Wang Zhi

Wang Zhi

Wang Zhi? He was born in nanzhili (now Shexian County, Anhui Province) on December 25, 1559. His real name was Chen, and he was the owner of the Wufeng ship. He was a key figure in the incident of the introduction of muskets into Japan, and was well-known in history. The Ming government's policy of banning sea trade interrupted the sea trade. Wang Zhi called on the gang and Japanese ronin to form a smuggling team and called himself king Hui. Later, Hu Zongxian, then governor of Zhejiang Province, and Xu Wei, his aide, advocated recruiting him. However, Wang bengu, then governor of Zhejiang Province, captured him and then executed him.

A bronze statue of Wang Zhi stands outside the Matsuura Museum of historical materials in Pinghu City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.

Life of the characters

Wang Zhi? On December 25, 1559), the Ming Dynasty personage, also known as Wufeng, the owner of Wufeng ship, was a Tuolin person from Xiongcun, Shexian County, Huizhou. He was a relative figure in the event of the introduction of muskets into Japan and had a great historical reputation. This surname may be Wang, shin, nickname "Zhi". Some scholars believe that he falsely used his mother's surname "Wang" while claiming to be "Wang Zhi". (Wang Zhen, Wang Zhi's adopted son, namely Mao lie and Hao Haifeng, and Wang Yizhi and Wang Ruxian, his nephew, are all surnamed Wang instead of Wang in Ming history.)

Wang Zhisheng has a vision. According to the records of Shexian county annals in Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, it is said that when Wang Zhi was born, his mother Wang had a dream that a big star fell into her arms from the sky, and there was an e-crown beside the star. Wang said in surprise: "this arc star should shine on Hu, but not on Hu." "It's already snowed, and the vegetation is frozen. The local people said, "the stars in the sky are in the bosom, and the fetus is extraordinary." they are less down-to-earth, more strong and resourceful, and are good at giving. They believe in it with their old friends.

In the 19th year of Jiajing (1540), Wang Zhi and his fellow countryman Xu Weixue (Xu Quan, named Bixi) went to Guangdong for overseas trade with ye zongman (named bichuan and Wulong), Xie He and Fang Tingzhu (named Sixi) from Zhangzhou, Fujian. In the same year, he arrived at Fujiang Island, one of the five islands in Japan, and was welcomed by the company. At that time, the name of the five islands was "Wuhe island". He saw five peaks on the sea, so he named himself "Wufeng". Under his influence, the Japanese changed the name of the island to Wudao.

In the 21th year of Jiajing (1542), Wang Zhi was introduced by Yu jiushengding and invited by Matsuura Longxin, a famous Japanese in the Warring States period. He engaged in maritime trade with Pinghu Island (now Nagasaki county) off Kyushu, which belongs to the former state of fat, and Matsuura Tsu, which belongs to the former state of fat (most of the historical materials of Ming Dynasty mistakenly record the state of Samo). The Songpu family built a house for him and lived here for a long time.

In 1543 (1542), Wang Zhi's ship carrying three Portuguese sea merchants went to Shuangyu island for trade. However, due to the wind and waves, he deviated from the course and arrived at Japan's seed Island (now in Kagoshima county). Wang Zhi called himself "the five peaks of Confucian scholars" and talked with the local Samurai as an interpreter. Shiyao, the son of local daimyo in zizidao, was very interested in the Portuguese torch. He bought it and asked his craftsmen to imitate it. This is the origin of the Japanese iron gun.

Around 1530, Shuangyu port gradually became the largest smuggling port in East Asia after taking gold as a private merchant and carrying Southeast Asian maritime merchants in the area of Shuangyu port off Ningbo. Among them, Li guangtou, a businessman from Fujian, and Xu Dong, a businessman from Huizhou, were the most powerful.

In 1545, Wang Zhi joined Xu Dong group, a fellow townsman, and served as a shopkeeper. He called for "luring Buddha Lang to travel to and from Zhejiang, berthing Shuangyu port, and engaging in private trade."

In 1548, the smugglers and pirates in Shuangyu port were exterminated by the army led by Zhu Wan, the governor of Ming Dynasty. Later, Li guangtou and others were captured and killed in Fujian. Xu Dong fled to Guangdong and did not return to the coast of Zhejiang. (it is said that Xu Dong was captured by the Ming army in Guangdong, but according to the research, it was found that Xu Dong was not included in the list of captured pirates, which should be due to the meritorious efforts of the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers, and was later killed by the Gaoshan people due to illegal logging in Taiwan according to the Japanese first mirror). Wang Zhibian took his own position as the owner of the ship and took Majishan of Jintang Island as a stronghold to collect the remains of the sea merchants and pirates.

In the 30th year of Jiajing (1551), Wang Zhi cooperated with the government and army to eliminate the pirates Lu Qi and Shen Jiu, and annexed the Fujian pirate leader Chen Sipan who was active in Zhejiang Province.

In 1552, Wang Zhi moved to chaolie port. With the acquiescence of Zhejiang Haidao Deputy envoy, Wang Zhi got free trade for a period of time. At the same time, he had close contacts with the officials. He gradually established his position as "maritime overlord" and tried to rebuild the prosperity of Shuangyu port in Zhoushan. Wang Zhi's subordinates are divided into several groups. The representative ship leaders are Mao Haifeng and Xu Yuanliang from Zhejiang, Xu Weixue from Anhui and ye zongman from Fujian. Wang Zhi's subordinates can even trade with the common people on the streets of Suzhou and Hangzhou, while the common people rush to send their children to Wang Zhi's fleet.

