Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Countries (Vol. 40)

Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 78: General Discussion on Maritime Defense II

When they arrived on a later date to collect payment original: "zhi," referring to the price or value of goods sold to Chinese merchants, the debt remained unpaid as it had been before. The Japanese original: "Wo," a term used for the Japanese, often in the context of pirates were deeply resentful, and traitorous commoners within the interior further incited them to unrest; consequently, they began burning and plundering the coastal prefectures and counties.

When Governor Zhu Wan arrived, his first act was to strictly enforce the Prohibition of Communication with Foreigners 通番禁 (tongfan jin): a ban on private maritime trade and contact with outsiders, imposing the severest punishments on those who violated it. He was also outraged that many powerful families in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces sheltered these "pirates." He submitted memorials to the throne that were considered excessively aggressive; as a result, the court officials opposed him and worked to obstruct his efforts literally "pulled his elbows," a classic idiom for hindering someone's work. After Zhu Wan died, no one—neither at court nor in the provinces—dared to speak of the maritime ban policies again.

Consequently, Xu Hai and Wang Zhi prominent pirate-merchants who led massive fleets during the 16th century incited internal strife, and the "Japanese Pirate Raids" reached their full, disastrous scale. Had the authorities shown compassion to the Japanese who came for mutual trade and not defaulted on the payments due to them, and had they not prohibited the arrival of foreign ships, then Xu Hai and Wang Zhi would have remained legitimate merchants conducting trade openly; Japan and Portugal original: "Folangji," a term originally referring to the Franks, used in this era to denote the Portuguese would have continued to gather here as part of the tribute system.

Instead, the "pirates" used the Japanese to threaten the officials, and the officials used their soldiers to threaten the Japanese—a deceptive and illusory cycle of manipulation. When the debts went unpaid and the war drums sounded, the resulting "poison" spread across the four seas. At that time, the merchants who brewed this disaster deserved death many times over. However, once the Office of Maritime Trade 市舶 (shibo): the government agency managing maritime commerce and customs was abolished, the control over profit fell into private hands, and communication outside the ports became a path of extreme danger.