Managing Maritime Affairs 273
the immediate future] will act in the same way and engage in trade
with barbarians.^29Predictably, the law-and-order defenders among the government
ofβicials and gentry scholars proceeded to apply the frontier defense
tradition to the maritime situation. They used the same tactics in their
handling of the Wokou (Japanese pirates) problem, maintaining that
China needed no important products from them, but instead they had to
depend on China for the supply of their daily necessities. China was in a
superior position and could triβle with its antagonist. In the eyes of the
Chinese, trade was a political weapon rather than a matter of economic
signiβicance. “Frontier” people were granted permission to trade only
when they had satisβied the Chinese of their “proper behavior”. If they did
not, China would have no hesitation in imposing an embargo on them.^30
The law-and-order proponents regarded smuggling and piracy along the
southeast coast in exactly the same light as they did the nomad menace. In
the βirst place, it was a direct threat to Jinling (Nanjing), the southern and
founding capital of the dynasty. Secondly, the Yangzi Valley and the area
to the southeast were the richest regions in the nation. The government
could not tolerate any activities that would jeopardize the security of the
national economy.^31
Law and Order versus Local Interests
Among the law-and-order defenders, Zhu Wan (1492‒1549) stood out as
the most outstanding anti-smuggling and anti-foreign trade champion.
His appointment as Governor of Zhejiang and concurrently Inspector-
General of the Zhejiang-Fujian Maritime Defense in 1547^32 gave him a
- Ma Wensheng 馬文升, “Jin tong fan yi jue bianhuan shu” 禁通番以絕邊患疏
[Prohibit contacts with foreigners to prevent border problems], in MJSWB, 62:
18a‒19b. - Such an assertion is made in Chouhai tubian 籌海圖編 [Sea strategy illustrated:
A work on coastal defense], comp. Hu Zongxian, Zheng Ruozeng, et al. 胡宗宪
(1510‒65), 鄭若曾 (1503‒70) 等編撰 (1624 ed.; 1st printing, 1562 ), 2: 33b. - This theory can be found in Hu Zongxian’s memorial. The author was a famous
anti-piracy commander during the Jiajing Reign (1522‒66). See MJSWB (Taipei,
1964), Vol. 17, p. 112. - Following a suggestion in 1529 by the then Military Minister (兵部尚書), Li
Chengxun, a high-ranking ofβicial was appointed Itinerant Inspector-General
(xunshi 巡視) for safeguarding the maritime security of Zhejiang and Fujian
Provinces. When Zhu Wan 朱纨 (also pronounced Zhu Huan) took the ofβice