Chinese sources on Piracy - Revision history

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 [https://gzhu.academia.edu/RobertAntony Robert J. Antony], Guangzhou University
-It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”<ref>Philip Gosse, ''The History of Pirates'' (New York: Tudor, 1932), 265</ref> Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun 盧循 and Sun En 孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang 鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty. <ref>On the general history of Chinese pirates see Matsuura Akira, ''Chugoku no kaizoku'' [Pirates of China] (Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995); Zheng Guangnan, ''Zhongguo haidao shi'' [A history of Chinese piracy] (Shanghai: Huadong ligong daxue chubanshe, 1998).</ref>
+It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”<ref>Philip Gosse, ''The History of Pirates'' (New York: Tudor, 1932), 265</ref> Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路 in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun 盧循 and Sun En 孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang 鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty. <ref>On the general history of Chinese pirates see Matsuura Akira, ''Chugoku no kaizoku'' [Pirates of China] (Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995); Zheng Guangnan, ''Zhongguo haidao shi'' [A history of Chinese piracy] (Shanghai: Huadong ligong daxue chubanshe, 1998).</ref>
 == Ming to Qing ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [https://gzhu.academia.edu/RobertAntony Robert J. Antony], Guangzhou University
-It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”<ref>Philip Gosse, ''The History of Pirates'' (New York: Tudor, 1932), 265</ref> Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun盧循 and Sun En孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty. <ref>On the general history of Chinese pirates see Matsuura Akira, ''Chugoku no kaizoku'' [Pirates of China] (Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995); Zheng Guangnan, ''Zhongguo haidao shi'' [A history of Chinese piracy] (Shanghai: Huadong ligong daxue chubanshe, 1998).</ref>
+It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”<ref>Philip Gosse, ''The History of Pirates'' (New York: Tudor, 1932), 265</ref> Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun 盧循 and Sun En 孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang 鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty. <ref>On the general history of Chinese pirates see Matsuura Akira, ''Chugoku no kaizoku'' [Pirates of China] (Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995); Zheng Guangnan, ''Zhongguo haidao shi'' [A history of Chinese piracy] (Shanghai: Huadong ligong daxue chubanshe, 1998).</ref>
 == Ming to Qing ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [https://gzhu.academia.edu/RobertAntony Robert J. Antony], Guangzhou University
-It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”[1] Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun盧循 and Sun En孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty.[2]
+It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”<ref>Philip Gosse, ''The History of Pirates'' (New York: Tudor, 1932), 265</ref> Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun盧循 and Sun En孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty. <ref>On the general history of Chinese pirates see Matsuura Akira, ''Chugoku no kaizoku'' [Pirates of China] (Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995); Zheng Guangnan, ''Zhongguo haidao shi'' [A history of Chinese piracy] (Shanghai: Huadong ligong daxue chubanshe, 1998).</ref>
 == Ming to Qing ==
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 ==== The golden age of piracy ====
-The golden age of Chinese piracy, however, actually began during the mid-Ming dynasty and lasted until the mid-Qing dynasty, roughly the three hundred years between 1550 and 1810. During those centuries China witnessed an unprecedented growth in maritime raiding at a time of tremendous commercial expansion. During the late imperial age between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries piracy surged in three great waves: (1) the ''wokou'' 倭寇pirates (''wakō'' in Japanese) or merchant-pirates between 1520 and 1574; (2) the rebel-pirates during the Ming-Qing transition between 1620 and 1684; and (3) the mid-Qing “commoner” pirates between 1780 and 1810. These three great pirate waves were characterized by the rise of huge pirate leagues whose power overshadowed that of the imperial state in the maritime world. After 1810, of course, piracy did not cease; what changed, however, was the end of large-scale piracy as was seen during the previous golden age of Chinese piracy.[3]
