What Were Smuggled to Japan? (1)

     Both Chouhai Tubian by Zheng Ruoceng (1503-1570) and Riben Yijian by Zheng Shungong (?-?) had similar entries both of which had the same title Wo Hao (literally Japanese Favorites).  They listed 22 exports wihich were smuggled by Wokou.  As for 8 of them, their prices in silver were entered: silk, cotton, crimson strings, mercury, needles, iron pots, old coins, and medicinal herbs.  The entries are the evidence that they were traded for silver.

Japanese Silver Attracted Foreign Smugglers (7)

     Previously, in 1540’s, some of the silver mined and refined in Iwami Silver Mine flew out into Korea.  It didn’t take so long for Japanese silver to drain off into China.  Those days in China, more taxes were supposed to be paid with silver than before, while the production of silver in China was sluggish.  The thirst for foreign silver was burning.  Direct non-stop marine transportation routes across the East China Sea were opened up.  The Chinese junk ships on those direct routes arrived in Japan at Hirado, for example, in the northwestern tip of Kyushu Island, which used to be ruled by the Matsura Clan.

     In 1550’s, Chinese smugglers from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces flocked to Japan with an eye to its silver.  Although they were heading for Hirado, some of them, unluckily, got astray and got washed ashore either in the north on the Korean beaches or in the south on small islands around the southern part of Kyushu, on Tanega-shima Island, for example.  In Korea, those ships were reported and recorded as wrecked Tang ships.

Japanese Silver Attracted Foreign Smugglers (6)

      Zhu Wan (1494-1550) tried to solve the conflict in a militant and authoritarian way.  In 1548, he sent a fleet to Shuanyu, the largest base of smugglers, in Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province, felled the port, and captured and killed many smugglers including Xu Dong.  Li Guangtou and Wang Zhi narrowly  escaped from the perish though.

     Zhu’s achievements and the contribution to the country, however, angered utilitarian landed gentries, and he had to commit suicide in 1550.  After his death, in 1550’s, there came Jiajing wokou raids.  Was it because of Zhu’s success, which ironically scattered left-over smugglers along Zhejiang and Fujian coasts out of any control?  Or was it because of militants’ lost to utilitarians, which accordingly weakened the military actions against smugglers?  Who knows?  However, during the great wokou raids, even utilitarian landed gentries’ estates were attacked by wokou.  Those gentries were, accordingly, losers too.

      After the fall of Shuanyu in 1548, Wang Zhi (?-1560) moved his base to Lie Port, Jintang Island, still within Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province.  The port was attacked by Yu Dayou (1503-579) in 1553, and Wang fled to Japan.

Japanese Silver Attracted Foreign Smugglers (5)

      Those Chinese smugglers were based in islands along the coasts of Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces.  They conspired with Chinese landed gentries at the time in the provinces.  The gentries were retired central bureaucrats, whose sons were either central bureaucrats who had passed the Imperial examinations or those who were preparing themselves to pass the examinations, and were accordingly more powerful than local authorities there.

     Japanese silver not only caught up Chinese smugglers and their supporters, coastal Chinese landed gentries, but also inevitably involved high-ranking authority officers because of smugglers’ illegal actions and occasional violent conducts.  The conflict between utilitarian landed gentries and militant authoritarian ones made central Court power games ever severer and more complicated.

Japanese Silver Attracted Foreign Smugglers (4)

      Wang Zhi (?-1560) was born in She County, Anhui Province, China.  According to Zheng Ruoceng, Wang moved to Guangdong in 1540, built a huge ship there, smuggled illegal goods prohibited by Ming government with Japan and Southeast Asia countries, and made an enormous fortune.  According to Zheng Shungong, Wang visited Hakata in 1545, brought Sukezaemon and 2 other Japanese merchants to Shuangyu, Zhejiang Province, and smuggled with them there.

     Under the embargo policy of Ming government, Wang Zhi, who called himself a sea trader, smuggled niter, sulfur, silk, cotton, etc. across the East China Sea and the South China Sea along with other Chinese smugglers such as Xu Dong (?-1548?), Li Guangtou (?-1548?), Chen Sixi (?-1551), Xu Hai (?-1556), and Ye Zongman (?-?) while Ming government officers such as Zhu Wan (1494-1550), Yu Dayou (1503-1579), and Hu Zongxian (1512-1565) kept attacking them.