What Heaven Has Abandoned: Historiography and Political Legitimacy in the Kingdom of Ryūkyū
This article examines the tale of King Gihon and King Eiso, an example of what was considered legitimate dynastic transition among Ryūkyūan elites in the period between the seventeenth and nineteenth century. The Chūzan Seikan and the Chūzan Seifu, two of the Ryūkyū Kingdom’s official histories, present two similar but not identical versions of the events that allegedly led to the establishment of Ryūkyū’s third royal dynasty. Combining elements of Ryūkyūan, Chinese, and Japanese mythology along with narrative techniques of Confucian historiography, the story reflects the kingdom’s precarious place at the boundary of East Asia’s two dominating powers, namely, China and Japan. Regarding the Ryūkyū Kingdom as a contact zone, the article considers the Chūzan Seikan and the Chūzan Seifu as texts that were created in a process of transculturation. Based on a comparative analysis of the tale’s two versions, it traces the ideological elements and rhetorical patterns employed to construct specific readings of the kingdom’s past. Although their perspectives may differ, both accounts sought to afford the royal house a narrative of political legitimacy appealing to insider (Ryūkyūan) and outsider (Chinese and Japanese) observers. Thus, the episode can be seen as an effort to reaffirm the kingdom’s autonomy and positioning by historiographical means
Article, 2024
Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, 16, 20240628, 255
2024