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The Maritime Defence of China pp 131–143Cite as

Early Ming’s Skirmishes and Clashes with the Portuguese as an Indication of Ming Military Developments and the Military Dimension of Luso-Ming Interactions

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Abstract

The period after the Zheng He overseas expeditions and Ming China’s withdrawal from the seas saw the arrival of the first Portuguese expeditionary fleets in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century. An exploration of the Portuguese naval traditions and military prowess can be combined with a picture of the development of the Ming navy and related weaponry on the seas to piece together a picture of comparative developments. The clashes between the Portuguese and the Chinese at Taman can be discussed in light of these military developments. This essay advocates the thesis that despite the ‘neglect’ after the Zheng He period, the Ming navy, armaments and defence on the southeast coast of China did not experience a full-fledged decline. The episode of the face-off with the Portuguese jolted the Ming military and naval establishments to revive their capacities two or three decades before the wokou menace became more severe. The model of military information exchange was continued in the form of the Macau fanfang right up to the end of the Ming dynasty.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “European technology and Manchu power: Reflections on the Military Revolution in seventeenth century China”, in S. Sogner ed., Making sense of global history (Oslo: Oslo University Press, 2001), pp. 119–39.

  2. 2.

    In a survey of the Revista de Cultura (Review of Culture, international edition), articles on military topics are concentrated in two out of 50 issues (issues 27 and 28) and not all of these discusses China-Macau military relation. Macau’s or Portuguese military concern over the protection of their trading routes in the Far East appeared to be a far more pressing issue.

  3. 3.

    Some people saw the ‘bird’-type ship from Fujian as a separate category. There was another type that was used to ferry Ming ambassadors abroad called ‘fengzhou’. The latter was reinforced by metal parts and could stretch as long as half the length (at 15–20 zhang or 47–62 metres) of treasure ships in Zheng he period.

  4. 4.

    See Xihai jinshi [Compiled letters of sea campaigns and their success by Yu Dayou] and Yu Dafu bingshu [Military manual of Yu Dafu].

  5. 5.

    Recorded in Jixiao xinshu [A new treatise on disciplined service/military efficiency], refer Zhang Tieniu, Zhongguo gudai haijun shi [History of the navy in historical China] (Beijing: Bayi Chuban She, 2006), p. 158 and 160–61. The Fu ship could be built up four decks (at the centre) and measure up to 30 metres in length. The Guang-type ship was a large-sized sturdy vessel with a more pointed bow that was suitable for sea sailing (although not long-distance voyaging). This type of ship could field up to three masts, be installed with a variety of weapons and rival in size to the Fu ship.

  6. 6.

    The existence of some of the ships mentioned such as yingyang jiangchuan or chelun chuan were quoted from the Wubei zhi [Treatise on military theories, armament, training and logistics], a work produced by Mao Yuanyi (1594–1640) in early 17th century.

  7. 7.

    Ming Shi [Standard history of the Ming] (Wenzhao Lin and Yongfang Guo ed., p. 217). Another source, the Da Ming huidian [Collected institutes of the Great Ming], seems to dispute this.

  8. 8.

    P. Lorge, The Asian military revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 45.

  9. 9.

    Zhang, Zhongguo gudai haijun shi, pp. 176–84.

  10. 10.

    Su Mingyang Su, Seven epic voyages of Zhenghe in Ming China: Facts, fiction and fabrication 1405–1433 (Torrance: np, 2005), p. 134. E. Dreyer, “The Poyang campaign, 1363: Inland naval warfare in the founding of the Ming dynasty”, in J. Fairbank and F. Kierman eds., Chinese ways in warfare (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), p. 223.

  11. 11.

    The weisuo was conceived initially as a military-cum-civilian unit of organisation that undertook agricultural activities to enable it to sustain itself during peacetime. Baihu referred to a unit of 100 households in a weisuo.

  12. 12.

    Fan Zhongyi Fan, Zhongguo haifang shi [History of maritime defence] (Beijing: Haijun Chubanshe 2005), pp. 26–28 and 138–45.

  13. 13.

    Teddy Sim, “Afonso de Albuquerque and the Portuguese Military Revolution in the Indian Ocean”, seminar paper, University of Wollongong, 2003.

  14. 14.

    F. Pedrosa, Afonso de Albuquerque e a arte da Guerra (M. Martins: Municipal de Cascais, 1998), pp. 87–88.

  15. 15.

