Shō Shin ( 尚真 , 1465–1527; r. 1477–1527) was a king of the Ryukyu Kingdom , the third ruler of the second Shō dynasty . Shō Shin's long reign has been described as "the Great Days of Chūzan ", a period of great peace and relative prosperity. He was the son of Shō En , the founder of the dynasty, by Yosoidon , Shō En's second wife, often referred to as the queen mother. He succeeded his uncle, Shō Sen'i , who was forced to abdicate in his favor.
54-433: Much of the foundational organization of the kingdom's administration and economy is traced back to developments which occurred during Shō Shin's reign. As government became more institutionalized and organized, the aji (按司, local lords) gradually lost power and independence, becoming more closely tied to the central government at Shuri . In order to strengthen central control over the kingdom, and to prevent insurrection on
108-520: A stone tortoise and crowned with hornless dragons , while the lower-level officials had to be satisfied with steles with plain rounded tops, standing on simple rectangular pedestals. Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of
162-469: A T-shaped symbol. Near the ancient northwestern town of Amud in Somalia , whenever an old site had the prefix Aw in its name (such as the ruins of Awbare and Awbube ), it denoted the final resting place of a local saint. Surveys by A.T. Curle in 1934 on several of these important ruined cities recovered various artefacts , such as pottery and coins , which point to a medieval period of activity at
216-644: A commemorative function or served as boundary markers. Although sometimes plain, most bore a cuneiform inscription that would detail the stele's function or the reasons for its erection. The stele from Van's "western niche" contained annals of the reign of Sarduri II , with events detailed yearly and with each year separated by the phrase "For the God Haldi I accomplished these deeds". Urartian steles are sometimes found reused as Christian Armenian gravestones or as spolia in Armenian churches - Maranci suggests this reuse
270-568: A corpus of post-5th century historical texts engraved sometimes on steles, but more generally on materials such as stone and metal ware found in a wide range of mainland Southeast Asia ( Cambodia , Vietnam , Thailand and Laos ) and relating to the Khmer civilization. The study of Khmer inscriptions is known as Khmer epigraphy . Khmer inscriptions are the only local written sources for the study of ancient Khmer civilization. More than 1,200 Khmer inscriptions of varying length have been collected. There
324-524: A family unit or a household scene. One such notable example is the Stele of Hegeso. Typically grave stelai are made of marble and carved in relief, and like most Ancient Greek sculpture they were vibrantly painted. For more examples of stelai, the Getty Museum's published Catalog of Greek Funerary Sculpture is a valuable resource Steles (Chinese: bēi 碑 ) have been a major medium of stone inscription in China,
378-504: A golden age of poetry and literature blossomed. The first volumes of the Omoro Sōshi , a collection of poems, songs, and chants reflecting centuries-old oral tradition as well as contemporary events, were completed in 1532. Along with later volumes, the Omoro Sōshi would become one of the chief primary sources for modern-day historians studying the kingdom's history. The process of moving
432-605: A hallmark of Classic Maya civilization. The earliest dated stela to have been found in situ in the Maya lowlands was recovered from the great city of Tikal in Guatemala . During the Classic Period almost every Maya kingdom in the southern lowlands raised stelae in its ceremonial centre. Stelae became closely associated with the concept of divine kingship and declined at the same time as this institution. The production of stelae by
486-674: A large part of Ancient Greek funerary markers in Athens. Regarding stelai (Greek plural of stele), in the period of the Archaic style in Ancient Athens (600 BC) stele often showed certain archetypes of figures, such as the male athlete. Generally their figures were singular, though there are instances of two or more figures from this time period. Moving into the 6th and 5th centuries BC, Greek stelai declined and then rose in popularity again in Athens and evolved to show scenes with multiple figures, often of
540-486: A widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population. The Ming dynasty laws, instituted in the 14th century by its founder the Hongwu Emperor , listed a number of stele types available as status symbols to various ranks of the nobility and officialdom: the top noblemen and mandarins were eligible for steles installed on top of
