Maritime Frontiers, Territorial Expansion and Haifang 85
In 1602, the Japanese established a base in Taiwan and began
plundering the China coast. Ming China responded by creating an
expeditionary force of 21 vessels led by Shen Yourong, squadron
commander of Wuyu.^113 Although the Ming force scored a decisive victory
and destroyed a Wo βleet,^114 the Chinese troops withdrew within a month
of the victory. Some quarters in Chinese society were rather critical of
Shen’s venture, saying that he should not have ventured this far since
Dongfan was not a Chinese domain.^115 They obviously objected to Yu’s
unconventional forward strategy that failed to conform to the prevalent
defensive principle. Nevertheless, after Shen’s campaign, the population
along the China coast became more familiar with the island. They could
now name several harbors on its west coast and had detailed information
about these places and their native settlers. Traders and βishermen from
Zhangzhou and Quanzhou began to frequent it.
In the wake of earlier clashes, a late Ming observer perceived that,
after the successive Japanese invasions of Korea, Liuqiu and Jilong that
began in the βinal decade of the sixteenth century, Taiwan was the next
logical target. The island could also be used by an enemy as a stepping-
stone from which to invade the Fujian and Zhejiang coast.^116 These
developments stirred up a sense of crisis among ofβicials and scholars;
one that differed from their reaction to the devastating Wo incursions
in the mid-sixteenth century. The earlier episode was treated as an issue
of law and order; even the term haifang then meant measures against
“sea bandits” on the maritime frontier. Now, the term gained a new
meaning that implicitly became a security issue relating to a greater
threat to China’s political domain. By the early 1620s, the situation of
the island had been complicated even more by the presence of various
contending parties, including both Chinese pirates and traders, the
Japanese and the Dutch.
After Zheng Chenggong’s defeat in the Yangzi region in 1659, Zheng’s
forces evicted the Dutch and made Taiwan the base of their resistance.
Under Zheng Chenggong’s son, Zheng Jing, market places were set up,
temples were built and vagrants were lured to settle there. By this time,
China’s cultural inβluence was βirmly established on the western coast
of the island.^117 Meanwhile, Zheng Jing continued to threaten the coastal
- See Shen Yurong 沈有容 (1557–1627), Minhai zengyan 閩海贈言, in TWWXCK,
no. 56, p. 21, for Shen’s title. - Ibid., pp. 21, 31; also YMXSJL, 6: 6b.
- Shen Yourong, Minhai zengyan, in TWWXCK, no. 56, p. 29.
- CXJXL, pp. 11, 18.
- QCHJTS, in TWWXCK, no. 155, p. 98.