Editing Ryukyu Kingdom (section)

=== Origins of the Kingdom ===

In the 14th century small domains scattered on [[Okinawa Island]] were unified into three principalities: {{nihongo|[[Hokuzan]]|北山||Northern Mountain}}, {{nihongo|[[Chūzan]]|中山||Central Mountain}}, and {{nihongo|[[Nanzan]]|南山||Southern Mountain}}. This was known as the {{nihongo|[[Sanzan period|Sanzan]]|三山||Three Mountains}} period. Hokuzan, which constituted much of the northern half of the island, was the largest in terms of land area and military strength but was economically the weakest of the three. Nanzan constituted the southern portion of the island. Chūzan lay in the center of the island and was economically the strongest. Its political capital at [[Shuri, Okinawa|Shuri]], Nanzan was adjacent to the major port of [[Naha]], and [[Kumemura|Kume-mura]], the center of traditional Chinese education. These sites and Chūzan as a whole would continue to form the center of the Ryukyu Kingdom until its abolition.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Many Chinese people moved to Ryukyu to serve the government or to engage in business during this period. At the request of the Ryukyuan King, the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] Chinese sent thirty-six Chinese families from [[Fujian]] to manage oceanic dealings in the kingdom in 1392, during the [[Hongwu Emperor]]'s reign. Many Ryukyuan officials were descended from these Chinese immigrants, being born in China or having Chinese grandfathers.<ref>{{cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Ka6jNJcX_ygC&pg=PA145 |title=The eunuchs in the Ming dynasty| first =Shih-shan Henry | last = Tsai|year=1996|publisher=SUNY Press|edition=illustrated|isbn=0-7914-2687-4|page=145|access-date= 4 February 2011}}</ref> They assisted the Ryukyuans in advancing their technology and diplomatic relations.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Ga-5mPOr2-wC&pg=PR13 |title= The East Asian maritime world 1400–1800: its fabrics of power and dynamics of exchanges| first =Angela | last = Schottenhammer|editor-first = Angela | editor-last = Schottenhammer|volume=4 of East Asian economic and socio-cultural studies: East Asian maritime history|year=2007|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |edition=illustrated|isbn=978-3-447-05474-4|page=xiii|access-date= 4 February 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ddcV_cGegX4C&pg=PA125 |title=Maritime sector, institutions, and sea power of premodern China| first =Gang | last = Deng|volume= 212 | series = Contributions in economics and economic history|year = 1999 | publisher=Greenwood |edition=illustrated|isbn=0-313-30712-1|page=125|access-date=4 February 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULyu8dNqS1sC&pg=PA39 |title=The Origins of Banana-fibre Cloth in the Ryukyus, Japan| first = Katrien | last = Hendrickx|year=2007|publisher=Leuven University Press|edition=illustrated|isbn=978-90-5867-614-6|page=39|access-date=11 January 2011}}</ref> On 30 January 1406, the [[Yongle Emperor]] expressed horror when the Ryukyuans castrated some of their own children to become eunuchs to serve in the Ming imperial palace. Emperor Yongle said that the boys who were castrated were innocent and did not deserve castration, and he returned them to Ryukyu, and instructed the kingdom not to send eunuchs again.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Wade  |first=Geoff |date=1 July 2007 |title= Ryukyu in the Ming Reign Annals 1380s–1580s |ssrn= 1317152 |ssrn-access=free |publisher= Asia Research Institute National University of Singapore |series= Working Paper Series |issue= 93 |page= 75 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1317152 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

These three principalities (tribal federations led by major chieftains) battled, and Chūzan emerged victorious. The Chūzan leaders were officially recognized by Ming dynasty China as the rightful kings over those of Nanzan and Hokuzan, thus lending great legitimacy to their claims. The ruler of Chūzan passed his throne to King Hashi; Hashi conquered Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, uniting the island of Okinawa for the first time, and founded the first Shō dynasty. Hashi was granted the surname "Shō" ({{lang-zh|c=尚|p=Shàng|links=no}}) by the [[List of emperors of the Ming dynasty|Ming emperor]] in 1421, becoming known as [[Shō Hashi]] ({{lang-zh|c=尚巴志|p=Shàng Bāzhì|links=no}}).{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

Shō Hashi adopted the Chinese hierarchical court system, built [[Shuri Castle]] and the town as his capital, and constructed Naha harbor. When in 1469 King [[Shō Toku]], who was a grandson of Shō Hashi, died without a male heir, a palatine servant declared he was Toku's adopted son and gained Chinese investiture. This pretender, [[Shō En]], began the Second Shō dynasty. Ryukyu's golden age occurred during the reign of [[Shō Shin]], the second king of that dynasty, who reigned from 1478 to 1526.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smits|first=Gregory|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1098213229|title=Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-8248-7708-8|location=Honolulu|page=137|oclc=1098213229}}</ref>

The kingdom extended its authority over the southernmost islands in the Ryukyu archipelago by the end of the 15th century, and by 1571 the [[Amami Ōshima]] Islands, to the north near [[Kyūshū]], were incorporated into the kingdom as well.{{Sfn | Matsuda | 2001 | p = 16}} While the kingdom's political system was adopted and the authority of Shuri recognized, in the Amami Ōshima Islands, the kingdom's authority over the [[Sakishima Islands]] to the south remained for centuries at the level of a [[tributary state|tributary]]-[[suzerain]] relationship.{{Sfn | Murai | 2008 | pp = iv–v}}