Changes

===Independence===

===Independence===

[[File:Bridge of Nations Bell.jpg|right|thumb|320px|A replica of the ''Bankoku shinryô no kane'', or [[Bridge of Nations Bell]], hanging at Shuri castle. The inscription speaks of Ryûkyû as a bridge between all nations]]

[[File:Bridge of Nations Bell.jpg|right|thumb|320px|A replica of the ''Bankoku shinryô no kane'', or [[Bridge of Nations Bell]], hanging at Shuri castle. The inscription speaks of Ryûkyû as a bridge between all nations]]

Despite its tiny land area, the kingdom came to play a crucial role in regional trade networks as a transshipping point. Much of the tribute goods paid by the kingdom to China came originally from Southeast Asia. Hundreds of Ryukyuan vessels, many of them acquired from the Ming, but operating on behalf of the Ryukyuan royal government, traversed the seas, making port in China, Korea, Japan, and at least eight different ports across Southeast Asia, engaging not only in trade but also in diplomatic exchanges.<ref>Records show a number of instances of Ryûkyû requesting seagoing vessels from Ming and from Siam, explicitly for the purpose of facilitating maritime trade activities. Some scholars have suggested this indicates that Ryukyuan vessels were themselves not capable of traversing such vast distances safely or effectively. Chan, Ying Kit. “A Bridge between Myriad Lands: The Ryukyu Kingdom and Ming China (1372-1526).” MA Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2010, 58n147, 60. http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/20602.</ref> Goods from Japan consisted primarily of precious metals and objects of fine art; the kingdom acquired primarily medicinal herbs, ceramics, and textiles from Korea and China. These were then exchanged in Southeast Asian ports for a variety of spices, aromatic woods, skins, ivory, and other animal products, and sugar.

Despite its tiny land area, the kingdom came to play a crucial role in regional trade networks as a transshipping point. Much of the tribute goods paid by the kingdom to China came originally from Southeast Asia. Hundreds of Ryukyuan vessels, many of them acquired from the Ming, but operating on behalf of the Ryukyuan royal government, traversed the seas, making port in China, Korea, Japan, and at least eight different ports across Southeast Asia, engaging not only in trade but also in diplomatic exchanges.<ref>Records show a number of instances of Ryûkyû requesting seagoing vessels from Ming and from Siam, explicitly for the purpose of facilitating maritime trade activities. Some scholars have suggested this indicates that Ryukyuan vessels were themselves not capable of traversing such vast distances safely or effectively. Chan, Ying Kit. “A Bridge between Myriad Lands: The Ryukyu Kingdom and Ming China (1372-1526).” MA Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2010, 58n147, 60. http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/20602.</ref> Goods from Japan consisted primarily of precious metals and objects of fine art; the kingdom acquired primarily medicinal herbs, ceramics, and textiles from Korea and China. These were then exchanged in Southeast Asian ports for a variety of spices, aromatic woods, skins, ivory, and other animal products, and sugar.

Most sources indicate that, while the majority of the Ryukyuan peasantry were illiterate and led very simple lives, they always had enough to subsist on. The great wealth acquired by the royal government, government officials, aristocrats, and merchants did not spill over into conspicuous prosperity for all, but neither did the government truly oppress or impoverish the peasantry.

Most sources indicate that, while the majority of the Ryukyuan peasantry were illiterate and led very simple lives, they always had enough to subsist on. The great wealth acquired by the royal government, government officials, aristocrats, and merchants did not spill over into conspicuous prosperity for all, but neither did the government truly oppress or impoverish the peasantry.

Shô Hashi relocated the capital from [[Urasoe]] to [[Shuri]], nearer to the scholar-bureaucrat center of [[Kumemura]], and the port of [[Naha]], and expanded the ''[[gusuku]]'' (castle) there into a royal palace on the Chinese model. There, he worked to construct a notion of kingship based on the Chinese model, in which the king's rule was seen as legitimate not because of military might, but based on his virtuous character, and on a perception of the king as the benevolent ruler whose virtue united and sustained the kingdom. This discursive project, of constructing in Ryûkyû a Confucian kingdom, was continued by Hashi's successors, and may be said to have reached its full realization under King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]], in the first decades of the 16th century.<ref>Chan, 29.</ref>

Shô Hashi relocated the capital from [[Urasoe]] to [[Shuri]], nearer to the scholar-bureaucrat center of [[Kumemura]], and the port of [[Naha]], and expanded the ''[[gusuku]]'' (castle) there into a royal palace on the Chinese model. There, he worked to construct a notion of kingship based on the Chinese model, in which the king's rule was seen as legitimate not because of military might, but based on his virtuous character, and on a perception of the king as the benevolent ruler whose virtue united and sustained the kingdom. This discursive project, of constructing in Ryûkyû a Confucian kingdom, was continued by Hashi's successors, and may be said to have reached its full realization under King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]], in the first decades of the 16th century.<ref>Chan, 29.</ref>

