In 1372, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, issued an edict to Chadu, the king of Zhongshan. The three kings of Shanbei, Zhongshan and Shannan paid tribute to the Ming government. Ryukyu became a vassal of the Ming Dynasty.

In 1392, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered thirty-six surnamed technicians from Fujian, China, who were good at shipbuilding and navigation, to immigrate to Ryukyu.

In 1416, Shang Bazhi, the king of Zhongshan, conquered Beishan.

In 1429, King Shobashi of Zhongshan conquered Nanshan and formed the unified Ryukyu Kingdom (the first Sho Dynasty). According to the vassal relationship between Ryukyu and the Ming Dynasty, each generation of Ryukyu kings needs to accept canonization from the Ming Dynasty.

In 1470, the first Shang Dynasty fell, and Shang Yuan (Shang Yin) established the second Shang Dynasty and accepted the canonization from the Ming Dynasty.

1400-1550, the golden age of the Ryukyu Kingdom, with highly developed commerce and trade with China, North Korea, Southeast Asia and Japan.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, a large number of Japanese pirates harassed the Ryukyu Islands.

In 1609 (the thirty-seventh year of Wanli), Japan's Tokugawa Ieyasu inherited Toyotomi Hideyoshi's policy of foreign expansion and sent 3,000 soldiers led by Shimazu Ieku of the Kagoshima Satsuma Domain near the Ryukyu Kingdom to invade Ryukyu, captured the King of Ryukyu. In 1654, the King of Ryukyu sent envoys to China to request for canonization. Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty named the King of Ryukyu as King Shangzhi, and Ryukyu became a vassal of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1752, Westerners drew an early chart of the North Central Sea, including the Diaoyutai Islands and the Ryukyu Islands. The maritime atlas describing China includes the Ryukyu Islands and the Diaoyutai Islands. Maritime activities start from Taiwan, pass through the Diaoyutai Islands, and finally reach the Ryukyu Islands and the entire process. The intermediate route goes from Keelung to the Ryukyu Islands. As early as 1775, foreigners already knew that Diaoyutai was the only waterway from Taiwan to the Three Mountains of Ryukyu.

In May 1853, the fleet of U.S. Commodore Perry (Matthew C. Perry) arrived in Ryukyu.

In March 1854, Perry signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan. Perry asked Japan to open the port of Naha in Ryukyu. Japan stated that Ryukyu is a distant country and Japan has no right to decide on the opening of its port.

On July 11, 1854, after the negotiation with Japan, Perry rushed back to Ryukyu to negotiate with the Ryukyu government. Finally, he formally signed a treaty in Chinese and English to open the Naha port.

In 1866, Shōtai, the last Ryukyu king, succeeded to the throne. In 1872, Japan declared that the Ryukyu Kingdom belonged to Japan's "internal vassal" and that the Ryukyu Islands were Japanese territory. It did not recognize China's suzerainty over Ryukyu since 1372 and formally invaded and occupied Ryukyu.

In 1873, Japan invaded Ryukyu, abolished the king, and established another puppet.

In 1875, Japan pushed further and invaded Ryukyu in large numbers, forcing the Ryukyu king to stop paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty. Ryukyu was prohibited from receiving canonization from the Qing Dynasty, and the Chinese era name was abolished and changed to the Meiji era name.

On March 30, 1879, Japan exiled Shōtai, the last Ryukyu king, to Tokyo and established Ryukyu as Okinawa Prefecture. The Ryukyu Kingdom was destroyed. In the same year, Japan officially announced the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands, sent a governor to replace the original King of Ryukyu, and named the place Okinawa, but this did not mean that Ryukyu sovereignty belonged to Japan. China, which was once the suzerain state, never recognized the legality of Japan's theft of Ryukyu sovereignty under international law. The Qing government, which at the time believed it had sovereignty over Ryukyu, also never signed a treaty regarding Japan's occupation of Ryukyu. This historical fact is also reflected in the history of the development of Ryukyu music: According to Shi Yong's research, "Musical imperial music was historically accompanied by political exchanges such as tribute, celebrations, gratitude, and the dispatch of Chinese envoys to Ryukyu. The music spread from China to the Ryukyu Kingdom later became the court ritual music of the Ryukyu Kingdom. It was played for the princes and nobles while sitting indoors, so it was named "Ozagaku". "Singing Music", as a kind of ceremonial music used by the Ryukyu King to entertain guests, was mainly played on occasions such as entertaining Chinese envoys and paying tribute to Edo. In 1879, with the abolition of feudal lords and the establishment of prefectures and the demise of the Ryukyu Dynasty, the imperial music was lost. No score survives.

