On October 13, 1407, Zheng He returned from his first voyage to the West.
Zheng He not only completed the mission of visit given to him by the Yongle Emperor, but also took Chen Zuyi, the "pirate king of the Ming Dynasty", to the court.
◆ Chen Zuyi's ancestral home is Chaozhou, Guangdong, during the Hongwu years, he went to Nanyang and was a thief in Malacca for more than ten years. He fled to the state of Bolin (present-day Indonesia) as a general, and after the king's death, he gathered pirates and established himself as king. During the Yongle years, tributes were made to the Yongle Emperor, but the tributes were all looted. In September 1407, when Zheng He returned to China from the West, he had deceived Zheng He, but was recognized by Zheng He. In October, he was escorted back to the imperial court by Zheng He. The picture shows the scene of Chen Zuyi being sent to the imperial court in the TV series.
Image source: Stills from the TV series Zheng He's Voyage to the West (2009).
The Yongle Emperor beheaded Chen Zuyi on the spot in front of the ministers and envoys of various countries.
Chen Zuyi represents the rampant pirate group of the Ming Dynasty- not only Chinese pirates and Japanese pirates, but also Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch pirates in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
In order to capture Chen Zuyi, Zheng He killed more than 5,000 pirates.
This is a very staggering number, and chen Zuyi's pirate group even exceeded tens of thousands of people in its heyday.
However, before Zheng He went to the West, the Ming Dynasty had implemented a policy of sea ban for more than twenty years.
So why can't the sea ban eliminate pirates? Why were Ming pirates so rampant, and even developed into large-scale groups?
Pirates originate from the sea ban?
There were not so many pirates, and it was precisely the sea ban that led to many people being forced to become "thieves".
The Ming Dynasty official Xie Jie said:
"Kou and Shang are the same people, the city is changed to a businessman, and the city ban is changed to a businessman." ("Pious Tai Wokou")
◆ Compiled by Xie Jie, the Book of The Pious Tai Wu Was Compiled by Xie Jie and written during the Wanli Dynasty. The book introduces the geography and humanities of Japan, analyzes the history of Sino-Japanese exchanges, and makes a more systematic analysis of the causes of the Ming Dynasty's Wokou plague and the gains and losses of the Ming Dynasty's policy of forbidding the sea.
Image source: Ancient Books Network
The popularity of piracy in the Ming Dynasty has led some scholars to call the Ming Dynasty the "golden age" of piracy.
Chen Zuyi belonged to the pirate leader of the early Ming Dynasty, with more than 10,000 subordinates and more than 10,000 plundering ships at his peak, active in the South China Sea, Taiwan, Japan, the Indian Ocean and other seas. Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded Chen Zuyi with 500,000 taels of silver in order to capture him, while the Yongle Emperor rewarded 7.5 million taels of silver in order to capture Chen Zuyi.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the pirate Wang Zhi had hundreds of huge ships, and the number of troops exceeded 100,000 at the most, known as the "King of Hui" and "King of Jinghai".
Li Dan, a late Ming dynasty pirate known as "Captain China", is rumored to have funded the unification of Japan by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's first shogun of the Edo period.
◆ Li Dan (-1625), a native of Quanzhou, Fujian, in the late Ming Dynasty. At the end of the 16th century, he traveled to the Philippines to do business, then fled to Japan to engage in overseas trade, and became a pirate with the help of the Japanese. It is rumored that Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, once defected to Li Dan as his righteous son. In 1624, the Dutch occupied Penghu, and the Ming army attacked the Netherlands in order to retake Penghu, but it could not be attacked for a long time. In the end, Li Dan and Zheng Zhilong coordinated from it, and the Dutch withdrew from the Penghu Archipelago and occupied Taiwan. After Li Dan's death, Zheng Zhilong returned to the Ming Dynasty, and in 1633 he commanded an army to defeat the Dutch East India Company fleet at Kinmen. After Zheng Zhilong returned to the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong continued to resist the Qing. In 1661, Zheng successfully defeated the Dutch who occupied Taiwan and successfully recovered Taiwan.
Image source: WatchPoint Express
The number of pirates in the Ming Dynasty, the power of the Ming Dynasty, and the breadth of their footprints far exceeded that of other dynasties.
However, if it were not for the increasingly stringent policy of sea bans, it would be difficult to have pirates on such a large scale.