At the beginning, Wang Zhi still had great expectations for the imperial court. Under the hint of local officials' tacit approval of "private market", he actively cooperated with the government and worked very hard to pacify Chen Sipan and other pirates, maintain coastal order, gradually established his position as "maritime overlord", and tried to rebuild the prosperity of Shuangyu port in Lijiang, Zhoushan. However, Xiao Xian, Deng Wenjun, Lin bichuan and Shen men in Fujian, he Yaba in Guangdong, and some of Wang Zhi's subordinates, such as Xu Hai, led the Japanese pirates to attack the mainland of China. In May, at the invitation of Li Wenjin, deputy envoy of Ming Haidao, Wang Zhi and the Ming army defeated Zhang Siwei, general manager of the Ming Dynasty, and captured two Japanese ships. Then they led the people to open the market in Dinghai. In July, because Wang Zhi was unable to exterminate the pirates and restrain his subordinates, he was regarded as the mastermind and mastermind of these "invaders".

In 1553, one night in March, governor Wang Zhen sent General Yu Dayou to attack Ligang and annihilate Wang Zhi. Wang Zhi lost to Japan. With the collapse of Shuangyu port and Lijiang port, Zhejiang's international maritime trade network suffered a heavy blow. From then on, there was no place for peaceful maritime merchants in Zhejiang coastal areas in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The final purpose of Wang Zhi's activities in the coastal areas is to "blackmail the government and open up ports and markets". The meaning of these eight words is very clear, which requires the government to give up the untimely policy of maritime prohibition and legalize maritime trade. Under the circumstances at that time, this requirement was reasonable. With the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish businessmen, China has been involved in the vortex of "global" trade. The policy of banning maritime trade is incompatible with this, and the tributary trade is difficult to adapt to the growing speed of overseas trade. Wang Zhi's judgment of the international trade situation is better than those of conservative bureaucrats.

After leaving the coast of China, Wang Zhi called himself the king of Hui. According to Tian Rucheng's biography of Wang Zhi, Wang Zhi "according to songjinpu of samozhou, the illegal name is song, and he calls himself the king of Hui. Control the key, and the barbarians of the thirty-six islands are all under their command. " Songjinpu in Samo island is actually a misinformation of Pinghu island in feiqian state.

In April of 1554, Hu Zongxian was appointed to be the censor of Zhejiang Province. He was appointed to be the Minister of the Ministry of war and the censor of zuojindu. He was also in charge of the military affairs of nanzhili, Zhejiang and Fuzhou, and was responsible for the Anti Japanese task in the southeast coast. In order to recruit Wang Zhi to surrender, Hu Zongxian first released Wang Zhi's mother, wife and children from prison and provided them well. Later, envoys Jiang Zhou and Chen Ke were willing to go to Japan to negotiate with Wang Zhi's adopted son Wang Jian (Mao Haifeng). He saw Wang Zhi and knew his reason and moved his feelings. When he learned that his relatives were all right, he could not help crying with joy, and always complained: "I was not in chaos, because General Yu wanted to arrest my family, so he refused to return." He can't resist the promise of trade and mutual market. Wang Zhi said he was willing to follow orders. Wang Zhi left Jiang Zhou in Japan. In order to show his sincerity, he ordered Mao Haifeng to escort Chen Ke. He was willing to return home to meet Hu Zongxian to discuss appeasement and trade. Hu Zongxian caressed Mao Haifeng, which made Wang Zhi dispel his doubts.

In the 36th year of Jiajing (1557), with the help of Wang Zhi, Jiang Zhou reached an agreement with yuanyichang and yuanyizhen, the two countries of Yamaguchi and Fenghou. Japan returned the plundered population and prepared the tribute. Hu Zongxian played a role in this matter and got the support of the court. The imperial edict ordered Hu Zongxian to give his envoys back. In October, Wang Zhi finally led some people and trade fleets to Zhejiang, while the Japanese government sent envoys such as shanmiao and Jiang Zhou to set out from the five islands to take Wang Zhi's fleet to tonggong exchange and finally to Cengang, Zhejiang. But on the way there was a typhoon, and Jiang Zhou's ship arrived first, which was suspected by the authorities, so Jiang Zhou was arrested.

Wang Zhi's fleet, which arrived later, stagnated in Zhoushan and was surrounded by Ming Navy regiments. Under Hu Zongxian's consolation, Wang Zhi personally came to Ding customs and surrendered to him.

Hu Zongxian comforted Wang Zhi to pay homage to Wang bengu in Hangzhou. On February 5, 1558, he was trapped by Wang bengu during his visit to the West Lake in Hangzhou. When he was in prison, he repeatedly asked, "what's my crime? What is my sin? " He also wrote zimingshu, in which he first explained that "the stealing minister (Wang) was looking for profits in business, selling goods in Zhejiang (Jiang) and Fujian (Jian), sharing the same interests with others, defending the border for the country, and never luring the party thieves to invade. This is a common knowledge of heaven and earth. He has repeatedly made minor achievements, but he is unable to achieve success by deception. On the contrary, he has lost his native place and property, and his officials are not willing to do so. " Then he reported the situation of Japan to the imperial court: "although Japan was unified by one monarch, the monarch was weak and the minister was strong recently, but it was just a name. There are still sixty-six of them, and they are strong with each other. " At last, he implored the Emperor: "if the emperor is kind and forgiven, he will forgive his ministers for their crimes, and then he will be able to work with dogs and horses

Chinese PinYin : Wang Zhi