ABSTRACT
In the first half of the ninth century the people found the “three Learned Emperors” so deeply impressed with the culture and magnificence of the Court of Hsian that they wasted no inconsiderable portion of their resources in paying it the sincerest form of flattery,—imitation to wit. In 907 the great Pang dynasty fell; and before 960, there had been as many as five dynasties and no fewer than thirteen Sovereigns in the Middle Kingdom, while not a few of the great satrapies became virtually independent States. The cessation of the interchange of diplomatic courtesies between the Sovereigns of Japan and China did not mean that the Japanese people were cut off from all culture-contact with the continent. Ordinary men are governed as much by ceremonial and fashion as by the precepts of religion or the decrees of the government and the laws of the land. The state of things in the Korean Peninsula had meanwhile undergone a great change.
