Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

1,45 JAPAN. 171
The country yields all kinds of cereals, but little wheat. For purposes
of exchange they use copper cash bearing the inscription Kien-yiian-ta-pau
i^TCix. ^)- They have water-buffalo, donkeys, sheep, (but neither) rhino-
ceros (nor) elephants, also gold and silver, fine silks and fancy cotton cloth".
5 The country produces quantities of cryptomeria trees (ij^ TJ^) and lo
trees (^ TJ^),
reaching to heights of upwards of fourteen or fifteen chang,
and fully four feet in diameter. The natives split them into planks, which
they transport in large junks to our port of Ts'iian-chou for sale. The people
of Ts'iian-chou rarely go to this country ^^.
10 As regards music, they have the Chinese and the Korean notation (^).
They have swords, shields (ifj^), bows, and arrows which have iron points,
but they cannot shoot far with thek: bows, the reason being that in this
country the people are not accustomed to fighting ^*.
In their houses separate rooms are used as bed-rooms by father and
15 mother and by the different brothers ".
When taking their meals, they use dish-stands and dishes (^ S.)^^-
When contracting marriage, they do not make presents of money ^^.
For the dead they have coffins (>Ji^), but no coffin-cases {^). Their
tombs consist of simple earthen tumuli. At the beginning of their time of
20 mourning they lament and wail and e.at no meat, but when the burial is over,
the whole family takes a bath to wash away ill-luck from their bodies^'.
Whenever important affairs are to be entered upon, they scorch bones
in order to foretell whether they will turn out luckily or otherwise ^«.
They do not know the division of the year with its four seasons, but
25 reckon the year from harvest to harvest ^». The people attain to great age,
frequently to about eighty or ninety years 2".
Women are neither licentious nor jealous. There is no litigation, but
when some one is found guilty of a crime, serious cases are punished by the
extirpation of the culprit's family, light offenses by the enslaving (j^) of his
30 wife and children ^^
Gold and silver are used in paying taxes to the government; these
metals are found in Yu6-ch6u (^ f\\)
another island ^^
in the east of this country, and in
This county has had intercourse with China since the later Han dynasty
35 (A. D. 25—221), and it has sent envoys with tribute to our Court during
'
the Wei, Sung, Sui and T'ang dynasties. During the first year ymg^ of the
present dynasty (A. D. 984) a Japanese bonze, by name Tiau-jan(^^)2S
came across the sea to China with five or six of his disciples and offered