For the Record: Chinese Investiture Missions to Ryūkyū, 1404–1866

Abstract

Every time a Ryūkyū king came to the throne from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, a mission was sent from the Chinese court in Beijing to Fuzhou, then via investiture ships from Fuzhou to Naha and finally by land to the royal capital of Shuri, Ryūkyū, to officially acknowledge the new king. From 1404 to 1866 there were a total of twentythree such official missions celebrating the new kings. Each appointed Chinese envoy kept an official record of the entire journey. During the Ming dynasty they took the form of published woodblock-printed books known as Record of a Ryūkyū Mission (Shi Liuqiu lu). During the Qing dynasty a second manuscript format, consisting of a commemorative album containing sets of paintings, also appeared. Both formats, books and albums, are historical records enhancing our understanding of how a part of the wider China Seas maritime trading systems functioned at that time.