Note 33 — Chapter V

The following system of Japanese cosmogony is given by Klaproth, as contained in an imperfect volume of Chinese and Japanese chronology, printed in Japan, in Chinese characters, without date, but which for more than a hundred years past has been in the Royal Library of Paris: “At first the heaven and the earth were not separated, the perfect principle and the imperfect principle were not disjoined; chaos, under the form of an egg, contained the breath [of life], self-produced, including the germs of all things. Then what was pure and perfect ascended upwards, and formed the heavens (or sky), while what was dense and impure coagulated, was precipitated, and produced the earth. The pure and excellent principles formed whatever is light, whilst whatever was dense and impure descended by its own gravity; consequently the sky was formed prior to the earth. After their completion, a divine being (Kami) was born in the midst of them. Hence, it has been said, that at the reduction of chaos, an island of soft earth emerged, as a fish swims upon the water. At this period a thing resembling a shoot of the plant ashi [Eryanthus Japonicus] was produced between the heavens and the earth. This shoot was metamorphosed and became the god [first of the seven superior gods] who bears the honorific title of Kuni-toko-dachi-no-mikoto, that is to say, the venerable one who constantly supports the empire.”