Trade between Japan and China in the Midst of Late-Yuan Period Domestic Strife

Japanese pirates (wako/wokou 倭寇) approached the Bohai 渤海Straits via the Korean peninsula and mainly attacked ships carrying tax revenue and food from the southern to northern China. Alongside this piracy there was also peaceful traffic between Japan and China, but it was disturbed by domestic strife at the end of Yuan period. The effect of this strife can be divided into four stages.First stage: Right after Fang Guozhen 方国珍 rose up in 1348, many Japanese monks returned to Japan to escape the danger. The impact of this disorder was immediately felt in Qingyuan 慶元, the main port in trade with Japan, and Changguo 昌国, the major stopover point on the sea route between the two countries. As a result. Taicang 太倉, located north of Qingyuan and untouched by Fang Guozhen’s attacks, appeared as the new port to Japan.Second stage: Domestic strife in Yuan China worsened from 1351 on. Zhang Shicheng 張士誠 and Fang Guozhen attacked every major port and as a result, the frequency of trade between Japan and China drastically decreased.Third stage: Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty in 1356 and 1357. As a result, disorder was pacified in Jiangzhe 江浙, and the frequency of trade between Japan and China recovered, though it remained precarious.Fourth stage: After 1365, Zhang Shicheng broke away from the Yuan Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 attacked Zhang and Fang, causing the frequency of trade to plummet again.Thus the frequency of trade between Japan and Yuan China corresponded to the degree of domestic strife in the latter. Two additional effects can be mentioned.First, a new trade route between Japan and China appeared. The Hakata 博多—Goto 五島—Changguo—Qingyuan route was used before the strife, and Taicang was used temporarily at the beginning of the fighting. However, a Higo Takase 肥後高瀬—Satsuma 薩摩—Ryukyu 琉球—Fujian福建 route also became important during this period.Secondly, the enthusiasm among Japanese Zen monks to travel abroad declined after 1350, due directly to increased lawlessness in China. The value of studying abroad in China was re-evaluated in the rinka 林下 (non-Gozan 五山 temples).On the whole, the domestic strife at the end of Yuan period threw the trade between Japan and China into a state of confusion. From one standpoint, the ban placed on overseas travel and trade (haijin 海禁) in the early Ming period aimed at recovery from the confusion and stable trade between Japan and China.