The time when Chinese learning entered Japan, by the way of Korea, has not been precisely ascertained.[7] It is possible that letters[8] and writings were known in some parts of the country as early as the fourth century, but it is nearly certain, that, outside the Court of the Emperor, there was scarcely even a sporadic knowledge of the literature of China until the Korean missionaries of Buddhism had obtained a lodgement in the Mikado’s capital.  Buddhism was the real purveyor of the foreign learning and became the vehicle by means of which Confucianism, or the Chinese ethical principles, reached the common people of Japan.  The first missionaries in Japan were heartily in sympathy with the Confucian ethics, from which no effort was made to alienate them.  They were close allies, and for a thousand years wrought as one force in the national life.  They were not estranged until the introduction, in the seventeenth century, of the metaphysical and scholastic forms given to the ancient system by the Chinese schoolmen of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1333).

Japanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary.

The intellectual history of the Japanese prior to their recent contact with Christendom, may be divided into three eras: 

1.  The period of early insular or purely native thought, from before the Christian era until the eighth century; by which time, Shint[=o], or the indigenous system of worship—­its ritual, poetry and legend having been committed to writing and its life absorbed in Buddhism—­had been, as a system, relegated from the nation and the people to a small circle of scholars and archaeologists.

2.  The period from 800 A.D. to the beginning of the seventeenth century; during which time Buddhism furnished to the nation its religion, philosophy and culture.

3.  From about 1630 A.D. until the present time; during which period the developed Confucian philosophy, as set forth by Chu Hi in the twelfth century, has been the creed of a majority of the educated men of Japan.

The political history of the Japanese may also be divided into three eras: 

1.  The first extends from the dawn of history until the seventh century.  During this period the system of government was that of rude feudalism.  The conquering tribe of Yamato, having gradually obtained a rather imperfect supremacy over the other tribes in the middle and southern portions of the country now called the Empire of Japan, ruled them in the name of the Mikado.

2.  The second period begins in the seventh century, when the Japanese, copying the Chinese model, adopted a system of centralization.  The country was divided into provinces and was ruled through boards or ministries at the capital, with governors sent out from Ki[=o]to for stated periods, directly from the emperor.  During this time literature was chiefly the work of the Buddhist priests and of the women of the imperial court.