The bureaucratic and governmental structures of the kingdom, based on those of Chûzan, developed and solidified over the course of the 15th century, following, in many ways, a Chinese model. A complex bureaucracy ran the kingdom, the heads of each branch known collectively as the [[Council of Fifteen]]. The king was of course at the top of the hierarchy, his chief advisor known as the ''[[sessei]]''. After [[1556]], when the mute [[Sho Gen|Shô Gen]] ascended the throne, a council of regents or advisors known as the ''[[Sanshikan]]'' emerged and gradually came to wield significant power, eventually eclipsing the ''sessei''.

The bureaucratic and governmental structures of the kingdom, based on those of Chûzan, developed and solidified over the course of the 15th century, following, in many ways, a Chinese model. A complex bureaucracy ran the kingdom, the heads of each branch known collectively as the [[Council of Fifteen]]. The king was of course at the top of the hierarchy, his chief advisor known as the ''[[sessei]]''. After [[1556]], when the mute [[Sho Gen|Shô Gen]] ascended the throne, a council of regents or advisors known as the ''[[Sanshikan]]'' emerged and gradually came to wield significant power, eventually eclipsing the ''sessei''. In these and other ways, the kingdom adopted Confucian & Ming customs, political philosophy, and practices in order to present a discourse of power and legitimacy both to China and other neighbors in the region, and to the Ryukyuan people, through an adoption of the Confucian rhetoric of the benevolent monarch from whom virtue and civilization emanates. Still, the royal court exercised considerable agency in shaping its adoption of Chinese customs and forms as it saw fit, maintaining much indigenous forms and elements as well. While the Chinese system of [[court ranks in China|court ranks]] was adopted, Ryûkyû did so with its own indigenous system of colored robes, hairpins, and [[hachimaki|court caps]] indicating [[Ryukyuan court ranks|court rank]], not adopting the Chinese system entirely. Further, internal government documents were regularly written in ''kana'', in the [[Okinawan language]], not in Chinese; students studying to join the scholar-bureaucracy were educated in Chinese, Japanese, and Okinawan, and in fact from the 17th century onwards, [[Neo-Confucianism|Neo-Confucian]] and [[Confucian classics|classic Confucian texts]] were taught largely in Japanese forms, rather than in the original Chinese.<ref>Takatsu Takashi, “Ming Jianyang Prints and the Spread of the Teachings of Zhu Xi to Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom in the Seventeenth Century,” in Angela Schottenhammer (ed.), ''The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture'', Harrassowitz Verlag (2008), 263-264.</ref> Chinese ''was'' used in formal communications with Ming (and later Qing) China, but even from quite early on, communications with Japan were written in a Japanese form called ''wayô kanbun'', and not in standard [[classical Chinese]].<ref>Chan, 70.</ref>

The village of Kumemura, a short distance from the capital at Shuri, had been founded in [[1393]] by a number of Chinese scholars, bureaucrats, and craftsmen from Fukien settled there with their families by order of the Ming Court. The town rapidly developed into a center of scholarship and Chinese culture, and came to be something of a training ground for the kingdom's bureaucrats; nearly all of the administrators in the royal government came from Kumemura, and positions were based on showing in royal examinations, rather than purely on birth. A system was also established by which a select few members of the Kumemura community would travel to Fuzhou and Beijing to study. In addition to becoming well-versed in the Chinese classics, and being educated and trained in the ways of a bureaucrat, these students would frequently bring back specific skills or knowledges to be implemented in the kingdom, such as geomancy, navigation, or various craft skills.

The village of Kumemura, a short distance from the capital at Shuri, had been founded in [[1393]] by a number of Chinese scholars, bureaucrats, and craftsmen from Fukien settled there with their families by order of the Ming Court. The town rapidly developed into a center of scholarship and Chinese culture, and came to be something of a training ground for the kingdom's bureaucrats; nearly all of the administrators in the royal government came from Kumemura, and positions were based on showing in royal examinations, rather than purely on birth. A system was also established by which a select few members of the Kumemura community would travel to Fuzhou and Beijing to study. In addition to becoming well-versed in the Chinese classics, and being educated and trained in the ways of a bureaucrat, these students would frequently bring back specific skills or knowledges to be implemented in the kingdom, such as geomancy, navigation, or various craft skills.