+The golden age of Chinese piracy, however, actually began during the mid-Ming dynasty and lasted until the mid-Qing dynasty, roughly the three hundred years between 1550 and 1810. During those centuries China witnessed an unprecedented growth in maritime raiding at a time of tremendous commercial expansion. During the late imperial age between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries piracy surged in three great waves: (1) the ''wokou'' 倭寇 pirates (''wakō'' in Japanese) or merchant-pirates between 1520 and 1574; (2) the rebel-pirates during the Ming-Qing transition between 1620 and 1684; and (3) the mid-Qing “commoner” pirates between 1780 and 1810. These three great pirate waves were characterized by the rise of huge pirate leagues whose power overshadowed that of the imperial state in the maritime world. After 1810, of course, piracy did not cease; what changed, however, was the end of large-scale piracy as was seen during the previous golden age of Chinese piracy.<ref>Robert Antony (An Lebo), “Zhongguo haidao zhe huangjin shidai, 1560-1810” [The golden age of Chinese piracy, 1520-1810], ''Dongnan xueshu'', (2002): 34-41; and ''Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China'' (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 2003), chap. 2.</ref>
-During its golden age Chinese piracy was unsurpassed in size and scope anywhere else in the world. While in the West at its peak in 1720 the number of pirates never exceeded 5,500 individuals, in China the number of pirates was no less than 70,000 individuals at its peak in 1809. Scholars have long recognized that the main cause of the surge in piracy in the mid-Ming period (1520-1574) was the Jiaqing emperor’s stringent enforcement of “sea bans” (''haijin''海禁) that in effect criminalized large segments of the maritime population. Although Chinese sources characterized the pirates as Japanese “dwarf bandits” (''wokou''), in fact over eighty percent were Chinese. Most of the leaders had merchant backgrounds, such as Xu Hai 徐海, Wang Zhi 王直, and Hong Dizhen 洪迪珍; they were businessmen who had been forced into piracy by the rigid sea bans.[4] After a hiatus of about fifty years, a new wave of large-scale piracy surged forth during the Ming-Qing dynastic wars (1620-1684). Often characterized in official sources as “sea rebels” (''haini''海逆), this phase of piracy was symptomatic of the general crisis in China that accompanied the change of dynasties. Given the economic and political anarchy of the times, it was impossible to distinguish between pirates, rebels, and merchants. The Zheng family, led first by Zheng Zhilong 鄭芝龍and later by his son Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (known is the West as Koxinga), built a maritime empire across the South China Sea based on a combination of trade, piracy, and political intrigue.[5] The last stage of large-scale piracy occurred between 1780 and 1810, during the time that historians call the High Qing when sea bans had been lifted, commerce flourished, and the population exploded. Although this was an “age of prosperity,” the uneven distribution of wealth pushed many fishermen and ordinary seafarers into poverty. Besides professional pirates, such as Zheng Yi 鄭一, Zhang Bao 張保, and Cai Qian 蔡牽, the majority of pirates in this era were impoverished and marginalized commoners who engaged in occasional piracy in order to survive in an increasingly harsh and competitive environment.[6]