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, there was also a sea ban policy, but the severity and duration were not as severe as the Ming Dynasty sea ban.
The Song Dynasty sea ban began in 976 and ended in 1079, although it seems to last a long time, but in fact, the sea ban policy is relatively relaxed. The main reason for the sea ban during this period was to safeguard the imperial court's overseas trade rights and crack down on private smuggling activities.
The Yuan Dynasty's policy of sea prohibition was intermittent, and from 1292 to 1322, about 11 years of sea prohibition were imposed, but it was not severe. On the one hand, the Yuan Dynasty's sea ban was to prevent maritime merchants from leaking information to foreign countries during the war, and on the other hand, to maintain the Yuan Dynasty government's control over overseas trade, and at the same time to prevent the flow of prohibited goods abroad.
The Ming Dynasty's policy of sea prohibition lasted from 1370 to 1567, spanning nearly 200 years, more than 2/3 of the ming dynasty's rule time. During this period, the policy of sea ban has also been strengthened many times. And the stricter the sea ban, the more pirates there are.
During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, he repeatedly issued the policy of sea ban.
For example, in 1371, it was stipulated that "plates are not allowed to enter the sea" and ordered that "coastal people are not allowed to go to the sea privately" (Ming Taizu Shilu, vol. 70).
In 1381, in the name of guarding against wokou, he ordered that "coastal people are forbidden to smuggle with overseas countries" (Records of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 139).
In 1394, it was forbidden for private people to buy and sell and use goods.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also wrote the sea ban policy into the "Daming Law", and made detailed provisions on the punishment for violating the sea ban policy, such as carrying important prohibited items to the sea and being hanged.
During the Yongle period (1403-1424), there was a brief period of relaxation of the sea ban policy, and the shipping departments of Quanzhou, Mingzhou, and Guangzhou were restored, and Zheng He went to the West, but the sea ban was not lifted during this period.
◆ Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, visiting more than 30 countries, sailing westward as far as East Africa and the Red Sea coast, and as far south as Java (present-day Indonesia). The first voyage to the West was in 1405 (the third year of Yongle), followed by 1407, 1409, 1412, 1416, 1421, and 1430. In 1433, Zheng He died on his way back to China in Guri, India (the Chinese name for Calicut, then India, now known as Kozekode), and the fleet was led back by another Ming eunuch, Wang Jinghong. Years later, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama first reached India, where Zheng He died.
Image source: Wikipedia
After the Yongle Emperor, the sea ban policy continued to return to its previous harsh state. Between 1424 and 1521, there was no relaxation of the sea ban.
During the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (1522-1566), the Ming Dynasty's policy of sea prohibition reached an extremely severe state. During this period, not only private trade at sea was prohibited, but also the manufacture and use of large ships. The punishment of the sea ban has changed from the previous "personal responsibility system" to the "neighborly sitting" system.
The previous sea ban only blocked private maritime trade, while the sea ban during the Jiajing Emperor blocked the daily livelihood of coastal residents. This ban has led to more coastal residents being forced to go to the sea to commit theft. In this regard, Xie Jie's description is:
"The stricter the prohibition, the greater the curse." The plates were not allowed to go to the sea, and the giant ships came from the river." ("Pious Tai Wokou")
The reason why the sea ban policy from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the middle and late Ming Dynasty was long-lasting can be attributed to the following three reasons:
First, guard against wokou.
In the middle of the 14th century, Japan entered the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there was a chaotic situation of the division of the princes. After decades of struggle, the Southern Dynasty was gradually defeated by the Northern Dynasty. The failed Southern Dynasty daimyō (Japan's name for ancient feudal lords) organized samurai, ronin, merchants, and others to plunder and smuggle in China.
In 1467, japan entered the Warring States period, the official trade system of the Ming Dynasty and Japan was destroyed, and feudal lords who failed to obtain official trade permits began to engage in piracy.
During the Jiajing period, China's policy of sea prohibition became more and more stringent, and the Japanese Wokou became more and more rampant.
◆ "Wokou Tu Scroll", painted by Qiu Ying of the Ming Dynasty, 572.7 cm long and 31.1 cm wide, created in 1555 (Jiajing 34 years), now in the University of Tokyo, Japan. The work records a series of processes such as the landing of the Wokou, the escape of the inhabitants, and the ming army and the Battle of the Wokou. Another work, the Anti-Wu Scroll, is similar to this one and is now in the National Museum of China, but the author is uncertain. The picture shows a part of the "Wokou Tu Scroll", which shows the Ming army against the Wokou.
