The most powerful pirates in the Ming Dynasty fought against the Japanese pirates and the Netherlands, which forced the Ming Dynasty to admit that it was "good at crossing the ocean".

Piracy is an important historical phenomenon along the coast during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. From/kloc-0 to the 1940s, there were many maritime armed groups from the southeast coast to Taiwan Province Province and Penghu area. They have hundreds or even thousands of ships, up to tens of thousands. They wandered about the sea, fighting against the government. In the old history, they were called "pirates", "sea bandits" and "sea temples".

This was caused by social, political and economic conditions at that time. The rulers of the Ming dynasty had no intention of governing the sea, and implemented a stupid and incompetent "sea ban" policy, in fact giving up the management of territorial waters. However, Minnan people living in narrow and barren areas have long lived by crossing the sea, and the "sea ban" cut off their way of life, so they took risks. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), Fu said in "Please open the sun and forbid dredging":

On the other hand, the coastal commercial trade is increasingly developed, and merchant ships are frequent. Zhou Zhi, who will be in Chongzhen tomorrow, talked about this situation in his book Haikouce, saying that "foreign ships are banned and gold and silver are bundled out". He believes that the gold and silver treasures carried by merchant ships are eye-catching, which makes pirates "regard foreign ships as original beasts and divide their meat." In fact, Zhou only talked about the initial situation of pirates. At first, pirates really started by looting merchant ships and expanded their power, but later they changed looting into taxing merchant ships, thus becoming a force to protect merchant ships. In addition, many pirates are both businessmen and thieves. For the "maritime ban", they are armed "smuggling" groups at sea.

In the Ming Dynasty, merchant ships were inseparable from the protection of pirates. On the one hand, the "maritime ban" in the Ming Dynasty also involved merchant ships going abroad, and Zhou's "ban on foreign ships" also meant this. Therefore, businessmen have to rely on pirate groups to deal with the maritime ban. At the same time, when the government forces clean up pirates, pirates often get the cover and support of "powerful families" and "giant surnames" related to coastal commerce. Secondly, in the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates often harassed the southeast coast. Later, the Dutch and other western colonists also entered the Taiwan Province Strait, but the Ming rulers were helpless, which naturally threatened the safety or interests of merchants and merchant ships, so they also needed security from pirate groups. Pirate groups often contact and collude with Japanese pirates or western colonists, and some pirates even participate in the harassment of coastal areas by Japanese pirates.

In this case, merchant ships protected by pirates can avoid injury. It is worth pointing out that pirates, pirates and western colonists only use each other for certain interests. In the event of a conflict, pirate gangs will attack each other by force without mercy. In fact, Haizi Group in Ming Dynasty was the third force between Ming Dynasty and foreign invaders.

During the hundred years after the Ming Dynasty, pirates active in Taiwan Province and Su Peng mainly included Lindaogan Group, LAM Raymond Group, Jin Yuan and Jong Li Group, and Linxinlao Group. Yan Siqi and Zheng Zhilong Group have the greatest influence. In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Kai He said in Chen Jinghai's Strategy,

Ming history: chicken biography

Jia Yan's Book of World Diseases, Fujian.

Fujian tongzhi

Taiwan Province Province Ci in Autumn