Song Dynasty pirates across the sea

 　　When it comes to pirates, the image of the "one-eyed dragon" standing on the deck facing the wind under the skeleton flag will immediately pop up in most people's minds. This kind of Western pirate image has long been popularized by the popularity of film and television works such as "Pirates of the Caribbean", and their deeds are well-known and popular all over the world. However, as an ancient professional group with activities all over the world, the history of pirates in the East is not familiar to the world. Let's go back to Song Dynasty China, where sails and ships traveled, and learn about other pirate stories.

where do pirates come from

　　my country's coastal areas have gathered a large number of sea-based people since ancient times, engaged in fishing, salt making, shipbuilding, commerce, shipping and other industries. These large numbers of coastal people who travel to and from the sea are regarded as unsettled people in the traditional society dominated by farming culture. Due to the particularity of the times, the Song Dynasty government treated them more severely than previous dynasties.

　　The geopolitical and economic environment of the Song Dynasty has changed a lot from previous generations. At that time, land transportation to Central Asia, West Asia, Europe and other places was blocked by the Liao, Xixia, Jin and other regimes successively, and the national economic center of gravity gradually moved southward. Therefore, the Song Dynasty, which faced the sea and established a country, had a more active ocean than the previous generation. policy. At the same time, the government has also stepped up its control and oppression of coastal society by means of guarding the ranks of the army, forcibly recruiting officers, going to sea within a time limit, and guiding beliefs. A series of coastal policies of the Song Dynasty were mainly aimed at the security and stability of national governance, but the interests of the coastal people were often ignored or even damaged. As a result, many of them are forced to make a living and secretly engage in smuggling trade, and some of them even begin to escape state rule and enter the sea areas that are difficult for the government to control.

　　In the composition of the pirates, the most important ones are the ordinary coastal people who are desperate because they can't bear the government's extortion. Due to the land policy of "not suppressing mergers" in the Song Dynasty, coupled with the fact that the coastal areas have less land and more people, and various natural and man-made disasters often occur, the local people are under great pressure to survive. Under such circumstances, the government also tried its best to loot and enslave, making their already embarrassing life even worse. For example, during the reign of Emperor Lizong of Song Dynasty (1234-1236), the Song Dynasty requisitioned a large number of coastal civilian ships to increase the defense of the river, resulting in "destroyed families, exile and death", and many people were forced to go out to sea as pirates to make a living. At that time, many pirate leaders took advantage of this survival appeal of ordinary coastal people, and called for "robbing the rich to help the poor". In addition, in the prosperous foreign trade environment, pirate activities could make huge profits. For a time, "the followers of the crowd". The participation of a large number of poor people made the pirate organization show a strong vitality, making the Song Dynasty government helpless. In addition, some soldiers and rogues who have committed crimes in coastal areas fled to the sea to avoid punishment, and they are also one of the sources of pirates. At that time, there were also a small number of foreign pirates from Vietnam and other places who burned, killed and looted along the coast. ), ignoring the inhabitants and robbing the real thing.”

Why is it so hard to catch pirates

　　Pirates not only plundered coastal counties, towns and villages and various merchant ships, but even the treasures provided by the city's shipping department to the court, so "the gains were in the millions." Some unscrupulous businessmen who smuggled salt in coastal areas and smuggled copper coins overseas (copper coins in the Song Dynasty were almost an "international" currency at that time) also formed interest alliances with pirates, each taking what they needed, and many even robbing them. Yishang's pirate organization itself engages in these illegal businesses.

　　With the prosperity of foreign trade, the activities of pirates have become more and more frequent. The scale, duration and scope of pirates are unprecedented in previous generations, causing considerable economic losses to the government and the emergence of social order in the relevant areas. confusion. In the face of rampant piracy, the government not only further strengthened the control of coastal society, increased necessary military forces and weapons and equipment, and established military camps in key areas to improve coastal defense construction, it also often dispatched troops to arrest them. This series of governance and crackdown measures have received positive results, but piracy is still prohibited, and it has not been completely eradicated until the demise of the Song Dynasty. This situation is caused by the Song Dynasty government, pirate organizations and coastal people.

　　From the government’s point of view, in view of the situation at the time, the armed forces were mainly used to guard against military threats from the Liao, Xixia, Jin and other regimes, and they were more willing to settle down for pirates, and often adopted a strategy of “suppressing and apprehension, focusing on appeasement”. Song Ting often incorporated captured or surrendered pirates into the army, and even some pirate leaders could become naval generals of the Song Dynasty after being recruited. Those who enter the sea as pirates can not only solve their livelihood, but also may obtain official titles after they are attached to the imperial court. Therefore, ordinary people along the coast tend to follow suit, so that people continue to enter the sea as pirates. In addition, pirates bribed court officials and soldiers for their own use. At that time, "the soldiers will be on the move, and the thieves are all prophets", but "once there are police officers, (the officers and soldiers) refuse to pursue them vigorously, and there are occasional captures.

