Chinese Officials And Ryukyu

In history, the close relations between China and Ryukyu lasted more than 500 years. In the year of 5th of Emperor Hung Wu(1372A.D., Ming Dynasty),the establishment of tributary relations between the two countries marked the economic and political connection formalized. During the long period of touching, Chinese traditional culture and folk religion were introduced into Ryukyu and influenced the tiny island country deeply. But the loyal.Envoys of China to Ryukyu also strongly felt the profound influence from Japan in Ryukyu society. In fact, as a subject to China, Ryukyu kingdom accepted the investiture from China, while kept intimate association with Japan. This kind of situation became a latent excuse held by Japan which led to Japan's absorption of Ryukyu.According to relative documents and materials, this thesis makes a further probe in the records on Ryukyu, trying to analyzing more thoroughly. Firstly, paying much attention to envoys' records, it discusses what and how the envoys described the Japanese things they found in Ryukyu. And then, on the basis of Shih-lu and focusing on the problem of "lingfeng" , it talks about how the officials of late Wan Li era delt with the relations between China ,Japan and Ryukyu. Finally, with the help of Japanese Diplomatic Documents , it writes about court officials' opinions, mainly Ho Ju-Chiang, Li Hung-Chang and Liu Kun-yi's, towards "the Ryukyu Question", aiming at pointing out the official's influence on the founding and falling of the whole tributary relations system, which consist of China as the lord country, and Japan, Korea, Ryukyu as the subject countries.