Wang Zhi (pirate)

Wang Zhi (), art name Wufeng (), was a Chinese pirate lord of the 16th century, one of the main figures among the ''wokou. Originally a salt merchant, Wang Zhi turned to smuggling during the Ming dynasty's period of maritime prohibitions banning all private overseas trade, and eventually became the head of a pirate syndicate stretching across the East and South China Seas, from Japan to Thailand. Through his clandestine trade, he is credited for spreading European firearms throughout East Asia, and for his role in leading the first Europeans (the Portuguese) to reach Japan in 1543. On the other hand, the Ming emperor and government blamed Wang Zhi for the ravages of the Jiajing wokou raids, for which they imprisoned and later executed Wang Zhi in 1560 when he was ashore in China trying to negotiate a relaxation of its maritime prohibitions.

Early life

Wang Zhi was a native of She County of Huizhou (in present-day Huangshan City, Anhui). His mother was surnamed Wāng () as opposed to his father's Wáng (). Owing to the similar surnames of his parents, some sources refer to Wang Zhi by his mother's surname, thus rendering his name as Wāng Zhi 汪直 instead of Wáng Zhi 王直. Wang Zhi became a salt merchant early in his life, following the mercantile tradition of Huizhou which had been rejuvenated by ready access to the Ming government salt monopoly. However, despite amassing considerable wealth from the salt trade, his business failed, and he was compelled to seek his fortune in the southern province of Guangdong with business associates Xu Weixue () and Ye Zongman () in 1540. Owing to the lax regulation on maritime trade in Guangdong, Wang Zhi and his associates were able to build great seaworthy junks, which they used to carry contraband goods such as saltpeter, silks, and cotton to the markets of Southeast Asia and Japan. During his time in Southeast Asia, he became acquainted with the Portuguese, who had been in the area since they captured Malacca in 1511.

At this time, Wang Zhi's dealings with the foreigners were illegal since all private sea trade had been banned from the beginning of the Ming dynasty. Under the prohibition, all maritime trade was to be conducted through the officially sanctioned "tribute trade", in which foreign states presented tributes to the Chinese court, acknowledged themselves as vassals of the Ming, and received gifts as a sign of imperial favour. This trade, in addition to being humiliating to the foreigners involved, was inadequate to the demands of the markets, both domestic and foreign, since the Ming had strict rules about how often a vassal could come to present tribute. Wang Zhi's smuggling trade provided the supply to the demand that was unmet by the officially sanctioned trade.

Role in the introduction of Portuguese guns to Japan

On 23 September 1543, Wang Zhi accompanied some Portuguese men on a ship to Tanegashima, a Japanese island to the southeast of Kyushu, in a voyage that marked one of the first times Europeans set foot in Japan. Japanese records of this event refer to Wang Zhi as Wufeng () and describe him as a Confucian scholar of the Ming who was able to communicate with the local Japanese by writing Chinese characters in the sand, since China and Japan shared the same written script at the time. The strange appearance of the Portuguese caused a local sensation, and they were eventually brought before the lord of the island, Tanegashima Tokitaka. The young lord's interest became drawn towards the matchlocks that the Portuguese were carrying, and Wang Zhi acted as an interpreter for the Portuguese to explain the workings of the guns. The guns were quickly copied and their use spread across Japan, intensifying the wars of the Sengoku period. The guns were hence known throughout Japan as ''tanegashima'', named after the island.

The introduction of Portuguese matchlocks to Japan greatly increased the demand for saltpeter, a vital ingredient of gunpowder — a demand that Wang Zhi was on hand to meet. Since Japan did not produce its own saltpeter, Wang Zhi brought Chinese and Siamese saltpeter into Japan amongst other goods, while transporting Japanese sulfur (another ingredient of gunpowder) to Siam. In the process, he became immensely wealthy and gained a reputation among the Japanese and the foreign countries.

Since Japan was undergoing a protracted period of civil war, the lack of an effective central authority (neither the emperor nor the ''shōgun'' held any real power at the time) made Wang Zhi free to enter patronage agreements with the regional ''daimyō'' who wielded actual control over territories. At first, Wang Zhi set up base on Fukue Island, to settle there. A Chinatown soon grew across the river from the Uku clan's castle. Wang Zhi also maintained a residence in Hirado at the northwestern tip of Kyushu, and enjoyed the patronage of its lord Matsura Takanobu. Wang Zhi's presence in Hirado attracted other merchant-pirates and the Portuguese, who sent their "black ship" to Hirado almost every year until the establishment of Nagasaki.

