The art of writing was brought into Japan from Korea in A. D. 284. Previous to this it would appear that the Japanese had no way of recording events, as books and writing were unknown. Writing was at first with the Chinese characters, which were used to represent Japanese words. Later a system was devised whereby only parts of the Chinese characters were used for writing and a syllabry was formed. In the university mentioned above, "the training of the students in medicine chiefly consisted in making them familiar with the methods which prevailed in China. The properties of medicinal plants, the variations of the pulse in health and disease and in the changing seasons, and the anatomy of the human body were the chief subjects of study. The human cadaver was never dissected, but a knowledge of anatomy was obtained from diagrams which were wholly hypothetical. In early times medical officers were appointed to experiment with medicines upon monkeys, and also to dissect the bodies of monkeys. From these dissections, as well as from the printed diagrams of Chinese books the imperfect knowledge which they had reached was derived. It was not till 1771 that Sugita Genpaku and several other Japanese scholars had an opportunity to dissect the body of a criminal, and by personal observation found the utter falsity of the Chinese diagrams on which they had hitherto relied, and the correctness of the Dutch books, which they had, contrary to the laws of the country, learned to read."[132] A large part of the education of the young samurai was of a military order. He was well trained to ride a horse, to shoot a bow, and to handle the spear and the sword. The _hara-kiri_ was an especial part of this training. "They are instructed as to the proper mode of performing this act, the ceremonies that should accompany it, varying with the occasion, and according as it is done publicly or privately, and under what circumstances a well-bred man should feel himself obliged thus to destroy himself."[133]