Japanese Piracy In Ming China During The 16th Century

Sixteenth-century China experienced an economic transformation which saw the spread of commercialization and a consumerist material culture that pervaded all aspects of life. As society began to respond to the economic transformation, the ideology and culture of patriarchal descent-line ethics, hitherto an urban, literati trend, began to find resonance among up-and-coming literati families within rural communities. By the end of the sixteenth century, Chinese society, especially in the Jiangnan region and along the southeastern coast, had began to make the transition from the lijia system of household registration into corporate groups overtly organized by kinship relations and unified by the common symbols of the ancestral hall, lineage trust estates, compilation of lineage genealogies and in the symbolic performance of ancestral sacrificial rituals. This is the first study that takes the innovative and unique approach of linking the rise of lineage organization in Haining, Zhejiang province, to wokou activity. By using Haining as the geographical focus of research, this study provides a good comparative study to published works on Chinese lineage organization which had focused largely on Guangdong, Fujian and Anhui provinces. Through the use of previously un-utilized genealogical records of the lineages resident in Haining, the story of how the local groups in Haining responded to the wokou raids through adopting imperially sanctioned ritual practices and cultural symbols to negotiate the transformation of their local communities into the Neo-Confucian model of corporate family organization emerges. The impact of this transitional process within the local community is extrapolated in the case studies of inter-lineage and intra-lineage conflicts. At the same time, the true extent and impact of the wokou crisis, long held by scholars to be of devastating effect on the Ming polity, is also re-examined. Lineage Society on the Southeastern Coast of China is an important book for Asian studies and history collections.

This engaging, deeply informed book provides the first concise history of one of China's most important eras. Leading scholar John W. Dardess offers a thematically organized political, social, and economic exploration of China from 1368 to 1644. He examines how the Ming dynasty was able to endure for 276 years, illuminating Ming foreign relations and border control, the lives and careers of its sixteen emperors, its system of governance and the kinds of people who served it, its great class of literati, and finally the mass outlawry that, in unhappy conjunction with the Manchu invasions from outside, ended the once-mighty dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century. The Ming witnessed the beginning of China's contact with the West, and its story will fascinate all readers interested in global as well as Asian history.

Volume I documents the lives and experiences of everyday people through the lens of human movement and mobility from 1400–1800. Focusing on the most important typologies of pre-industrial global migrations, this volume reveals how these movements transformed global paths of mobility, the impacts of which we still see in societies today. Case studies include those that arose from the demand of free, forced and unfree labour, long and short distance trade, rural/urban displacement, religious mobility and the rise of the number of refugees worldwide. With thirty chapters from leading experts in the field, this authoritative volume is an essential and detailed study of how migration shaped the nature of global human interactions before the age of modern globalization.

Except for the twentieth century, the period from the late Middle Ages through the sixteenth century witnessed the most significant developments in the history of the world. From the expulsion of the Muslims from Spain, through the flowering of the Renaissance, the religious strife of the Reformation, and the attempts by great empires to conquer their own continent and expand into the New World, the enormous political, religious, and social change took place on every continent of the globe are examined. These events and their impact have been carefully described and analyzed in this useful student resource. The events covered are: the Reconquista in Spain, the Renaissance, the Hundred Years' War, the Ming Dynasty Comes to Power, the Age of European Expansion Begins, the Development of Movable Type, the Fall of Constantinople, the Conquest of the New World, the Protestant Reformation, and the Spanish Armada. An introductory essay provides factual material about the event in a clear, concise, and chronological manner that makes complex history understandable. An interpretive essay, written by a recognized authority in the field, explores the short-term and long-term ramifications of the event. Each chapter concludes with a helpful annotated bibliography of further reading. A glossary, timeline of events, and table of ruling houses and dynasties across the globe provide additional reference value. Events That Changed the World Through the Sixteenth Century is an ideal addition to the high school, community college, and undergraduate reference shelf, as well as excellent supplementary reading for social studies and world history courses.

Evelyn Rawski presents a revisionist history of early modern China in the context of northeast Asian geopolitics and global maritime trade.

The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the takeover of China by Manchu rulers in the 1640s were of crucial importance in the late history of China. But because traditional Chinese sources arbitrarily divide the century at the change of dynasty in 1644, it has been difficult to form a clear picture of the transition. The nine essays in this book will contribute significantly toward understanding the complexity of change and continuity over the span of time leading up to and resulting from the tumult of the mid-1600s. "The fullest introduction in English to the Ming-Ch'ing transition."--Tom Fisher, Pacific Affairs "No other recent work compares with its scope, and no older work can stand up to the introduction of its new materials and perspectives."--Library Journal " This book] makes a valuable contribution to Ming-Ch'ing studies and should be required reading for anyone interested in the two dynasties."--James B. Parsons, American Historical Review