Image source: Bookcase
From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, the plague of wokou almost never stopped. Volume 322 of the History of the Ming Dynasty is the Biography of Japan, and the entire volume is a record of the wukou plundering of China, which led to the Ming people even using the wukou to scare children.
"In the age of the end of the Ming Dynasty, the prohibition of the Tongwu is very strict, and the small people in LuXiang are even scolded by the Wuxiang, and even gag their children and daughters." (Ming Shi Vol. 322)
The reason why the Wokou plundered China for a long time was on the one hand because the Ming Dynasty's sea ban affected the normal trade between The Chinese and Japanese people, and on the other hand, because Japan's handicraft industry at that time was not developed, and medicinal materials, cloth, silk thread, etc. all depended on China.
Second, prevent collusion at home and abroad.
The Wukou raided China, giving the Ming Dynasty a small number of rebels the opportunity to collude internally and externally. After the death of Zhang Shicheng, the leader of the late Yuan rebellion (1367), the rest of the army colluded with the Wokou to invade the coastal border.
"At the beginning of the country, outside the Dinghai, Xiu, Dai, Lan, Jian, and Jintang five mountains competed for profits, internal hatred and killing, external Wuyi, years for border troubles." (Zheng Ruozeng, "Charting for the Sea, Vol. 5")
In addition to the collusion between the rebels and the Wokou, there was even collusion between the Korean and Chinese ministers and the Wokou. In the famous Hu Weiyong case, Because the Ming Prefecture Wei commander Lin Xiantongwu was arrested and implicated in Hu Weiyong, he finally murdered Hu Weiyong and his henchmen in the name of rebellion and Tongwu, killing more than 30,000 people.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there were pirates colluding with the Wokou.
"Guangdong Jukou Zeng yiyi, Huang Chaotai, etc., all of them have attracted the help of Wu. During the Longqing period, the broken stones and the koshi were guarded." (Ming Shi Vol. 322)
In fact, 80% of the Ming pirates at that time were Chinese merchants. Pirates "attracted the Wokou as a helper", more often than the trade between the merchants and the Wokou. When Qi Jiguang resisted the Wokou, a large part of the Wokou were Chinese.
Third, maintain the stability of traditional society.
Traditional Chinese society is dominated by agriculture, and "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce" is the basic policy of many rulers.
Zhu Yuanzhang believed that agriculture was the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, and commerce was not as important as agriculture, especially non-governmental overseas trade should be prohibited.
However, the Ming Dynasty was in a stage of rapid development of overseas trade, and because of the profitability, a large number of people participated in it.
However, after the increase in private trade, it affected the stable structure of traditional agricultural society, disrupted social order, and increased the difficulty of the imperial court's social control.
In addition, although the Ming Dynasty banned private trade, there was an official "tribute trade" - tribute from other countries, the Ming court returned, but the value of the gift items was several times that of the tribute items. Zheng He's voyage to the West belonged to this form of trade.
◆ "Map of the Coming of All Nations", created by a famous court painter in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, 207 cm wide and 299 cm long, is now in the Palace Museum. The figure depicts a scenario of the supposed Qianlong Emperor of tribute from various countries. From the flags of the envoys of various countries in the lower right corner, it can be seen that the tributary countries include Korea, Burma, Japan, the Netherlands, France and other countries. The envoys brought the rare treasures of their respective countries to pay tribute to Qianlong, who in turn gave back to the tributary countries with the property needed by these countries. Tributary trade existed from the Han Dynasty until the end of the 19th century. The tributary trade of the Ming Dynasty was very developed, but the characteristics of thick and thin increased the financial burden of the Ming Dynasty.
Image source: Palace Museum website
The control of agriculture and commerce, with the official control of the economic lifeline, in order to maintain rule and maintain social stability, contributed to the implementation of the Ming Dynasty's policy of banning the sea.
However, from the repeated promulgation and reinforcement of the sea ban in the Ming Dynasty, it can be found that the sea ban is difficult to enforce after all.
Because it blocked the road of coastal people to seek profits, and even blocked the way for coastal people to seek life in the later period.
The stricter the sea ban, the greater the number of merchants turning to pirates.
The era of piracy and global seafaring trade
The Song, Yuanming, and Ming dynasties all had a policy of sea bans, but only the Ming Dynasty did large-scale pirates appear.