The Shuangyu syndicate

In 1544, Wang Zhi joined the Xu brothers, the heads of a pirate syndicate based in Shuangyu who were also natives of Wang Zhi's home She County. They took notice of Wang Zhi's experience and ability in trade, and so Wang Zhi quickly rose to become their financial supervisor (). Later, they made him commander of the armed fleet () and councillor on military affairs, and he became revered as Captain Wufeng ().

Wang Zhi's connection with Japan quickly proved useful to the Xu brothers when in the same year, a Japanese ship on an unofficial tribute mission to China passed by Tanegashima and landed in the Chinese port city Ningbo. This Japanese ship did not carry the proper documents and was refused by the Ningbo officials, and Wang Zhi was able to convince the emissaries to barter their goods illicitly in nearby Shuangyu instead. The next year, Wang Zhi led more Japanese traders to Shuangyu while encouraging Xu Dong (), the leader of the Xu brothers, to send his own ships to Japan. Thereafter, Shuangyu became the primary smuggling port for Japanese traders in China.

As Wang Zhi's enterprise grew, he started hiring Japanese fighters to protect their cargo from rival pirate gangs and the Ming navy, and eventually to defeat other pirates and assimilate their followers into his own consortium. The local residents of Shuangyu looked up to Wang Zhi and willingly aided the pirates, since the smuggling trade brought considerable wealth to the island. The villagers, who previously relied on subsistence agriculture and fishing to make a living, turned to making weapons and armour for Wang Zhi and other pirates of the area: "heymelted copper coins to make shot, used saltpeter to make gunpowder, iron to make swords and guns, and leather to make their armour." Their admiration for the pirates was such that not only did they provide the pirates with daily necessities, they also gave women and pledged their own children. Many youngsters willingly joined Wang Zhi's group.

The Ming court disapproved of the illegal trade and piratical activities centred at Shuangyu. On a stormy night in June 1548, a fleet under the veteran general Zhu Wan razed Shuangyu to the ground and filled its harbour with stones, rendering it permanently unusable. Despite heavy casualties, Wang Zhi managed to escape Shuangyu with the help of the summer monsoon winds. Xu Dong fled overseas, which left Wang Zhi to assume control of the syndicate that Xu Dong left behind. Since Wang Zhi had already controlled the Xu brothers' fleet and treasury, opposition to his rise to leadership was minimal.

King of Hui: The wokou pirate lord

The destruction of Shuangyu disrupted the relatively orderly system of illegal trade previously centered around the port, and the smugglers scattered across the Chinese coast, with some becoming pirates in the process. For his part, Wang Zhi re-established himself at Ligang (瀝港, also named Liegang 列港, on Jintang Island) and continued expanding his consortium. He adopted Mao Haifeng (), a Zhejiang trader skilled in the use of Portuguese cannons, as his son and utilized the latter's knowledge to fit his ships with cannons. In 1551, he led a coalition of merchant-pirates to destroy his rival Chen Sipan () with the connivance of the Ningbo military officials. With Chen Sipan defeated, Wang Zhi's supremacy in the China seas was assured. Many pirates fell in behind Wang Zhi, and it was said that no ship dared to sail without his banner.

In a bid to have the Ming government lift the maritime prohibition and legitimize his illicit trade, Wang Zhi portrayed his expansion as keeping the peace on the coast. He collaborated with the Ming officials by turning Chen Sipan over to the authorities. Despite these efforts, the Ming authorities tightened the restrictions later in 1551 by banning even fishing boats from going out to sea, and Wang Zhi was only rewarded 100 shoulder-loads of rice for his trouble. Wang Zhi, indignant, dumped the rice into the sea and sent his pirate fleets to loot the Chinese coast. The Ming responded by sending the military general Yu Dayou with several thousand war junks to dislodge Wang Zhi from Ligang in 1553. Wang Zhi fled to Japan.

Wang Zhi soon re-established himself on the Gotō Islands and Hirado, where he had previously set footholds with the connivance of the local ''daimyō''. There Wang Zhi called himself the King of Hui (), dressed himself in royal colours, and surrounded himself with standard-bearers. It was said that in Hirado, Wang Zhi had up to 2,000 workers and owned hundreds of ships. Wang Zhi's influence in Japan grew beyond his bases on the Gotō Islands and Hirado as he established contact with hegemons like the Ōtomo clan of Bungo and the Ōuchi clan of Yamaguchi, and his associates were embedded in the court of the Satsuma clan of Kagoshima.

Gathering desperados from all over Japan and mixing them into his predominantly Chinese bands, Wang Zhi sent out pirate fleets to raid the coast of the mainland from his island bases. The pirates were called ''wokou

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