THE EARLY ERAS OF HISTORY
processes of divination and their methods of almanac-compiling, constituted new inducements to literary studies. But such a thing as a school did not exist until the time of the Emperor Tenchi (668–671), when the first institution of the kind was opened in the capital, to be followed, ten years later, by a university and by a few provincial seminaries. The curriculum of this university represents the ideal of literary attainment in its era. There were "four paths" of essential learning—the Chinese classics, biographies, law and mathematics. Caligraphy and music were taught independently. The "classics" were divided into three sections: the first, or "major classic," consisting of the Book of Etiquette and the Biographies; the second, or "middle classic," comprising the Book of Poetry and two Books of Etiquette; and the third, or "minor classic," including the Book of Changes and the Maxims. These were the bases of the regular course of lectures, but students of literature were required to study also the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects of Confucius. It will be perceived that Buddhism had no place in this sphere of study. Yet, at the close of the seventh century, when the university had four hundred and thirty students, and when it represented the only high educational institution in the Empire, Buddhism as a religion had already absorbed the attention of all the nation's leaders. It is, indeed, a remarkable fact of
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