Gentry-Merchants and Peasant-Peddlers 257
Year Destination Pirates’ Identity
1565 Yongning wei Wokou
Zhao’an local pirates led by Wu Ping^62
1566 Zhao’an pirates led by Lin Daoqian
Quanzhou Wokou^63
6263
These records reveal that between 1523 (the Song Shuqing Incident) and
1547 (Zhu Wan’s appointment) the Wo problem had not yet emerged as
a serious threat. The reason was that, although the trade prohibition was
imposed, smuggling continued almost unchecked. As soon as Governor
Zhu Wan assumed ofβice, drastic actions were taken. However, his resolute
military campaign resulted in fatal disturbances since no thought was
given to βinding solutions to the basic social problems.
The Ming authorities were so much troubled by the Wo that the
Emperor made a very rare decision to send a special envoy to Japan in
1546, requesting the 13th ruler of the Ashikaga Shogunate, Yoshiteru,
to help suppress the pirates. The most amazing outcome was the
latter’s response the following year, asserting that the reason that
China was suffering from the ravages of the pirates was the presence
of Chinese outlaws. This group of Chinese had induced members of the
unruly class of the Japanese people to invade and plunder the country.
Therefore, Japan was neither concerned with nor bore any responsibility
for this problem.^64
In 1565, a year before the death of the Jiajing Emperor, Shogun
Yoshiteru was assassinated and Japan descended into chaos. Just at this
time, the Ming troops, under the command of such celebrated generals
as Qi Jiguang, began to show more ability in coping with the Japanese
raiders. Hence the coastal areas were gradually freed from the real Wo
devastation. Furthermore in 1588, Hideyoshi, founder of the fourth
military government in Japan, framed and promulgated laws devised
to deal with the pirates. These laws, that were vigorously enforced,
prohibited piratical activities, but perhaps he was too much tied up with
his military campaign against Korea to oversee their enforcement.^65
- Gu Yanwu, TXJGLBS, Vol. 26, p. 134a.
- Quanzhou fuzhi (1870 ed.), 73: 31b.
- Yoshi S. Kuno, Japanese Expansion on the Asiatic Continent (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1937), Vol. 1, p. 124. - Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 125.