Korea the kingdom of Koma
was overthrown, the Yi dynasty rising on its ruins and calling the
peninsula Chosen. The Ming sovereign immediately attempted to
establish tradal intercourse with Japan, but the negotiations failed,
and not until 1392 is there any record of oversea relations. Then, at
length, Korea's protest elicited a reply from Japan. The shogun,
Yoshimitsu, sent to Chosen a despatch, signifying that piracy had
been interdicted, that all captives would be returned, and that he
desired to establish friendly relations. It appears that at that time
China also suffered from the depredations of Japanese corsairs, for
the annals say that she repeatedly remonstrated, and that, in 1401,
Yoshimitsu despatched to China an envoy carrying presents and
escorting some Chinese subjects who had been cast away on the
Japanese coast or carried captive thither. Another record suggests
that the Chinese Emperor was perplexed between the two warring Courts
in Japan. At the time of his accession, a body of Mongol fugitives
established themselves in Shantung, where they received assistance
from some Japanese adventurers. The Ming sovereign opened
communications on the subject with Prince Kanenaga, who held Kyushu
in the interests of the Southern Court, but the tone of the Chinese
monarch was so arrogant that Prince Kanenaga made no reply. Then
Taitsu employed a Buddhist priest, but the character of this bonze
having been detected, he was thrown into prison.

These things happened in 1380. In the following year Taitsu
despatched a duly credited envoy who used menacing language and was
sent back with a defiance from Prince Kanenaga. The priest, however,
was set free in 1382, and having learned while in Japan that two
Courts were disputing the title to the Crown, he informed the Chinese
sovereign in that sense, and the latter subsequently addressed
himself to Kyoto, with the result noted above, namely, that
Yoshimitsu opened friendly relations (1401). It was to the Ouchi
family of Suwo that the management of intercourse with Chosen was
entrusted, the latter sending its envoys to Yamaguchi. Subsequently,
after Ouchi Yoshihiro's disaffection and disaster, a Buddhist priest
and well-known artist, Soami, acted as Muromachi's envoy to the Ming
Court, being accompanied by a merchant, Koetomi, who is described as
thoroughly conversant with Chinese conditions. By these two the first
commercial treaty was negotiated. It provided that an envoy