- Waegu = Korean
- Wokou = Chinese
- Wako = Japanese
Piracy is when a ship attacks and (usually) robs another at sea. Piracy has always been especially common along unprotected shipping lanes where many ships are carrying valuable cargo. It also shows up in places where lots of merchants are engaged in smuggling. Smuggling is when merchants try to avoid trade regulations, either by selling illegal products or by trying to avoid import taxes on legal products.
Starting in the 1220s, piracy became increasingly common on the seas between northern China, the Korean peninsula, and western Japan. In addition to attacking ships on the water, fleets of pirate ships attacked coastal towns, especially in Korea. They destroyed buildings, stole food, and captured residents and sold them into slavery. By the mid-1500s, it was a very serious problem.
According to historians Tonio Andrade and Xing Hang, “three factors—the tremendous profitability of the silver trade; the Ming maritime prohibition; and the Japanese warring states situation—provided an environment suited to the emergence of powerful illicit maritime organizations.”7 What does this mean?
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Silver trade: Silver was mined in Japan and there was very high demand for it in China. At the same time, there was high demand for Chinese products (like silk textiles) in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and beyond. It was a perfect set-up for trade.
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Japanese warring states: From the mid-1400s until the early 1600s, Japan was disunited and local warlords fought against one another. A warlord named Nobunaga unified much of Japan by 1568 and the period of fighting finally ended when the Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603. The extreme disunity of the early 1500s meant pirates easily established themselves along Japan’s coastal areas and islands. Korea and China tried different tactics to stop piracy and both governments demanded that Japanese leaders crack down on pirates, but this generally did not happen. In other words, there were a lot of unprotected shipping lanes. (Note: This is why pirates were able to capture Cho Wan Byeok and bring him to Dai Viet, where he heard local people recite Yi Sugwang’s brush talk poems).
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Ming maritime prohibition: For a variety of reasons, including trying to control piracy, the first Ming emperor officially prohibited Chinese people from leaving China and prohibited foreign merchants from freely entering China to trade. This prohibition was in effect for most of the period from 1368 - 1568. During these years, the only legal way to trade with China was as part of a tributary mission. Joseon Korea adopted a similar policy, though it was not as restrictive as China’s.
The desire to trade silk and silver plus Chinese trade restrictions gave rise to a lot of smuggling (illegal trade). It was a perfect environment for piracy to thrive.
Chinese and Korean writers asserted that the pirates were ethnically Japanese, but “in fact they comprised many different peoples. Most of their numbers came from China, but Portuguese adherents contributed their powerful arquebus muskets [long guns], and the bands were rounded out by members from Southeast Asia and the Ryukyu Islands.”8 Pirate crews were multiethnic and their ships and weapons drew on technologies from around the world.
Though there were brief periods of improvement, generally speaking piracy continued to be a significant problem in this region into the late 1600s. In fact, during the 1600s a pirate organization led by Zheng Zhilong became powerful enough to challenge governments in the region.9
7 Andrade, Tonio and Xing Hang, “INTRODUCTION: The East Asian Maritime Realm in Global History, 1500–1700.” Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550 - 1700, Andrade, Tonio, et al, University of Hawaii Press, 2016, pp. 1 - 27.
8 Andrade, Tonio and Xing Hang. “The East Asian Maritime Realm in Global History, 1500–1700.” Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550–1700, edited by Tonio Andrade, et al, University of Hawaii Press, 2016, pp. 1 - 27.
9 ibid