a Silla ship in the year Kanoye Tora[3]; Gakushō died in Thang; Gitsū died at sea; Jōye returned in the year Kinoto Ushi[4] in the ship of Liu Teh-kao[5]; Myōi, Hōshō and the students Okina, Hi no Muraji and Kō Wō-gon,[6] twelve persons in all, with Kan Chikō and Cho Gempō, of foreign Japanese birth, came back this year along with the envoys."
Summer, 4th month. Two men and two women of the Land of Tukhāra[7] and one woman of S‘râvastî[8] were driven by a storm to Hiuga.
Autumn, 7th month, 24th day. Kishi no Nagani and his colleagues, who had gone as Envoys to the Western Sea,[9]
- ↑ In Shantung.
- ↑ Spelt with a different Chinese character to the other.
- ↑ A.D. 690.
- ↑ A.D. 665.
- ↑ Presumably a Chinese.
- ↑ A Japanese who had taken a Chinese name.
- ↑ The region round Badakshan in India. Vide Eitel, sub voce.
- ↑ An ancient city of India situated near Sirkhee or Fuzabad. Vide Eitel. It is absurd to speak of natives of India being cast ashore in Hiuga. It is plain from a comparison of the passage in Book XXVI. 4, in which these persons are again referred to, that the place here called Tukhāra is really the island of Tokara, one of the Loochoo group. The writer of the "Nihongi," however, shows by the characters with which he writes the name, and by his poetic license of associating S‘râvastî with it, that he was thinking of the Indian locality. The native commentators follow him in this.
- ↑ China.