　　From the point of view of pirate organizations, they are erratic and erratic, and generally take cross-regional actions. Therefore, the cost and difficulty of government arrests are high. Song Ting also adopted some inter-regional cooperation and inter-departmental coordination, and also set up a coastal control department to coordinate and coordinate matters related to the suppression of pirates. limited.

　　In addition, coastal people also have close interests with pirates, not only providing shore supplies for pirates, keeping their goods on their behalf, and even sometimes acting as agents for their sales of goods. For example, Weitou'ao in Quanzhou, Fujian, where pirates often moor to take shelter from the wind and supply fresh water and other daily necessities. The arrival of pirates brought economic benefits to the local residents, so that "the rich stopped hiding for them, the poor served them, and even more restaurants and brothels were set up to lure them, lest they not come". The pirates who sold illicit salt in Guangdong handed over the goods to some coastal people for safekeeping, and they "sold it somewhere" and gave them corresponding remuneration. Many coastal people who benefit from pirate activities also provide them with information and intelligence, so that pirates can know more about government movements, but the whereabouts of pirates are often unrealistic, which greatly increases the difficulty of catching pirates.

Where are the pirates most rampant?

　　The activities of pirates in the Song Dynasty spread all over the coast of my country, especially Liangzhe Road (including present-day Zhejiang Province, Shanghai and parts of Jiangsu Province), Fujian Road (present-day Fujian area) and Guangnan East Road (present-day Guangdong area) along the southeast coast. ) is most active.

　　Liangzhe Road was the transit center of maritime trade and the most important consumer market at that time, and it was also the most economically developed area in the country. Therefore, there were often pirates in the coastal line of Liangzhe Road from south to north. Among them, the people on the seashore in Mingzhou (now Ningbo, Zhejiang) have strong customs, and there are many pirates who enter the sea; Taizhou and Wenzhou are also very harmful to pirates. Pirates" and "piracy flooded".

　　Fujian Road "connects two Zhejiang in the north and reaches Guangnan in the south". It is located in the middle of the southeast coast, where maritime trade is developed, and it is also the place where "pirates gather". From Fuzhou in the north of Fujian Road to Zhangzhou in the south, there are a lot of pirates. In October of the first year of Shaoxing, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty (1131), Li Yuanyu, a foreign officer of the Ministry of Personnel, "made offerings from the governor of Hunan, and Fanhai was still able to do it." This is evident. The Fujian area is also often infested by pirates from Liangzhe Road and Guangnan East Road. "Those who come from the north will enter from the Tongpanshan and Banyangtuo areas in the Wenzhou border; those who come from the south, From the Xinghua realm, it is divided into Nanxiao Mountain and Nanni Village.

　　The economy of Guangnan East Road is also very prosperous. The local "land and water thieves are flooded" and "the descendants of the pirates are attacking, and the big ones are hundreds of people, and the prefectures and counties are suffering". For example, during the Taiping Xingguo period (976-984) of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty, "there were more than 500 thieves of the Ye clan in Guangzhou who traveled to and from the sea", and the harm was not light. At that time, Yang Yungong, the ship envoy of the city, "led the crowd into the sea, caught them all, and all the thieves broke down. He also arrived at the places where the thieves stopped in Zhang and Quan, and took all the men and women they robbed and returned to their homes." At the end of the Song Dynasty, the five brothers of Chen Yi in Haiyang County, Chaozhou were all strong in their villages, and they were called "five tigers" by the people at that time. During the Deyou years of Emperor Gong of Song (1275-1276), they "privately bought weapons and recruited rogues", and gradually developed into a pirate group on the side of Megatron.

Pirates from another angle

　　In addition to burning, killing, looting and engaging in illegal trade, pirates also have a glorious side.

Northern Song Dynasty? The Northern Song Dynasty Merchant Ships in Guo Zhongshu's "Xueji River Journey"

　　When the country encountered difficulties, some of them also stepped forward to serve the country. In the Anti-Jin War between the Song Dynasty and the Anti-Yuan War at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were pirates. For example, Zhang Qing, a pirate from Shandong, once led a ship to attack the hinterland of Liaodong in the Jin Kingdom. Many local scholars and Song prisoners responded accordingly. Although it ended in failure, it also showed integrity and attacked the Jin Kingdom’s rule. When the Yuan army aggressively attacked the south of the Yangtze River, some pirates in the southeastern coastal areas also joined the struggle against the Yuan, and contributed to the government by providing people, money, ships, and resources. Li De, a former pirate, "collected 7,000 ships and 200,000 ships" in the anti-Yuan struggle, and repeatedly defeated the Yuan army. Later, he was defeated and killed because of his subordinates' revolt.

