Asia Looks Seaward

personalities and charismatic leadership, they did not emerge as a sustained,

major political force.

The maritime community did not directly challenge official orthodoxies,

either in China or elsewhere in northeast Asia. Maritime China could go its

own way only at those times when the imperial regime faltered. Pirates, and

merchants too, for that matter, never developed a political alternative or indeed

any distinctive way of thinking. They were looking for profits, not for political

advantage. They attacked any potential victim, of any nationality. These people

were pushing no cause except their own enrichment, and China provided the

most attractive target.

For a state like China whose governmental institutions were justified by

preserving stability and nourishing agriculture, combating the violence and

commercial culture that piracy represents became a shibboleth. The public

ideology, Confucianism, distrusted, even condemned, the profit motive behind

trade, and promoted antipathy toward foreigners. Because foreigners like

Japanese and Koreans were often among those participating in piracy, this

provided another reason for Chinese xenophobia.

Japanese provided the cutting edge for these warrior bands, the weaponry

and the fighting skills to form and galvanize their internal teamwork. Japan, its

leadership constantly at war, was for centuries a disunited state. Its southern

island of Kyushu, closest to the Asian mainland, lacked strong political authority.

Essentially no one was there to assert law and order. After 1350 or so, Japanese

pirates found ideal sanctuaries along the island-dotted coasts of Kyushu. From

these they could sally forth to attack the nearby shores of Korea or even sail over

to China, scuttling back to their home nests whenever they wished.

Eventually pirates, increasingly ethnic Chinese, focused their attention on

China, ranging along the coast to the Yangzi delta and beyond. Even far south

Guangdong felt their scourge. Sometimes these Chinese passed themselves off as

Japanese, who were perceived as particularly ferocious, evoking special terror.

What were the pirates after? Anything portable of value, it seemed. They espe-

cially prized silk, either raw or woven, but they would also seize mundane items

like iron chains and kettles or copper cash. Japan produced not only raw materials

such as copper, lead, and sulfur but also folding paper fans, a low-tech Japanese

invention for which there was high demand in China. Japanese consumers were

eager to acquire Chinese antiques and works of art, notably paintings, porcelains,

calligraphy, and Buddhist texts. So these too could find a ready market, and for

pirates everything sold at a 100 percent profit.

Ming Sea Power

By the first half of the fifteenth century, when the native Ming dynasty had

established itself after tossing out the Mongols, China could have called itself the

28 Asia Looks Seaward