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Wang Zhi (pirate)
Wang Zhi (), art name Wufeng (), was a Chinese pirate lord of the 16th century, one of the main figures among the ''wokou'' pirates prevalent during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor. Originally a salt merchant, Wang Zhi turned to smuggling during the Ming dynasty's period of maritime prohibitions banning all private overseas trade, and eventually became the head of a pirate syndicate stretching across the East and South China Seas, from Japan to Thailand. Through his clandestine trade, he is credited for spreading European firearms throughout East Asia, and for his role in leading the first Europeans (the Portuguese) to reach Japan in 1543. On the other hand, the Ming emperor and government blamed Wang Zhi for the ravages of the Jiajing wokou raids, for which they imprisoned and later executed Wang Zhi in 1560 when he was ashore in China trying to negotiate a relaxation of its maritime prohibitions. Early life Wang Zhi was a native of She County of Huizhou (in present-day Huan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
She County, Anhui
She County (), or Shexian, is a county in the southeast of Anhui Province, China, bordering Zhejiang Province to the east. It is the easternmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Huangshan City. It has a population of 363,000 as of 2021, and an area of . She County is noted for its rich history and culture heritage. Its county seat is sometimes described as one of China's "four renowned ancient towns", along with Langzhong (Sichuan Province), Lijiang (Yunnan), and Pingyao (Shanxi). She County has jurisdiction over 13 towns and 15 townships. The county seat of government is in Huicheng Town. History She County was established during the Qin Dynasty (221–208 BCE). During the Song Dynasty, She County leader Fang La rebelled and was suppressed by the Song government. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, She County was the capital of Huizhou Prefecture. Administrative divisions She County is divided to 13 towns and 15 townships. ;Towns ;Townships Geogr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Junk (ship)
A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of China, Chinese sailing ship with junk rig, fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian peoples, Austronesian ships visiting southern Chinese coasts since the 3rd century CE. They continued to evolve in later dynasties and were predominantly used by Chinese traders throughout Southeast Asia. Similar junk sails were also adopted by other East Asian countries, most notably Japan where junks were used as merchant ships to trade goods with China and Red seal ships, Southeast Asia. They were found, and in lesser numbers are still found, throughout Southeast Asia and India, but primarily in China. Historically, a Chinese junk could be one of many types of small coastal or river ships, usually serving as a cargo ship, pleasure boat, or houseboat, but also ranging in size up to large ocean-going vessel. Found more broad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sengoku Period
The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Various samurai warlords and Japanese clans, clans fought for control over Japan in the power vacuum, while the emerged to fight against samurai rule. The Nanban trade, arrival of Europeans in 1543 introduced the arquebus into Japanese warfare, and Japan ended its status as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of China in 1549. Oda Nobunaga dissolved the Ashikaga shogunate in 1573 and launched a war of political unification by force, including the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War, until his death in the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582. Nobunaga's successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed his campaign to unify Japan and consolidated his rule with numerous influential reforms. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea (159 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matchlock
A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before the invention of the matchlock mechanism, the musketeer or an assistant had to apply the match directly to gunpowder by hand, much like a cannon. The matchlock mechanism allowed the musketeer to apply the match himself without losing his concentration. Description The classic matchlock gun held a burning slow match in a clamp at the end of a small curved lever known as the ''serpentine''. Upon the pull of a lever (or in later models a trigger) protruding from the bottom of the gun and connected to the serpentine, the clamp dropped down, lowering the smoldering match into the flash pan and igniting the priming powder. The flash from the primer traveled through the touch hole, igniting the main charge of propellant in the gun barrel. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanegashima Tokitaka
Tanegashima Tokitaka (1528 – October 21, 1579) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period, the 14th head of the Tanegashima clan. He is known for having first established contact with the Europeans, and producing the first European type firearms of Japan. Early life Tokitaka was born in 1528, the son of Tanegashima Satotoki (種子島恵時), a retainer of ''daimyō'' Shimazu Takahisa. Tokitaka was a father in law of Shimazu Yoshihisa. He became head of the Tanegashima clan when his father abdicated. Contact with Europeans In 1543, a ship transporting Portuguese sailors arrived near Tanegashima island. The Europeans were brought to Tokitaka, who was only 15 years old, and demonstrated in front of him the use of arquabus firearms. Lord Tanegashima Tokitaka instructed his swordsmith, Yaita Kinbei Kiyosada (八板金兵衛清定), to create functional replicas of the objects, the first ever Japanese-made. The smith (Yaita) did not have much of a problem with most o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji''. Chinese characters in South Korea, which are known as ''hanja'', retain significant use in Korean academia to study its documents, history, literature and records. Vietnam once used the '' chữ Hán'' and developed chữ Nôm to write Vietnamese before turning to a romanized alphabet. Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. By virtue of their widespread current use throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as their profound historic use throughout the Sinosphere, Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world by number of users. The total number of Chinese characters ever to appear in a dictionary is in the tens of thousands, though most are graph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a way of life, Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE). Confucius considered himself a transmitter of cultural values inherited from the Xia (c. 2070–1600 BCE), Shang (c. 1600–1046 BCE) and Western Zhou dynasties (c. 1046–771 BCE). Confucianism was suppressed during the Legalist and autocratic Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), but survived. During the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), Confucian approaches edged out the "proto-Taoist" Huang–Lao as the official ideology, while the emperors mixed both with the realist techniques of Legalism. A Confucian revival began during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). In the late Tang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 private overseas trade was banned by China's ruling Ming dynasty. Portuguese sources called the place Liampó, taking the name of the nearby city of Ningbo on the mainland. Shuangyu's days as a smuggling hub and pirate haven began as early as 1524 and lasted until its destruction by the Ming navy in 1548, an event that was greatly exaggerated (and wrongly dated) by the 16th-century Portuguese travel writer Fernão Mendes Pinto. Illegal trade in the 16th century In the 16th century, a global demand for Chinese products like silk and porcelain coincided with a high demand of silver in China. However, the premier suppliers of silver in East Asia, the Japanese and the Portuguese, could not legally trade in China to meet the massive demand. At the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayutthaya (city)
Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya ( th, พระนครศรีอยุธยา, ; also spelled "Ayudhya"), or locally and simply Ayutthaya, is the former capital of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province in Thailand. Located on an island at the confluence of the Chao Phraya and Pa Sak rivers, Ayutthaya is the birthplace of the founder of Bangkok, King Rama I. Etymology Ayutthaya is named after the city of Ayodhya in India, the birthplace of Rama in the ''Ramayana'' ( Thai, '' Ramakien''); (from Khmer: ''preah'' ព្រះ ) is a prefix for a noun concerning a royal person; designates an important or capital city (from Sanskrit: ''nagara''); the Thai honorific ''sri'' or ''si'' is from the Indian term of veneration Shri. History Prior to Ayutthaya's traditional founding date, archaeological and written evidence has revealed that Ayutthaya may have existed as early as the late 13th century as a water-borne port town. Further evidence of this can be seen with Wat Phanan Choen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
António Galvão
António Galvão (c. 1490–1557), also known as Antonio Galvano, was a Portuguese soldier, chronicler and administrator in the Maluku islands, and a Renaissance historian who was the first person to present a comprehensive report of the leading voyages and explorers up to 1550 by Portuguese explorers and those of other nationalities. His works, especially the Treaty of Discovery that was published in Lisbon in 1563 and in English by Richard Hakluyt in 1601, are notably accurate. Life António Galvão was the son of Duarte Galvão, who was chief diplomat and chronicler to King Afonso V of Portugal. In 1527, António Galvão sailed for Portuguese India where he became captain of Maluku and governor of the fort of Ternate from 1536 to 1540. He is described in Chapter II of the Fifth "Decade of Asia" as a respected governor, having sent a mission to Papua and received local embassies. He funded a seminar in Ternate, where he spent 12,000 ''cruzados'' from the inheritance he ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands. Kyushu has a land area of and a population of 14,311,224 in 2018. In the 8th-century Taihō Code reforms, Dazaifu was established as a special administrative term for the region. Geography The island is mountainous, and Japan's most active volcano, Mount Aso at , is on Kyushu. There are many other signs of tectonic activity, including numerous areas of hot springs. The most famous of these are in Beppu, on the east shore, and around Mt. Aso in central Kyushu. The island is separated from Honshu by the Kanmon Straits. Being the nearest island to the Asian continent, historically it is the gateway to Japan. The total area is which makes it the 37th largest island in the world. It's slightly larger than Taiwan island . T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanegashima
is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, 444.99 km2 in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to New Tanegashima Airport. Administratively, the island is divided into the city, Nishinoomote, and the two towns, Nakatane and Minamitane. The towns belong to Kumage District. Geography Tanegashima is the easternmost and the second largest (after Yakushima) of the Ōsumi Islands. It is located approximately south of the southern tip of Ōsumi Peninsula in southern Kyushu, or south of Kagoshima. The Vincennes Strait (Yakushima Kaikyō) separates it from Yakushima. The island is of volcanic origin; however, unlike neighboring Yakushima, it presents a flat appearance, with its highest elevation at only above sea level. The island has a length of and a width ranging from to . The climate is subtropical. The island, along with neighbour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
