Miscellaneous Records of a Mission to Ryukyu (Shi Liu Qiu Za Lu)

In 1683 (the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty ), serving as a historian at Hanlin Imperial Academy, Wang Ji was sent to Ryukyu as an imperial title-conferring envoy from the Qing court. According to his Miscellaneous Records of a Mission to Ryukyu (Shi Liu Qiu Za Lu), “… We successively passed Pengjia Mountain, Diaoyu Yu, Huangwei Yu, Chi Yu, Kume Mountain and Machi Mountain and finally arrived at Ryukyu.” “… in a short time, we reached Chi Yu but did not see Huangwei Yu. At dusk, we passed a trench, which is the boundary between China and foreign land.” At that time, even the boatmen of Fujian Province recognized Ryukyu Trench as the boundary between China and foreign land. During the Qing Dynasty, the trench, situated south of Diaoyu Dao, was well known as the border between China and Ryukyu.