For those who are concerned about the history of international relations in East Asia in the seventeenth century, the incident in which the Satsuma Shimazu family invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609 (the fourteenth year of Keishō) can be said to be very famous. As for the discussion of the causes of the incident, it is relatively simple, and it is more inclined to interpret this incident as Tokugawa Japan's intention to get rid of the political order of the Ming and Qing Empires, that is, under the influence of the so-called "Huayi change of posture", to get rid of the tributary system of the Chinese Empire and realize Japan's dream of a "little Chinese Empire".
In fact, the current expert understanding of this event is still more based on the history books compiled later, such as the Shimazu family history of the Shimazu clan (Satsuma Domain). The book is written in Chinese, which is naturally beneficial to researchers who are not familiar with ancient Japanese, but the convenience is not comparable to the historical value of the book. Moreover, the pattern of this incident was not limited to the expeditions of the powerful Shimazu family in a certain part of Japan to other countries, but also involved the foreign policy of the newly established Tokugawa regime behind the Shimazu family.
<h1>Because of its old friendship with the Shimazu clan, Ryukyu became a scourge of Ryukyu</h1>
Before discussing the Shimazu family's invasion of Ryukyu, it is necessary to sort out Japan's relationship with Ryukyu.
Through archaeology, it can be seen that traces of cultural exchange between the Japanese islands and the Ryukyu Islands began as early as the Nobushi period, and Japanese intelligence records about the Ryukyu Islands can be seen as early as the end of the Heian period. In 1414, in the early fifteenth century, the two countries formally established an exchange relationship. Receiving a gift from the Ryukyu Kingdom, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori wrote a letter of thanks in return, initiating official exchanges between the two countries. Interestingly, at that time, Japan only had not much official exchanges with the Ming Dynasty, mainly personal relations. Moreover, it is well known that Ashikaga Yoshinori adopted a different diplomatic attitude from his father Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and his interest in diplomatic relations with the Ryukyu Kingdom was generally over.
By the time of his younger brother and sixth-generation shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, relations with Ryukyu had become slightly more positive, indicating that he wanted Ryukyu merchant ships to come to Japan more often. Since then, the Japanese-Ryukyu trade has officially begun, and the Ryukyu Kingdom has sent emissaries to Kyoto to meet With General Ashikaga and the Emperor. As the demand for Trade between Japan and the Ming Dynasty grew, Japan was eager to establish another commercial relationship with the Ming Dynasty through the Ryukyu Islands.
Therefore, the shogunate was eager to strengthen trade to meet the growing demand for material enjoyment, and took advantage of the powerful western Japanese princes who also had a great desire for foreign trade, such as the ZhouFang Ouchi family, who had always had friendships with Korea and Ryukyu. It was at this time that satsuma Shimazuya, the protagonist of this article, actively engaged in the struggle for "patent rights".
At that time, at the time of the famous Rebellion of the Otohito Civilization, the shogunate was in the midst of war, and still did not forget to trade, in order to replenish military resources and revitalize after the war. In 1471 , the shogunate , in order to ensure that the other daimyōs could not trade with Ryukyu privately and divide their interests , decided to put the Shimazu clan, which was part of the "neighboring country" with Ryūkyū , in charge of monitoring the sea lanes and preventing the daimyō from sending ships to Ryukyu without permission. Of course, the Shimazu family, who was in charge of this task, took the shogunate's orders and the name of Daiichi and openly monopolized the trade relations with Ryukyu. Interestingly, this shogunate order not only helped the Shimazu family become friends with the Ryukyu Kingdom, but also became the reason for the later Satsuma Clan to invade Ryukyu for its ancestors.
In the 1540s, after the Shimazu Tadayoshi and Takahisa sons of the Shu family took control of the Shimazu family, they again requested mutual trade with Ryukyu. At that time, the diplomatic letters sent by Shimazu Takahisa to the Ryukyu King could be said to be extremely respectful and unassuming, and they repeatedly expressed their desire to cultivate the good of the two countries, showing that the two exchanged on the basis of reciprocal relations. Even in the time of his son Shimazu Yoshihisa, the two maintained this equal relationship and communication, and each used the corresponding era name in diplomatic letters, and the Ryukyu vassal belonged to the Ming Empire and naturally followed the Ming Dynasty Shoshuo; and the Shimazu family also used the Japanese era name.
Therefore, from all of the above, the relationship between the Shimazu family and the Ryukyu is by no means a subordinate as stated in the History of the Shimazu Kingdom. So, as one of the parties who later decided to send troops to Ryukyu, why would Shimazu Yoshihisa disregard the friendship between the former states?
<h1>The good is a scourge</h1>
Relations between Shimazu and Ryukyu took a major turn at the end of the Sixteenth Princess.
In 1586, Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Kyushu and defeated the Shimazu clan, which had almost unified Kyushu, forcing Shimazu Yoshihisa to surrender as a vassal. After the unification of Kyushu, Hideyoshi asked Shimazu Yoshihisa to send emissaries to Ryukyu and ordered them to send envoys to Japan to congratulate Hideyoshi on unifying western Japan. Although Shimazu Yoshihisa spared himself the trouble and sent people to ask Ryukyu to do the same, and warned Ryukyu that he would bear the consequences, the Ryukyu Kingdom did not immediately implement it.
