In the last issue, we talked about what the early Ryukyu society looked like and how it was incorporated into the ming dynasty's tributary system, in addition to this official exchange, in fact, the Ming Dynasty also made a very important decision, that is, immigration.
Due to the relatively slow development of the early Ryukyu society, although their development can be called average if placed in the world at that time, their development was obviously slow for the surrounding continents. Therefore, after they established a tributary relationship with the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty can be said to have taken great care of it, so when Ming Taizu considered the lag in the development of the local society, he planned to export his culture and ritual system to Ryukyu in order to give them some saints to educate. But this kind of education is not something that can be learned and cultivated in one or two generations. Therefore, Ming Taizu came up with the idea of official immigration to help the rapid development of Ryukyu. It can be said that Ming Taizu's decision was very wise,
In the 25th year of Ming Hongwu, Ming Taizu gave the Min people 36 surnames in Ryukyu, this Min people are Minnan people, that is, the current Fujian people, these 36 surnames are actually a general term for these Fujian immigrants, a total of 36 surnames of a large number of immigrants came to Ryukyu, but the specific number has been impossible to verify, their task is to spread the Chinese etiquette system, literary style and indoctrination to Ryukyu, so that as soon as possible here and the mainland "culture and religion in the same style", at least can achieve barrier-free communication with the Fujian people on the other side.
Most of them are people with a skill, some can sail, some can build ships, some are responsible for translation, some are responsible for documents, and some are responsible for import and export, it can be said that they are the mainstay of society at that time. They can support the most basic social functions, and after they came to Ryukyu, the king of Ryukyu arranged for them to settle in the vicinity of the current Naha, which is the location of the current US Military Naha base, in fact, the original place was called Nabo, which means the Bolai people. At that time, a total of 3 to 4 car owners were arranged for them, and it is interesting that although it was already the Ming Dynasty, the Ryukyuans at that time also called the place where the immigrants lived as Tang Camp, which can also be seen from this that the ancient Fan state's name for Chinese was greatly influenced by the Tang Dynasty, even if several dynasties have passed, they still like to call Chinese Tang. Not only that, because most of the people living here are important talents of the Ryukyu Kingdom, they are very honorable and noble people in the eyes of the locals, so later it was also called Tang Rong, after all, the word camp is not very good, and it always feels like a military camp.
The influence of these people on Ryukyu can be said to be far-reaching, and in their own ancient books of Ryukyu, it has been recorded that after the 36 surnames of the Min people came here, they first brought Confucian indoctrination, as well as the Niangniang Temple Guandi Temple, which has great virtues and great ideas. Since there is no music in the local area, the Min people also brought music, because Confucianism believes that music can move people's hearts, so it is not only listed as one of the "six arts", but also regards him and rituals, punishment, politics and other important means of governance to be promoted locally, I will slightly talk about this six arts, these six arts are the ancient six arts of the three-character scripture, the six arts that do not have it now, it refers to the ritual, music, shooting, imperial, book, number of six talents and skills. Vernacular explanation, etiquette is etiquette, music is music and dance, shooting is archery, imperial, is the royal driving of the royal conquest, is the meaning of driving, you have to be able to drive a carriage, you have to have a car book, the book is calligraphy, the number is counting, it can be seen that this is actually a kind of recognition standard for a person's ability at that time. Therefore, after the introduction of the Six Arts, Ryukyu had the idea of music.
After saying that according to the music, it is necessary to talk about etiquette, this kind of etiquette is not only inside and outside the court, the monarchs up and down, the official etiquette at home and abroad, but also includes a lot of folk etiquette, the last issue we said, the funeral rites of ancient Ryukyu are very simple, after the death of relatives and friends, the surrounding people cry for two days, the deceased take a wrapped cloth, a straw mat around, find a hillside to bury the end, and the thirty-six surnames will bring the traditional funeral system of the mainland also brought, after the death of the elders in the ancient general family, the descendants and grandchildren should keep filial piety for three years. You can't travel far for three years, you can't participate in entertainment, and so on. After coming to Ryukyu, in order to take care of the customs of the locals and avoid the lack of recognition of etiquette because the three years were too long, the immigrants changed the 3 years to 50 days in a measured manner. In addition to the spread of etiquette, immigrants also brought some customs and habits from the mainland to Ryukyu, such as dragon boat racing. Wrapping rice dumplings, ancestral temples and so on. While the immigrants brought customs, they also taught the local Ryukyuans navigation techniques, taught them shipbuilding, taught them to use compasses, and so on. He made a great contribution to the progress of Ryukyu society.
Of course, the local Ryukyuans also recognized their contributions, and at the same time gave these immigrants very generous treatment, not only allowing them to hold important positions in the government, but also allowing their descendants to inherit their titles. Even Ryukyu would send them back to the mainland to continue their studies, and invite them back after completing their studies. During the Kangxi period, there were descendants of Tang Rong who said very proudly: "I was a native of Minquan County, once one of the 36 surnames of the Min people during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, more than 300 years ago, to my place for 12 generations, our family once served, general affairs, long history, and has been serving in the Ryukyu Dynasty, in the future we will continue to be like now, forever hereditary" Means that in the future will always serve the exchanges between Ryukyu and the mainland. It can be said that Ryukyu was able to change from a Shengfan tribe to a country with an era of civilization, and most of the credit is due to the contribution of the 36 surnames of the Min people.