594-659: Is the Rosetta Stone , which led to the breakthrough allowing Egyptian hieroglyphs to be read. An informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum . Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language . Standing stones ( menhirs ), set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland , were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in
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#1733094365530648-575: The Far East , and, independently, by Mesoamerican civilisations, notably the Olmec and Maya . The large number of stelae, including inscriptions, surviving from ancient Egypt and in Central America constitute one of the largest and most significant sources of information on those civilisations, in particular Maya stelae . The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding
702-458: The First Dynasty of Egypt . These vertical slabs of stone are used as tombstones, for religious usage, and to mark boundaries, and are most commonly made of limestone and sandstone, or harder kinds of stone such as granite or diorite, but wood was also used in later times. Stele fulfilled several functions. There were votive, commemorative, and liminal or boundary stelae, but the largest group
756-622: The Iron Age kingdom which existed in the Armenian Highlands of modern Armenia , Turkey and Iran between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Some were located within temple complexes, set within monumental rock-cut niches (such as the niche of the Rock of Van , discovered by Marr and Orbeli in 1916 ), or erected beside tombs. Others stood in isolated positions and, such as the Kelashin Stele , had
810-528: The Late Stone Age . The Pictish stones of Scotland, often intricately carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries. An obelisk is a specialized kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Great Britain are specialized steles . Totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones , typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph , are among
864-547: The Maya had its origin around 400 BC and continued through to the end of the Classic Period, around 900, although some monuments were reused in the Postclassic ( c. 900 –1521). The major city of Calakmul in Mexico raised the greatest number of stelae known from any Maya city , at least 166, although they are very poorly preserved. Hundreds of stelae have been recorded in
918-563: The Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica . They consist of tall sculpted stone shafts or slabs and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars, although their actual function is uncertain. Many stelae were sculpted in low relief, although plain monuments are found throughout the Maya region. The sculpting of these monuments spread throughout the Maya area during the Classic Period (250–900 AD), and these pairings of sculpted stelae and circular altars are considered
972-510: The Merneptah Stele , which features the first known historical mention of the Israelites . In Ptolemaic times (332 - 30 BC), decrees issued by the pharaoh and the priesthood were inscribed on stelae in hieroglyphs, demotic script and Greek, the most famous example of which is the Rosetta Stone . Urartian steles were freestanding stone obelisks that served a variety of purposes, erected in
1026-485: The Ryukyu Kingdom . It ranked next below a prince among nobility. The sons of princes and the eldest sons of aji became aji. An aji established a noble family equivalent to a shinnōke of Japan . The aji arose around the twelfth century as local leaders began to build gusuku (Ryukyuan castles). Shō Hashi was an aji who later unified Okinawa Island as king. The title aji variously designated sons of
1080-400: The aji came to be more integrated as a class, more closely associated with life and customs and politics at Shuri, and less attached to their ancestral territorial identities. The aji left deputies, called aji okite (按司掟), to administer their lands on their behalf, and some years later a system of jito dai (地頭代), agents sent by the central government to oversee the outlying territories,
1134-455: The aji to Shuri also brought about major changes to the city, including the construction of a great many grand gates, pavilions, lakes, bridges, monuments, and gardens. There came to be a great demand for masons, carpenters, and others, as well as for a wide variety of goods and materials, imported by each aji from his own territories. Okinawa Island quickly became more economically integrated, with goods and labor traveling to and from Shuri and
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#17330943655301188-471: The aji were divided into three districts – one each for those coming from the northern, central, and southern areas of Okinawa Island which had formerly been the independent kingdoms of Hokuzan , Chūzan, and Nanzan respectively. These regions were now renamed Kunigami , Nakagami , and Shimajiri , respectively, place names which remain in use today. Through intermarriage, residence in Shuri, and other factors,