　　Piracy also objectively promoted the development of shipbuilding and navigation. Pirates use ships as their means of transportation across the sea, and have a greater demand for ships. When the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhende Xiu of the Southern Song Dynasty knew Quanzhou, he once witnessed the pirate ships "as tall as mountains", and he couldn't help sighing that the military ships of the government's naval forces were "less than half". Pirates' requirements for ships in terms of quantity and quality stimulated the development and progress of the shipbuilding industry at that time.

　　With the cross-regional activities of pirates, the sea traffic routes at that time also expanded. During Song Duzong (1265-1274), pirates Chen Mingfu and Chen Gongfa often led their fleets to trade with "waifan", opening up an ocean line of communication that was convenient for commercial activities. In addition, pirates also led to the rise of some port cities in the process of trade. These ports, as a place for the exchange of goods related to pirate activities, have attracted businessmen from all over the world to come and go and promote the development of the local economy. As mentioned above, Weitouao, Quanzhou, Fujian, is an emerging port city formed under the impetus of pirate business activities. At that time, "ordinary passenger ships and pirate ships passing by from the northern and southern oceans all parked here."

The legend of the famous pirate

　　There are many famous pirates in Chinese history, such as Fang Guozhen in the late Yuan Dynasty, Zhong Fuquan and Mrs. Li in the Ming Dynasty, and "Zheng Shima Xu" pirates in the Qing Dynasty. The most famous ones in the Song Dynasty were Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan.

　　Zhu Qing was from Yaosha, Chongming Prefecture in western Zhejiang (now Chongming District, Shanghai). Later, he was employed by the wealthy Yang family who owned several sand boats (a kind of flat-bottomed cargo ships, suitable for offshore navigation and transportation), and killed him at night because he could not bear the humiliation, slavery and excessive pressure of the host family, "stealing his wife's property. go". After that, he started his career as a pirate by "desperately gathering the party" and "part-time plagiarism". Once, after selling illicit salt, Zhu Qing went to Xinhua Town to exchange rice and met Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan was from Jiading, Pingjiang (today's Jiading District, Shanghai). He lost his father when he was young and lived with his mother begging for a living. Similar life experiences made Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan like each other at first sight, so they became brothers with different surnames. After that, the two gathered together thousands of party members, owned more than 500 ships, and often robbed the rich coastal households and merchants at sea. Because their team was erratic at sea, the officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty had no way to deal with them.

　　In this way, Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan led their pirate teams to operate at sea for more than ten years. When the Yuan army attacked the Song Dynasty, the two faced the historical trend of the Song, Yuan and Yi dynasties, accepted the surrender of the Yuan court, and were awarded the marching thousand households. After the Yuan army captured Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, they helped the Yuan court to transport a large number of maps and artifacts to Dadu (now Beijing). Since then, the two participated in a series of conquests in the early Yuan Dynasty and made great contributions to the Yuan Dynasty.

　　But their greatest contribution is to preside over the shipping of grains in the early Yuan Dynasty and the construction of Taicang Port. When the Yuan Dynasty established the capital of Beijing, since the local grain production was not enough to supply the huge population of the capital, it was necessary to transport the grain from the south to the north to supply the capital. In history, the transportation of grains from the south to the north was generally realized through the canal, but the canal transportation of grains was slow, consumes a lot of money, and the cost was high. Therefore, some people in the early Yuan Dynasty advocated the implementation of more convenient shipping. The implementation of shipping requires people with sufficient navigational knowledge and practical experience to preside over it, so the skills Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan mastered when they were pirates in the late Song Dynasty came in handy. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu and Zhang once led their fleet from Chongming north to the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, and then sailed northeast to the coast of Goryeo (now the Korean Peninsula). Their fleet made more than ten round trips from north to south, and observed and recorded the islands and reefs along the way, the depth and direction of the sea, and the tides. Therefore, they were very familiar with the relevant seaways and could sail on the dangerous shoals without hindrance. Because of this, they were given the responsibility of shipping grain by the Yuan Dynasty government, which solved the serious problem of grain shortage in the capital.

Shaxi Ancient Town, Taicang, Suzhou, Jiangsu

　　Zhu and Zhang attached great importance to maritime trade. When they were pirates at the end of the Song Dynasty, they had business dealings with merchants from Korea, Japan and other countries. At this time, they took the opportunity of hosting sea water transport as an opportunity to actively promote the foreign economy of the Yuan Dynasty. They used Taicang (now Taicang, Jiangsu), which was originally "unexplored", as the base port for grain shipping and an important foreign trade port, attracting many merchants and people from all walks of life at home and abroad, and promoting the development of the coastal economy. Taicang also Hence prosperity, from "poor towns to giant cities". Liujiagang in Taicang was called the "Six Kingdoms Wharf" because of the gathering of overseas merchants.

　　Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan went out to sea as pirates due to the pressure of survival at the end of the Song Dynasty. They mastered a number of skills related to the sea in more than ten years of hard work. After entering the Yuan Dynasty, they made important contributions to social development with these skills. . Their life legends are the epitome of the life of the pirate group at that time, and also reflect the special encounter of the group under the changing times.