Text|small writing
Editor|Pillow History Books
"Sea ban" is a phenomenon common and unique to China, Japan and the DPRK in recent times, and among the existing research results, there are more sequential studies of a single subject, and less comparative research on the Trinity. There are more studies from the perspective of history, and less from the perspective of sea areas and civilizations.
In terms of comparative research, the East Asian maritime perspective and the perspective of the clash of civilizations are the two most significant factors related to the sea embargo policy, and they are also the most epochal and valuable factors.
The time of this study is based on Naito's "Song Dynasty Modern Theory", with the Song and Yuan dynasties as the early modern period and the Ming and Qing dynasties as the late modern era.
"Sea Prohibition" Based on the Perspective of "East Asian Seas"
Inspired by Braudel, contemporary Japanese historian Haneda has adopted the "East Asian Seas" as a paradigm for studying the history of the world's seas.
This paper also takes the "East Asian Sea" as a comparative study of the "Sino-Japanese Sea Prohibition". Its scope can be roughly identified as the Sea of Japan, the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, or occasionally the South China Sea.
The "DPRK" or "Joseon" referred to in the text refers to the modern Korean Peninsula, including the late Goryeo Dynasty, the Korean Dynasty and later Korea, so it is sometimes referred to as the "Three Places" of China, Japan and Korea.
According to Brych's theory, geographical time has "coexistence, mutual disturbance, contradiction, and a variety of deep and rich contents", which is very suitable as an analytical framework for the East Asian sea ban.
Japanese scholar Hiroshi Yoshio believes that "the East Asian maritime world is a world with 'boundaries formed by currents' to the east." In the age of canoes and small sailing ships, this sea area was destined to be only a "geographical time" shared by the three places.
Beginning with the invasion of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1223, the Korean Peninsula has continued to plague. In order to resist aggression, the Goryeo Dynasty first adopted the "empty island measures", and the Joseon Dynasty upgraded the "empty island measures" to the "empty island policy".
Therefore, some scholars pointed out that "the empty island policy adopted by the Joseon Dynasty on Ulleungdo is similar to the Ming Dynasty's sea ban policy, and its common point is that it has achieved the effect of defending against the invasion of the Wokou in a negative way." ”
Coexistence is also manifested in mutual compliance, for example, in the face of the problem of the import of Song money, Japan's Go-Toba Emperor Kenkyu ordered a permanent ban on Song money, but it was repeatedly banned, so "the Kamakura shogunate was forced to publicly recognize Song money as legal tender in Japan in 1266." ”
The long-term coexistence and interrelatedness of this "geographical time" based on the sea embargo policy can be basically seen. First, China belongs to the active "sea ban", while Japan and the DPRK belong to the passive sea ban.
However, due to the limitations of resources, population, geographical conditions and other factors, the Korean Peninsula and Japan rarely actively seek sea bans, and most of them are banned after missionary activities. So the general situation is that China has introduced sea embargo measures, and Japan and North Korea have taken countermeasures.
As mentioned above, China bans the flow of money and Japan at the same time, but when it can't be stopped, it simply makes it legal tender.
Second, China focuses on relieving internal worries, while the DPRK and Japan are dealing with external troubles. The two Song Dynasties mainly defended Liao and gold; The Yuan Dynasty engaged in monopoly operations and wartime sea bans; At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the sea ban was strictly enforced, and only three cities of Ning, Quan, and Guangzhou were set up to preside over the "tribute city".
The Ming Dynasty sea embargo severely hindered maritime trade, which was in its development period, so "the merger of Chinese pirates and Oriental Yokou was carried out according to the 'piracy, trade, and battle' method." Moreover, the statements "true wawa 10 1, 2" or "Zhenwa 10 three, from Wa 10 7" are basically the last words.
Therefore, the essence of the Ming Dynasty's collectively called "Wokou" is still Haikou; The Qing Dynasty was mainly to prevent the merging of maritime forces such as Zheng Chenggong with domestic forces.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Korea and Japan faced more serious "external troubles", that is, the invasion of Western capitalism led by "foreign religions", and the "sea ban" policy of North Korea during this period was reflected in the "isolation of the country and destruction"; Japan was embodied in the issuance of six "national lock-down decrees" from 1633 to 1639.
Third, China mostly appears in the form of laws, and the DPRK and Japan mostly appear in the form of action orders. The edicts issued by the Song Dynasty and the successive "Compilation Orders", the edicts issued by the Yuan Dynasty and the "Law of Mutual Market Transfer" and the "Official Ship", the "Great Ming Law" issued by the Ming Dynasty, the "Great Qing Law", the "Sea Prohibition Order" and the "Boundary Relocation Order" issued by the Qing Dynasty are all equivalent to written laws.
The "sea ban" of Japan and North Korea mostly appears in the form of regulations, orders, concepts and actions, such as "national isolation policy" and "empty island policy", which are only terms summarized by later researchers.
The sea embargo imposed by China at various times has not always achieved the desired effect, or even backfired. Taking the Ming Dynasty's ban on wakou as an example, Ming Chengzu repeatedly asked Ashikaga Yoshimitsu to assist in the search for the kaikou, but the sacrifice of the wakou "a large part of the captured Chinese residents", so the effect of the ban was not obvious.
