Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 161

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Notice of Japan in the Hai-kwok Tú Chi

MARCH,

taken were forwarded with it; and the address to the Emperor, accom- panying the tribute, ran as follows: “If, on the islands of your Majes- ty's servant there be persons without regular calling, who engage in piracy, it is indeed without the knowledge of your servant, and be prays your indulgence (or that their fault be not laid to his charge)." The pirates however were not exterminated until the 17th year (1418), when Liú-kiáng, the general commanding in Liáutung put them to great rout at Wáng-hái-wo, after which their irruptions were less fre- quent; but neither did envoys come with tribute from Japan. Be- tween the fourth and eighth years of the reign Chingtung (1459–63), the Japanese, with forty sail, made a series of descents upon the depart- ment of Tai-chau and the district of Táiming. To this they were instigated by two men of Hwang-yen and Lung-yen who had been op- pressed by bond-service,* and had, accordingly, deserted to Japan as far back as the period Hunghí (1424).

The Japanese were naturally cunning: they would always put on board some of the produce of their own country, and at the same time weapons of war; with these they would stand off and on until an oppor- tunity offered, when they would display their arms and make a wild inroad on the coast; should none occur, they would parade their pro- duce, styling it "tribute to the crown." The southeast coast was much afflicted by them. Their envoys too often put people to death, and otherwise transgressed the laws; the object of all of them in coming with tribute was to benefit by trade, and to connect themselves with the more daring and crafty of the inhabitants of the coast: thus they were either bearers of tribute or freebooters, as it suited them.

In the 27th year of Kiátsing (1547), the siunfú† Chú Hwan strictly prohibited this intercourse, and beheaded those who carried it on: he was for this cause very unpopular with a large portion of the inhabi- tants of Chehkiáng and Fuhkien, who having been up to this time the chief patrons of the Japanese in China, now lost the profit of their trade, and as, in several memorials to the Throne, he farther accused the majority, in plain terms, of correspondence with the Japanese, the

• Forced to render the bond-service once exacted from all vassals of the em- pire, or having been over-pressed in the levies. In ancient times the personal service was very distressing, two out of three being called on to serve in time of war before the establishment of a regular army; after which the land appears to have been taxed for the pay and support of troops. The levies were formerly called you, the subsidies yuk ; the term yu-yuk in the text applies to the former requisition.-See Meadows &n Land Tenure; Trans. of Asiatic So- ciety in China, 1847. Also Chi. Rep. Vol. XVIII, page 569.

A siunfu is now the governor of a province.