This is not an accident of history, but the advent of the era of global maritime trade.
When Western European countries were committed to exploring overseas trade channels, the continuous strengthening of the Ming Dynasty's policy of sea ban was incompatible with the trend of the times. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the sea ban was the strictest, and the pirates were also the most prosperous, because international trade was larger and more frequent.
What led to the beginning of the era of global maritime trade?
The main reason is that Europeans have a high demand for spices, precious metals, silk, etc., and the land and sea routes at that time were restricted.
Land routes were constrained by the political environment of the countries along the route, were not convenient enough, had limited transport capacity, and the sea routes to Asia were in the hands of Venice.
This situation stimulated the countries of Western Europe to explore new shipping routes to the East.
In addition, advances in shipbuilding technology provided the basis for meeting the needs of Europeans. The "Caravel" that appeared in the Ibérian Peninsula was fast and stable, making it ideal for ocean voyages.
There is both motivation and technology, and the country is starting to act.
At the beginning of the 15th century, Portugal was the first to explore by sea.
At that time, Portugal, which had just recovered the territory occupied by muslims, was the first to achieve "restoration" than Spain, and gradually formed its current territorial territory at the end of the 14th century.
Portugal, which was gradually strengthening, took the lead in raising the banner of navigation out of the need for rapid development.
Prince Henrique opened the world's first nautical school in Sagres (present-day Biesp, Faro, Portugal) and, in 1415-1448, sent several people on sea voyages.
The purpose of the voyage was to bypass the Muslim-occupied north African region and travel from the sea to West Africa to trade.
Prince Enrique's quest was successful, and in 1448 he established the first Portuguese colony on the West African coast of Arguim (now Part mauritania). Subsequently, the Portuguese established a gold and slave trade in Senegal.
Since then, the Portuguese have sailed farther and farther. In 1487, Dias discovered the "Cape of Good Hope" on the southern tip of Africa. In 1498, Da Gama bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and discovered a new route to India.
◆ In July 1497, da Gama set out from Portugal through the Canary Islands, cape of good hope, Mozambique and other regions, and reached Calicut in southwestErn India in May 1498. After that, the Portuguese and Indians traded spices and then sold spices to Europe, accumulating a large amount of capital.
In the 16th century, Portugal's tentacles extended from Africa to Asia. It occupied Malacca in 1511, Japan in 1543, and Macau in 1553.
However, Portugal's appetite is too large for it to fully "chew".
In the midst of Portugal's rapid rise, Spain is also actively competing.
After the restoration of Portugal, Spain was also founded in 1479 and completely completed in 1492.
Spain, which is gradually becoming stronger, naturally will not miss the opportunity to colonize overseas.
After the discovery of the New World by the Spanish navigator Columbus in 1492, Spain entered the era of overseas colonization.
The powerful Spain wanted to divide the world with Portugal, and the two countries signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (Tratado de Tordesillas) in 1494.
◆ In June 1494, Portugal and Spain, under the mediation of Pope Alexander VI, disregarded the existence of other Western European countries and signed a treaty to divide the world in the Spanish town of Todrecilias. The treaty moved the 1493 papal meridian (purple dotted line) 270 leagues to the west, bounded by a new meridian (the solid purple line on the way), with Spain to the west and Portugal to the east.
Since the desired spices could not be found in the Americas, Spain, subject to the treaty, had to find new routes to Asia.
In 1519, the Portuguese Magellan, with the patronage of the Spanish Crown, set sail west from Spain in search of another route (different from Portugal) to the Spice Islands (now part of Indonesia), and finally completed the global voyage by mistake.
◆ Magellan served in Portugal, but in 1513 he was disabled on one leg during the purge of pirates, and asked the king for more and leaves his post. In 1517, Magellan went to Spain. In March 1518, a navigation agreement was signed with the Spanish Crown. On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail west from Spain. However, during the landing on Mactan Island in the Philippines on 27 April 1521, the fleet clashed with the local natives, and Magellan was killed by the rebellious natives. After Magellan's death, his fleet, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, completed the globe.
A series of great geographical discoveries promoted Spanish colonization. In the 16th century, the territory at the peak of Spain's colony spread throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Oceania, and earlier than Britain, it was called the "Empire of the Sun Never Sets". It was not until 1588, when Spain's Armada was defeated by the British, that Spain's position gradually began to decline.
