Pirates and Privateers

Long ago in the Land of the Dragon lived a mischievous and handsome lad. He and his brothers were not where they should have been when they spied lychee on the branch of a tree that grew behind a wall. Determined to partake of the sweet, fragrant fruit, they pelted the bumpy, red husks with stones in hopes of knocking a cluster from the branch. But one projectile soared over the wall and struck the governor. Unable to escape, the boys found themselves facing this honorable man. When he looked upon them, the lad’s seductive charm and smile beguiled the governor. “This is the face of one destined for wealth and nobility,” he said, and dismissed the boys. (Andrade, Lost, 21)

The governor’s words proved prophetic, or perhaps it was the storytellers who wished to intrigue their listeners. Whether true or not, this tale epitomized who this boy was.

[H]e ran wild, grasped at hanging fruit, got in trouble, and came out the better for it. His rise was so fast, so spectacular, and so unlikely, that it seemed destiny must be involved. (Andrade, Lost, 21)

Before we discover what the fates have in store for this charismatic lad, we must first learn about the Land of the Dragon and the southeastern province where he lives. We shall also learn about piracy, for it differs from that of the western world.

At the time of our story, the Ming ruled China and had done so since 1368. The founder of this dynasty was Zhu Yuanzhang, who rose to power in Nanjing and took the name Hongwu, meaning “Vast Military Power.” For his dynastic name, he chose Ming because it meant “brilliant,” and he implemented customs and traditions that predated the previous rulers, the Mongols (Yuan dynasty). They were outlanders, who had invaded the empire, and they allowed other foreigners to enter China and introduce their ways into society. Hongwu wanted Chinese culture to be the focal point of life. One way to do this was to make agriculture a mainstay of her economy instead of maritime trade. From his perspective, “Overseas foreign countries . . . are separated from us by mountains and seas and faraway in a corner. Their lands would not produce enough for us to maintain them; their people would not usefully serve us if incorporated.” (Andrade, Company’s, 417) As a result of this thinking and these policies, the Ming equated the ocean to the Great Wall; both were barriers meant to prevent outlanders from coming into China.

After the emperor’s death and a brief period of civil war, Hongwu’s fourth son, Yongle (“Perpetual Happiness”), came to power. One of his goals was to extend China’s influence beyond her borders. He selected Admiral Zheng He to make contact with other countries and establish a network where outside rulers paid tribute to his emperor. Zheng He set sail on the first of seven expeditions in 1405, with sixty-three ships and 27,870 men; they traveled as far away as Calicut in India and returned home two years later. By the time Zheng He returned from his last voyage, he had visited Mecca in Arabia and Mogadishu and Malindi in Africa.

The emperor ruling over China when our story begins was Wanli, who came to power when he was ten years old in 1573. His reign lasted forty-seven years, the longest of any emperor since Han Wudi (r. 141 BCE – 87 BCE). It started with great promise and maritime trade flourished, but devolved into a slow decline of the Ming dynasty and the rise of a new threat from the northeast, the Manchus.

In the last decade of the sixteenth century, the people of the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong suffered a multitude of natural disasters: droughts, earthquakes, and floods. These impacted the availability of food, causing prices to soar. For many, the only alternatives to starvation were to become bandits or pirates.

Piracy is one of the oldest “professions.” We have no idea how far back in time the first attack occurs, although the earliest one that is recorded takes place in 1350 BCE. For China, the first documented incident happens in AD 589, during the Sui dynasty, around the same time that Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui, brings unity to China.

When Westerners hear the word “piracy,” we have a preconceived idea of what that comprises. We immediately summon up the image of a golden age pirate or a buccaneer. We picture them hunting alone or in small groups (think Blackbeard or the joint venture led by Bartholomew Sharp, John Coxon, Edward Cook, Richard Sawkins, and Peter Harris). Their safe havens are few and far between (think Port Royal or Madagascar). They plunder ships, such as Samuel Bellamy’s capture of the Whydah, or plunder the wealth of Spain’s colonial ports, such as Henry Morgan’s raid on Panama.

The principal driving force for going pirating among Westerners is to “get rich quick.” To a degree this is true among Asian pirates, but more often, they do so just to survive. They tend to hunt in fleets and encounter few, if any, problems if they put in at major ports. Although they sometimes pillage vessels and go raiding, their primary revenue comes from protection money and ransoms. When it suits their endgame, they even hire themselves out as maritime mercenaries.

Even the language used to classify someone as a pirate differs. In its simplest form, Westerners define such an offender as a robber at sea. Chinese historical documents use terms such as haikou (sea bandits), haidao (pirates), and haini (sea rebels). Sometimes kuo is used, although this word refers to anyone who engages in robbery regardless of the type and place where it happens.

We are concerned with China, particularly the province of Fujian, during the seventeenth century. This region of China’s southeast coast extends more than 4,000 kilometers (2,845+ miles) from its northern border with Zhejiang to Guangdong to the south. West of the coastline are mountains, which both isolate the region from the rest of China and make farming difficult. As a result, many Fujians turn to the sea to make their living.

Fujian Province, China (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In 1593, the Fujian Censorate told the Ming court:

The province of Fujian is short on arable land and densely populated. Very few of the five grains are produced. For this reason, residents along the coast all view the junk as their home, the seas as their fields, and trade with the barbarians as their livelihoods. (Xing, 22)

Just as predators lurked on the land, they also were found at sea. “[V]iolence and crime, like typhoons, taxes, and official squeeze, were undeniable parts of the seaman’s daily life.” (Antony, Like, 12) Sometimes, those predators were victims themselves because “[m]ost pirates were fishermen and sailors, and fishermen and sailors were the most frequent victims of pirates.” (Antony, Like, 12)
 
It was a time when there was limited legal maritime trade, because the mandarins (public officials) kept close watch on trade and piracy. Too much of the former might prove too enticing to the latter, which might endanger the empire’s safety. When those “red flags” were raised, imperial decrees instituted prohibitions, known as Haijin.

