The Ningbo Incident (; ja, 寧波の乱) was a 1523 brawl between trade representatives of two Japanese ''
daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominal ...
'' clans — the
Ōuchi and the
Hosokawa — in the
Ming Chinese
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
city of
Ningbo
Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...
. The Ōuchi pillaged and harmed local residents, causing massive damage. The turmoil resulted in the interruption of the Ming-Japanese trade and led to a surge in piratical (''
wokou
''Wokou'' (; Japanese: ''Wakō''; Korean: 왜구 ''Waegu''), which literally translates to "Japanese pirates" or "dwarf pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century to the 16th century. '') activity on the Chinese coast. The episode is also known by the names Ningbo Tribute Conflict (寧波争貢事件), Mingzhou Incident (明州之亂), or the Sōsetsu Incident (宗設之亂).
Background
Ming China considered Japan a tributary state in its
Sinocentric world order. Under the Ming
tributary system
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
, Japan could present tribute to the Chinese imperial court and be rewarded in the form of gifts by the emperor. This was essentially an exchange of Japanese products for Chinese goods, and, being the only legal form of trade between China and Japan during the Ming's
maritime prohibitions, was extremely profitable. The Japanese were assigned the city of Ningbo as their port of entry into China, and only those with
tallies granted by the emperor were officially allowed to travel and trade within the boundaries of China. Hence, the Ming-Japan trade was called the "tally trade" (勘合貿易, ''kangō bōeki'' in Japanese and ''kānhé màoyì'' in Chinese).
The handling of the tally trade on the Japanese side was the responsibility of the "King of Japan", as the Chinese called the
Ashikaga ''shōgun''. However, after the
Ōnin War
The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. '' Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bun ...
broke out in Japan in 1467, the Ashikaga ''shōguns'' were reduced to such powerlessness that control of the lucrative China trade became contested between the nominal Ashikaga vassals the Hosokawa clan in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...
and the Ōuchi clan of
Yamaguchi.
The tribute conflict
In May 1523, trade fleets from both the Hosokawa and the Ōuchi clans arrived in Ningbo. The Ōuchi delegation, led by Kendō Sōsetsu (謙道宗設), carried the most up-to-date tally from the
Zhengde Emperor
The Zhengde Emperor (; 26 October 149120 April 1521) was the 11th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1505 to 1521.
Born Zhu Houzhao, he was the Hongzhi Emperor's eldest son. Zhu Houzhao took the throne at only 14 with the era name Zh ...
and reached Ningbo before the Hosokawa delegation led by Rankō Zuisa (鸞岡端佐) and
Song Suqing, who carried the outdated tallies of Zhengde's predecessor
Hongzhi. Despite this, Song Suqing was able to use his connections to bribe the head eunuch of the Office of Shipping Trade (市舶司), Lai En (賴恩), so the Hosokawa party was received first and got preferential treatment. Enraged, the Ōuchi party went up in arms, killed Rankō Zuisa, burned the Hosokawa ship, and chased Song Suqing to the walls of
Shaoxing
Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitant ...
. Failing to find Song Suqing there, the armed band burned and plundered their way back to Ningbo. They kidnapped a garrison commander Yuan Jin (袁璡) and made off to sea on commandeered ships. A Ming flotilla gave chase under the command of Liu Jin (劉錦), the Regional Commissioner against the Wo (備倭都指揮), but the Ōuchi party defeated them in battle and killed the commander.
Aftermath
One of Kendō Sōsetsu's ships was blown to the coast of
Joseon Korea
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and r ...
by storm during their escape. Joseon Korea, being an ally of Ming China, killed 30 of the crew and captured two prisoners, Nakabayashi (中林) and Magotaro (望古多羅), who were handed over to China. In China, Nakabayashi and Magotaro were subjected to investigation along with Song Suqing. Song Suqing claimed that the Ōuchi had stolen their tallies, leaving them no choice but to use the outdated tallies; however, the
Ministry of Rites
The Ministry or Board of Rites was one of the Six Ministries of government in late imperial China. It was part of the imperial Chinese government from the Tang (7th century) until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. Along with religious rituals and cour ...
deemed Song Suqing's words untrustworthy. In 1525, all three were sentenced to death, but they had all languished and died in prison before the sentence was carried out. A
Ryukyu
The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonagu ...
envoy was instructed to relay a message to Japan urging the rendition of Kendō Sōsetsu and the return of Yuan Jin and other captive coastal inhabitants, otherwise China would close its ports to Japan and consider a punitive expedition.
The Chinese investigation also uncovered the extent of the corruption involving foreign trade by Lai En and his henchmen. For these reasons, the port of Ningbo was closed to foreign trade, but Lai En retained his post until 1527 and actually had his powers expanded to deal with military emergencies. Although Japan continued to send tributary fleets to Ningbo, only two more (sent by the Ōuchi) were received in 1540 and 1549, after which the
downfall of the Ōuchi family ended the official Ming-Japan trade. The cessation of foreign trade at Ningbo turned local merchants wishing to trade with the Japanese and other foreigners to engage in illicit trading on the offshore islands like
Shuangyu
Shuangyu () was a port on Liuheng Island () off the coast of Zhejiang, China. During the 16th century, the port served as an illegal entrepôt of international trade, attracting traders from Japan, Southeast Asia, and Portugal in a time when priv ...
. Some Chinese merchants and influential families began to owe the foreigners huge sums of debt as a result of this unregulated trade, which they would try to clear by informing the authorities to militarily clamp down on the illegal trade centers. To protect their goods and recover their losses, the participants of the foreign trade armed themselves against the Ming military and engaged in piratical and smuggling activities. This led to the widespread
Jiajing wokou raids
The Jiajing wokou raids caused extensive damage to the coast of China in the 16th century, during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (r. 1521–67) in the Ming dynasty. The term "wokou" originally referred to Japanese pirates who crossed the sea ...
that terrorized the coast of China in the 1550s.
Notes
References
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{{coord missing, Japan
1523 in China
16th century in China
16th-century economic history
China–Japan relations
Conflicts in 1523
Economic history of Japan
History of foreign trade in China
Keichō-Hosokawa clan
Ningbo
Battles of the Sengoku period
Foreign relations of the Ming dynasty