As a result, the Toyotomi regime began to become anxious. In particular, Hideyoshi was ready to take Kanto and Okuwa at that time, and complete unification of the world was just around the corner. Hideyoshi's courtiers knew that satisfying Hideyoshi's fame and honor was the most urgent task. Therefore, in addition to putting pressure on the Ma Jong family, ishida Misei, the new shōgun of the Toyotomi regime who was in charge of the affairs of the Shimazu family, and the old minister Nagaoka Yusai again put pressure on the Shimazu family in early 1589, explicitly demanding that the Shimazu family instruct the Ryukyu kingdom to fulfill the scene of the country's "conscious" and "automatic" sending envoys to Japan to congratulate him, in order to take care of Hideyoshi's face. In other words, it is to make Hideyoshi feel the scene of "the return of the Ten Thousand Dynasties", rather than the illusion of coercion.
In order to make things a reality, Mitsei and Yusai threaten Yoshihisa with confiscating the Shimazu family's exclusive right to trade in the Ryukyu Islands since the Muromachi period. Yoshihisa fell into the predicament of "cornering", and suddenly understood the seriousness of the situation, and immediately sent an envoy to urge the Ryukyu faction to japan again to perform the "plot" according to the script.
Of course, as far as the current historical data is concerned, Yoshihisa did not tell the truth to the Ryukyu Kingdom, but only hoped that the Ryukyu Kingdom would satisfy Hideyoshi's vanity in the results and complete it as a crossover. However, in terms of results, the Shimazu family clearly underestimated Hideyoshi's ambitions.
At the end of 1589, at the request of the Shimazu family, the Ryukyu Kingdom finally sent envoys, along with the Shimazu family's envoys, to congratulate Hideyoshi on the unification of Japan, along with a congratulatory gift to Hideyoshi. When Yoshihisa thought that there was no danger, Hideyoshi, in the early spring of the following year (1590), planned to "advance by inching forward" and reply to the letter of state that he was about to invade the Ming Empire with his army, and even pointed out that the Korean Kingdom had sent envoys to ask Ryukyu to also send troops to join forces with the Japanese army.
Apparently, Hideyoshi's request for Ryukyu's troops was due to the fact that the emissaries sent by the Ryukyu Kingdom were expressing their sincere submission to the Toyotomi regime on behalf of the Ryukyu Kingdom, that is, according to the "script" written by Sansei and Yusai before. Therefore, Hideyoshi's request can be regarded as "logical" to cooperate with the script, but this is probably beyond the imagination of the Shimazu family.
Asking Ryukyu to send troops to attack the Ming Empire was obviously a shock to the bottom line of the Ryukyu Kingdom from the facts at that time, and it also embarrassed the Shimazu family in the middle. To make matters worse, Hideyoshi did not seem to know the truth, and believed that the Ryukyu Kingdom's last dispatch was not sincere enough to meet his own requirements, so he threatened the Shimazu family again, saying that he would "give" Ryukyu to Kamei Ziji, who was very interested in Ryukyu.
In other words, Hideyoshi showdown with the Shimazu family said, "If you can't do it, I'll change it to someone else, and I want to do more people who can do it!" Naturally, the Shimazu family could not be neglected, and immediately begged Hideyoshi to give up the idea of substitution, and sincerely accepted the chore. However, the Shimazu family also knew that Ryukyu had neither submitted to the Toyotomi regime nor sent troops, so they secretly changed the concept and reported to Hideyoshi that the Ryukyu Kingdom was their vassal, but it was remote and difficult to send troops, and proposed that Ryukyu be required to provide military food and money instead of sending troops.
As a result, Hideyoshi agreed to Shimazu's request, and the question was: How does the Shimazu family get the Ryukyu kingdom to continue to cooperate with the "performance"?
At that time, Shimazu Yoshihiro led his troops to attack Korea, and Yoshihisa, who was guarding the country, knew that he had half-deceived Ryukyu on an errand at first, but in the face of Hideyoshi's threat of confiscating the right of profit, he now had to continue to threaten Ryukyu as if he were deaf and dumb, telling the Ryukyu Kingdom that the envoys sent the previous year were not sincere enough, which made Hideyoshi furious and made the Shimazu family even more disgraceful. Therefore, for the sake of the intercourse between the two countries, Ryukyu was asked to send troops to make up for the "mistake".
However, Ryukyu, who had long been a vassal of the Ming Empire, had its own bottom line, and it was impossible to cooperate with the Shimazu family to perform this evil play. Moreover, when Ryukyu learned of Hideyoshi's intentions, he had already sent a message to the Ming Empire through Fujian Province. Therefore, this time, the Ryukyu Kingdom changed to delaying tactics and did not accede to Shimazu Yoshihisa's request. And the Shimazu family also had no time to coerce Ryukyu into submission with substantive actions because of the Umebei Rebellion and the invasion of Korea.
<h1>epilogue</h1>
With Hideyoshi's death on August 18, 1598, the Battle of Korea ended, and the Ryukyu Kingdom's delaying tactics worked and escaped. However, just as the so-called "blessing is not heavy, the misfortune is not alone", this luck in exchange for the Ryukyu Kingdom, the greater disaster, Hideyoshi's death 16 years after the final nightmare came true.