清代中國における海賊問題と琉球--海域史研究の一視點 (特集 アジア東方海域の近世)

Abstract

In recent years attention has been focused on the movements of people and trade in the maritime regions of the world thus promoting a reevaluation of the concept of history as the study of a single nation and seeing historical studies from a standpoint that supersedes national borders. Works such as Murai Shosuke's Kokkyo o koete: Higashi Ajia kaiiki sekai no chusei (1997), Yi Young's Wako to Nichirai kankeishi (1999), Osa Setsuko's Chusei kokkyo kaiiki no Wa to Chosen (2002), Seki Shuichi's Chusei Nitcho kaiikishi no kenkyu (2002) etc., have been published recently. The results of these studies have shed new light on the reality of diplomatic missions, merchants, piracy (specifically Japanese pirates, wako) and the problem of repatriation of those who drifted ashore in foreign lands. Although the need to accumulate further data and develop a new methodology are pressing concerns in implementing a history of maritime regions, I have limited my focus here to the problem of piracy that occurred in Chinese coastal waters and attempted to clarify the historical reality. From the point of view of maritime piracy, one must note that there existed an intimate link between acts of piracy and private trade by maritime merchant powers that had replaced the royal monopoly on trade, as the history of the wako indicates. In general, "maritime piracy" has been viewed as an armed force threatening commercial networks in maritime regions and was to be strictly suppressed. In 17th century Europe maritime piracy, which was carried out in the name of privateering, was rife, and various nations joined together to develop "international law" as a legal means to deal with maritime piracy. It is undeniably true that piracy on the seas had dealt a serious blow to the commercial networks between states. However, if a relativistic view is adopted, the strictly moralistic view of history, a simple equation of pirates with bandit bands, cannot be maintained. Of course, modern-day international law prohibits acts of plunder and pillage on the high seas, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea defines piracy as acts that have been committed on the high seas. Today, in the 21st century, attacks in the Strait of Malacca on oil tankers and commercial vessels continue unabated. Behind this state of affairs lies the discrepancy in wealth between the advanced industrialized nations and developing nations. Maritime piracy frequently appeared during periods of upheaval in East Asia. In terms of China after the 17th century, the first of such periods was that of turbulence during the transition from the Ming to Qing dynasties, the second period was that of the "Tingdao disturbances" 艇盜の亂 at the close of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, and the third was the mid-nineteenth century Taiping Rebellion. Ships dispatched from the Ryukyus carrying tribute to China were in turn prepared for pirates and armed with cannons and firearms. There were in fact fifteen cases of Ryukyuan ships being attacked by pirates off the Fujian coast, and nearly half the incidents, i.e., seven instances, occurred during the third period. During the period of frequent piracy that accompanied the Taiping revolt, when Commodore Perry visited the port of Macao on his voyage to open Japan he reported with alarm that there was no place in the world today where acts of piracy were committed so brazenly and frequently. Eventually, the Qing Dynasty system of rule was greatly shaken and when in the latter half of the 19th century its capacity to maintain safe passage on the seas had been diminished, the new steam-powered warships of the British were employed to carry out operations against pirates in the waters around the treaty ports. With the appearance of modern steam-powered ships, which replaced sailing ships, piracy itself faced a turning point.