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Wokou (p=Wōkòu; ; Hepburn: ; ; literal Chinese translation: "dwarf bandits"), which translates to "Japanese pirates", were who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century to the 17th century.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wakō Encyclopaedia BritannicaBatten Bruce. "Gateway to Japan" 2006 The wokou were made of various ethnicities of East Asian ancestry, which varied over time and raided the mainland from islands in the Sea of Japan and East China Sea.Kwan-wai So. Japanese piracy in Ming China, during the 16th century. Michigan State University Press, 1975. chapter 2. Wokou activity in Korea declined after the Treaty of Gyehae in 1443 but continued in Ming dynasty and peaked during the Jiajing wokou raids in the mid-16th century. Chinese reprisals and strong clamp-downs on pirates by Japanese authorities saw the wokou disappear by the 17th century.
The first recorded use of the term wokou (倭寇) is on the Gwanggaeto Stele, erected in modern Ji'an, Jilin, China to celebrate the exploits of Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo (). The stele states that "wokou" ("Japanese robbers") crossed the sea and were defeated by him in 404. The term wokou is a combination of the Chinese terms Wō (倭), referring to either Dwarfism or pejoratively to the Japanese, and kòu () "bandit".Prof. Wang Yong, "Realistic and Fantastic Images of 'Dwarf Pirates': The Evolution of Ming Dynasty Perceptions of the Japanese." In Prof. Joshua A. Fogel, ed., Sagacious Monks and Bloodthirsty Warriors: Chinese Views of Japan in the Ming-Qing Period (EastBridge, 2002), 17–41Prof. Douglas R. Howland. Borders of Chinese Civilization: Geography and History at Empire's End (Duke University Press Books, 1996), p. 22
According to Korean records, wokou were particularly rampant roughly from 1350. After almost annual invasions of the southern provinces of Jeolla and Gyeongsang, they migrated northwards to the Chungcheong and Gyeonggi areas. The History of Goryeo has a record of sea battles in 1380 whereby one hundred warships were sent to Gunsan to rout Japanese pirates there, releasing 334 captives. Wokou sorties decreased thereafter. The wokou were effectively expelled through the use of gunpowder technology, which the wokou lacked, after Goryeo founded the Office of Gunpowder Weapons in 1377 (which was abolished twelve years later).
In 1419, the Korean army landed in Tsushima Island and started the Ōei Invasion, the largest operation against the wokou. General Yi Chongmu's fleet of 227 ships and 17,285 soldiers set off from Geoje Island toward Tsushima on 19 June 1419. According to "Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty" a Korean history book, on 20 June the Korean army captured 129 wokou ships, burned 1,939 houses, killed 114 people, captured 21 people, and rescued 131 Chinese who the wokou had captured. 세종실록 4권, 세종 1년 6월 20일 National Institute of Korean History. On 29 June, they burned 15 wokou ships and 68 houses, killed 9 people, and rescued 15 people, including Chinese and Koreans, who had been held captive, but more than 100 soldiers were killed by wokou. 세종실록 4권, 세종 1년 6월 29일 National Institute of Korean History. On 3 July, the Korean army withdrew to Geoje Island 세종실록 4권, 세종 1년 7월 3일 National Institute of Korean History. and finally withdrew completely after giving up the re-landing and occupation of Tsushima because of the loss of Korean army and worsening weather. 세종실록 4권, 세종 1년 7월 9일 National Institute of Korean History. In the record of 10 July, the number of soldiers killed by wokou was rectified to 180. 세종실록 4권, 세종 1년 7월 10일 National Institute of Korean History. On the other hand, according to historical documents recorded by the Sō clan, the death toll of the Korean army was 2,500. 宗氏家譜, 対州編年略.
應永二十六年己亥六月廿日、朝鮮將李從茂率戰艦二百二十七艘、卒一萬七千二百八十五人、到對馬州與良郡淺海浦。州兵拒之海濱不利。朝鮮兵到仁位郡、分道下陸、竟進屯糠獄。貞茂率州兵、到糠嶽下。侵矢石攻之。連戰數日、七月初一日、與左軍朴松戰大破之。朝鮮兵狼狽走海濱乘船、貞茂使海人放火。以燒賊船。齋藤、立石等發兵撃之。賊兵大潰而還。我兵戰死者百二十三人。斬賊二千五百餘級。 Ōei Invasion. Encyclopedia Nipponica.
When the Treaty of Gyehae was concluded between the Joseon and Sō Sadamori of Tsushima in 1443 and the Sō clan was given trade privileges, wokou's activities along the Korean Peninsula calmed down. Some of the coastal forts built for defense against wokou can still be found in Zhejiang and Fujian. Among them are the well-restored Pucheng Fortress (in Cangnan County, Zhejiang) and Chongwu Fortress (in Chongwu, Huai'an County, Fujian), as well as the ruins of the Liu'ao Fortress in Liu'ao, Fujian.Yang Shuiming (杨水明), 六鳌古城：倾听历史的涛声 (The old Liu'ao Fortress: listening to the waves of history) .
