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The united Okinawan state was called the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]], but would continue to be referred to as "Chûzan" in various official documents of the Ryukyuan royal government, and those of many other states in the region, until the kingdom was formally dissolved in [[1879]] and annexed to Japan as Okinawa Prefecture.+
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Chûzan was one of three kingdoms which controlled [[Okinawa]] in the 14th century. Based at [[Urasoe]], between [[Hokuzan]] to the north and [[Nanzan]] to the south, it was the wealthiest and most powerful of the three kingdoms on the island. Okinawa, previously controlled by a number of local chieftains or lords, loosely bound by a paramount chieftain or king of the entire island, split into these three more solidly defined kingdoms within a few years after [[1314]]; the [[Sanzan period]] thus began, and would end roughly one hundred years later, when Chûzan's King [[Sho Hashi|Shô Hashi]]<ref>Technically, Hashi's father [[Sho Shisho|Shô Shishô]] was king of Chûzan in 1419, and neither was called "Shô" until that name was granted them by the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming court]] in 1421.</ref> conquered Hokuzan in [[1419]] and Nanzan in [[1429]].
Chûzan was one of three kingdoms which controlled [[Okinawa]] in the 14th century. Based at [[Urasoe]], between [[Hokuzan]] to the north and [[Nanzan]] to the south, it was the wealthiest and most powerful of the three kingdoms on the island. Okinawa, previously controlled by a number of local chieftains or lords, loosely bound by a paramount chieftain or king of the entire island, split into these three more solidly defined kingdoms within a few years after [[1314]]; the [[Sanzan period]] thus began, and would end roughly one hundred years later, when Chûzan's King [[Sho Hashi|Shô Hashi]]<ref>Technically, Hashi's father [[Sho Shisho|Shô Shishô]] was king of Chûzan in 1419, and neither was called "Shô" until that name was granted them by the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming court]] in 1421.</ref> conquered Hokuzan in [[1419]] and Nanzan in [[1429]].
−Contrary to historians' traditional narrative based on official histories produced by the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] in order to legitimate and glorify its own history, [[Gregory Smits]] has written that "there is no strong evidence to suggest that [Hokuzan, Nanzan, and Chûzan] were territorial states and much to suggest that they were not.”<ref>Gregory Smits, ''Early Ryukyuan History: A New Model'', University of Hawaii Press (2024), 5.</ref> To the contrary, is likely that the three "kingdoms" were in fact nominal entities created to facilitate trade with Ming China; exercising control over merchant fleets, ports, and/or trading routes, each of these entities was named a "king" or "kingdom" by China so that it could act as a viable trading partner within Ming systems of authority.<ref>Smits, ''Early Ryukyuan History'', 4-5.; Smits, ''Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650'', University of Hawaii Press (2018), 60-89.</ref>
+Chûzan under Shô Hashi was, thus, most likely primarily not a territorial state but rather a trading entity, becoming a territorial state only about a century later, under King [[Sho Shin|Shô Shin]]. Though today typically referred to as the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]], the kingdom would actually continue to be referred to as "Chûzan" in various official documents of the Ryukyuan royal government, and those of many other states in the region, well into the early modern period, until the kingdom was formally dissolved in [[1879]] and annexed to Japan as Okinawa Prefecture.<ref>The phrase ''Ryûkyû koku Chûzan ô'' 琉球国中山王, which might be roughly translated as "the king of Chûzan in the land of Ryûkyû," is particularly common.</ref>
==History==
==History==