The first emperor to implement a sea ban was Zhu Yuanzhang, because of his preference for an agricultural empire that did not require commodities from outside of China. His subjects could fish, but no one was permitted to build ships large enough to visit other countries. The only foreign trade allowed was that which was donated, either freely or in payment for protection, and this was only permitted if carefully supervised by the authorities. Tribute trade arrived in one of three ports and which one a ship put into depended on where it originated. Those from Japan sailed to Ningbo. Tribute from the Ryukyu Islands went to Quanzhou, although this was later changed to the capital of Fujian, Fuzhou. Ships from Southeast Asia and other places docked in Guangzhou (Canton). Those who violated the Haijin faced a series of penalties over the years. In 1501, for example,

THOSE WHO:
1. Build ships with more than two masts;
2. Or ship banned goods to foreign countries;
3. Or guide pirates into coastal areas to rob and loot;
WILL BE PUNISHED AS FOLLOWS:
1. The outlaw himself will be executed [i.e., decapitated];
2. His entire family will be sentenced to lifetime servitude in military camps on the frontiers. (Ho, 63)

In 1569, the following pronouncement was made to those who lived on the coast.

THOSE WHO dare to trade sulfur or saltpeter with pirates:
WILL BE PUNISHED AS FOLLOWS:
1. The criminal will suffer the death of a thousand cuts;
2. His whole family will be executed;
3. His neighbors, if they knew about the trade but did not report it, will be sentenced to lifetime servitude in military camps on the frontiers;
THOSE WHO report on such trade will be rewarded generously . . . (Ho, 65)

The incongruity of this plan of action that curtailed legitimate trade was that it often had the opposite effect. Instead of curbing piracy, it increased it. It also gave rise to smuggling. Of course, Westerners, such as the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, or United East India Company) weren’t happy with the curtailment of trade with China, which meant they had to deal with smugglers and pirate-merchants to acquire the silks and other luxuries the people back home desired. It also meant they might have to use force to gain what they wanted, in essence turning pirate themselves.

Nor was there much that imperial forces could do to thwart the pirates. The military just didn’t have sufficient resources or men to counter their offensives, and corruption permeated the navy and a lack of desire to put themselves in harm’s way affected many naval personnel. And why should they when local residents saw nothing wrong with what the pirates were doing?

Into this world was born a son to the Zheng family. According to Taiwan waiji, a book written by Jian Risheng, he was born between the hours of seven and nine in the morning on 16 April 1604. ^{1, 2} Based on later historical events, he might actually have been born in 1592 or 1594.

To be continued . . . part 2


Notes:
1. This Unofficial record of Taiwan is a mix of actual events that can be verified using other historical resources, both in China and Europe. It is a combination of “analytical narrative, moral judgment, and embellished dialogues and legends from folklore,” much like Captain Johnson’s blend of fact and fiction in A General History of the Pyrates in western literature. (Xian, 5)

2. Jian Risheng wrote this book in 1707. His family was from Fujian and his father was once a Zheng commander.


Resources:

Andrade, Tonio. “The Company’s Chinese Pirates: How the Dutch East India Company Tried to Lead a Coalition of Pirates to War against China, 1621-1662,” Journal of World History 15:4 (December 2004), 415-444.
Andrade, Tonio. Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China’s First Great Victory over the West. Princeton University, 2011.
Antony, Robert J. “Introduction: The Shadowy World of the Greater China Seas” in Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas edited by Robert J. Antony. Hong Kong University, 2010, 1-14.
Antony, Robert J. Pirates in the Age of Sail. W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.

Calanca, Paola. “Piracy and Coastal Security in Southeastern China, 1600-1780” in Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas edited by Robert J. Antony. Hong Kong University, 2010, 85-98.
Chen, Boyi. “Borders and Beyond: Contested Power and Discourse around Southeast Coastal China in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” International Journal of Asian Studies 15:1 (2018), 85-116.
Cheng-heng Lu. “Between Bureaucrats and Bandits: The Rise of Zheng Zhilong and His Organization, the Zheng Ministry (Zheng Bu)” in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550-1700 edited by Tonio Andrade and Xing Hang. University of Hawai’i, 2019, 132-155.

Hang Xing. Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c. 1620-1720. Cambridge University, 2017.
Ho, Dahpon David. “Sealords Live in Vain: Fujian and the Making of a Maritime Frontier in Seventeenth-Century China.” PhD diss. University of California, San Diego, 2011.

Paludan, Ann. Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial China. Thames & Hudson, 2008.

Shapinsky, Peter. D. “Envoys and Escorts: Representation and Performance among Koxinga’s Japanese Pirate Ancestors” in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550-1700 edited by Tonio Andrade and Xing Hang. University of Hawai’i, 2019, 38-64.
Shapinsky, Peter D. “From Sea Bandits to Sea Lords: Nonstate Violence and Pirate Identities in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Japan” in Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas edited by Robert J. Antony. Hong Kong University, 2010, 27-41.

Xu Ke. “Piracy, Seaborne Trade and the Rivalries of Foreign Sea Powers in East and Southeast Asia, 1511 to 1839: A Chinese Perspective” in Piracy, Maritime Terrorism and Securing the Malacca Straits edited by Graham Gerard Ong-Webb. International Institute for Asian Studies and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006.

Copyright ©2023 Cindy Vallar

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