Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2013

 

The Formation of the Qian tai wo zuan: from Local Experience to Common Memory

(Abstract)

                                                                                                 

Liu Xiaodong

 

The Qian tai wo zuan is a private compilation of memories of the activities of Japanese pirates during the reign of Emperor Jiajing, at a time when Korea was under attack from Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Its main purpose was to guard against and resist the pirates. From an analysis of the compilers of this work and the course process of its compilation it can readily be seen that as early as before the Im Jin War, the Jiangxi region already had quite an in-depth store of local knowledge of "Japan" and "Japanese pirates." This was partly due to the introduction and dissemination of information on the pirates by a number of officials who were Jiangxi natives and who were serving in the southeast coastal areas where there was rampant piracy in the Jiajjng era. Their participation in the campaign against Japanese piracy in the coastal areas greatly strengthened the spiritual bonds between the two regions, and also became a major way of shaping and strengthening the fame of these officials' native place. Thus, what was originally people's historical experience of the Japanese pirates in the regions affected by their incursions became a kind of common historical memory recognized and accepted by regions that had not been affected.