In a recent article, I wrote about Limahong attacking the Philippine capital of Manila (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1817... In fact, this was just one episode from the long and legendary career of the pirate perhaps better known by his Chinese name of Lin Feng. Throughout the 1570s, Lin Feng and his men terrorized the cities and islands of southern China and the Philippines. He was quite capable of bursting past the harbour defences of quite large cities, landing his ships and pillaging the port, carrying away whatever booty he fancied. For years, he was able to cock a snoot at the government forces. However, eventually, the Chinese forces managed to organise a suitably large response and broke the back of Lin Feng's operations:
"Previously, the fugitive bandit Lin Feng had led his gang in returning to Chao-zhou. First, they attacked Hai-men Port and Ta-tou-bu in Chao-zhou and then they attacked Jie-shi and Dong-hai Bay in Hui-zhou. At that time, the Fu-jian Commander Hu Shou-ren led his army in pursuing and eliminating them, while the Guang-dong troops who were at Hai-feng and other places, also engaged in pursuit. The bandit saw that the naval forces of the two provinces were massing. Then Jin Zhe, the administration vice commissioner of the Chao-zhou circuit, urged Feng to loyalty and instructed him to surrender. Thereupon, he dispersed his ships, restrained himself and awaited pacification. Feng knew that the hearts of his forces had been lost and that his own crimes could not be pardoned. Thus he took a ship and escaped at night. A total of 1,712 persons, including Ma Zhi-shan and Li Cheng, were pacified and dispersed, while 688 captured men and women were recovered. Corresponding numbers of ships, weapons and gunpowder were also captured" (Wade, 2005, see below).
Lin Feng was just one of the many pirates who have made peoples' lives a misery throughout the South Seas for perhaps two thousand years. After his ultimate capture and death, his descendants were threatened with reprisals from the Chinese state for generations. History does not record the lot of the many orphans, widows and disabled caused by Lin Feng's actions but we can imagine that their lives of drudgery and poverty would not be the kind of thing we usually find in a romance or adventure story.
Japanese pirates were notorious for preying on the traders of northern China and Korea and cities further south. Javanese boats continue to menace life and property in the Malaccan Straits, while the great admiral Zheng He himself was commissioned as part of his overseas missions to wipe out nests of Chinese pirates (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1817... For the hundreds of years of the colonial period, it was difficult to distinguish between government-sponsored actions and outright criminality. By what right, for example, did the Dutch attack the Portuguese and seize Malacca and Java? By what right did the British invade and conquer Burma, no matter how much they may have felt that they were drawn into conflict?
Japanese pirates were notorious for preying on the traders of northern China and Korea and cities further south. Javanese boats continue to menace life and property in the Malaccan Straits, while the great admiral Zheng He himself was commissioned as part of his overseas missions to wipe out nests of Chinese pirates (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1817... For the hundreds of years of the colonial period, it was difficult to distinguish between government-sponsored actions and outright criminality. By what right, for example, did the Dutch attack the Portuguese and seize Malacca and Java? By what right did the British invade and conquer Burma, no matter how much they may have felt that they were drawn into conflict?
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