1809. ] | New and interefling Fadis relative to Fapan, by M. Titfingh. 219- 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
INTERESTING PARTICULARS RELATIVE 
TO JAPAN, BY M. TITSINGH, LATE 
AMBASSADOR TO THE EMPERORS OF 
CHINA AND JAPAN. 
N the Voyage to Bengal publifhed by 
] Charpentier,* we meet with the agree- 
able intelligence, that a new, circumitan- 
tial and authentic Account of Japan may 
be expected from the pen of TirsinGu fF 
who had been governor of Chinfurab, a 
Dutch fa€tory on the Ganges, which du- 
ring the prefent war has fallen into the 
hands of the Englifh ; and afterwards re- 
fided five years as ambaflador from the 
Dutch Eaft India Company to the emperor 
of Japan, with the chief men of which 
country he to this hour keeps up an epif- 
tolary correfpondence. TITsInGH has 
for five years paft been employed in writ- 
ing a Political, Civil, Religious, Moral aud 
Literary Hiflory of Fapan; and, to render 
his work more interefting, ufeful and com- 
plete, he intends to fpend yet fomeyears 
more in the execution of his plan.—For 
this purpofe he {till from time to time ob- 
tains all necefiary information from the 
father-in-law of the reigning emperor him - 
felf, with whom he regularly correfponds ; 
and in this refpect his work will be wzique, 
and furpafs the earlier labours of Kampher, 
whom he commends on account of his ac- 
curacy, and of Thunberg. The Enelith in 
Calcutta offered TirsiNGH two lacks of 
rupees for his manufcripts : but he magna- 
nimoufly refufed this offer ; as he intends 
to make a prefent of it to his brother in 
Holland, and is determined that it fhall 
be firft printed in the Dutch language. 
He communicated indeed fome extracts and 
{ingle fragments to the Academy of Sciences 
at Paris; and that learned fociety was 
- jnclined to caufe them to be tranflated and 
printed under their infpection. But he 

* The title of this Voyage is: Voyage au 
Bengale (en 1789, fuivi de notes critiques et poli- 
tiques, @obfervations fur ce voyage, par Stavo- 
_ rinus, Chef a Efcadre de la République Batave ; 

Pune notice fur le Fapon, Gc. par Pauteur du Vi oy 
age a Canton et de plufeurs autres ouvrages, le 
Citoyen Charpentier Cofjigny; t. i. A Paris, chez 
Emery, an 7 de la Rep Francoife.—-with a ma 
ef the weftern branch of the Ganges, from 
its mouth to above Amboa and Gamptipura. 
T This is the fame gentleman who, in3794, 
was fent along with Van Braam Houkgecf as 
embaflador to Tjcien- Long late emperor of Chi- 
na. He now refides in London, and we hope 
to be able from time to time to add other va- 
luable particulars to thofe which we here 
prefent to our readers. ‘abs 
MONTHLY MAG. No. S7e 
thought the tranflation was not fufficiently 
faithful ; or, what is more likely, he made 
ufe of this pretext, and declined this ho- 
nour, that no earlier edition might appear 
before the Dutch one. For the above in- 
- formation we are indebted to the author of 
the Voyage to Bengal, anow decealed friend 
of Charpentier. From the fame fource are 
derived the tollowing precurfive particu- 
lars relative to Japan, which the deceafed,. 
during his intercourfe with Tirstncu, col- 
lected from his converfation, and commu- 
nicated to his friend, the editor of the 
abovementioned Voyage. 
The Japanefe afcribe a greater anti- 
quity to the world than the Chinefe or: 
any other people with which we are ac- 
quainted. “They compute by epochs. The 
prefent, which, compared with the preced- 
ing, is the fhorteft, commences 600 years 
before the birth of Chrift, with their firft 
Dairi, and reaches down to the prefent’ 
The deceafed friend of Char. — 
emperor. 
»pentier had himfelf had in. his hands a 
Chronological table of Japan, beautifully 
printed on the largeft folio: it feemed to 
have a great refemblance to Hénault’s 
Abregé de lHiftoire Chronologique de 
France, and even to defcend to minuter de- 
tails. “Tirsincu affured him that it 
would be diffi¢ult to make the method and — 
arrangement of this Chgonology better and 
more ingenious. 
The form of government in Japan is 
hierarchical. At the head of it is the 
emperor; who, like his predeceffors, unites 
in his perfon the f{piritual and temporal 
power of the ftate. He cannot, howe- 
“ver, exercife his power in an arbitrary 
manner over the grandees, who, in differ- 
ent fubordinate gradations, are fubjeét to 
his dominion: on the contrary, he has 
caufe to be afraid of them ; for at the bot- - 
tom the whole government ofthe ftate is 
founded on a feudal conftitution, The 
late emperor, who died in 1785, with the 
view to gain an additional fupport to his 
throne, endeavoured to attach to his in- 
tereft the prefent emperor’s father-in-law, 
who governs inhis name. This lord, be- 
ing the richeft and moft powerful vaffal of 
the empire, at firft rejected all the offers 
and propofals made tovthim, that he mighe 
not render himfelf fufpected to the other 
grandees : at laft, however, he could not 
deny his confent to the marriage of one 
of his daughters with a diftant relative of 
the emperor. Although this prince wag 
far removed from the hope of fucceeding 
to the throne, and even lived unknown in 
one of the provinces, and was educated at 
a diftance from court; yet, by a fingular 
rit fatalitys 