    Pedrosa, Afonso de Albuquerque e a arte da Guerra, pp. 89–90. As tactics evolved, the Portuguese probably had a chance to deploy linear volley arrangement in their expedition and assistance to Ming China in the 17th century.

  16. 16.

    In any case, the adaptation of smaller native vessels for patrolling was also often noted in the post-conquest local Portuguese fleet. See Vítor L.G. Rodrigues, “A Guerra na Índia”, in M.T. Barata ed., Nova história military de Portugal (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2004), pp. 198–214.

  17. 17.

    Pedrosa, Afonso de Albuquerque e a arte da Guerra, p. 95. In different theatres of conflict, Portuguese’s enemies were constantly adapting their naval vessels and tactics; the Portuguese also deployed themselves the galley and other local vessels in these places.

  18. 18.

    See R.J. Garrett, The defences of Macau (Macau: Instituto Cultural do Governo de Macau, 2010), ch. 2.

  19. 19.

    Christovão Vieira, a member of the Tomé Pires’ mission, had actually suggested to capture Canton although “it was not likely that it would have gone beyond the talking stage in Lisbon or Goa”. Refer B. Diffie and G. Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977), p. 386.

  20. 20.

    See R. Ptak, “Wugong chuan and the Portuguese”, Revista da Cultura, vol. 5 (2003), p. 83. See further in Martim Afonso de Mello Coutinho’s letter published in João P. Oliveira Costa, “A coroa portuguesa e a China, 1508–31”, Estudos de história do relacionamento Luso-Chinês, séculos XVI–XIX (Macau: Instituto Português do Oriente, 1996).

  21. 21.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 381.

  22. 22.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 382.

  23. 23.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 381.

  24. 24.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 384.

  25. 25.

    Pires was the ambassador who carried a letter from King Manuel, but he did not meet the Chinese emperor. He was also the author of Suma Oriental.

  26. 26.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 384–85.

  27. 27.

    Lopes de, Fernao Castanheda, História descobrimento e conquista da Índia pelos Portugueses, 1552–1561, vol. 5 and 6 (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, 1924), pp. 130, 172–76.

  28. 28.

    Castanheda, História descobrimento, pp. 130, 172–76.

  29. 29.

    Xiao Guojian, Qingchu qianhai qianhou xianggang zhi shehui bianqian [Societal changes before and after the sea and coastal embargo in the early Qing period] (Taiwan shangwu tushu guan), pp. 41–43.

  30. 30.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 385.

  31. 31.

    Castanheda, História descobrimento, pp. 130, 172–76.

  32. 32.

    Guo Pei, Guangdong tongzhi [General gazetteer of Guangdong], juan 28. The Chinese had obtained the secrets of manufacturing the western-type cannons from the Portuguese; what this portends is that the Chinese possessed the technological skill to produce these (cannons) when they obtained the formulae.

  33. 33.

    Lin Wenzhao and Guo Yongfang, “Folangji huochong zuizhao chuanru zhongguo de shijian kao” [Study on the earliest date of induction of folangji into China], Studies in the History of National Sciences, no.4 (1984), p. 219. Sources referred to: “Shuyu zhouzhi lu” [Records and information on foreign lands], “Wanli yehuo bian” [Notes on unofficial history of the Ming Wanli period], “Aux portes de la Chine les missionaires du XVI siècle”.

  34. 34.

    Guangdong tongzhi, juan 28.

  35. 35.

    Lin and Guo, “Folangji huochong zuizhao chuanru zhongguo de shijian kao”; Weiqiang Zhou, “Mingdai folangji cong yanjiu” [Research of the folangji (or musket-arquebus) during the Ming period] (Taiwan: MA dissertation, 1999), pp. 47–49. The construction of the wugong chuan stopped according to Longjiang chuanchangzhi in 1534.

  36. 36.

    Ptak consulted texts such as Nanchuanji, Yehuobian and Shuyu zhouzilu.

  37. 37.

    Ptak, “Wugong chuan and the Portuguese”, p. 82.

  38. 38.

    Zhou, “Mingdai folangji cong yanjiu”, p. 51.

  39. 39.

