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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
262
MARCO POLO BOOK III.
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of which, such as the ill-will between the Generals, are no doubt genuine. But of the story of the capture of the Japanese capital by the shipwrecked army we know not what to make : we can't accept it certainly.
[The Korea Review publishes a History of Korea based upon Korean and Chinese sources, from which we gather some interesting facts regarding the relations of
China, Korea, and Japan at the time of Kúblái : " In 1265, the seed was sown that led to the attempted invasion of Japan by the Mongols. A Koryű citizen, Cho I.,
found his way to Peking, and there, having gained the ear of the emperor, told him
that the Mongol powers ought to secure the vassalage of Japan. The emperor listened favourably and determined to make advances in that direction. He therefore
appointed Heuk Chűk and Eun Hong as envoys to Japan, and ordered them to go by way of Koryii and take with them to Japan a Koryú envoy as well. Arriving in Koryú they delivered this message to the king, and two officials, Son Kun-bi and Kim Ch'an, were appointed to accompany them to Japan. They proceeded by the way of Kője Harbor in Kyűng-sang Province, but were driven back by a fierce storm, and the king sent the Mongol envoys back to Peking. The Emperor was ill satisfied with the outcome of the adventure, and sent Heuk Chűk with a letter to the king, ordering him to forward the Mongol envoy to Japan. The message which he was to deliver to the ruler of Japan said, ` The Mongol power is kindly disposed towards you and desires to open friendly intercourse with you. She does not desire your submission, but if you accept her patronage, the great Mongol empire will cover the earth.' The king forwarded the message with the envoys to Japan, and informed the emperor of the fact. . . . The Mongol and Koryil envoys, upon reaching the Japanese capital, were treated with marked disrespect. . . . They remained five months, . . . and at last they were dismissed without receiving any answer either to the emperor or to the king." (II. pp. 37, 38.)
Such was the beginning of the difficulties with Japan ; this is the end of them : " The following year, 1283, changed the emperor's purpose. He had time to hear the whole story of the sufferings of his army in the last invasion ; the impossibility of squeezing anything more out of Koryú, and the delicate condition of home affairs, united in causing him to give up the project of conquering Japan, and he countermanded the order for the building of boats and the storing of grain." (II. p. 82.)
Japan was then, for more than a century (A.D. 1205-1333), governed really in the name of the descendants of Yoritomo, who proved unworthy of their great ancestor " by the so-called ` Regents ' of the Hōjō family, while their liege lords, the Shōguns, though keeping a nominal court at Kamakura, were for all that period little better than empty names. So completely were the Hōjōs masters of the whole country, that they actually had their deputy governors at Kyōtō and in Kyūshū in the south-west, and thought nothing of banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was made memorable by the repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kúblái Khan with the purpose of adding Japan to his gigantic dominions. This was at the end of the i 3th century, since which time Japan has never been attacked from without." (B. H. Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed., 1898, pp. 208-209.)
The sovereigns (Mikado, Tennō) of Japan during this period were : KameyamaTennö (1260 ; abdicated 1274 ; repulse of the Mongols) ; Go- Uda-Tennō (1275 ; abdicated 1287) ; Fushimi-Tennō (1288 ; abdicated 1298) ; and Go-Fushimi Tennō. The shikken (prime ministers) were Hōjō Tokiyori (1246) ; Hōj6 Tokimune (1261) ; Hōjō Sadatoki (1284). In 1266 Prince Kore yasu, and in 1289 Hisa-akira, were appointed shōg un. —H. C.]
NOTE 2.—Ram. says he was sent to a certain island called Zorza (Chorclia ?), where men who have failed in duty are put to death in this manner : They wrap the arms of the victim in the hide of a newly flayed buffalo, and sew it tight. As this dries it compresses him so terribly that he cannot move, and so, finding no help, his life ends in misery. The same kind of torture is reported of different countries in
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