Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/73

the "son of heaven" who sits on the "dragon throne" in Peking and the "son of heaven who sways the sceptre in Japan, that whereas the former may be judged by the nation or may err in the sight of heaven, the latter can do no wrong. In China, when flood, drought, pestilence, or war harasses the country, the sovereign openly attributes these calamities to his own shortcomings, and the people believe in the efficacy and propriety of his self-abasement; but in Japan, although national achievements are always attributed to the illustrious virtues of the monarch, who in turn assigns them to the gracious assistance of his ancestors, no public misfortune is ever associated with his faults. The Japanese system is the more logical; the Chinese the more practical.

Nominally nearest to the Throne for administrative purposes is the Cabinet (nui-koh), to which some foreign writers give the name of "grand secretariat." It comprises four chief and two assistant Ministers (or Councillors), half of whom are Chinese and half Manchus. The Cabinet includes also ten 'scholars," of whom six are Manchus and four Chinese. It is not uncommon to speak of the six Ministers of the Cabinet as "elders" (koh-lao), a term constantly applied to officials occupying a similar position in Japan in the days of the Tokugawa administration. The Cabinet submits affairs of state to the Throne in writing, attaching to each document slips of