Whether it's Pirates of the Caribbean or One Piece, many film and television creators have set their sights on the historically brutal and adventurous One Piece groups. Around the 13th and 16th centuries, southeast Asian waters were inhabited by a group of wokou that made the people of China's coastal areas talk about it, so when it comes to pirates, many Chinese confuse the concept of pirates with wokou. In fact, pirates and wokou are not the same meaning, and pirates are not just sea bandits that we imagine to only burn and loot.
Japan's Wokou have a very bad reputation, not only in our country, but also in North Korea. In fact, in the 13th and 16th centuries, the Wokou were not only Japanese, but also many Chinese displaced people in the later period. At that time, Due to the political instability between the North and the South, China was in the alternating era of the two dynasties of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, while Korea was at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty. The regimes of the three countries were unstable, and the supreme ruler was unable to take care of himself and could not control the lives of the people, and the plundering of the Wokou became more unscrupulous.
Unlike the Wokou, the pirates (also known as the pirates and pirate samurai in Japan) became rich by collecting passing fees, and together with the local gentry to expand their power, they became the object of the daimyo's efforts at that time.
The emergence and development of pirates
The fall of the Kamakura shogunate plunged Japan into chaos between the North and the South. It coincided with the two years of drought and famine that had been forced by life to live in groups that gathered to snatch official gold and silver supplies. For the emergence of this wave of mobs, the emperor has also sent people to suppress it. During the qinghe emperor period, he issued many government decrees to eliminate these pirates, but the pirate forces always rose and fell, and they were not fundamentally eliminated.
In addition, during the Heian period, the commodity economy developed by leaps and bounds, promoting the prosperity of the manor system. The phenomenon of land annexation is becoming more and more serious, and many peasants in Japan have become ronin because they have lost their land, which has increased the factors of social instability. Coupled with the subsequent collapse of the legal system, these ronin soon gathered to become a mob organization. Because they originally had hatred for the landlord class, they began to frequently rob the official materials and even smash the official government.
The lucrative benefits of the pirates attracted many samurai or gentry, who also began to roam among the pirates to plunder money. A large number of coastal clans devoted themselves to sea activities, which also prompted pirates to gradually transform from ordinary thugs into pirate samurai and became an important maritime military force in the Muromachi period.
By the Time of the Warring States period of Japan, the pirates had become a rather powerful local group organization, and the robbery of passing property was far from satisfying them, and they began to set up checkpoints at the key points of the sea route, specifically collecting the "tolls" of passing ships, and their names were also various, including "driving money", "sailing money", etc. In this period, the pirates have basically realized the freedom of power and called themselves the daimyōs of the sea.
Moreover, in order to consolidate their own power, these pirate groups also united with generals and daimyo from all sides, and became powerful weapons to assist the major names in the form of mercenaries and courtiers, with their own military strength, coupled with their own sea transportation capabilities, and became the admiralty of the Warring States.
As the daimyō of the Warring States, the support and interests given by pirates cannot be ignored, and they are eager to absorb this maritime military force, so they have adopted a relatively tolerant and preferential policy for pirates, and at this point, the era of pirate freedom has officially arrived. Pirate power gradually infiltrated the military and politics.
In the Battle of Itsukushima, the Maori Yuan trapped on Itsukushima had only 4,000 soldiers, while Tao Qingxian, a heavy minister of the Ouchi clan, personally led an army of 20,000 and more than 500 police ships to besiege the Maori Yuan. Mao Liyuan, under the absolute weakness, thought of co-opting the pirates in nearby islands and villages, and used the power of the pirates to carry out a surprise attack on Tao Qingxian's army. At that time, the nearby Noh Island, the pirates who came to the island, and Tao Qingxian had a dispute over the problem of tolls, and they were immediately willing to help under the persuasion of Maori Yuan.
Therefore, under the condition that Tao Qingxian was unprepared, Mao Liyuan joined forces with the pirate detachment to besiege Tao Qingxian and won a great victory. Tao Qingxian's army was in chaos, and as many as a thousand people drowned alone. In the end, Tao Qingxian had no choice but to commit suicide.
Another very famous pirate samurai is Oda Nobunaga's samurai Kufui Kataka. Nine Ghosts Kalong turned to Oda Nobunaga because of the decline of the family, hoping to use his power to revive the family business. Later, the Oda family formed a powerful Oda water army in a short period of time, which was enough to counter the strength of the Murakami water army, which was known as the first monopoly of the Sengoku Sengoku inland sea, and the most important help came from the Nine Ghosts Kataka. After Oda Nobunaga's death at Honnoji Temple, the Nine Ghosts Kataka was also defeated and killed. His son chose to serve the Tokugawa clan and continued his father's old ways.
The Nine Ghosts Kalong is only a microcosm of many pirate leaders, many pirates at that time adapted to the situation, abandoned the inherent concept of "occupying the sea as the king", but instead became a samurai and regained the glory of the family.
In the struggle between the daimyōs, the pirates intervened by their own means and with the strong force of the sea, becoming a decisive force that could not be ignored. At this time, not only Japanese caravans, but even emissaries, missionaries, and so on from neighboring countries would be intercepted for no reason. They have only two choices, whether to accept the various names they propose and pay for it. Or take up your own knives, guns and shells and fight them to the death. The invasion of pirates not only plagued ordinary merchants, but also hindered the sea traffic for the lords and samurai of one side.
