During the Ming Dynasty, the Wukou Rebellion was very serious. In the 57 years from Hongwu to Yongle, the number of plagues was 94 times, an average of twice a year, and during the Jiajing period, the number of plagues soared to 628 times, so that "the outlaws and rogues were intertwined into chaos, and the disasters in the southeast were great." ("East-West Examination")
So, who was the Wokou who was the wokou who brought calamity to the Ming Dynasty? In most people's minds, the Uighurs refer to Japan, so the Wokou are naturally a pirate group of Japanese people. In fact, this concept is inaccurate, and not all of the Wokou are Japanese, especially the Wokou during the Ming Dynasty.
The early Wokou were mostly pirate groups of samurai and ronin from lower Classes of Japan, who invaded Korea, coastal china, and the South China Sea, plundering merchant ships. However, after the Ming Dynasty, the composition of the Wokou underwent earth-shaking changes.
The Ming Dynasty implemented the policy of "sea ban" from the beginning of the founding of the country, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that "no one is allowed to go to the sea." (History of the Ming Dynasty) During the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty only allowed tributary trade and survey trade, and civil maritime trade was strictly prohibited. During the Jiajing period, the policy of sea prohibition was further strengthened, "since the coastal military and civilians, private and thieves, their neighbors do not sit together" (Records of Emperor Ming Shizong)
The imperial court tried to cut off all maritime ties, but they did not consider the survival of the people. Coastal residents could not go to the sea, let alone do business, which cut off their way of life, so many coastal people and inland merchants joined the Wokou to seek a way to survive.
In addition, the remnants of Zhang Shicheng and the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty fled to the sea and joined the Wukou and invaded the ming border. Therefore, most of the people who were in trouble with the Ming Dynasty were Han or Yuan, and the Japanese only accounted for a small part. In fact, the Ming Dynasty officials were also aware of this, and it is recorded in the Ming Shi Nihon Biography: "The third of the ten true Wu, from the seventh of the ten of the Wu"; the Jiajing Shilu also has a record: "Gai Jiangnan Coast Guard, Wuju thirteen, and China's rebellion is seventeen." ”
Moreover, for a long time, it was Wang Zhi who led the Wokou. Wang Zhi is an authentic Han Chinese whose hometown is in SheXian County, Huizhou. Unusual people are born with images, and Wang Zhi is no exception. According to the Ming Dynasty Wanli Chronicle of Shexian County, when Wang Zhi was born, "his mother Wang Zhi dreamed that a big star fell into her arms from the sky, and there was a crown next to the star... As a result, the snow was falling and the grass and trees were frozen. The townspeople said: 'The stars are in the arms, and the extraordinary fetus is also,'
Wang Zhi is indeed not a mortal fetus, he crossed the sea, calling himself the "King of Hui", which is also a brilliant moment. Wang's life is also legendary, he served as the head of a maritime smuggling syndicate, and many Japanese daimyo traded with the West through him. Tanegashima Daimyo once bought the Portuguese arquebusiers through Wang Zhi and asked his craftsmen to imitate them, which is the origin of the Japanese iron cannon.
Wang Zhi was an ambitious tyrant, and his grasp of the situation was actually more accurate than many officials of the Ming Dynasty at that time. Wang Zhi believed that when Western merchants opened up global trade, the Ming Dynasty could no longer stay out of the matter, and it was the general trend to open the door of the country and allow maritime trade. Therefore, Wang Zhi has never really opposed the Ming Dynasty, and he has repeatedly united with Ming officials and troops to suppress pirates in order to create a safe and stable maritime trade route.
Wang Zhi's rise also benefited from the support of the Ming court. With the acquiescence of the deputy envoy of Zhejiang Haidao, Wang Zhi was granted a period of freedom of trade, and he also had contacts with many officials, so that he was able to control trade in the southeast coastal area and establish his "position as a maritime hegemon."
