12th month. There was a great assembly of the officials, at which the Prince Imperial Ohoke took the Imperial Seal, and placing it on the seat occupied by the Emperor, did him repeated obeisance. He then took his place among the Ministers, and said:—"This rank of Emperor should be occupied by a man possessed of merit. The disclosure of our rank, and our being sent for by the late Emperor, is all a result of the policy of my younger brother. I resign the Empire in his favour." The Emperor, on the other hand, resigned it on the grounds that as a younger brother he might not presume to assume the Dignity, and also because he was aware that the Emperor Shiraga had appointed his elder brother Prince Imperial with the previous purpose of transmitting it to him. (XV. 14.) For these two reasons he firmly declined, saying:—"When the sun and moon appear, is it not impossible that a candle should not give way before their radiance? When a seasonable rain falls, is it not superfluous trouble to go on watering from a pond?[1] The conduct which should be esteemed by him who is in the position of a younger brother is to serve his elder brother by devising methods of averting from him disaster, to illustrate virtue, and to unravel complications without putting himself forward. For if he puts himself forward, he will be wanting in the reverence which is due from a younger brother. Woke cannot bear to put himself forward.[2] It is an immutable law that the elder brother should be affectionate and the younger brother reverent. So I have heard from our elders. How can I of myself alone make light of it?" The Prince Imperial Ohoke said:—"The Emperor Shiraga, by reason of my being the elder brother, at first assigned to me all the affairs of the Empire. But I am ashamed to accept it. Now the great Prince's conduct is established in beneficial retirement,[3] so that those who hear him utter sighs of admiration.
- ↑ From "When" to "pond" is taken from a Chinese book.
- ↑ From "The conduct" to "forward" is imitated from a passage in the "Liki."
- ↑ He probably makes allusion to the Yih-king, Diagram xxxiii. Sect. 6, which is thus translated by Legge: "The sixth line, undivided shows its subject retiring in a noble way. It will be advantageous in every respect." This means, perhaps, that his modest behaviour proves that his reign will be beneficial to the people.