At the same time, the dynasties of the mainland, from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, also maintained a continuous and stable interactive relationship with Ryukyu, and they did not let go of the local area because of the technical migration to Ryukyu, but showed the cultural identity between them to the locals as much as possible. At the same time as the Ming Dynasty immigrated, the kingdom of Ryukyu was also constantly sending their royal family members to the mainland to learn, for this kind of request, whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the late Qing Dynasty, they all received all the orders, as long as you come, we will give you free training, and even the welfare given by the Qing Dynasty is higher than that of the Ming Dynasty. In those years, it was these officials and eunuchs who could come to the mainland to study, and the local economy was not developed, and the ordinary people of Ryukyu were not able to come at all, so the emperor of the mainland also knew that it did not cost much to raise you anyway, and it was not as good as the benefits of the corrupt officials at that time, so they were all paid for, and many of the Ryukyu students who came back then were studying in the current Beijing Guozijian, where they became Ryukyu officials, that is, official students. This Ryukyu official students have uncle Wang, uncle, prince, wang nephew, anyway, most of the children of the royal family will be sent to the mainland to study, in addition, the children of important officials of their kingdom will also be sent, in the more than 500 years of this clan, there are more than 100 people recorded in the literature, you may think, this person is not too much, of course, this is the official faction, the relative number of folk is much more, but then again, the entire kingdom of Ryukyu was not large, returned to the Bag Pile, the entire area is equivalent to the Huairou District of Beijing The population is said to be within a million people, such a projectile land, basically the entire national machine class is cultivated by the mainland, and the teachers who teach these official studies are also the top figures in the mainland at that time, in order to export orthodox Chinese culture to them. Later, when they came to the Qing Dynasty, there were more people studying, and the emperor arranged for them to study in Fujian while studying in Guozijian. And many students have been in the mainland for many years, so that the Ryukyu Kingdom has no way, give them a limited time, up to 7 years, after learning 7 years will come back immediately, afraid that after they finish their studies, they feel that their wings are hard, and they can't look at Ryukyu and can't come back.
Although there is the input of the Min 36 surname and the assistance of official learning, but this method is not omnipotent, to the time of the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty during the Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu said that due to the long time, many of the skills brought by the 36 surnames of the Min people have been broken, so they asked the mainland to send some more immigrants, especially navigation technology, and later the Ming ShenZong supplemented the Nguyen and Mao clans to naturalize Ryukyu to help them restore navigation technology and restore the tribute route.
Therefore, it can be seen that even after more than 200 years, it has reached the late Ming Dynasty, and the overall national ability of the Ryukyu State is still different from that of the mainland. Of course, it is not excluded that the local people migrate to the mainland. As a result, Ryukyu did not develop as fast as expected. However, during the Qing Dynasty, as the number of Ryukyu officials returned to their hometowns to set up more and more schools, the school method of copying the mainland from the Ming Dynasty gradually revealed its results, and the local talents became more and more abundant, and the overall education of Ryukyu gradually kept up with the mainland. During the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Ryukyu compiled a collection of poems from their kingdom, which also reflected that the Ryukyu scholars at that time were already good at Han poetry.
By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, as the overall national strength of Ryukyu began to awaken, Ryukyu gradually acquired a national culture with their characteristics, but still did not forget to continue to communicate with the mainland.
The Ming and Qing dynasties experienced hundreds of years, during which there were 2 dozen emperors, but the relationship with Ryukyu was consistent, and it was not annexed by the mainland because of the extremely small size of the country, nor did it be slow because of its small size. Some people may say that this is the Ming and Qing dynasties out of strategic considerations, to use it as an outpost to prevent Westerners from invading, but to tell the truth, 3, 4 hundred years ago, there was no radar, no ocean fleet, and there was no so-called global arrival, so whether it is science and technology or the world pattern, Ryukyu is far from reaching today's important strategic position. Therefore, the reason why the mainland can interact with the Ryukyu Fan state that has lasted for more than 500 years is actually out of the simplest principle of valuing righteousness and light profit, so that the mainland and the Ryukyu have never had a verbal dispute and a military confrontation, and every time there is a celebration, the Qing Dynasty will arrange the Ryukyu to sit with Korea, Annam, and Japan, and will not treat it differently from other Large Fan States because the Ryukyu territory is only 1 percent of them. This is rare in the records of national interactions around the world.
However, with the decline of the Qing Dynasty's national power, the giant insects of the East began to stir, and Ryukyu gradually began to be eaten away by Japan. Until the end of World War II, it became an outpost of the United States and Japan to resist China. In the next issue, we will talk about how Ryukyu was occupied by Japan.