Research On The Historical Relationship Between Zhejiang Province And Ryukyu In Ming And Qing Dynasties

Ryukyu kingdom had long-run historical relationship with Zhejiang province of China.It was in Yuan Dynasty that boatmen from Miyako were floated to Yongjia county of Wenzhou city in Zhejiang Province where the translator helped them go back home.That manifested the beginning of the relationship between Ryukyu and Zhejiang province.In Ming Dynasty,under the circumstance of establishment of official tribute system,the Sino-Ryukyu relationship was strengthened,especially in trade of tribute system.Ryukyu envoys always paid tribute to China via Wenzhou and Ningbo cities,in order to gain high-profit goods such as chinaware.The ocean economy of eastern Asia enjoyed well developed booming until invasion of Japanese pirates in the period of Jiajing empire.Seriously,Japanese pirates invaded Zhejiang province,meanwhile,Ryukyu allied with Zhejiang government to caught pirates in that Ryukyu became the protective screen of coast defense system.The political geographic boundary of eastern Asia still could be made clear by Zhejiang local officials.However,Ryukyu was out of control by Chinese government when Japanese satsuma invaded Ryukyu.Since then,Zhejiang officials suspected of the boats from Ryukyu,even took them for granted,or defeated them,for they thought those boats as members of Japanese pirates.In Ming Dynasty,there was four Chinese envoys for conferring titles of nobility on Ryukyu Kings.They did their work well.In terms of folk,Yang Mingzhou and his fellows,Taizhouneses of Zhejiang province,were floated into Ryukyu islands for compensating for the loss of Chinese people there.In Qing Dynasty since the stable political pattern of eastern Asia,Ryukyu kingdom had political and cultural relationship with Zhejiang province in details as follows: firstly,in the tribute road,Zhejiang officials and heads of counties accompanied Ryukyu envoys to keep them safe and paid pension for those who died in the midway of Zhejiang.Meanwhile,there were hundreds of poems about Zhejiang left behind by those envoys,who enjoyed beautiful scenery and social customs there.In another hand,those envoys arrived at Hangzhou to pay a visit to Zhejiang government for giving thanks to salvation of boatmen in last years.Secondly,as the place that received the biggest numbers of wind draft boats from Ryukyu,Zhjejiang government established strong marine salvation network to send boatmen of Ryukyu to Fujian province,and paid pension for them,even in the shortage of finance in order to maintain tribute system.Thirdly,there were two Zhejiang envoys called Fei Xizhang and Gao Renjian went to Ryukyu to finish the work of investing with rank for Ryukyu king,and those Zhejiang suites who were skillful in art or poetry,had great contribution to the development of sino-Ryukyu relationship.At last,official teachers from Zhejiang province kept good relation with students from Ryukyu.They also kept connection with literati,scholars and officialdom in Zhejiang province to provide nice memory of relation between Ryukyu and China.