Modern Social Science Research

Weiyang, located at the nodal point of the Grand Canal’s waterway transportation, has long been a hub of economic and cultural prosperity. Its significance extends beyond domestic literary works, as it also emerged as a literary symbol disseminated across the East Asian Sinosphere. Focusing on Ryukyu documents, this study explores the abundant depictions of Weiyang preserved in Chinese poetry from various East Asian countries, revealing the cross-cultural dissemination of Han culture. The narrative of the "Lujin Chaste Maiden" underwent reinterpretation, ultimately serving as a Confucian pedagogical tool in literature and integrating into the broader East Asian network of chastity narratives. Represented by Ryukyu Chinese poetry, works related to Weiyang reflect the "third space" predicament of tributary literati, often expressing a "dual loyalty" to both China and Ryukyu. Additionally, due to the authors’ contextual identities, the depictions of Weiyang exhibit thematic diversity.

Ryukyu; Weiyang (Yangzhou); East Asian Sinosphere