Ming – Qing Transition 1620–1684
After a relatively quiet period, piracy began to escalate yet again in the 1620s and peaked in the 1640s through 1660s. This time correlates roughly with the transition between dynasties. Piracy was among the many general crises that occurred during the change of power. Because of the disorder, it is virtually impossible to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate trade. By the 1620s, the Manchu attack along the northern frontier had disrupted the stability and prosperity that had been previously established. Additionally, the Ming dynasty by this time was faced with internal corruption, factionism, incompetence, and fiscal bankruptcy. The state again banned maritime trade beginning in 1623 and then similar to the rise and fall of piracy in the mid-Ming period, the disruption of economic and political structure created chaos that prompted not only merchants to turn to piracy, but also allowed European traders in the area to take advantage of the disorder to attack coastal towns and merchant junks.
Between 1642 and 1665, there were famines just about every year in Guangdong. In 1648 the famines spread along the coast to Zhejiang. As food prices escalated, the number of bandits and pirates experienced a similar increase. In addition to food riots, there were also other forms of social unrest during this period such as worker uprisings in the cities and tenant revolts in the countryside. By 1644, the fall of Beijing to Manchu invaders, anarchy was everywhere. Pirates joined with other groups of bandits to attack inland cities markets, loot government storehouses and murder officials. Some groups identified as being part of the Ming restoration movement, while others identified with the newly established dynasty. Members of these pirate gangs included displaced farmers, fishermen, and salt smugglers.
In this period, we see the rise of powerful pirate legacies. One of the most powerful pirate leaders was the Zheng family, first under the leadership of Zheng Zhilong and then his son Zheng Chenggong (also known as Koxinga), who dominated the Fujian – Taiwan region through a combination of trade, piracy, and political manipulation. In the 1620s, the Zheng family was only one of ten major pirate fleets, but Zheng Zhilong surrendered to Ming officials in 1620s in order to gain more control. As a recruited official, he was able to attack his adversaries through alliances built throughout the government and become an unrivaled pirate leader in the Fujian region. He was able to gain popular support by bringing relief supplies to thousands of drought victims in the area. Zheng Zhilong wavered with the fall of the Ming dynasty and surrendered to Qing officials in 1646. Zheng Chenggong continued to resist the Qing dynasty and claim to be acting in the name of the Ming restoration. From roughly 1651 to 1661, he created and maintained a monopoly of the Fujian – Taiwan trade routes and it was only after the failure of a northern campaign to take Nanjing that his control failed. The Zheng family continued to resist the Qing for another twenty years, but their power and control slowly degenerated.
By this time, the Dutch and British became prominent powers along the south China coast. The Dutch seized Taiwan in 1624 and remained there using it as a base of operations for trade and pirate expeditions until Zheng Chenggong expelled them in 1661. After that, the Dutch engaged in a commercial war with the Zheng family, plundering their ships and stealing their trade. The Dutch were actually excluded from direct trade relations with China until 1729 and therefore obtained the majority of the silks, satins, and chinaware that was vital to their trade with Japan through pirate activities. Piracy conducted by European forces continued well into the eighteenth century.
The Qing court initiated a series of harsh sea bans starting in 1652 that were aimed at cutting off pirates from their support on land. Officials decreed that all coastal areas had to burn all boats, construction of all large sea junks was banned, and the purchase of foreign-made vessels and the sale of Chinese vessels to foreigners was forbidden. All Chinese merchants were prohibited to set out to sea under pain of death. As the policy was proven ineffective for halting pirate activities from leaders such as the Zheng family, the Qing court established a scorched earth policy between 1661 and 1662. All coastal dwellers were forced to move twenty miles inland and all houses and property within the prohibited zone were destroyed. Anyone caught returning was beheaded. By the mid-1660s, the government's tactics began to prove successful. Several smaller pirate leaders surrendered and joined forces against their former comrades. In 1669, portions of displaced dwellers allowed to return to their former homes. In 1684, a year after the Qing military crushed all remnants of the Zheng family on Taiwan, the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662 – 1722) rescinded the majority of sea bans based on the analysis that the major threats were removed. As the economy and trade routes reestablished merchants and fishermen had a vested interest in supporting the system and an effective decline in piracy followed.5