Two well-known Chinese military figures involved in combating the wokou were Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou. Yu Dayou was a Ming dynasty general assigned to defend the coast against the wokou. In 1553, a young man named Qi Jiguang became the Assistant Regional Military Commissioner of the Ming dynasty. He was assigned to "punish the bandits and guard the people", which meant taking on the wokou attacking the Ming east coast. At that time, he was 26 years old. On the eve of the following year, he was promoted to the full commissioner in Zhejiang because of his successes.
The wokou even entered the Philippines before their extermination in the 17th century. Aparri in northern Luzon was established as a pirate city-state under the patronage of the wokou. The area around Aparri was the site of the 1582 Cagayan battles between wokou and Spanish soldiers.General Archive of the Indies, Philippines, file 29, bunch 3, number 62. Letter from Juan Bautista Román to the Viceroy of México,
25 June 1582General Archive of the Indies, Philippines, file 6, bunch 2, number 60. Letter from the Governor of the Philippines to the Viceroy of México,
20 July 1583General Archive of the Indies, Philippines, file 74, bunch 1, number 24. Letter from Bishop of the Philippines to the King of Spain, 18 January 1583[11] General Archive of the Indies, Council of the Indies, 339,L.1,F.286V-287R. Order to send men to the Philippines from Mexico, 14 June 1583 The wokou were not limited to Aparri. The pirate-warlord Limahong attempted and failed to invade Manila and afterwards set up a temporary pirate state in Caboloan (Pangasinan) before the Spanish expelled him. (2025). 9789888028115, Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 9789888028115
| + Approximate number of pirate raids on Ming China by reign period and by regionChen Maoheng (1957), Mingdai wokou kaolue A. Beijing (originally published in 1934), cited in Higgins (1981), p. 29 ! rowspan="2" | Regnal year ! colspan="6" | Region ! rowspan="2" | Total |
| Hongwu Emperor (1358–1398) | 46 | ||
| Jianwen Emperor (1399–1402) | 2 | ||
| Yongle Emperor (1403–1424) | 43 | ||
| Hongxi Emperor (1425) | 0 | ||
| Xuande Emperor (1426–1435) | 3 | ||
| Zhengtong (1436–1449) | 11 | ||
| Jingtai Emperor (1450–1456) | 1 | ||
| Tianshun (1457–1464) | 0 | ||
| Chenghua Emperor (1465–1487) | 2 | ||
| Hongzhi Emperor (1488–1505) | 1 | ||
| Zhengde Emperor (1506–1521) | 2 | ||
| Jiajing Emperor (1522–1566) | 601 | ||
| Longqing Emperor (1567–1572) | 19 | ||
| Wanli Emperor (1573–1619) | 15 | ||
Professor Takeo Tanaka of University of Tokyo proposed in 1966 that the early wokou were Koreans living on these outlying islands. In the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the compiled section for King Sejong relates that a vassal named Yi Sun-mong (, 1386–1449) told his monarch "I hear that in the late Goryeo kingdom period, wokou roaming (our country) and the peasants could not withstand them. However only 1 or 2 (out of 10) were caused by (real) Japanese. Some of our peasants imitatively wore Japanese clothing, formed a group and caused trouble... in order to stop all evils, there is nothing more urgent than the Hopae (personal identification system)".Tanaka, Takeo, Wakō to kangōbōeki (Shibundo, 1966) (田中健夫『倭寇と勘合貿易』) However, Yi did not live during the Goryeo dynasty and was likely relating rumor or legend as opposed to solid documented evidence. Moreover, the thrust of Yi's speech concentrates on how national security was deteriorating and how it required special attention; it is possible he made use of unreliable information to support his point. Yi's assertion is therefore not highly valued as a source for wokou by other researchers.Murai, Shōsuke, Chūsei wajinden (Iwanami, 1993) (村井章介『中世倭人伝』) Goryeosa records 529 wokou raids during the 1223–1392 period but mentions the "fake Japanese" only three times.
The current prevailing theoryHiroshi Mitani. "A Protonation-state and its 'Unforgettable Other'." in Helen Hardacre, ed., New directions in the study of Meiji Japan. Brill. p. 295 is that of Shōsuke Murai, who demonstrated in 1988 that the early wokou came from multiple ethnic groups rather than one singular nation. Murai writes that the wokou were "marginal men" living in politically unstable areas without national allegiances, akin to the Zomia thesis. Supporters of this theory point out that one of the early wokou leaders, Ajibaldo, was variously claimed by period sources to be Mongolian, Japanese, Korean, and an "islander"; his name is apparently Korean and Mongolian in origin.Barbara Seyock. "Pirates and Traders". In Trade and Transfer Across the East Asian "Mediterranean", Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. p. 95.
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Notes
Primary sources:
Mann, C. C. (2011). 1493: Uncovering the new world Columbus created. Vintage.161-163
External links
Categories: Medieval Pirates, 16th-century Pirates, 17th-century Pirates, Japanese Pirates, Chinese Pirates, Military History Of Korea, Ming Dynasty, Naval History Of China, Piracy In China, Piracy In The Pacific Ocean, Naval Warfare Of The Middle Ages, Anti-japanese Sentiment In China, Anti-japanese Sentiment In Korea
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