The Wajinden (倭人伝; "Treatise on the Wa People") are passages in the 30th fascicle of the Chinese history chronicle Records of the Three Kingdoms that talk about the Wa people, who would later be known as the Japanese people. It describes the mores, geography, and other aspects of the Wa, the people and inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago at the time. The Records of the Three Kingdoms was written by Chen Shou of the Western Jin dynasty at the end of the 3rd century (between the demise of Wu in 280 and 297, the year of Chen Shou's death).[1]
There is no independent treatise called "Wajinden" in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, and the description of Yamato is part of the Book of Wei, vol. 30, "Treatise on the Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Dongyi". The name "Wajinden" comes from Iwanami Bunko who published the passages under the name Gishi Wajinden (魏志倭人伝) in 1951.[2] Therefore, some believe that it is meaningless unless one reads not only the passages on the Wa but also the whole of the Treatise on the Dongyi ("Eastern Barbarians").[3] Yoshihiro Watanabe, a researcher of the Three Kingdoms, states that the accounts about the Korean Peninsula and Japan were not based on Chen Shou's first-hand experience, but was written based on rumors and reports from people who had visited the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and its authenticity is questionable. He further recommended that "the worldview and political situation of Chen Shou be examined not only by reading the Records and its annotations in full, but also by familiarizing with the Confucian classics that form the worldview to understand it.".[4]
The Wajinden represents the first time a comprehensive article about the Japanese archipelago has been written in the official history of China. The Dongyi treatise in the Book of the Later Han is chronologically earlier than the Wajinden, but the Wajinden was written earlier.[5]
The book describes the existence of a country in Wa (some say later Japan) at that time, centered on the country of Yamatai, as well as the existence of countries that did not belong to the queen, with descriptions of their locations, official names, and lifestyles. This book also describes the customs, flora and fauna of the Japanese people of the time, and serves as a historical record of the Japanese archipelago in the 3rd century.
However, it is not necessarily an accurate representation of the situation of the Japanese archipelago at that time,[6] which has been a cause of controversy regarding Yamatai[7]On the other hand, there are also some researchers such as Okada Hidehiro who cast doubt on the value of the Wajinden as a historical document. Okada stated that there were large discrepancies in the location and mileage and that it lacked credibility.[8] Takaraga Hisao said, "The Wajinden is not complete, and it cannot be regarded as a contemporaneous historical material because of the lack of total consistency and the long transcription period.[9] Although it is certain that the Book of Wei predates the Records of the Three Kingdoms, there are many errors in the surviving anecdotes. In addition, Yoshihiro Watanabe stated that the Wajinden contains "many biases (distorted descriptions) due to the internal politics and diplomacy of Cao Wei at the time when Himiko sent her envoy and the world view of the historian.[4]
Of the printed versions of the Wajinden that have survived, the one included in the Bainaben (百衲本; "patchwork") version of the Twenty-Four Histories from the 20th century during the Republican period of China is considered the best. The edition of Records of the Three Kingdoms that forms the Bainaben version is based on a copy from the Shaoxi period (紹熙; 1190–1194) of Southern Song dynasty.[10]
A punctuated edition of the Records of the Three Kingdoms was published in 1959 by Zhonghua Book Company in Beijing, and is available in Japan. In addition, Kodansha published a kanbun version named Wakokuden (倭国伝) in 2010 featuring syntactic markers to aid the Japanese reader.[5]
The Wajinden was written without paragraphs, but it is divided into six paragraphs in the Chinese-language versions and the Kodansha version. In terms of content, it is understood to be divided into three major sections.[11]
Originally, there was a male king for 70 to 80 years, but there was a prolonged disturbance in the whole country (considered as the so-called "Civil War of Wa"). In the end, the confusion was finally quelled by appointing Himiko, a woman, as the ruler.
Himiko was described to be a shaman queen who held her people under a spell. She was elderly and had no husband. Her younger brother assisted her in the administration of the kingdom. She had 1,000 attendants, but only one man was allowed in the palace to serve food and drink and to take messages. The palace was strictly guarded by a guard of soldiers.