+During its golden age Chinese piracy was unsurpassed in size and scope anywhere else in the world. While in the West at its peak in 1720 the number of pirates never exceeded 5,500 individuals, in China the number of pirates was no less than 70,000 individuals at its peak in 1809. Scholars have long recognized that the main cause of the surge in piracy in the mid-Ming period (1520-1574) was the Jiaqing emperor’s stringent enforcement of “sea bans” (''haijin''海禁) that in effect criminalized large segments of the maritime population. Although Chinese sources characterized the pirates as Japanese “dwarf bandits” (''wokou''), in fact over eighty percent were Chinese. Most of the leaders had merchant backgrounds, such as Xu Hai 徐海, Wang Zhi 王直, and Hong Dizhen 洪迪珍; they were businessmen who had been forced into piracy by the rigid sea bans.<ref>See Kwan-wai So, ''Japanese Piracy in Ming China during the Sixteenth Century'' (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1975); Tanaka Takeo, ''Wakō'' [The ''wokou'' pirates] (Tokyo: Hanbai Kyoikusha Shuppan Sabisu, 1982); Li Jinming, ''Mingdai haiwai maoyi shi'' [A history of overseas trade in the Ming period] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1990); and Fan Zhongyi and Tong Xigang, ''Mingdai wokou shilue'' [A brief history of Ming dynasty ''wokou''piracy] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2004).</ref>
 ==== Pirates and maritime history ====
-[[File:4ChinesePirates.jpg|thumb|Chinese hung for piracy in Hong Kong (1863)|link=http://wiki.crossroads-research.net/index.php/File:4ChinesePirates.jpg]]Pirates were not only pervasive throughout history, but they also played integral roles in maritime history. The story of maritime China is not simply that of merchants, ship owners, and gentry who reaped most of the profits from seaborne trade, but also of ordinary men and women who sailed their ships and endured untold hardships and dangers for barely enough wages to live. Pirates, in particular, played key roles in shaping maritime society and culture. Piracy was a rational and viable alternative or supplement to inadequate employment and low wages, thereby providing work, even on a part-time basis, for countless poor fishermen and sailors who could not be adequately absorbed into the prevailing labor market. Whenever piracy flourished, as it did during its golden age, the clandestine economy also flourished, thereby supplying tens of thousands of additional jobs to coastal residents as well as promoting the development of new ports and black markets to handle the pirate trade. At the height of their power, large pirate leagues gained firm holds over many coastal villages and ports, as well as over shipping and fishing enterprises through the systematic use of terror, bribery, and extortion. As their power came to overshadow that of officials and local elites, pirates at times became states within the state. Pirates created a sociocultural world of their own making that was important precisely because it existed outside the mainstream orthodox model and provided an alternative lifestyle.[7]
+[[File:4ChinesePirates.jpg|thumb|Chinese hung for piracy in Hong Kong (1863)|link=http://wiki.crossroads-research.net/index.php/File:4ChinesePirates.jpg]]Pirates were not only pervasive throughout history, but they also played integral roles in maritime history. The story of maritime China is not simply that of merchants, ship owners, and gentry who reaped most of the profits from seaborne trade, but also of ordinary men and women who sailed their ships and endured untold hardships and dangers for barely enough wages to live. Pirates, in particular, played key roles in shaping maritime society and culture. Piracy was a rational and viable alternative or supplement to inadequate employment and low wages, thereby providing work, even on a part-time basis, for countless poor fishermen and sailors who could not be adequately absorbed into the prevailing labor market.
 == The accounts of their enemies ==
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 * Official documents found in the central government archives, especially for the Qing dynasty, are among the most direct and useful sources for the study of piracy and its suppression.
 * Finally, there are a large number of private volumes dating from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, which were written by officials and literati stationed or living along the coast. They provide important information on the nature of piracy, local conditions, and local, provincial, and national level policies dealing with piracy.
-----
+== Notes ==
+<references />
 == Source list ==

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 [7] On the pirate’s clandestine trade see Robert Antony, “Piracy and the Shadow Economy in the South China Sea, 1780-1810,” in ''Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers: Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas'', ed. Robert Antony (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010), 99-114.
