Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1896-11-13
OLD-TIME ENEMIES.
China and Japan Have Been FOES
for Two Thousand Years
corea Since Time Out Of Mind Has Been
the Bone of Contention Between the
Two Nations-The First
Invasion.

In the Land of the Chrysanthemum,"
w DR.. David Murray, who was for
,rly adviser to the Japanese min
ister Of education, are some interesting
facts concerning Japan's relations with
Corca and China. From China Japan
rot everything except certain minor
bases Of art taught her by Corean
,risoncrs and exiles. From China she
got her literatere and her very alpha
BET, the traditions OF her art, almost al
ler higher life. This is not the first
me she has quarreled with China over
Horea, but OF that anon. Once China
Japan. 1t was in the days of Kublai
Kan, who decreed the stately pleasure
house in Coleridge's Xanadn. The Jap
ancse allege that Kublai sent one hun
bred 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
kimune, and typhoon finished off the
Chinese armada.
The first japanese invasion of Corea,
as DIR. 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, Shiralsi
and Xudara. When Jingo-Kogo land
ed in Shiraki 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 compliment did the Co
reans feel about being Sanl1an that the
king Of Kudara sent an eminent Chi
nese scholar to educate Jingo's son.
The scholar took with him the "Confu-
Ian Analects" and the Thousand
Character Essay" and the future god
Of war became very learned man.
The Emperor lingo died about $40 Is.
u, and japanese garrison was MAIN
tanned in Kudara for a trifing nine
hundred years, when the Coreans of
ShiraM 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 a 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 eonspired to produce the final
result.
In another trifling nine hundred
years Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the du CUES
elm 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
such large proportion of the army
were Christians (this was in 1882 that
they had to be humored by having Ko-
nishi, who was Christian, in com
mand. The two commanders were
always at loggerheads, and so the ex-
petition was virtual failure, though
neither Coreans nor Cinnamon could
make any stand before the two-headed
sword of the japanese, until the Chi
nese by treachery gained time to intro
duce 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 picked ears and noses,
the proceeds of thirty-eight thousand
seven hundred Chinese and Corean
heads, which form the center of the
Mimi Zulza, or ear mound in the Dali
butsu temple at .Kyoto, and the pris-
onera of Shimazu Yoshehiro, prince of
Satsuma pottery, the wonder of the
world. The great and diplomatic I've
yasu restored the cordiality of rela-
tions between Japan and Corea, as is
testified by the exquisite bronze can
delabra which adorn his lnausoleum at
Nikko. But Corea has never yet got
over the ravagings Of Hideyoshi's army.
Go