Introduction
Chinese sources on Japan to 1900
Early Chinese Dynastic Histories on Japan
According to the “Treatises on Geography” in the Hanshu 漢書, one of the official Chinese dynastic histories compiled in the 1st century AD, China and Japan had a documented relationship since the 1st century BC, when Japan occasionally sent tribute to China. But the first separate chapter in the Chinese dynastic histories especially dedicated to Japan (“Accounts on the Eastern Barbarians”) we can only find in the Hou Hanshu 後漢書 (5th cent.) that provides us valuable information on the so-called “wo 倭-people” (lit. “dwarfs”, old Chinese designation for the Japanese) and the land of the “wo”. After the Hou Hanshu, one separate chapter on history, geography and customs of the Japanese islands became regular part of the dynastic histories. These chapters described the Japanese at the beginning as “Eastern barbarians” (dongyi 東夷) from the land of the “wo” (Woguo 倭國), but later, around the 10th century, the name “Riben” 日本 became the standard term instead of “Woguo” for the land “Japan” (while the old term “wo” or “Woguo” remained in use, too). The early Chinese dynastic histories are extremely important sources in the case of Japan because Japan has no written sources before the 8th century. For research on ancient Japanese history from the 1st up to the 7th century these Chinese sources provide the only contemporary information and they serve, thus, as valuable materials for a comparison with Japanese sources, such as Nihon shoki 日本書紀, which was compiled only in the 8th century. After the establishment of official relations with China during the Sui (589–618) and Tang (618–906) dynasties Japan sent several official embassies to China between the 7th and 9th centuries. The dynastic histories provide valuable accounts on these embassies. In addition, an important source for this period is Nittō guhō junrei kōki 入唐求法巡禮行記, the diary of the Japanese monk En’nin 圓仁, that describes his experience and contemporary circumstances in Tang China.
