1850.
Notice of Japan in the Hai-kwoh Tú Cht.
151
the campaign, and Lí Yü-sung to the command of the troops, which were to be led on to bring the enemy to account. At the time that these disturbances in Corea began, those in Ninghiá (in Kánsub) were still in continuance.
Sheh Sing, president of the Board of War, unable to devise any other cheme, called upon all who could speak Japanese to come forward to act as spies, and to Shin Wei-king on responding to his call, he gave the nominal rank of a Yá-kih tsiáng-kiun, and placed his services at the disposal of Li Yü-sung, whose forces the following year (1586) gained an important victory at Ping-yáng, by which the four circuits that Corea had lost were all recovered. Following up this advantage Li Yüsung moved rapidly upon Pehtí-kwán, but there he was routed and so drew off his army. It was now proposed to invest [the enemy] with [regal] rank, and to admit tribute [from Japan]. The ministers of China garbled the representation of Shin Wei king, [so as to incline the Emperor] to a pacific policy. These detrils are recorded in the Chronicles of Corea.
At last Ping Siúkih died, and the Japanese all sailed home, so that Corea [as well as China] had rest from their troubles. The invasion of the nation to the East, (sc. Corea) by the ampik had lasted full seven years, during which time the soldiers who perished numbered several tens of myriads, and several hundred myriad taels' worth of provisions were expended ; and neither China nor Corea had been able all the time to obtain the upper hand. With the death of the kwán- pik, ended the horrors of war. The Japanese withdrew to their island fastnesses, and the south and east had some days of repose. All Ping Siú-kih's issue by his second marriage died.
Towards the close of the Ming dynasty the prohibitions against in- tercourse with Japan were strictly enforced, and the poor people of the villages came to use the word Wo (Japanese) as a term of abuse and even employed it to terrify their infant children into silence.
Extract from the Wà Pí Chí, or Annals of the Art of War.
(There is said to be an historical work of this title in 300 and odd volumes, containing an account of the Art of War during a long succession of genera tions. The translator is in possession of a small work published in 1843, which is apparently an abridgment of some larger compilation, and in which the following extract does not appear. It would seem to be from the pen of a contemporaneous historian.]
It was the custom of the barbarians of Japan to draw up their troops in the form of a butterfly. When they went into action, the signal was