#306 - Qing 41: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The Qing has just finished burying one crisis (Heshen), only to start realizing that the true threat was never in the palace. It was out on the water. For two centuries the state's own hand had built this monster of the depths: sea bans, forced coastal evacuations, betrayed pardons… each new policy manufacturing more outlaws than it ever destroyed.

Add a failed war in Vietnam that handed a generation of Chinese privateers their on-the-job training, and by 1807 the result is a confederation the likes of which Great Qing has never seen…
Time Period Covered:
~1550-1807 CE
Major Historical Figures:
The Ming Court & the Wokou Crisis:
Wang Zhi, "King of Hui" [d. 1560]
Qi Jiguang [1528-1588]
Hu Zongxian [1512-1565]

The Zheng Maritime Regime:
Zheng Zhilong [1604-1661]
Zheng Chenggong / Koxinga [1624-1662]

The Qing Dynasty:
Shi Lang [1621-1696]
The Kangxi Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Xuanye) [r. 1661-1722]
The Qianlong Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Hongli) [r. 1735-1796]

The Golden Age Pirate Confederation (Tay Son-linked):
Chen Tianbao [fl. 1780-1802]
Zheng Qi [d. 1802]
Cai Qian [1761-1809]
Zheng Yi [1765-1807]
Zheng Yi Sao [c. 1775-1844]

Major Works Cited:
Antony, Robert J. Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China.
Glasspoole, Richard. Mr. Glasspoole and the Chinese Pirates.
Murray, Dian H. Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810.
Wang, Wensheng. White Lotus Rebels and South China Pirates: Crisis and Reform in the Qing Empire.
Rowe, William T. China's Last Empire: The Great Qing.

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