A Study of the role of Tutongshi (土通事) and Yahang (牙行) or Qiushang (球商) in the history of international relations between China and Ryukyu.

摘要

It was the Tutonghsi 土通事 and Yahang 牙行 or Qiushang 球商 that supported the international relations between China and Ryukyu in an age of Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty behind the scenes. Tutonshi 土通事 were chinese interpreters for Ryukyuan language, Yahans 牙行 or Qiushang 球商 were chinese middlemen who dealt with Ryukyuan tributary trade goods.In the first part of this paper, I examine various problems of Tutongshi in the negotiation systems between China and Ryukyu, that is to say, those of the origin and meaning of different names, their training, recruiting and dismissing ways, their duties and responsibilities.In the second part, I examine the participations of Yahang in the affairs of confiscation from private trade goods at the end of Ming dynasty, the formation of the ten dominant houses of Yahang as reorganization of Ryukyuan tributary trade system.In the third part, I examine the role of Tutongshi in the solution of Ryukyuan foreign affairs after the Opium War, for example, treatment of the English and French missionary, and chinese coolies in the Ishigaki island (石垣島), and the role of Qiushang as the intelligencer to Ryukyuans in the case of the Opium War and the Riot Taiping.