1242-498: The battlefield of Waterloo at the locations of notable actions by participants in battle. A traditional Western gravestone (headstone, tombstone, gravestone, or marker) may technically be considered the modern equivalent of ancient stelae, though the term is very rarely applied in this way. Equally, stele-like forms in non-Western cultures may be called by other terms, and the words "stele" and "stelae" are most consistently applied in archaeological contexts to objects from Europe,
1296-814: The clerical script . Chinese steles from before the Tang dynasty are rare: there are a handful from before the Qin dynasty , roughly a dozen from the Western Han , 160 from the Eastern Han , and several hundred from the Wei , Jin , Northern and Southern , and Sui dynasties . During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions ( 墓誌 , mùzhì ) containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones. Erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became
1350-465: The Japanese word aruji "master". This biography of a member of an Asian royal house is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Stele A stele ( / ˈ s t iː l i / STEE -lee ), from Greek στήλη , stēlē , plural στήλαι stēlai , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument . The surface of
1404-494: The Korean royal court, several times, to send volumes of Buddhist texts; In the thirtieth year of his reign, a stele was erected in the grounds of Shuri Castle , listing Eleven Distinctions of the Age enumerated by court officials. A reproduction of this stele, destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa along with the castle, stands in the castle grounds today. The reign of Shō Shin also saw
1458-577: The Maya region, displaying a wide stylistic variation. Many are upright slabs of limestone sculpted on one or more faces, with available surfaces sculpted with figures carved in relief and with hieroglyphic text . Stelae in a few sites display a much more three-dimensional appearance where locally available stone permits, such as at Copán and Toniná . Plain stelae do not appear to have been painted nor overlaid with stucco decoration, but most Maya stelae were probably brightly painted in red, yellow, black, blue and other colours. Khmer inscriptions are
1512-568: The ancient Near East and Egypt, China, and sometimes Pre-Columbian America. Steles have also been used to publish laws and decrees, to record a ruler's exploits and honors, to mark sacred territories or mortgaged properties, as territorial markers, as the boundary steles of Akhenaton at Amarna , or to commemorate military victories. They were widely used in the ancient Near East , Mesopotamia , Greece , Egypt , Somalia , Eritrea , Ethiopia , and, most likely independently, in China and elsewhere in
1566-517: The earliest examples dating from the Qin dynasty . Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative, or edifying text. They can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures. In addition to their commemorative value, many Chinese steles are regarded as exemplars of traditional Chinese calligraphic scripts, especially
1620-739: The expansion of the kingdom's control over several of the outlying Ryukyu Islands . Okinawan ships began in the late 15th century to frequent Miyakojima and the Yaeyama Islands ; following a series of disputes among the local lords in the Yaeyama Islands which broke out in 1486, Shō Shin in 1500 sent military forces to quell the disputes and establish control over the islands. Kumejima was brought under firm control of Shuri, and liaison offices were established in Miyako and Yaeyama, in 1500 and 1524 respectively. Shō Shin also effected significant changes to
1674-455: The highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea , the Axumites erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these granite columns is the largest such structure in the world, standing at 90 feet. Additionally, Tiya is one of nine megalithic pillar sites in the central Gurage Zone of Ethiopia. As of 1997, 118 stele were reported in the area. Along with
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1728-533: The king and regional leaders. During the Second Shō Dynasty, when the aji settled near Shuri Castle , the word came to denote an aristocrat in the castle town. A pattern for addressing a male aji began with the place he ruled and ended with the word aji , for example, "Nago Aji ". For women, the suffix ganashi or kanashi (加那志) followed: "Nago Aji-ganashi ". The kanji used to spell this word, "按司", appears to be phono-semantic matching , consisting of
