258 Boundaries and Beyond
This was by no means the end of the maritime problem in Fujian.
The entrenched social ills had never been dealt with successfully. So the
South Fujianese people continued to participate in seafaring activities
and piracy lingered on.
The piratical turmoil worsened the already unstable social conditions.
“Since the Wo disturbances broke out, the incessant ravages of the
soldiery and brigands has caused nine out of ten families to abandon
their farmland”, said a minister for the Board of Military Affairs in the
mid-sixteenth century.^66 In 1561, for instance, the Wokou devastation
resulted in serious starvation in seven districts of Quanzhou. Only after
more than a thousand junk-loads of rice were shipped in from Guangdong
to remedy the critical situation was the disaster relieved, and then only
temporarily.^67
Besides the sufferings of the commoners, the troubles caused by
the government troops were no less harmful than the plunderers.
“People even prefer to encounter the Wo bandits to the kebing (guest
troops) sent from other regions.”^68 “They can still manage to escape if
Wo are approaching, but they barely stand a chance if they run into the
government troops”, commented a local observer.^69 One government
Censor gave his comments as follows: “The turmoil caused by the kebing
is just the same as that of the Wo barbarians.”^70 These soldiers were “as
greedy as wolves”.^71 The following example is highly illustrative of the
common people’s attitude towards the government troops. In 1555 there
were rumors in Changtai about the arrival of a battalion. The people
became so terriβied, they rushed to escape and shortly afterwards the
walled city was deserted.^72
Even after the critical period of the Wokou raids, places like Nan’an
had already suffered so much destruction, they could not restore half of
the previous settlements.^73 Under these conditions, even more people
looked to the seas as a last resort to βind a livelihood. A few decades after
the Jiajing period, claims a late Ming record, 90 per cent of the South
Fujianese looked on the sailing junks as their own homes.^74 The Wo
- Chouhai tubian, 12: 31a.
- Quanzhou fuzhi (1870 ed.), 73: 26.
- At that time, most of the troops stationed in Fujian came from other provinces.
- Chouhai tubian, 11: 66.
- Ibid., 11: 69a.
- Ibid., 11: 68a.
- Fujian tongzhi (1871 ed.), juan 278 under “The 34th Year of the Jiajing Reign”.
- Quanzhou fuzhi (1870 ed.), 20: 8a.
- Gu Yangwu, TXJGLBS, Vol. 26, p. 103b. An earlier source gives a more conservative
βigure that “βive out of ten had to feed themselves outside the rice-βields and
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