The Study Of Modern Ryukyu Kingdom's Foreign Relations From Ryukyu Mandarin Textbooks

Ryukyu kingdom has been a vassal state of China since 1372,and is heavily influenced by Chinese politics,economy and culture.Between the contact of China and Ryukyu,language learning plays a vital role that can't be neglected,and precisely due to Ryukyuan needs for Chinese,the mandarin textbooks appeared.This paper based on Ryukyu mandarin textbooks included in The Collections of Chinese Documents and Archives about Ryukyu Kingdom explored the historical and cultural values of the Ryukyu mandarin textbooks and analyzed Ryukyuan foreign relationship with China,Japan and the West.The Ryukyu mandarin textbooks this paper studied have some basically reflects for the main features and connotations of the Ryukyu foreign relations,and it's language arrangement centered on the action that Ryukyu pays tribute to China,and sailing,merchandise trade and cultural interaction of Ryukyu and China.In addition,there also have some some details of Ryukyu mandarin textbooks that can't be found from the official history of Ryukyu and China,such as Ryukyuan concealment strategy against China in view of its special status between China and Japan.The exploration and research on these details will make up the shortage of official history and archival materials.