1782-540: The later history by being buried underground for several centuries. Steles created by the Kaifeng Jews in 1489, 1512, and 1663, have survived the repeated flooding of the Yellow River that destroyed their synagogue several times, to tell us something about their world. China's Muslim have a number of steles of considerable antiquity as well, often containing both Chinese and Arabic text. Thousands of steles, surplus to
1836-678: The most common types of stele seen in Western culture. Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin , the architect Peter Eisenman created a field of some 2,700 blank steles. The memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust. Egyptian steles (or Stelae, Books of Stone) have been found dating as far back as
1890-462: The most famous mountain steles is the 13 m (43 ft) high stele at Mount Tai with the personal calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725. A number of such stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of China's minority religious communities. The 8th-century Christians of Xi'an left behind the Xi'an Stele , which survived adverse events of
1944-612: The neighboring port city of Naha . Economic integration allowed territories to become more specialized, and the production of luxury goods expanded significantly. Various kinds of hairpins and other ornaments became standard elements of the fashions of courtiers and bureaucrats, new techniques in producing and weaving silk were imported, and the use of gold, silver, lacquer , and silk became more common among townspeople. Urbanization led to increased prosperity for merchants, traders, courtiers, townsmen and others, though historian George H. Kerr points out that farmers and fishermen, who made up
1998-475: The organization of the native noro (巫女, village priestesses) cult and its relationship to the government. He owed his uncle's abdication, and his own succession to his sister, the noro of the royal family, a special position known as the kikoe-ōgimi . He established a new residence for the kikoe-ōgimi (聞得大君) just outside the gates to the castle, and erected high walls in 1519 around the Sonohyan Utaki ,
2052-613: The original requirements, and no longer associated with the person they were erected for or to, have been assembled in Xi'an's Stele Forest Museum , which is a popular tourist attraction. Elsewhere, many unwanted steles can also be found in selected places in Beijing, such as Dong Yue Miao, the Five Pagoda Temple, and the Bell Tower, again assembled to attract tourists and also as a means of solving
2106-423: The palace, patterned not after Chinese, Korean or Japanese models, but after those of Thailand and Cambodia, reflecting, as Kerr points out, the reach and extent of Okinawan trade and the cosmopolitan nature of the capital at this time. The Buddhist temple Enkaku-ji was built in 1492, Sōgen-ji was expanded in 1496, and in 1501, Tamaudun , the royal mausoleum complex, was completed. Shō Shin successfully petitioned
2160-414: The part of the aji , Shō Shin gathered weapons from all the aji to be put to use for the defense of the kingdom, and ordered aji to make their residences in Shuri; lords separated from their lands and from their people were far less able to act independently or to organize rebellion, and, over time, their emotional connections to Shuri grew, those with their territory weakening. The residences at Shuri of
2214-736: The pharaoh, or his senior officials, detailing important events of his reign. Some of the most widely known Egyptian stelae include: the Kamose Stelae, recounting the defeat of the Hyksos ; the Victory Stele , describing the campaigns of the Nubian pharaoh Piye as he reconquered the country; the Restoration Stele of Tutankhamun (1336 - 1327 BC), detailing the religious reforms enacted after the Amarna period; and
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2268-405: The present and the afterlife, which allowed the deceased to receive offerings. These were both real and represented by formulae on the false door. Liminal, or boundary, stele were used to mark size and location of fields and the country's borders. Votive stelae were exclusively erected in temples by pilgrims to pay homage to the gods or sacred animals. Commemorative stelae were placed in temples by
2322-548: The problem faced by local authorities of what to do with them. The long, wordy, and detailed inscriptions on these steles are almost impossible to read for most are lightly engraved on white marble in characters only an inch or so in size, thus being difficult to see since the slabs are often 3m or more tall. There are more than 100,000 surviving stone inscriptions in China. However, only approximately 30,000 have been transcribed or had rubbings made, and fewer than those 30,000 have been formally studied. Maya stelae were fashioned by
2376-463: The proper way to conduct the royal funeral, succession rituals, and other important related ceremonies. Historian George Kerr writes that "Okinawa was never again to know the halcyon days of Sho Shin's reign." Aji (Ry%C5%ABky%C5%AB) An aji , or anji ( 按司 ) was a ruler of a small kingdom in the history of the Ryukyu Islands . The word later became a title and rank of nobility in
