36 Boundaries and Beyond
The Ryukyus: The sea-going prohibition law of the Ming that disrupted
Japan’s direct contact and trade with China opened the way for the
Ryukyuans to take up an intermediary role between Japan, China and
the Nanhai. The active participation of the Ryukyus in seafaring activities
was greatly boosted by the Chinese migrants from Fujian. The early Ming
government even sent Fujianese seamen there to help the local people
develop navigational skills.^127 It is one of the many examples illustrating
the integrative power of the East Asian maritime civilization.
During the βifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this small island kingdom
not only maintained close friendly relations with Ming China, but also
actively participated in trade with the Nanhai, successfully building a
triangular trading zone between the three sectors. Takeshi Hamashita
states that the Ryukyus established a trading network with Japan, Korea
and China in Northeast Asia and Siam, Sumatra, Java, Malacca, Annam,
Sunda, Pattani and other places in Southeast Asia.^128 The Ryukyuans
“served as active agents for maritime trade between China and many
overseas countries in the βifteenth century” and their ships frequented
“Japanese ports such as Hyogo, Sakai, and Hakata, to collect Japanese
goods for the tribute-trade with China.”^129 The Ryukyuans came to
Malacca sometimes in the company of the Chinese; sometimes on their
own with one to three junks every year. The goods brought to Malacca
included swords, gold, copper, arms of all kinds, coffee, boxes veneered
with gold leaf, fans, wheat, a great store of paper and silk in all sorts
of colors, musk, porcelain, damask, onions and many vegetables. They
shipped back the same merchandise as the Chinese did, including large
quantities of Bengal cloths and Malacca wine, some of it to be sold in
China and Japan. From Japan, in exchange for their merchandise they
obtained gold and copper.^130 Citing the Ryukyan archival records, Lidai
Baoan (Precious Documents of Successive Reigns), both Xu Yihu and
- Xie Bizhen 谢必震, Zhongguo yu1liuqiu 中国与琉球 [China and the Liuqiu]
(Xiamen daxue chubanshe, 1996), pp. 31–47. - Takeshi Hamashita, “Haiyu Yazhou yu gangkou wangluo”, p. 2; Takeshi
Hamashita, “Relations among Malacca, Ryukyu and South China during the
15th–18th Centuries through Lidai Baoan of Ryukyu Kingdom”, in Haiyang shi
yanjiu, 1 海洋史研究 (第一辑) [Studies of Maritime History, Vol. 1] (Beijing:
Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2010), pp. 18–31. Sydney Crawcour points
out that, from the Ryukyu trade, “we might get some important clues to the
network of Asian trade before the entry of Europeans”. See Sydney Crawcour,
“Notes on Shipping and Trade in Japan and the Ryukyus”, The Journal of Asian
Studies 23, 3 (May 1964): 377. - Chang Pin-tsun, “Chinese Maritime Trade”, pp. 175–8.
- Suma Oriantal of Tomé Pires, Vol. 1, pp. 128–31.
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