' ... At the end of this interval the Empress Gemmi[=o] ordered
Yasumar[=o] to write it down from the mouth of Are, which accounts for
the completion of the manuscript in so short a time as four months and a
half,"[1] in A.D. 712.
It is from the "Kojiki" that we obtain most of our ideas of ancient life
and thought. The "Nihongi," or Chronicles of Japan, expressed very
largely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese technical and philosophical
terms, further assists us to get a measurably correct idea of what is
called The Divine Age. Of the two books, however, the "Kojiki" is much
more valuable as a true record, because, though rude in style and
exceedingly naive in expression, and by no means free from Chinese
thoughts and phrases, it is marked by a genuinely Japanese cast of
thought and method of composition. Instead of the terse, carefully
measured, balanced, and antithetical sentences of correct Chinese, those
of the "Kojiki" are long and involved, and without much logical
connection. The "Kojiki" contains the real notions, feelings, and
beliefs of Japanese who lived before the eighth century.
Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all,
we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos.
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