Chūzan

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Chūzan in central Okinawa during the Sanzan period.

Chūzan ( Japanese 中山 , eng. "Central Mountain") was one of the three kingdoms that controlled the island of Okinawa during the Sanzan period in the 14th and early 15th centuries. The island was divided into countless tribal principalities and small kingdoms, from which three central kingdoms emerged in the years from 1314. In addition to Chūzan, these were the kingdoms of Nanzan and Hokuzan . Chūzan was able to gain control of Hokuzan in 1416 and Nanzan in 1429, thus unifying the island. In the same year, King Shō Hashi of Chūzan founded the Kingdom of Ryūkyū .

history

Before the founding of Chūzan, the rulers of Okinawa were loosely subordinate to a supreme prince of Okinawa. After Prince Eiji's death in 1313, his son Tamagusuku took over the office. Tamagusuku did not manage to get all the princes to regard him as a legitimate ruler, so that rebellions against him came almost immediately. Therefore, in 1314, he proclaimed the kingdom of Chūzan from his future capital, Urasoe . Several princes fled with their entourage to the north and south of the island and brought the areas there under their control. In 1322 the kingdom of Hokuzan was formed in the north and in 1337 the kingdom of Nanzan in the south of the island. Although the island was now divided into three kingdoms, the rulers of the three kingdoms succeeded in asserting themselves as undisputed kings against the other tribal chiefs, so that Okinawa was more or less centrally united for the first time.

Tamagusuku died in 1336, before Nanzan was founded, and was inherited by his then ten-year-old son Seii . His mother initially took over the reign for her son, but presented herself as a bad administrator and annoyed many potential supporters of her son. Even after Seii had taken over the business of government himself, he could not regain power for himself. Sometime between 1349 and 1355 he was ousted and killed by the lord of the city Urasoe, Satto . Under the rule of King Satto, the port of Nāfa , which was already important for the ever increasing sea trade in the region, was expanded further, giving the kingdom a great advantage over Nanzan and Hokuzan. Due to the growing importance of Chūzan for trade, Satto succeeded in having his kingdom included in the tribute system of the Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1372 , which allowed an official trade with the empire. Although Nanzan and Hokuzan were later also included in the system, they could only send 19 and nine missions to China, respectively, while Chūzan sent 52 embassies to the Empire to act in the same period.

Over the following years, contact with China was continuously expanded. Chūzan residents were sent to China to study, and Chinese teachers and traders came to the empire. The Kumemura district in Nāfa was established for them. From this the cultural center of the kingdom soon developed.

In 1406, Satto's successor, Bunei, achieved a special honor. After the death of the Chinese Emperor Hongwu in 1398, all three kingdoms sent ambassadors to Nanjing asking for their respective rulers to be officially recognized as king. Hongwu had previously refused to do so, as there was only one ruler over Okinawa for him. The request was not answered until 1406, when a Chinese embassy came to Chūzan and officially recognized Bunei from King. Although the king of Nanzan was also officially recognized in 1415, he could no longer make a profit from this due to the imminent end of his empire.

Although Bunei's rule was crowned with success, he was unable to keep the princes of his country effectively under control. So it came in 1407 to the rebellion of Prince Hashi , who disempowered and killed Bunei and installed his father Shishō on the throne. In 1416, Hashi used internal disputes in the Hokuzan Empire to conquer it and incorporate it into his empire. After his father's death in 1421, he ascended the throne himself and installed his brother as the powerless governor in Hokuzan. In the following years he and his family received the official dynastic name Shang (尚, Shō in Japanese and Ryūkyūisch ) from the Ming , which was then carried before the name of the respective ruler. In 1429 Shō Hashi finally used throne disputes in the kingdom of Nanzan to occupy it and incorporate it into his kingdom. After uniting Okinawa in this way, he proclaimed the Ryūkyū Kingdom that same year .

literature