-== List of sources ==
+== Source list ==
 {| class="wikitable sortable"
 !Title (pinyin)

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 It has been said that piracy is as old as ships and seafaring, yet just how old it is in China remains unclear. Perhaps Philip Gosse, the noted chronicler of pirate history, was correct when he wrote that “the Chinese were practicing piracy before history began.”[1] Although archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of primitive Stone Age boats along China’s coasts and rivers, the earliest written record of maritime raiding is that of the Han Dynasty pirate Zhang Bolu 張伯路in A.D. 109. By the fifth century piracy had become a pervasive feature of maritime society throughout the South China Sea, involving not only Chinese but also Southeast Asian and Japanese pirates. Lu Xun盧循 and Sun En孫恩 were perhaps the first Chinese pirates of any notoriety during this period. As the volume of commerce grew over the Tang and Song dynasties, so too did maritime raiding. Piracies became more frequently mentioned in official histories in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. For example, one notorious pirate named Zheng Guang鄭廣 repeatedly pillaged coastal towns and shipping between Zhejiang and Fujian in the 1130s. Then in the wake of the abortive Mongol invasion of Japan in the following century, Chinese and other Asian pirates repeatedly harassed coastal shipping into the Ming dynasty.[2]
-== Ming to Qing: the golden age of piracy ==
+== Ming to Qing ==
 [[File:Wokou.jpg|thumb|Wokou raids in the 16th century]]
 The golden age of Chinese piracy, however, actually began during the mid-Ming dynasty and lasted until the mid-Qing dynasty, roughly the three hundred years between 1550 and 1810. During those centuries China witnessed an unprecedented growth in maritime raiding at a time of tremendous commercial expansion. During the late imperial age between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries piracy surged in three great waves: (1) the ''wokou'' 倭寇pirates (''wakō'' in Japanese) or merchant-pirates between 1520 and 1574; (2) the rebel-pirates during the Ming-Qing transition between 1620 and 1684; and (3) the mid-Qing “commoner” pirates between 1780 and 1810. These three great pirate waves were characterized by the rise of huge pirate leagues whose power overshadowed that of the imperial state in the maritime world. After 1810, of course, piracy did not cease; what changed, however, was the end of large-scale piracy as was seen during the previous golden age of Chinese piracy.[3]
 During its golden age Chinese piracy was unsurpassed in size and scope anywhere else in the world. While in the West at its peak in 1720 the number of pirates never exceeded 5,500 individuals, in China the number of pirates was no less than 70,000 individuals at its peak in 1809. Scholars have long recognized that the main cause of the surge in piracy in the mid-Ming period (1520-1574) was the Jiaqing emperor’s stringent enforcement of “sea bans” (''haijin''海禁) that in effect criminalized large segments of the maritime population. Although Chinese sources characterized the pirates as Japanese “dwarf bandits” (''wokou''), in fact over eighty percent were Chinese. Most of the leaders had merchant backgrounds, such as Xu Hai 徐海, Wang Zhi 王直, and Hong Dizhen 洪迪珍; they were businessmen who had been forced into piracy by the rigid sea bans.[4] After a hiatus of about fifty years, a new wave of large-scale piracy surged forth during the Ming-Qing dynastic wars (1620-1684). Often characterized in official sources as “sea rebels” (''haini''海逆), this phase of piracy was symptomatic of the general crisis in China that accompanied the change of dynasties. Given the economic and political anarchy of the times, it was impossible to distinguish between pirates, rebels, and merchants. The Zheng family, led first by Zheng Zhilong 鄭芝龍and later by his son Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (known is the West as Koxinga), built a maritime empire across the South China Sea based on a combination of trade, piracy, and political intrigue.[5] The last stage of large-scale piracy occurred between 1780 and 1810, during the time that historians call the High Qing when sea bans had been lifted, commerce flourished, and the population exploded. Although this was an “age of prosperity,” the uneven distribution of wealth pushed many fishermen and ordinary seafarers into poverty. Besides professional pirates, such as Zheng Yi 鄭一, Zhang Bao 張保, and Cai Qian 蔡牽, the majority of pirates in this era were impoverished and marginalized commoners who engaged in occasional piracy in order to survive in an increasingly harsh and competitive environment.[6]