Himiko sent a messenger to Wei through Daifang Commandery in 238, and was appointed by the emperor as the King of Wa, Ally to Wei. In 247, Daifang dispatched Zhang Zheng (張政) to negotiate a peace between Wa and Kununokuni. According to the description in Wajinden, he exchanged messengers with the countries of the Korean Peninsula.
When Himiko died in 247, a mound was built and 100 people were buried there. After that, a male king was established, but the whole country did not accept him, and more than 1,000 people were killed. After the death of Himiko, a 13-year-old Toyo, a girl of Himiko's clan or sect, was appointed as ruler and the country was pacified. Zhang Zheng, who had been dispatched to Japan earlier, presented Toyo with a proclamation, and Toyo also sent an envoy to Wei.
In addition, the "Jingū-ki" in Nihon Shoki quotes the now-lost Imperial Diaries of Jin (晉起居注) that the queen of Wa presented tribute through interpreters in October of 266. The extant Book of Jin notes that the Wa made a tribute in November of 266 in the annals of the Emperor Wu of Jin. The embassy was recorded elsewhere in the Book of Jin in the "Biography of the Four Barbarians" (四夷傳), although the Wa ruler was not specified to be a queen. It is probable that Toyo made a tribute to Emperor Wu of Jin, who overthrew the Wei.
After the record of Toyo's tribute in the mid-3rd century, there would be no record of Japan in Chinese historical books for nearly 150 years until the tribute of King San (one of the five kings of Wa) in 413. The Gwanggaeto Stele fills in this gap, stating that in 391 people from Wa crossed the sea to invade Baekje and Silla, and battled with Gwanggaeto of Goguryeo.
According to the Wajinden, the Wa people made the mountainous island as their state, and paid tribute to the continent through the Daifang Commandery that was established by the Han dynasty near present-day Seoul.
As for the route from Daifang Commandery to Japan, the passages relating to the Korean peninsula in fascicle 30 of the Records of the Three Kingdoms describes the location and boundaries of Samhan and Wa to the south of Daifang Commadery:
The Han (Korea) is south of Daifang, bounded by the sea to the east and west, connecting with Wa to its south, with an area of 4,000 li. There are three Han, the first is called Mahan, the second is called Jinhan, the third is called Byeonhan.
The Book of the Later Han's treatise on the Dongyi makes the positional relationship of Samhan more concrete:
Mahan is to the west, consisting of 54 chiefdoms, bordering Lelang to the north and Wa to the south. To the east is Jinhan, with twelve chiefdoms, bordering Yemaek to the north. Byeonhan is south of Jinhan, consisting of twelve chiefdoms of its own, also bordering Wa in the south.
There are various theories about official names.
An excerpt of 
the original text and an English translation (romanizations mainly follow J. Edward Kidder).[12]
Other than the chiefdoms mentioned on the journey from Daifang to the Queen's domain in Yamatai, there are other distant countries that are only known by name. In addition, mention is made of a Kona chiefdom south of Yamatai ruled by a male king that lies outside of the Queen's control.
An excerpt of the original text and an English translation follows:
Excerpts from the original text and an English translation:
Contains excerpts from the original text. and an English translation
It is important to note that the Wei imperial decrees were dated to the time they were written, not the time they arrived in Wa, which typically took two years to arrive.
Following the distance in Wajinden exactly as they were written would land a hypothetical traveller past the Japanese archipelago and into the Pacific Ocean.[13] As such, there is considerable debate over the locations of the Wa chiefdoms named in the Wajinden, primarily Yamatai. The prevailing theories are the "Honshu Theory" and the "Kyushu Theory". The interpretations of the journey to Yamatai are split into the "continuous theory" and the "radiation theory" (see Yamatai).
There is a description about Wa in Fan Ye's Book of Later Han written in the 5th century. Its contents have much in common with the Wajinden, but it also includes details that are absent from Wajinden such as the approximate time-frame of the Civil War of Wa, which the Book of Later Han records to be during the reign of Emperor Huan and Ling (146–189).
The passages about Wa in the 7th century Book of Sui are seen as a compilation of similar passages from the Weilüe, Wajinden, Book of Later Han, Book of Song, and the Book of Liang. As such, many passages from Wajinden can be found in the Book of Sui with minor modifications. Notably, the Book of Sui updated the distances found in Wajinden.[14]