Emperor. It is not to be expected but that differences would arise among these territorial lords, some more or less powerful; ambition and lust of wealth or power would soon find a cause for a quarrel, and this would light up a civil war. In such cases, the Emperor and the officers of the imperial court were looked to as the arbiters or umpires, and acquired and retained so firm a position in the machinery of the State and in the minds of the people as to withstand all the shocks which have at different times so frequently and rudely put one down and set up another of these provincial powers. CHAPTER II THE EIGHT BOARDS OF GOVERNMENT Having given above a sketch of the ranks eligible in old times to fill the offices of government, a step will be gained by obtaining some insight into the means by which that government was carried on. The arrangements are of very ancient date, and seem to have been more or less in actual use until the separation of the empire into two at the end of the sixteenth century. At that time the executive department of the empire was entirely removed to Yedo, but the shadow or the skeleton of the defunct body was allowed to remain in Miako. The offices which had of old conferred power, and demanded exertion in fulfilling the duties, were now only empty names--honorific appellations; the power of conferring these nominal offices being all that remained to the Emperor of his former greatness. Still the retention of the power has not been without its use. Though the actual power has been in the hands of the Shiogoon, the hopes of the people and of the Emperor have ever turned toward its ultimate re-establishment at Miako, in a machinery all ready at any moment to take up the duties of government. At the period when the government of Japan was settled, many of the institutions of China seem to have been copied or transferred by the founders of the empire. This must have occurred at a very early period in its history. While the original model has been followed, modifications have from time to time been introduced to meet the varying exigencies of the country. But perhaps nothing points more strongly to a Chinese origin for the ruling ranks of Japan than the early adoption of this form of government. As in China six boards are found at Pekin, so in Japan eight boards are found at Miako. The names of these boards or departments, the titles of the officials, the ranks of the subordinate officers, are all found under Chinese names. Klaproth has given in his “Annals of the Emperors” a sketch of these eight boards, with the offices under each. It is probably taken from the “Shoku gen sho,” a little work written in the year 1340 by Kitta Batake Chikafusa, and in use at the present day as a concise account of the government of Japan.