China has always been a hardliner on sovereignty issues, but was powerless to lose its jurisdiction when its national power was weakened in the late Qing Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, Japan made many attacks and fought many wars with Korea, when China, as a suzerainty, helped Korea defeat the Wokou.
In modern times, Japan, like China, has been knocked on by the United States under closed conditions, but because Japan is a small and flexible island country, they are sensitive to the importance of learning from excellent countries, and they have also taken the last train of innovation.
After the Meiji Restoration, earth-shaking changes took place in Japan, and its national strength soared, once making the Japanese feel that they could conquer the world, of course, to change the fate of the island countries, they had to start from the neighboring countries, and the genes of aggression were once again stimulated, and it was the people of the neighboring countries who suffered.
There is an archipelago on the outskirts of the East China Sea, which is also a neighbor of Japan, which is the Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyu Islands have 400 to 500 large and small islands, of which more than 60 are inhabited islands, and there was originally a Ryukyu country in the world, which was swallowed up after 1871.
The historical Ryukyu kingdom regarded China as the suzerainty, and many of the chinese history books have recorded it, and the Book of Sui said that Ryukyu was originally called Ryukyu, and later China changed it to "Ryukyu", and the "YuanShi" also said that in fact, "Ryukyu" was pronounced from hakka.
In this way, the relationship between Ryukyu and China has been closely linked since ancient times, and there is no reason for it to be seized by other countries. By the time of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, in 1372, the archipelago was officially called "Ryukyu". At that time, Yang Zai was ordered to send an envoy to Ryukyu, and there was an edict as evidence.
The envoys of the Ming Dynasty to Ryukyu were to declare the Ming Dynasty a matter of Chinese orthodoxy and establish peace diplomacy with Ryukyu, when Ryukyu was actually divided into three parts, namely Zhongshan, Shannan, and Shanbei. King Chadu of Zhongshan was the first to send emissaries to China to pay tribute. The other two parts followed suit and came to pay their respects.
However, at that time, Ryukyu was not very peaceful, the three families fought for each other, the war continued, for this matter Ming Taizu also specially instructed the three kings to "stop the army and raise the people, in order to mianguo zuo", Ryukyu naturally obeyed when he heard it. Since then, Ryukyu has become a complete vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and in many ways has been influenced by China.
In 1392, Zhu Yuanzhang gave Ryukyu "Thirty-six Surnames of the Min People", which greatly changed the social development of Ryukyu, Ryukyu belonged to China for 500 years, until the Qing Dynasty still accepted the Chinese canonization, and the culture is also based on Chinese elements, Ryukyu sends students to Study in China every year, with Chinese era names, using Chinese characters.
However, Japan has always had a keen eye on Ryukyu, and in 1609 it also attacked Ryukyu. The Shimazu clan of the Satsuma Domain of Japan forcibly went to Ryukyu with 3,000 people to loot property, etc., and also captured the Ryukyu royal family, and made them pay tribute to Japan, and cut off the island, which was quite arrogant, but this did not change the relationship between Ryukyu and China, and Ryukyu also told China to guard against Japan.
Since the beginning of modern times, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan has begun to invade the outside world, and Ryukyu is their first piece of fish meat. In 1872, Japanese envoys to Ryukyu wanted to forcibly "canonize" the king of Ryukyu Domain, so that Ryukyu had two suzerainty for the first time, but the Qing government did not recognize this, and the Ryukyu king was reluctant to break away from the suzerainty with China.
Japan's aggression against the Ryukyu Islands was opposed by various ethnic groups, but Japan intensified its pressure, and in March 1879, Japan forcibly "abolished Ryukyu Prefecture", that is, changed it to Okinawa Prefecture of Japan. This caused the entire island of Ryukyu to rise up in resistance. The atrocities of satsuma's invasion of Ryukyu in those years are still vividly remembered, and now Ryukyu is about to become a dog that has lost its family, which is unacceptable to the Ryukyuan people.
Ryukyu sent officials to the Qing government at that time to ask for help, and even the Ryukyu official Lin Shigong was forced to commit suicide in Beijing, but all the Qing government could do was to "argue on the basis of reason", even if it did not want to give up Ryukyu, it was helpless for the powerful powers to invade, and it was impossible to send troops to fight in the past, not to mention that China had taken care of itself.
Of course, this did not dispel the determination of the Ryukyuan people and the people of all ethnic groups to resist the Japanese invaders, after all, this was a patriotic war for the Ryukyu country. In fact, after the annexation of Ryukyu, the people on the island were not treated as Japanese nationals, but were slaughtered by the Japanese during World War II, which is really outrageous.
The revolt of the Ryukyu people did not disappear until after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, but all Chinese and Ryukyuan people will not forget the atrocities committed by the Japanese when they were forced to leave China, and Ryukyu is also mentioned in the Song of the Seven Sons.
[References: Ryukyu, Ryukyu Incident]