108 japan
bordered directly on China and was open to influence from its splen-
did civilization. It has been seen that in 1007 Chiao-chih requested
copies of the Nine Confucian Classics and the Buddhist Tripitaka, and
that in 1176 it adopted the Sung calendar. But no other countries of
continental South Asia and the islands had any wish to learn from
the Chinese.^14
From the Chinese point of view, however, their civilization was ipso
facto higher than any other, so that the Japanese thirst for knowledge
cannot have been any cause of suprise, only of mild flattery. To the
Chinese, the commercial side of the missions must therefore have been
more important than to the Japanese, until xenophobia brought the
missions to and end during Southern Sung. Private trade continued, of
course and was so brisk and lucrative that it led to a Chinese drain of
copper. This forced the Southern Sung government on Aug.17, 1199,
to prohibit merchants from Japan and Koryo to depart with copper
cash they had obtained for their goods (Sung shih 37:13a).
This is the distribution by 20-year periods of the 29 recorded mis-
sions from Japan to Sui, T’ang, and Sung:
587- 606: 1
607- 626: 2
627- 646: 1
647- 666: 6
667- 686: 2
697- 706: 2
707- 726: 1
727- 746: 2
747- 766: 1
767- 786: 2
787- 806: 2
807- 826: 0
827- 846: 2
847- 866: 1
867- 886: 1
887- 906: 0
907- 926: 0
(^14) Except for the curious case in Wang Hsüan-ts’e’s report that in 648 an Indian
prince requested an image of Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching.