The St. Johns herald., 1894-10-04
OLD-TIME ENEMIES.
China end Japan Have Been Foes
 for Two Thousand Years,
Corea Since Time Out of Kind Has Been the Bone Of Contention Between the Two Natiols-The First
 Invasion.


 Tn the Land of the Chrysanthemum, by Dr. David Murray, who was for erly adviser to the Japanese min ister of education, are some interesting facts concerning Japan's relations with Corea and China. From China Japan got everything except certain minor phases of art taught her by Corean prisoners and exiles. From China she got her literatere and her very alpha bet, the traditions of her art, almost all her higher life. This is not the first time she has quarreled with China over CoTea, but of that anon. Once China definitely decided on the conquest of Japan. 1t was in the days of Kublai Kan, who dsereed the stately pleasure house in Coleridge's Xanadn. The Jap anese allege that Kublai sent one hun dred thousand men for the invasion, and that he managed to transport them in three hundred junks. The forces landed were defeated by the hero To- lLimune, and a typhoon finished off the Chinese armada.
 The first Japanese invasion of Corea, as Dr. Murray points out, was under the Empress lingo, who was mother Of the god of war; therefore it has to be taken with salt. Corea, or, as the Japanese call it, Chosen, was divided into three kingdoms, Korai, Shiral1i and Xudara. When Jingo-Kogo land cd in Shiralzi they all came with alac- rity the Sankan, the three tributary countries dependent of Japan. After this she was empress regent for sixty eight years, and died at the age of one hundred. So complacent did the Co., reans feel about being Sankan that the king of Kudara sent an eminent Chi nese scholar to educate JingoS son. The scholar took with him the ''Confu- elan AnalectS'' and the Thousand Character Essay" and the future god Of war became Q very learned man. The Emperor lingo died about 37O B. C., and a Japanese garrison was main tained in Kudara for trifing nine hundred years, when the Coreans of Shiralli and the Chinese compelled them to withdraw. With the Japanese went many of the Corean friends, who came with them, like the Huguenots when driven from France, a knowledge of many arts and culture which were eagerly welcomed by the rising Japan csc empire. They were colonized in convenient quarters in different prov inces, and as an encouragement freed from taxation for time. Their infiu- ence upon the opening civilization of Japan cannot be overlooked or neg lected. in our estimate of the forces which conspired to produce the final result.
 In another trifing nine hundred years Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the du gues- clin of Japan, determined to conquer Corea, which had suddenly discontinued sending gifts. He sent from one hun dred and thirty thousand to three hun dred thousand men under Konishi and Kato, the interesting feature being that -s.4-.!4-a-le.--tse- -isr0T10r ttUn or the army were Christians (this was in 1S52) that they had to be humored by having Ko- niShi, who was a Christian, in com nand. The two commanders were always at loggerheads, and so the eX- petition was a virtual failure, though neither Coreans nor Chinamen could make any stand before the two-headed sword of the Japanese, until the Chi nese by treachery gained time to intro ducc into Corea armies of overwhelm- ing numbers. However, all that the Japanese ever got out of the conquest and occupation of Corea was three sake tubs full of pickled ears and noses, the proceeds of thirty-eight thousand seven hundred Chinese and Corean heads, which form the center of the Mimi Xul1a, or ear mound in the Dali butsu temple at Kyoto, and the pris- oners of Shimazu Yoshehiro, prince of Satsuma pottery, the wonder of the world. The great and diplomatic Iye- yasu restored the cordiality of rela- tions between Japan and Corea, as is testified by the exquisite bronze can dalabra which adorn his mausoleum at Nillko But Corea has never yet got over the ravagings of Hideyoshi's army.