In 1586, Louis Floys recorded a recollection of his confrontation with japanese pirates:
"The deputy prefect priest told me that Nojima was inhabited by the great pirates of Japan. He built huge castles on the island, had a large number of ships, and was constantly on the move. The surrounding coastal regions paid tribute to him every year out of fear of his might. Whenever our priests and brothers of believers go to sea, they are in danger of falling into his hands, and the priest wants to obtain from him a certificate of safe passage so that our members will not be captured by him and slightly robbed. "
In addition to levying tolls on passing ships and extorting all kinds of professionals who pass through them, these pirates will also expand their territory, strictly manage their territory, and also formulate corresponding rules to ensure the stability of the area and the normal operation of pirate work. Under such a mechanism, pirates can obtain a lot of wealth from their own sea and land territories, which is really a million profits.
The decline and disappearance of pirates
The pirates have gone through the development stage of being suppressed, being used, and talking about cooperation, and finally they cannot escape the end of their demise. The official red card for the Pirate Group was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had long since begun to integrate the Seto Inland Pirate forces and step by step stepped up the collection of sea power.
After inheriting Oda Nobunaga's career, Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to absorb the surrounding pirate forces, starting with small and medium-sized groups, and using relatively gentle means to coerce and induce. Many pirates, after deciding to return to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, discovered that toyotomi Hideyoshi's conditions, although tempting, were also extremely harsh on those who returned.
The reason why Toyotomi Hideyoshi used this method of incorporation instead of conquering by force was obviously that he did not have the absolute confidence to take over the sea hegemony and suppress all pirate forces. Therefore, he offered relatively favorable conditions, but also wanted to buy himself time to accumulate his own strength.
By the time Toyotomi Hideyoshi had pacified the Shikoku region, he was also fully sure of his pirate group. On July 8, 1588, he issued the Pirate Cessation Order, which also issued a death note to the Pirate Group. At this point, all the activities of pirates will be classified as illegal activities, which is a policy of total suppression of pirates under the explicit order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with the intention of restoring normal traffic and stability in the inland sea through this decree.
The Pirates' Cease and Desist Order reads as follows:
King:
First, the acts of thieves of ships on the seas of the nations shall be strictly ordered to cease; and if there are clans who steal ships between Iyo and Izukishima between the two countries, they shall bear the consequences if they hear about it.
Second, all the countries of the pool, the bow of the ferry, the hunter, but all those who take the boat, as soon as possible to the place where they are located, the acting officials to revise the book, talk to the pirates as the business, according to the oath of conviction and sentence, the lord of the country can report the facts.
Third, from now on, among the lords of the people, there are pirates, and they shall be punished and confiscated for the knowledge and deeds of the people of the last generation.
The above decrees may be resolutely enforced, and if there is a disobedience, it may be directly condemned.
July 8, 1916 (red stamp)
The promulgation of this ban, with very strict supervision and disciplinary measures, deprived the pirates of their right to control the sea. The pirates had only wanted to survive in the cracks, but now Toyotomi Hideyoshi had completely denied their independence. Not only that, Toyotomi Hideyoshi also issued the "Sword Hunting Order", which collected civilian weapons and suppressed the armed forces of the peasants, and provided the possibility of eliminating pirates at one time. After these two decrees were issued, the pirates in various regions quickly disappeared, and even the pirate families that were once famous in the Warring States period were depressed at an extremely rapid rate.
In The history of Japan, the Edo period ushered in the long-lost "Peace Andyo", and this prosperity, as Toyotomi Hideyoshi wished, no longer had the soil for pirates to take root and grow. Indeed, class contradictions and social unrest are the basis for the survival of the pirates. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over the mantle of Oda Nobunaga and unified Japan, the living space of the pirates became smaller and smaller, and when Toyotomi Hideyoshi's policy toward pirates changed from moderate to harsh and harsh, the prosperous era of pirates would eventually come to an end.
summary:
The one-piece samurai groups that emerged in Japan during the Sengoku period were arising from national instability and intensification of class contradictions. Their means of subsistence are inherently violent and predatory, impeding the flow of trade between local and local, state and state. During the Sengoku period, Japan's economy and trade were unprecedentedly prosperous because of the obstruction of pirates, and the setting up of checkpoints in maritime transportation fortresses was extremely rampant, and even the daimyo at that time needed to be protected by one of the pirates to ensure the safety of sea operation.
However, the existence of pirates was not useless, and to a certain extent, pirates also changed the political landscape of the time, limiting the development of daimyo. Japan's territory is long and narrow, facing the sea on all sides, and the military power of the pirates will have some influence on the inland daimyo, and even affect the political structure of the surrounding areas by joint means. In short, pirates are a disorderly social group that can only be developed in turbulent times, set up to enter the upper class. The upheavals in Japan's Warring States gave them nourishment and even became "sea names", which was only a unique phenomenon of a specific era.
The history of pirates is coming to an end, and in the Edo period, many of the courtiers of some local daimyo came from pirates, and although Toyotomi Hideyoshi was determined to suppress them, they may still survive on their own identity. However, during the later Tokugawa shogunate, these pirates came from fewer and fewer vassals. Unable to continue, they had to return to the commoners, some continuing to farm, and some becoming traders or craftsmen. Social stability and the concentration of political power have cut off the way for pirates to retreat, and the "sea hegemon" that once flourished in the Warring States period eventually became a term that only existed in the history books.