17·18세기 류큐(琉球) 사서(史書) 소재 왕통(王統) 시조 신화와 왕권의 논리

Myths for Kingship of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries

In the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Ryukyu kingdom had been invaded and controlled by Japan, some official texts about 'history' were documented. In that texts, there are some myths about the kings-Syunten(舜天), Eiso(英祖), Satto(察度), Syouhasi(尙巴志), Syouen(尙圓)-who founded dynasties of Ryukyu kingdom. This study attempts to delineate the features and meaning of those founder myths as a polotial discourse for kingship. The results of this study are as follows. 1. The founder myths are discourses to describe the genealogy of the Ryukyu kingdom as the result of Mandate of Heaven(T'ien Ming, 天命). 2. In ancient okinawa, the sun was a symbol of ruler. The king of Ryukyu kingdom was thought as 'son of the sun', 'Tedako(てだこ, 太陽子) in the time of Syou dynasty(尙王朝). But in the founder myths, the only one Tedako is Eiso. 3. In the myths, the 'historical' founders are described as the king for agriculture. They were said to make the farming instruments with iron and rule the spring water for farming. The iron and water for fariming was thought to represent the power of king and the kingship. 4. The writers of myths aimed to be separated from the mythical kingship of past Ryukyu(古琉球). So, they threw the idea of Tedako(=mythical kingship) into the prison of mythical ages by rewriting myth of King Eiso. Instead of it, they built up the new image of agriculture-king who rules and controlls the iron and water for good farming. The meaing of this change, from 'shiny sun' to 'cultural king', is that the abstract and general power of kingship was turned into a concrete and restricted power of kingship. On the bases of it, there was the confucian political ideas from China, T'ien Ming thought(天命論). Under the influence of not only China but also Japan, the writers of myths attempt to find a new way for their kingdom by reconstructing kingship with ruminating over the kingship of past. The myth of founders in the 17th and 18th Centuries shows the aspects of kingship of Ryukyu kingdom and tells us that those myths are the political discourses identifying kingship and Ryukyu kingdom.