-Pirates were not only pervasive throughout history, but they also played integral roles in maritime history. The story of maritime China is not simply that of merchants, ship owners, and gentry who reaped most of the profits from seaborne trade, but also of ordinary men and women who sailed their ships and endured untold hardships and dangers for barely enough wages to live. Pirates, in particular, played key roles in shaping maritime society and culture. Piracy was a rational and viable alternative or supplement to inadequate employment and low wages, thereby providing work, even on a part-time basis, for countless poor fishermen and sailors who could not be adequately absorbed into the prevailing labor market. Whenever piracy flourished, as it did during its golden age, the clandestine economy also flourished, thereby supplying tens of thousands of additional jobs to coastal residents as well as promoting the development of new ports and black markets to handle the pirate trade. At the height of their power, large pirate leagues gained firm holds over many coastal villages and ports, as well as over shipping and fishing enterprises through the systematic use of terror, bribery, and extortion. As their power came to overshadow that of officials and local elites, pirates at times became states within the state. Pirates created a sociocultural world of their own making that was important precisely because it existed outside the mainstream orthodox model and provided an alternative lifestyle.[7]
+==== Pirates and maritime history ====
 == The accounts of their enemies ==
-[[File:4ChinesePirates.jpg|thumb|Chinese hung for piracy in Hong Kong (1863)]]
+Although there are many primary sources in Chinese, nonetheless it is no easy task to recover the history of Chinese piracy. Because the pirates themselves left us virtually no records, we must rely on the written accounts of their enemies, namely officials and landed elites. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the sources are biased. Nonetheless, when read with care official documents are very valuable and can be used in ways not intended by their authors. There are, however, few sources on pirates before the Ming dynasty.
-Although there are many primary sources in Chinese, nonetheless it is no easy task to recover the history of Chinese piracy. Because the pirates themselves left us virtually no records, we must rely on the written accounts of their enemies, namely officials and landed elites. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the sources are biased. Nonetheless, when read with care official documents are very valuable and can be used in ways not intended by their authors. There are, however, few sources on pirates before the Ming dynasty. Overall, one of the most important sources are the official or standard histories of the successive dynasties, in Chinese called the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' (''Ershsisi shi''二十四史), which cover a period from roughly 3000 B.C. to the end of the Ming dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century. While only sections of the ''Veritable Records'' (''Shulu''實錄) are extant from before the fourteenth century, we have complete ''Veritable Records'' from the Ming and Qing dynasties. These are daily accounts compiled from court diaries and administrative records and, as a more comprehensive source, can be used in conjunction with the standard histories. Each ''Shilu'' consists of an account of one emperor’s reign compiled after his death. Another useful source are gazetteers (''fangzhi''方志) of coastal areas that date mostly from the Ming dynasty and afterwards. They are basically local histories usually compiled by members of the local elite and were produced under the sponsorship of the local officials. Local gazetteers are usually subdivided into provincial gazetteers (''tongzhi'' 通志), prefectural gazetteers (''fuzhi'' 府志), county gazetteers (''xianzhi''县志), and even some township gazetteers (''xiangzhi'' 鄉志). Official documents found in the central government archives, especially for the Qing dynasty, are among the most direct and useful sources for the study of piracy and its suppression. Finally, there are a large number of private volumes dating from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, which were written by officials and literati stationed or living along the coast. They provide important information on the nature of piracy, local conditions, and local, provincial, and national level policies de
-----[1] Philip Gosse, ''The History of Pirates'' (New York: Tudor, 1932), 265.
+* Overall, one of the most important sources are the official or standard histories of the successive dynasties, in Chinese called the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' (''Ershsisi shi''二十四史), which cover a period from roughly 3000 B.C. to the end of the Ming dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century. While only sections of the ''Veritable Records'' (''Shulu''實錄) are extant from before the fourteenth century, we have complete ''Veritable Records'' from the Ming and Qing dynasties. These are daily accounts compiled from court diaries and administrative records and, as a more comprehensive source, can be used in conjunction with the standard histories. Each ''Shilu'' consists of an account of one emperor’s reign compiled after his death.
 [2] On the general history of Chinese pirates see Matsuura Akira, ''Chugoku no kaizoku'' [Pirates of China] (Tokyo: Toho Shoten, 1995); and Zheng Guangnan, ''Zhongguo haidao shi'' [A history of Chinese piracy] (Shanghai: Huadong ligong daxue chubanshe, 1998).