Therefore the place where the horses were kept was named Mumaya-saka.[1] Moreover, A-chik-ki was able to read the classics, and so the Heir Apparent, Uji no Waka-iratsuko,[2] made him his teacher. Hereupon the Emperor inquired of A-chik-ki, saying:—"Are there other learned men superior to thee?" He answered and said:—"There is Wang-in,[3] who is superior." Then Areda wake, ancestor of the Kimi of Kōdzuke, and Kamu nagi wake were sent to Pèkché to summon Wang-in.
(X. 11.) This A-chik-ki was the first ancestor of the A-chik-ki (or Atogi) no Fumi-bito.[4]
A.D. 285. 16th year, Spring, 2nd month. Wang-in[5] arrived, and straightway the Heir Apparent, Uji no Waka-iratsuko, took him
- ↑ Stable-hill.
- ↑ But he was not the heir. Oho-sazaki was heir. See Ch. K., pp. 254 and 257.
- ↑ The traditional reading is Wani, which is also found in the "Kojiki."
- ↑ Scribes.
- ↑ There are clear indications that the Chinese language and character were not wholly unknown in Japan from a time which may be roughly put as coinciding with the Christian epoch. But this knowledge was probably confined to a few interpreters. There were no schools, and no official records. The arrival of Wangin was therefore a most important event in Japanese history. It was the beginning of a training in Chinese ideas which has exercised a profound influence on the whole current of Japanese thought and civilization up to our own day.
The date given for it in the "Nihongi," however, cannot be correct. As I have endeavoured to show in a paper on "Early Japanese History," contributed to the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Wangin's arrival must be placed 120 years later, i.e. in 405 instead of in 285. Whether the whole chronology of this period requires to be altered accordingly, as I am disposed to believe, or only the dates of those events which relate to Corea, is a question which has not yet received an adequate answer. It is curious that the "Kiujiki" omits all mention of them.
Corea preceded Japan by only a very short time in the establishment of schools of Chinese learning and in the institution of official records. Kokuryö established a High School in 372, and Pèkché appointed a Professor of Chinese two years later. Before this time, says the "Tongkam," Pèkché had no written records. See "Writing, Printing, and Alphabet in Corea," "J.R.A.S.," 1895.
Á-chik-ki is the Corean pronunciation of the characters 阿直岐. The traditional rendering in kana is Achiki or Atogi. The "Kojiki" calls him Achi-Kishi, where Kishi is written 吉師, the name of a Corean rank of no great eminence.
