Pirates And Local Society On Guangdong East Road In The Ming Dynasty

Piracy is one of the most important issues in the study of historical geography,marine history and social history,exploring the issue of piracy in China during the historical period will be helpful to the advancement of research along the Maritime Silk Road.The Ming Dynasty was an important transition period of China’s Marine policy from open and inclusive to conservative and closed,Guangdong was the direct beneficiary of the maritime policy of Ming Dynasty,and the pirate activities in Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty have an important relationship with it.Among them,Guangdong East Road Huichao is at the forefront of piracy activities,the local politics,economy and customs have changed greatly under the influence of pirate activities.Therefore,this paper explores the causes and influences of piracy activities in this area from the perspective of piracy activities on the east road of Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty,and discusses the relationship between them and the social changes of Huichao,in order to provide some reference for related research.The pirate activity in Guangdong East Road has become more rampant since the 1930s in Jiajing.From the perspective of space,Haifeng,Raoping,Chaoyang are the places where pirates often harass,while Nanao is often taken by pirates due to its location in the sea.Under the tightening of the Ming Dynasty’s foreign policy,the coastal people in huichao were forced to go into the sea for pirates or to help pirates under the pressure of survival,the important family entered the sea trade because of the huge profits of overseas trade under the policy of sea ban.Under the heavy interest,the people and the local gentry became the rebels against the official prohibition.After zhu-wan destroyed the port of shuangyu in Zhejiang province,they joined forces with Japanese and Chinese pirates who went south to engage in piracy activities by utilizing the geographical environment of Huichao numerous coastal islands and harbor branches.With the increasingly rampant piracy activities,the government has taken measures to strengthen coastal defense and suppress or incorporate piracy in an attempt to eliminate the chaos.Faced with the pirates’predatory and homicidal activities,the people,under the organization of local gentry,built villages and organized militias to actively fight against the pirates’ invasion and become supporters of the government.Because of the difference between pirates’invasion,plunder and landing trade,local people and gentry adopt different strategies of confrontation or traffiic.In fact,the local people has made the choice not to synchronize with the government policy.Huichao’s local independence has been strengthened day by day.In the context of frequent piracy activities,Huichao pirates,local people and government are linked through economic and military activities.So the local unrest in Huichao has always been limited to a certain extent,Huichao has always maintained a stable social structure.This interaction between the three extended to the Qing Dynasty under the closed-door foreign policy of the Ming government,and became the main social development form of Huichao in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.