In short, Wang Zhi was the hub of maritime trade in Japan, the Ming Dynasty and the South China Sea at that time, and behind him, there was the support of Japanese daimyo, the acquiescence of the Ming court, and the sponsorship of merchants. Therefore, Wang Zhi's power quickly expanded, becoming the ruler of the East Asian sea, and he established the "Song" on Japanese territory and proclaimed himself the King of Hui. Tian Rucheng's "Biography of Wang Zhi" says: Wang Zhi "According to The Song Tsupo of Satsuma Prefecture, the title of Song Dynasty, the self-proclaimed King of Hui, the deployment of official subordinates, and the name of Xian. Control is at stake, and the Thirty-Six Islands are at their command. ”
However, Ming Ting's attitude toward Wang Zhi has always been very complicated. Some officials, such as Hu Zongxian, regarded Wang Zhi as a talent and always sought to appease him to calm the troubles in the southeast coastal areas; other officials regarded Wang Zhi as a bandit and were eager to kill him quickly. Xu Guangqi once sang "Wang (Wang) went straight to Juhai Island without personally offending, recruited envoys, measured and held a position, and made it possible to eliminate Haikou to serve himself." ”
And Wang Zhi's own situation is also very special, nominally he is the boss of the entire maritime group, and most of the forces in the Wokou are his subordinates, but in fact Wang Zhi has no way to control all his subordinates. As a result, many of Wang Zhi's followers often invaded China's coastal areas.
The people were deeply harmed by the Wokou, and Wang Zhi was the boss of the Wokou, so the Ming people naturally regarded him as a "big traitor", believing that he was a shameless traitor who had forgotten his ancestors and hated him to the bone. Zhu Jiude, a Ming dynastyman, commented on Wang Zhi in the "Strategy of The Incident of the Wu Dynasty": "Wang Zhi began to go to the sea in violation of the Ming Ban with the heart of profit, and then forgot the righteousness of China and entered the Fan country as a traitor. Seduce the Wokou, attack the year, shake the sea, and make trouble in the southeast. The upper part is related to the national policy, and the poison is left to the living beings. Evil is heinous, and God and man are angry. “
The attitude of the imperial court could not have a fundamental change in Wang Zhi. "Sea ban" was the basic national policy of the Ming Dynasty, but Wang Zhi wanted to "blackmail the official government and open the port to the city", which was clearly to oppose the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it was impossible for the imperial court to let someone like Wang Zhi survive.
There are indeed many Ming dynasty people in Wukou, but for the Ming Dynasty officials, these people who participated in the Wukou were all traitors, villains who betrayed the country and the nation, and when they chose to join the Wukou, they were no longer the people of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the general attitude of the Ming Dynasty towards the maritime clique led by Wang Zhi was "suppression" rather than "care".
In April of the thirty-third year of Jiajing (1554), Hu Zongxian was appointed as the inspector of Zhejiang, responsible for the anti-Wu campaign on the southeast coast. Hu Zongxian believed that the key to eliminating the woe lay in Wang Zhi, so he released Wang Zhi's old mother, wife and children from prison, provided for him with good fortune, and sent emissaries to comfort Wang Zhi and promise trade and mutual markets.
Wang Zhi was overjoyed and led the fleet to Zhejiang. Later, Hu Zongxian persuaded Wang to meet Wang Bengu in Hangzhou, and Wang Zhi listened to the advice and went to Hangzhou. However, Wang was suddenly arrested by Wang Bengu after he reached Hangzhou.
In prison, Wang Zhisheng burst into tears, and he reported the situation in Japan to the imperial court, saying: "Although Japan is unified under one monarch, recently the monarch is weak and strong, but it is only a name. There are still sixty-six kingdoms in their kingdoms, which are strong and strong to each other. He also pleaded: "If the emperor is benevolent and gracious, pardons the sins of his subjects, and is driven by dogs and horses, and Zhejiang dings overseas Changtu and other ports, it is still as the case in Guangzhong, customs clearance and taxation, and no tribute period is lost." ”
Wang Zhi's proposal was very similar to the Qing Dynasty's foreign trade, and if the Ming Dynasty really heeded his advice, opened treaty ports, set up customs to collect customs duties, and restored Tributary trade relations in Japan, the Ming Dynasty's coastal areas might really be solved.
Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty did not change its policy, and Wang Zhi was beheaded at Guanxiangkou, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Before Wang Zhi died, he once said, "If I die alone, I am afraid of suffering two Zhejiang people", and after his death, the pirate group at sea was leaderless, and the Ming Dynasty's woes really became serious again.
Tan Qianyun commented in the "State Pavilion": "Hu Zongxian Xu Wang Zhi did not die, and then the discussion was fierce, so he did not dare to insist on it." If the false Yu Wang Zhi and the cheap sea are made, then the divisions of Cen Gang and Ke Mei can not be aged, and the Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangbei will not fight hard in Dunjia. ”
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty
"East-West Examination"
Records of the Ming Dynasty
Records of Jiajing
"Wang Zhi Biography"
"The Story of the Change"
《The Kingdom of The Republic》