2430-459: The sacred space and accompanying sacred hearth which she tended. A system by which the king and kikoe-ōgimi appointed local noro across the kingdom was established, tying this element of the native Ryukyuan religion into formal systems of authority under the government. After a fifty-year reign, Shō Shin died in 1526, and was succeeded by his son Shō Sei . It is said that after such a long reign, officials encountered difficulties in determining
2484-770: The stelae in the Hadiya Zone, the structures are identified by local residents as Yegragn Dingay or "Gran's stone", in reference to Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad "Gurey" or "Gran"), ruler of the Adal Sultanate . The stelae at Tiya and other areas in central Ethiopia are similar to those on the route between Djibouti City and Loyada in Djibouti . In the latter area, there are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae, which are associated with graves of rectangular shape flanked by vertical slabs. The Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with
2538-521: The stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief , or painted. Stelae were created for many reasons. Grave stelae were used for funerary or commemorative purposes. Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines . Stelae were occasionally erected as memorials to battles. For example, along with other memorials, there are more than half-a-dozen steles erected on
2592-504: The vast majority of the Okinawan population, remained quite poor. Many monuments, temples, and other structures were also erected during the prosperous reign of Shō Shin. A new palace building was constructed, in Chinese style, and court rituals and ceremonies were dramatically altered and expanded, in emulation of Chinese modes. A pair of tall stone "Dragon Pillars" were placed at the entrance to
2646-575: The well of the imperical concubine, the ways of the great child, and parts of the great bride"). Various Old and Middle Okinawan anthologies variously spell it as あし, あじ, あち, あぢ, あんし, あんじ, and 按司. Examples of the word in Ryukyuan dialects include Amami Yamatohama [ʔadʑi] , Okinawan Nakijin-Yonamine [ʔàdʑĭː] , Okinawan Shuri [ʔádʑí ~ áɲdʑí] , Miyako Irabu-Nakachi [azɨ] . Various etymologies have been proposed for this word. For instance, Iha Fuyu had suggested that this word has been derived from
2700-513: The words "keep under control" + "official". The Liuqiu Guan Yiyu (琉球館訳語), a Okinawan word list written in Chinese, states that "大唐大人 大刀那安只" ("[The] Tang nobility [are called] *taj.taw.na.an.tʂr̩ "), while the Zhongsang Zhuanxinlu (中山伝信録) says "老爺 安主" ("[A] lord [is called] an.tʂy "). Konkōkenshū , a Okinawan word list written in Japanese, says "某のあんしきやなし 御太子御妃井御子様方御嫁部の御事" ("Some anjikyanashi [are the] great nobility of crown princes,
2754-515: Was a deliberate desire to capitalize on the potency of the past. Some scholars have suggested Urartian steles may have influenced the development of the Armenian khachkar . Greek funerary markers, especially in Attica, had a long and evolutionary history in Athens. From public and extravagant processional funerals to different types of pottery used to store ashes after cremation, visibility has always been
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#17330943655302808-551: Was an 'explosion' of Khmer epigraphy from the seventh century, with the earliest recorded Khmer stone inscription dating from 612 AD at Angkor Borei . Ogham stones are vertical grave and boundary markers, erected at hundreds of sites in Ireland throughout the first millennium AD, bearing inscriptions in the Primitive Irish language. They have occasionally been described as "steles." The Horn of Africa contains many stelae. In
2862-529: Was established. Some aji of the northern regions were allowed to remain there, not moving to Shuri, as they were too powerful for the king to force their obedience in this matter; the king's third son was made Warden of the North, however, and granted authority to maintain peace and order in the region. The Shuri dialect of the Okinawan language used by administrators and bureaucrats became standardized at this time, and
2916-521: Was the tomb stelae. Their picture area showed the owner of the stele, often with his family, and an inscription listed the name and titles of the deceased after a prayer to one, or several, of the gods of the dead and request for offerings. Less frequently, an autobiographical text provided additional information about the individual's life. In the mastaba tombs of the Old Kingdom (2686 - 2181 BC), stelae functioned as false doors, symbolizing passage between
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