A. He was appointed student-interpreter in Japan, August
6, 1864. He is the author of a Grammar of the Written Japanese Language,
and has been a student of the comparative history and speech and writing
of China, Korea, and Japan, during the past thirty years. See his
valuable papers in the T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great
Britain. In his paper on Early Japanese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI.,
pp. 39-75, he recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he
is, in the main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late
William Bramsen, in his Japanese Chronological Tables, T[=o]ki[=o],
1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the
Japanese annals. We quote from his paper, Early Japanese History,
T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73.
1. The earliest date of the accepted Japanese Chronology, the accuracy
of which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. 461.
2. Japanese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to exist
previous to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to think that the
annals of the sixth century must also be received with caution.)
3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those of
Japan during the period previous to that date.
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