ence so as to cover all living things, and Our
sentiment of loving nurture knows no distinction of distance. Now We
learn that Your Majesty, dwelling separately beyond the sea, bestows
the blessings of peace on Your subjects; that there is tranquillity
within Your borders, and that the customs and manners are mild. With
the most profound loyalty You have sent Us tribute from afar, and We
are delighted at this admirable token of Your sincerity. Our health
is as usual, notwithstanding the increasing heat of the weather.
Therefore We have sent Pei Shieh-ching, Official Entertainer of the
Department charged with the Ceremonial for the Reception of Foreign
Ambassadors, and his suite, to notify to you the preceding. We also
transmit to you the products of which a list is given separately.**

*It has already been stated that Japan was generally known in China
and Korea by the term "Wa," which, being written with an ideograph
signifying "dwarf" or "subservient," was disliked by the Japanese.
The envoy sent from Yamato in 607 was instructed to ask for the
substitution of Nippon (Place of Sunrise), but the Sui sovereign
declined to make the change and Japan did not receive the designation
"Nippon" in China until the period Wu Teh (A.D. 618-626) of the Tang
dynasty. It is not certain at what time exactly the Japanese
themselves adopted this nomenclature, but it certainly was before the
seventh century.

**Translated by Aston in the Nihongi.

When the reading of the document was concluded, a high noble stepped
forward, took it from the envoy's hands and advanced with it towards
the audience-hall, from which another noble came out to meet him,
received the letter, deposited it on a table before the chief
entrance, and then reported the facts to the Empress. This ended the
ceremony. The haughty condescension of the Chinese despatch does not
appear to have offended the Japanese, nor did they cavil at the
omission of one important ideograph from the title applied to their
Empress. China's greatness seems to have been fully recognized. When,
a month later, the envoy took his departure, the same Imoko was
deputed to accompany him, bearing a despatch* in which, to China's
simple "greeting," Japan returned a "respectful address;" to China's
expression of ineffable superiority Japan replied that the coming of
the embassy had "dissolved her long-harboured cares;" and to China's
grandiloquent prolixity Japan made answer with half a dozen b