Wokou generally refers to the Japanese pirates who were active on the Korean Peninsula and the coast of Chinese mainland during the 13th and 16th centuries. Incidents of invasion of China by the Ming Dynasty were frequent, and from the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the Wanli Period, a total of three peaks were formed. It can be seen that the wokou scourge on China is so serious that it is deeply hated by the Chinese people. After that, "Wokou" was generally referred to as all the activities of Japan's invasion of China, and all Japanese invaders could be denounced as "Wokou", the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and even the War of Resistance Against Japan.
However, in the Jiajing resistance against the "Wokou", a large number of Chinese went to the sea to fight with the officers and soldiers, willingly pretending to be "Wokou", and the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were also willing to admit that they were "Wokou", and the result was originally a confrontation between Chinese and japan. Chinese actually pretended to be the infamous "Wokou", which was really strange. It is precisely because things are very strange and complicated, pretending and acquiescing to each other, that the word "Wokou", when it is most frequent and rampant, is made to steal beams and pillars, and it is completely unrecognizable. Therefore, people's understanding of Jiajing's resistance to "倭" and the word "倭寇" has always had diametrically opposed opinions.
One opinion holds that the so-called "Wokou" who disturbed China's southeast coast during the Jiajing period were not the Japanese pirates usually referred to, but the authentic Chinese, or the Chinese who constituted the main body of the Wokou during the Jiajing period.
Another view is that in the later period of the Ashikaga shogunate, Japan lost control of local daimyōs, and Japan entered the Sengoku period. In order to expand their own power, the local daimyo gathered traitors, pirates, ronin, samurai and other outlaws in China, plundered on a large scale, and became the real Wokou, which was the main reason for the blazing plague during the Jiajing period. Of course, the Wokou were not only Japanese, but also included a certain number of Chinese, but they were by no means dominant.
In this way, the problem of wokou becomes more complicated. Formally, what is the dispute between the two sides, which country has formed the dominant force in this protracted plague?
Are the "Wokou" mainly Chinese, or are they mainly Japanese?
The side that tends to Chinese believes that the "Wokou" are actually Chinese pirate groups, and most of the leaders to members are Chinese. Although a small number of them were Japanese and obeyed the leadership of the Chinese pirate group, they only fought in coordination and did not play a major role, and the proportion of "true warriors" accounted for less than 30%, or even 10%.
The Japanese side believed that the woe was caused by the Japanese fighting for tributary rights in China in the second year of Jiajing (1523). Japan has always admired China's wealth, and from time to time smuggled weapons from the interior to the southeast coast. When the officers and soldiers were tightly guarded, they said that they were ordered to pay tribute, and when they encountered lax defense, they showed their weapons and plundered, so the plague during the Jiajing period was caused by Japanese aggression.
This opposing view also raises many other related issues, and when the problems are solved one by one, the truth will come out. For example, before Jiajing, although there were also wu plagues, but the scale was not large, in the middle and late Jiajing, the Wu rebellion suddenly broke out, the scale was also very large, and after the death of the Jiajing Emperor, the Wu plague quickly dissipated. This is like a strange curve of change, what are the inevitable and accidental causes of formation? Either side admits that there are many Chinese who join the "Wokou" at this time, what are the reasons for these Chinese participation, and what impact will it have on the nature of the Wokou and the pacification of the Wokou?
The side that tends to be Chinese believes that if the main body of Jiajing's "Wokou" is really Chinese, this will change the original nature of the Wokou to a large extent.
The more radical view is that the so-called "Wokou" are actually "sea bandits" and are not real bandits, because the feudal rulers of successive dynasties have slandered the armed forces and uprisings of the people who resist oppression and exploitation as "bandits" and "bandits". The turmoil or war that arose during the Jiajing period meant that the feudal landlord class stood on the stand of opposing the people and slandered or distorted the legitimate demands of the Chinese people to oppose the feudal sea ban and demand the development of overseas trade as "Wokou". In fact, the Chinese who joined the "Wokou" were all border residents in Zhejiang, Fujian, eastern Guangdong and other places who were forbidden to go to the sea to engage in trade, which reflected the continuous development of production in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty and the struggle to break through the sea ban. Therefore, this Jiajing Rebellion was mainly a class struggle within China's feudal society, not some foreign invasion.
The Japanese-inclined side believed that from the causes and behavior of the Wokou, the Wokou rebellion was undoubtedly a predatory war. The Japanese pirates first colluded with China's profiteers, gentry, pirates, and some unemployed working people to form a team to harass the sea frontier, undermine the peaceful life of the Chinese people, disrupt the normal economic order along the southeast coast, and become a major scourge of the Ming Dynasty. The War of Imperial Defense led by Qi Jiguang and others was a completely just patriotic self-defense action, not a general outbreak of internal contradictions.
What a stark view, like two opposing factions. Of course, the different views of these two schools of thought are still different in history. From an orthodox historical point of view, it has always been inclined that the Wokou during the Jiajing period were Japanese. At that time, the voices of some non-governmental intellectuals, or officials who were inclined to change the policy of the imperial court to change the sea ban, insisted that "Wokou" was a Chinese for some officials to force the people to rebel. Thus, over the centuries, the word "Wokou" was passed on by word of mouth, and the question became conclusive.
The Wokou problem is one such fascinating topic of war history. It can come out of the topic of war history and arouse the reader's thinking in a broader intellectual context.