    Albert Chan, Glory and fall of the Ming Dynasty (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982), p. 54. Chan referred to Liu, Jinzao ed., Qingchao xu wenxian tongkao [General study of works and materials of the Qing Dynasty (continuing edition in series)] 134, (Shanghai: The Commercial Press, 1935–1937), p. 3997a.

  40. 40.

    Zhou, “Mingdai folangji cong yanjiu”, p. 60.

  41. 41.

    Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, p. 387.

  42. 42.

    Some of the Portuguese fled from Shuangyu to Wuyu in Fujian following the extermination campaigns. Portuguese expelled from Ningbo also congregated there. See Li Jingming, “Actividades dos Portugueses nos mares da China nos primórdios da demanda da Ásia”, Revista da Cultura, issue 1 (2002), pp. 12–15.

  43. 43.

    Some Portuguese continued to reside in Lampacau till 1560. See Li, “Actividades dos Portugueses nos mares da China nos primórdios da demanda da Ásia”, pp. 17–19.

  44. 44.

    The Portuguese also agreed not to fortify Macau. Refer Diffie and Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, pp. 388–89.

  45. 45.

    R. Ptak, “China’s medieval fanfang: a model for Macau under the Ming?”, in R.Ptak ed., China, the Portuguese, and the Nanyang (Ashgate: Variorum, 2004), p. 111. Other scholars who ‘promoted this initiative’ during the 1980s are Fei Chengkang and Huang Wenkuan.

  46. 46.

    A survey of the general histories of the Far East (Fundação Oriente) edited by A.H. de Oliveira Marques touches only on piracy in the eastern seas of Southeast Asia. See L.R. Guerreiro’s O livro da pirataria e do corso (Lisbon: Circulo Leitores, 1996), p. 184 and B. Basto da Silva’s Cronologia da história de Macau (Macau: Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e Juventude, 1992), p. 43.

  47. 47.

    Lu Xiaomin believes that Ljungstedt was of the opinion that the bestowal of Macau to the Portuguese was not in exchange for the Portuguese provision of security against the pirates. See Lu, “Putaoya ren zhuming quhaidao er de Aomen suo zai bianxi” [Re-debate on the thesis of Portugal obtaining Macau as a result of its aid to Ming in suppressing the pirates], in Proceedings of “Jindai Zhongguo yu shijie” vol.2 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2005), pp. 356–66.

  48. 48.

    See M. Teixeira, “Auxilio contra os piratas em 1791”, in Os militares em Macau (Macau: Imprensa Nacional, 1984), pp. 315–19.

  49. 49.

    Chen Xianbo, “Zhelin bingbian yu Mingdai zhonghouqi de haifang tizhi” [Zhelin mutiny and the maritime defence system in mid to late Ming period in Guangdong], Guojia hanghai, issue 8 (2014), pp. 1–19.

  50. 50.

    It should be noted that Zheng Zhilong also maintained ‘good’ relations with the Japanese and the Dutch.

  51. 51.

    Silva, Cronologia da história de Macau, pp. 83 and 102.

  52. 52.

    Garrett, The defences of Macau, pp. 10–11.

  53. 53.

    Garrett, The defences of Macau, pp. 15 (map) and 23–59.

  54. 54.

    While the Society of Jesus was not solely recruited from Portugal, D. Alden has shown in her book The making of an enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, its empire, and beyond, 1540–1750 (Stanford University Press, 1996) that the Portuguese constituted a substantial proportion of the Jesuits serving in India and the East.

  55. 55.

    C.R. Boxer, “Portuguese military expedition in aid of the Mings against the Manchus, 1621–47”, Tien hsia monthly, vol. VII, no. 1 (1938), pp. 28–29.

  56. 56.

    Some had pegged not without doubt the founding of the foundry to the mid-16th century. See “Stories of Macau: Bocarro foundry”, http://community.simtropolis.com/journals/entry/24407-the-stories-of-macau-04-bocarro-foundry-1570s/, accessed Dec. 2015.

  57. 57.

    Boxer, “Portuguese military expedition in aid of the Mings against the Manchus”, pp. 26–28.

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    Y. H. Teddy Sim

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    Y.H. Teddy Sim

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Sim, Y.H.T. (2017). Early Ming’s Skirmishes and Clashes with the Portuguese as an Indication of Ming Military Developments and the Military Dimension of Luso-Ming Interactions. In: Sim, Y. (eds) The Maritime Defence of China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4163-1_8

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