Six years after Yongraku, his successor general Ashikaga Yoshimasa even believed that "supporting the plundering of the Kaiko would be greater than the interests of the tribute", and trade with the Ming Dynasty was interrupted.
Although the trade continued until the 16th century, the reason for the repeated prohibition of the Wakou was not only due to the political turmoil in Japan, but also because the Japanese rulers valued the Wakou and the lucrative benefits of their illegal trade.
In addition, China stipulated that Japan should pay tribute once in ten years and North Korea once in three years, and issued corresponding compilation texts, but basically failed to comply with them, and Japan and North Korea still paid tribute once a year, or even more than a year, so that the "Ningbo tribute" incident occurred.
China's sea embargo policy sometimes has the opposite effect on other countries.
The "History of Liao, Daozongji" recorded: "In September, the Japanese state sent Zheng Yuan, Zheng Xin, and monk Yingfan and other twenty-eight people to pay tribute", and the corresponding record in Japan is: "Zhu Qing Dingshen and former marshal Yifang sent Master Ming Fan to the Khitan to trade goods. ”
Ming Fan is Ying Fan, on the one hand, it shows that Ming Fan is not paying tribute on behalf of the country, and may only represent a certain daimyo. On the other hand, the Chinese history books call Laigong, while the Japanese records are crimes, which is a different view.
Also, when China strictly forbade copper money to flow into the Goryeo Dynasty and Japan, the Goryeo Dynasty and Japan either used it as "time to play" or "cast into copper", but later they all widely used Chinese currency, so they all needed a lot of copper money.
When China strictly forbids the outflow, they buy and reserve Chinese metal currency through official or private channels, which also greatly reduces China's sea embargo policy.
"Sea Forbidden" Based on the Perspective of Clash of Civilizations
Huntington believed that Chinese civilization was the only continuous civilization that existed for 5,000 years. In the Song Dynasty, "neo-Confucianism" pushed "Chinese civilization" to a new height, promoting the stability and institutionalization of the "East Asian cultural circle" with the "Huayi order" and "tributary system" as the rules, until Chinese civilization "encountered" Western civilization, this stability and institutionalization began to waver.
Huntington notes that "in the 3,000 years since the first emergence of civilizations, with a few exceptions, their interactions have either non-existent or limited," Huntington notes. ”
The policy of sea embargo in East Asia in recent times was the result of the rise and continuation of Chinese civilization, imprinting the characteristics of Confucian culture, the Huayi order and tributary trade.
First, take Confucian culture as the theoretical basis. China's sea was forbidden to flourish in the Ming Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, "a sect of Zhuzi's learning", Cheng Zhu Lixue was identified as the political ideology that constructed the dynasty.
In this context, refocusing on the basics and suppressing the end became the established national policy of the Ming Dynasty, and was reflected in the strict sea ban policy. "In the beginning, Ming Zu customized, and the plate was not allowed to enter the sea. Chengping for a long time, traitors entered and exited, and the Gou people and the Franc machine countries entered the mutual market. ”
Chinese civilization regards piracy as a crime, but Western civilization mostly praises piracy.
The German edition of the History of Piracy in the Eighteenth Century: Preface says: "Once upon a time, piracy was not only allowed, but encouraged, because it was considered an honorable thing... Kings and princes also worked in this industry. ”
For more than 500 years of the Joseon Dynasty, Confucianism reigned. Of the three East Asian countries, North Korea has the most thorough restrictions on trade with Europe.
Both China and Japan had limited opening to Europe during the implementation of the lockdown policy, and Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, sent Zheng He to the West seven times; Japan also allowed trade with the Netherlands, which had nothing to do with the old religion, restricted access from Nagasaki and Heido, with the exception of Korea, which was never opened to Europe.
The "policy of closing the country" implemented during the reign of the Great Courtyard Jun was guided by the theory of "defending the right and repelling evil". Representative figure Li Heng said to the people: "The chaotic road in the West is the most worrying, there is a pulse of yang qi between heaven and earth in Wudong, if it is also bad, how can Tianxin endure this." My people are rightly set up for heaven and earth, and to understand this way, it is the second thing to save the survival of the burning country. ”
It can be seen that he regards Confucianism as more important than the survival of the country, and "the doctrine of great affairs is indeed his 'good policy for preserving the country'".
In Japan, during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate, values centered on Confucian ethics predominated. In his book "Introduction to Japanese Civilization," Okawa said, "Confucianism can improve the morality of the Japanese people, especially in the Tokugawa period, when Confucianism became the morality of the people and the most important guiding principle of political life. ”
From 1633 to 1639, the Tokugawa shogunate issued six "lock-down orders" in succession, including banning Japanese ships from going to sea, prohibiting Catholic missionary activities, and monitoring foreign ships, and then Japan's lockdown system was gradually established.
The second is to take the Huayi order and tributary trade as the practical path. The biggest difference between the "Huayi order" and "Western civilization" that lasted for nearly two thousand years is that it does not rely on conquest.
Bibliography:
[1] Naito Hunan: General Theory of Chinese History: Introduction to Chinese Ancient History, edited and translated by Xia Yingyuan, Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2004
[2] Institute of Literature and History, Fudan University: East Asian Seas in World History, Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 2011
[3] [fr] Braudel: The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (vol. 1), translated by Tang Jialong et al., Beijing: Commercial Press, 1996