" In 1879 (Meiji 12th year), the Japanese Emperor's government implemented the "abolition of feudal vassals and establishment of prefectures" and forcibly carried out the so-called "Ryukyu Disposal" in Ryukyu, dividing Ryukyu into two parts: the northern part was Japanese territory and was changed to "Okinawa Prefecture" ", the south was the territory of the Qing Dynasty, and they tried to force China to recognize it. At that time, the Ryukyu King Shangtai sent an envoy to the Beijing court to cry and beg the Qing Dynasty to protect the vassal country. China and Japan began negotiations on the Ryukyu Islands, and China proposed to divide the Ryukyu Islands into three parts: Amami Oshima, which is close to Japan, is Japanese territory. Ryukyu Island and its nearby islands exist as an independent Ryukyu Kingdom, while the Sakishima Islands in the south are Chinese territory. Japan proposes to divide Ryukyu into two parts: Ryukyu Island. The islands in the north are regarded as the territory of Japan, while the Sakishima Islands in the south are regarded as the territory of China (the ownership of the Diaoyutai Islands was not involved in the negotiations). The actual result here is: due to the insistence of some ministers of the Qing court, and the Ryukyu people. Despite the request, the Qing court never signed this treaty with Japan (even according to this treaty, the southern Ryukyus would still be classified as Qing territory), which meant that Japan had never recognized the sovereignty of Ryukyus.

1880 9 In March, China finally compromised during the negotiations and drafted the "Draft of Ryukyu Treaty", dividing Ryukyu into two parts in the manner proposed by Japan. However, the Qing emperor refused to agree to this unequal treaty and instructed Chinese representatives to continue negotiations with Japan. . Japan then left and the negotiations broke down. Due to the increasing weakness of the Qing Dynasty, Japan simply pretended to be deaf and completely annexed the southern Ryukyus.

In 1882, the consul in Tianjin, Takezoe Shinichiro, and the Qing government resumed. The Ryukyu issue was negotiated, but no agreement was reached.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China ceded Taiwan and Penghu to the Ryukyu Islands issue. From then on, the fact that the Ryukyu Islands belonged to a country and a vassal state of China began to be forgotten. In 1898, Japan forced the Ryukyu people to serve in the military. , the last Ryukyu king Shōtai died.

In 1916, the All-Okinawa Teachers Conference asked Okinawan teachers to punish students who spoke Ryukyu language in school.

In 1943, Yumi. The Cairo Conference attended by the heads of state, Britain, China and the Soviet Union agreed that the Chinese and American governments would jointly take charge of the Ryukyu Islands. As China was affected by the civil war, the National Government at that time was unable to send troops to garrison, causing China to once again lose the best opportunity to regain the Ryukyu Islands.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, the United States attacked Ryukyu Sanshan Island. Japanese soldiers forced Ryukyu people to commit suicide by jumping off cliffs or detonating bombs, or simply being beaten to death to reduce the pressure of lack of food in the caves. Or they were thought to be spies because they spoke Ryukyuan. This war reduced the population of Ryukyu by a quarter.

During the US occupation period from 1945 to 1972, the United States implemented an alienation policy in Ryukyu. The attitude of the People's Republic of China towards the U.S. occupation of Ryukyu is that the islands belong to the territory illegally occupied by the United States.

In April 1947, the United Nations passed the Agreement on the Mandatory Islands of the Former Japan, handing over the Ryukyu Islands south of 29 degrees north latitude and the Diaoyutai Islands originally belonging to China to the United States for trusteeship.

In 1951, the United States and Japan accepted US$300 million from Japan and some dirty deals without the participation of Chinese representatives (allowing the US military to use the Naha base for free; providing logistical support for the US military; establishing a military Ansuo provided sexual services to U.S. troops stationed in Japan, etc.) and was able to sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty between the United States and Japan, transferring the "administrative power" of the Ryukyu Islands and the Diaoyu Tai Islands to Japan. But this was met with opposition by the Ryukyu people, the owners of the land. They "gathered and cried in the downtown area" and organized several delegations to Taipei to cry and express their feelings to Chiang Kai-shek. The delegation used Chinese to implore President Chiang to consider that they were "one family" For the sake of Japan, he spoke uprightly at the United Nations and allowed Ryukyu to become independent or incorporated into Chinese territory. However, at that time, Chiang Kai-shek sought help from the United States and was also under pressure from the United States. Regarding the issue of Ryukyu ownership, the cowardly Chiang Kai-shek did not argue with reason. However, the Taiwan authorities of China still do not legally recognize the Ryukyu Islands (including the Diaoyu Islands). )’s territorial sovereignty belongs to Japan.

In 1972, the United States officially transferred administrative power over the Ryukyu Islands to Japan. Japan only formally implemented rule over the Ryukyu Islands and continued to implement its assimilation policy. Now, although the residents of the Ryukyu Islands are Japanese citizens, they have been influenced by Chinese culture for a long time, and their customs and habits are obviously different from Japanese culture. The Ryukyu Islands are still the most economically backward among Japan's 47 local autonomous entities.

In 1995, Ryukyu people protested against the gang rape of girls by the US military. Okinawa held a large-scale anti-American and anti-Japanese demonstration rally attended by about 85,000 people, demanding that Ryukyu break away from Japanese rule and the US military withdraw. Ryukyu.

On September 29, 2007, 110,000 Ryukyus held a county general meeting in Okinawa Prefecture at Ginowan City Seaside Park to protest against the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s deletion of World War II in the textbook review opinions. Later accounts of the Japanese army forcing Okinawa residents to commit "mass suicide". The executive committee of the conference, composed of the county council and the Parent-Teacher Association, among others, passed a resolution calling for the review opinion to be withdrawn and the status quo restored. The executive committee of the conference said: "The military's intervention in the mass suicide is obvious, and deleting this account is a distortion of historical facts."

On the land, will we recall the atrocities that destroyed the country and the country in a not-so-distant past? How would you feel?