Following the geographical exploration of Spain, Britain, France, and the Netherlands also completed circumnavigation of the world at the end of the 16th century. Since then, overseas colonization and maritime trade have become a new expansion model for these countries.
In the 15th century, Portugal's geographical exploration and overseas colonization opened the era of human navigation.
In the 16th century, the completion of the global voyages of many countries brought mankind into the era of global navigation and trade.
At that time, although the Ming Dynasty blindly wanted to ban the sea, it could not resist this turbulent trend of the times.
In 1517, the Portuguese took the lead in reaching the coast of China by sea, and since then Spain, the Netherlands and other countries have also arrived.
These countries have a great demand for Chinese silk, ceramics, etc., and began to trade with China on the sea. But because of the sea ban, much of the trade at that time was not officially licensed and could only be carried out by smuggling.
As a result, foreign businessmen bribed Chinese coastal officials to buy goods and leave the unregulated coast, or continued to trade on the uncontrolled islands.
Liuheng Island (then known as "Shuangyu Island") in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, was a prosperous place for China's overseas trade in the mid-16th century, with more than 1,200 ships coming and going every day.
Because many goods can only be smuggled, the price rises. Coastal merchants are desperately tempted by high profits, and more and more merchants are engaged in smuggling trade.
This led to a more severe policy of sea bans during the Jiajing period, as well as a harsh crackdown on smuggling.
In 1547, Zhu Was appointed As the Governor of Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces, responsible for coastal defense military affairs and fighting against the Wokou.
In 1548 and 1549, Zhu Yi's soldiers governed the maritime merchants of Shuangyu Island and Kinmen Island, hundreds of maritime merchants were killed, and the rest fled.
After the military governance, the "Card Armor Law" policy of "ten households sitting together" was adopted. Ten households are licensed and take turns supervising, but if one is smuggled, the remaining nine households are held responsible.
◆ After Zhu Yi led his troops to suppress the maritime merchants on Shuangyu Island, he blocked the port with wood and stones, and destroyed the houses and ships on the island at the same time. However, most of the maritime merchants on Shuangyu Island are residents of Fujian and Zhejiang, and some maritime merchants are related to the Fujian and Zhejiang family families. Although Zhu Yi fulfilled the mission of the imperial court, he offended the family clan of Fujian and Zhejiang, and the people of Fujian and Zhejiang also complained a lot. Therefore, the Fujian and Zhejiang clans joined forces with local officials to accuse Zhu Yi of abusing his power and killing innocents indiscriminately. In 1550, the Jiajing Emperor ordered the arrest of Zhu Yi, who committed suicide by taking poison. Before dying, Zhu Yi said, "Even if the Son of Heaven does not want to kill me, the people of Fujian and Zhejiang will kill me." I die, I am self-determined, and I do not need anyone to be man." (Ming Shi, vol. 205) After Zhu Yi's death, pirates became more prosperous. The picture shows the model of "Sea Prohibition and the Fate of the Anti-Wu Shuangyu Port" displayed by the Ningbo Museum.
Image source: Sohu
As soon as this strategy came out, some merchants who were originally engaged in illegal and secret smuggling directly became pirates who carried out open plunder.
Therefore, the emergence of pirates is the product of the ming dynasty's official sea ban policy and the conflict of the era of global navigation and trade.
In the case of overseas trade without official permission, merchants can only obtain profits and maintain their livelihoods through smuggling and piracy.
In fact, there are also many people of insight among the pirates. Wang Zhi believed that his purpose as a pirate was: "To blackmail the government and open up the port and the city."
However, the Ming rulers were difficult to threaten out of their defense of their rule.
However, the Ming Dynasty's sea ban affected not only the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but also the transition of China from ancient to modern society.
Sea bans and the missed opportunities for modernization
Western European countries sailed because of trade needs, and the Ming and Qing dynasties were banned because they opposed overseas trade. The results are very different.
The former gradually became stronger through seafaring trade, and the Ming and Qing dynasties were closed and weakened by the sea ban.
The significance of the Ming and Qing rulers to the maritime trade was as a whole in a "sleeping state", which can be seen from the Jiajing Emperor's disposition of the pirate Wang Zhi.
The Jiajing Emperor sent Hu Zongxian to summon the pirate Wang Zhi, and Wang Zhi gave the condition that the imperial court could trade and trade with each other.
