Maritime Frontiers, Territorial Expansion and Haifang 81
former area of Dinghai on the Zhejiang coast was then renamed Zhenhai.
Considering it from a defensive perspective, Wei Yuan argued that
Zhoushan’s strategic position was certainly not comparable to that of
Chongmin on the Yangzi estuary. Although Chongmin was small in size, it
was surrounded by a sandbank. To gain access to its two harbors, boats
had to wind a passage through tens of li of waterways, navigable only by
small craft. During the Opium War, this isolated location was heavily and
successfully guarded. Zhoushan, on the other hand, was quickly occupied
by the British who held it to ransom. Wei Yuan proposed it be abandoned
in an effort to defend such mainland coastal positions as Ningbo. Hong
Kong in Guangdong was also difβicult to defend on account of its isolated
position in the sea. In economic terms, it would become useless without
its trade with Guangzhou.^93 Implicitly, the abandonment of Hong Kong
was therefore justiβied by Wei Yuan as a tactical retreat. Despite the broad
world view shown in his works on maritime countries, as a strategist Wei
Yuan foll owed the traditional realist approach when it came to matters of
coastal defenses.^94
Penghu. Penghu consisted of a group of 36 named islands. Chinese
records claim that the island group of Penghu was visited by General
Chen Leng during the Sui Dynasty (581‒618). He found the islands
occupied by the Fan (barbarian or foreign) people. Just over six hundred
years later, the Yuan government established a patrol post here,^95 but
Penghu was abandoned and residents were moved to the mainland about
a century later in 1372 because of their deβiance of the newly-established
Ming regime. In 1597, a patrol post under the charge of a squadron
commandant (bazong) was formed in Penghu to counter the imminent
recurrence of Wo attacks after Japan invaded Korea.^96 Although patrols
were sent to the area in spring and winter, the late Ming government was
reluctant to allow settlers to remain there permanently, fearing it might
lose control over them. The regular deployment of a garrison was also
ruled out because of logistic constraints. Unlike Nan’ao, that was located
close to the coast, Penghu was considered to lie a great distance from
the mainland.^97 In terms of Ming naval capability, this island group was
therefore beyond its defense perimeter.
- HGTZ, l: 5a–6a.
- Jane Kate Leonard has made a well-thought comment on this aspect in Wei Yüan
and China’s Rediscovery of the Maritime World (Cambridge, Mass.: Council on
East Asia Studies, Harvard University Press, 1984), pp. 204–5. - QCHJTS, in TWWXCK, no. 155, p. 118.
- YMXSJL, 6: 2a.
- Dong Yingju, CXJXL, in TWWXCK, no. 237, pp. 136, 140.