deemed too
trivial to assist in promoting that end. Even such a petty incident
as the appearance of a white pheasant was magnified into a special
indication of heaven's approval, and a grand Court ceremony having
been held in honour of the bird, the Emperor proclaimed a general
amnesty and ordered that the name of the period should be changed to
Haku-chi (White Pheasant). Something of this may be set down frankly
to the superstitious spirit of the time. But much is evidently
attributable to the statecraft of the Emperor's advisers, who sought
to persuade the nation that this breaking away from all its venerable
old traditions had supernatural approval.

There was, indeed, one defect in the theory of the new system. From
time immemorial the polity of the empire had been based on the family
relation. The sovereign reigned in virtue of his lineage, and the
hereditary nobles owed their high positions and administrative
competence equally to descent. To discredit the title of the nobles
was to disturb the foundation of the Throne itself, and to affirm
that want of virtue constituted a valid reason for depriving the
scions of the gods of their inherited functions, was to declare
constructively that the descendant of Amaterasu also held his title
by right of personal worthiness. That was the Chinese theory. Their
history shows plainly that they recognized the right of men like Tang
or Wu to overturn tyrants like Chieh of the Hsia dynasty, and Chou of
the Yen dynasty. The two Japanese Emperors, Kotoku and Tenchi
(668-671), seem to have partially endorsed a cognate principle. But
nothing could be at greater variance with the cardinal tenet of the
Japanese polity, which holds that "the King can do no wrong" and that
the Imperial line must remain unbroken to all eternity.

ENVOYS TO CHINA

The importance attached to intercourse with China during the reign of
Kotoku was illustrated by the dimensions of the embassies sent to the
Tang Court and by the quality of the envoys. Two embassies were sent
in 653, one consisting of 121 persons and the other of 120.* The
former included seventeen student-priests, and among them was the
eldest son of Kamatari himself. Another embassy was despatched in
654, and the records show incidently that the sea route was taken,
for after a voyage lasting some months and therefore presumably of a
coasting character, the envoys landed at Laichou in Shantung. They
finally reached Changan, the Tang capita