However, after Wang Zhi surrendered, what awaited him was not the imperial court's trade and mutual market, but his own death.
Hu Zongxian's judgment on Wang Zhi was:
"Waiting to seduce The Uighurs, the wanton raids, the southeast, the haiyu shaking, the ministers and other agents with intermediaries can only be seduced." (Records of emperor Ming Dynasty, vol. 478)
The edict issued by the Jiajing Emperor to Wang Zhi was:
"Straight back to Hua Gouyi, the sin is deep, and the fate is revealed." (Records of emperor Ming Dynasty, vol. 478)
From the verdict and edict, it can be seen that Wang Zhi's most serious crime was actually to turn his back on China and collude with barbarians. This is a continuation of the ancient Huayi debate in the hearts of the Ming rulers, and it is also one of the psychological backgrounds of the Ming Dynasty's long-term official support for overseas trade.
◆ Outside the Matsuura Historical Museum in Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, stands a statue of Wang Zhi (known in Japanese as Wang Zhi), a pirate hated by the rulers of the Ming Dynasty. Around 1540, Wang Zhi went to Japan to do business, selling prohibited items such as nitrate silk cotton. In 1542, the Japanese noble matsuura Takanobu invited Wang to japan to carry out maritime trade from the base of Hirado Island (now part of Nagasaki). Later, Wang Zhi introduced muskets to Japan. The Japanese commemorate Wang Zhi, firstly for his trade contributions and secondly for the spread of muskets.
Image source: Zhihu user @ Zhao Xuehao
Previously, Zheng He's voyage to the West seemed enlightened, but in fact it hid hidden dangers.
This kind of tributary trade did not bring actual economic benefits to the Ming Dynasty, but brought economic burdens to the Ming Dynasty because of the thickness and thinness. Behind the thick and thin is the psychology of Huayi's argument. Visiting the various countries is actually showing the majesty of the Ming Dynasty.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a saying that "if you are not of my race, your heart will be different" (Zuo Chuan Cheng Gong Four Years). Zhu Yuanzhang said: "When Hu Yuan entered China, he destroyed China, polluted China, abandoned schools, and ruined discipline." (Records of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 46)
◆ The "Huayi Debate" is a typical "Chinese-centrism" - the Son of Heaven is in the center, the internal and foreign ministers are on the periphery, the other tributary states are on the periphery, and further outside is the uncivilized barbarian state.
In addition to factors such as guarding against wokou and maintaining traditional social stability, this kind of Huayi debate psychology is also one of the reasons for the policy of sea prohibition.
Based on this psychology of cultural superiority, the Ming rulers adopted a defensive mentality toward other countries.
It is undeniable that the policy of sea prohibition was once conducive to the security of the border and played a beneficial role in preventing the Wokou.
However, long-term, harsh sea bans, and even military crackdowns on civilian smuggling, forced merchants to become thieves, causing the people and the imperial court to miss opportunities for foreign trade.
It was not until 1567, when Emperor Longqing of Ming Muzong ascended the throne, that the Ming Dynasty's policy of sea prohibition was loosened, and history called the "Longqing Switch".
According to statistics, from 1567 to 1644, the amount of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty was 330 million taels, which is equivalent to about 1/3 of the world's total silver.
If there had been no sea ban in the early and middle Ming dynasties, China's overseas trade would have been more prosperous.
However, longqing switch actually only opened a small port in Fujian Zhangzhou Fuyue Port, and the rest of the places are still in a state of sea ban. Moreover, even in Tsukigaku, trade with Japan is not allowed. The sea ban remained the dominant trade policy of the rulers.
The Qing Dynasty continued the Ming Dynasty's policy of sea prohibition, even more severe.
The sea ban in the early Qing Dynasty was mainly to prevent Zheng Chenggong from colluding with the old ministry of the Ming Dynasty.
After the Kangxi Emperor recovered Taiwan, the sea ban was lifted and four major customs offices were established in Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
However, this policy lasted for a short time, because the sea ban once again led to the plague of coastal Wokou and the invasion of Western powers.
In 1716, the Kangxi Emperor re-implemented the policy of sea prohibition. This time, the sea ban not only prohibits trade, but also prohibits people from going to the sea to fish.
During the Yongzheng Emperor, the customs of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were reopened for a time, but during the Qianlong period, due to the influence of the Hong Renhui incident, only the Port of Guangzhou was opened, which was known in history as "one port of trade".
Until the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty continued this policy and formulated a series of preventive policies against foreigners, such as increasing taxes, prohibiting foreign merchants from spending the winter in Guangzhou, and prohibiting grains and gold and silver from going abroad.
The Qing Dynasty's piracy policy also led to a serious problem of piracy, and at the end of the 18th century, Zheng Qi, Zheng Yi, Zhang Bao, Cai Qian and other large pirate groups had tens of thousands of troops and nearly a thousand warships.
In addition to coastal security considerations, another important reason for the sea ban in the middle of the Qing Dynasty was the cultural and psychological impact caused by the "Huayi Debate".
In 1793, the Englishman George Macartney visited China and negotiated with the Qianlong Emperor to open ports for trade. However, the Qianlong Emperor believed that the Purpose of the British was not pure, just to reduce tariffs, so he refused Macartney's request. The Qianlong Emperor said:
"Heaven is in heaven, and the goods are abundant, and there is no need to communicate with the foreign yi."
◆ The picture shows William Alexander, a member of the Macartney mission, who saw Qianlong receive the mission in Chengde, where Thomas Staunton, the 12-year-old son of The Marshallney's deputy envoy, knelt down on one knee to Qianlong and accepted the gift. George Macartney (1737-1806) was a British politician who sent an envoy to China in September 1792 under the name of Wishing Qianlong a happy birthday. He arrived in Beijing in August 1793 and arrived in Chengde in September to meet Qianlong. During the visit, Macartney had a dispute with Qianlong over etiquette issues. In the end, Instead of adopting the Chinese kneeling ritual, Macartney adopted the one-knee etiquette.
Image source: CHINASAGE
Until the Opium War, Chinese may have been sleeping in this dream of "heaven and heaven".
Self-righteous economic self-sufficiency and a high sense of cultural superiority made China during the Qing Dynasty gradually lag behind the development rhythm of Western European countries.
After the maritime trade from the 15th to the 17th century, the countries of Western Europe amassed a large amount of capital, laying the foundation for the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. Since then, humanity has ushered in the 19th and 20th centuries when technology exploded.
However, the sea ban made the Ming and Qing dynasties miss the opportunity to vigorously develop maritime trade. In the face of the new trend of the times, the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties were conservative, very cautious about foreigners, and full of concerns about the uncertainty of maritime trade.
In addition, the sea ban also led to the gradual loss of China's coastal sea rights during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and led to China's missed the competition for sea rights in the far seas, which led to today's South China Sea issues and the Diaoyu Dao issue.
Of course, China is not the only country to implement a closed-door policy.
During the Edo period, Japan also implemented a strict policy of sea ban. The Edo shogunate (also known as the Tokugawa shogunate) allowed only Japanese to trade with a few countries, including China and Korea, expelled merchants and missionaries from other countries, and only opened Nagasaki as a treaty port.
It was not until after the Black Ship Incident in 1853 that Japan was forced to end its isolation.
Japan's policy of sea ban was the same as that of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it also caused Japan to miss the best opportunity for seafaring trade.
The difference is that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan began to embark on the road to great power, while China at that time failed to become truly strong through the foreign affairs movement, and the modernization process was forced to slow down.
History proves that self-isolation can only be overturned by the great waves of the times.
Only by maintaining an open and inclusive mindset can we actively conform to the trend of the times and make great achievements in the wave of globalization. ■
Resources
CHEN Si. The Triangular Relationship between Officials, Merchants and Thieves in the Late Ming Dynasty and Trade in the Taiwan Strait. Journal of Xiamen University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition). 2014-04.
WANG Menglu. An Analysis of the Ming Dynasty's Sea Prohibition Policy. Monthly Journal of Literature and History. 2013-03.
Horses gallop. Maritime merchants, sea prohibitions and pirates in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Translation of economic data from. 2013-02.
BAI Bin,WANG Mumin. The Sea Ban Policy in the Early Ming Dynasty. Proceedings of the 2008 Symposium on Marine Culture and Coastal Zone Economic Development.
XU Xiangmin. The Legislative Purpose of the "Sea Prohibition Decree": Refuting the Closed View of Qing Dynasty Culture. jurisprudence. 2000-01.
Ishikawa, Chiyo, ed. Spain in the Age of Exploration, 1492-1819. U of Nebraska Press. 2004.
Arnold, David. The age of discovery, 1400-1600. Routledge. 2013.