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Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

"Fierce Smugglers Caused Disturbance"

The ocean and the rivers constituted a means for the Wenzhounese to connect with the outside world. Yet they also became a contested space for smugglers and pirates to extract resources and compete with one another. Traders from the north -- either Shanghai or Ningbo -- or the south -- particularly Xiamen and Fuzhou -- were usually at risks of being raided by the pirates from the nearby regions, especially Taizhou. Merchant boats were usually equipped with weapons or mercenaries because of the frequent raids by the pirates. Local officials and policemen were also tasked to quench fugitives on the sea; yet they sometimes opened one eye while closing the other as they had to deal with various local affairs and their opponents -- the pirates and the smugglers -- were usually heavily armed. In practice, local authorities preferred to take the most efficient approaches, including making announcements or informing other government and military forces about the ongoing crimes. Primarily due to such cost-benefit analysis behind their actions, the policemen and local governments frequently took somehow passive ways in the face of fierce pirates and smuggling networks.

In October 1886, several dozen smuggling boats appeared on Wenzhou’s waters. The Corps of Catching Salt Smugglers had already been made aware of their planned arrival. They lay in wait in the region close to the water, and then opened fire on the smuggling boats when they passed by. The smuggling boats were not equipped with cannons, so they sent several smugglers carrying swords to jump onto the official’s boats. The two sides fought fiercely on the ocean, with many injured in the fight. Four smugglers were caught, two officers were kidnapped, but only one smuggling boat was captured by the officers.

In October 1919, a Wenzhounese-owned Rongtai sailboat was navigating from Shanghai to Wenzhou. While the boat was near the Tongsha water, approximately 15 miles away from the mouth of the Soochow Creek (Wusong River), it was surrounded by two pirate boats. 50 to 60 pirates flooded to the sailboat, robbed all the valuables, and kidnapped two sailors for a ransom of 1,000 golds. The owner of the sailboat, a Wenzhou native Chen Hongqiang, quickly informed the Wenzhou Native-Place Association in Shanghai. The latter thus sent a telegram to the Governor of Zhejiang Province, urging him to investigate the case and take back the lost goods and personnel. The pirates, reportedly from Taizhou, had committed similar crimes around the nearby waters. They transported the looted goods to the Shitang Town, which is only 70 miles away from Wenzhou. Probably due to such "native" relationship as well as the petitioner's connection with Shanghai, the Zhejiang provincial authorities soon requested water policemen to take care of the case. Yet the consequences remained unknown as the newspapers did not provide further details.

濃縮一段：加入［日本船走私］＋［女海盜］

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"Smuggling Prevention Corps Mistaken as Pirate Ship"
As the previous page demonstrates, merchant boats around the Wenzhou water either equipped themselves with weapons for self-protection purposes or resorted to governments and influential organizations if they were robbed or attacked by pirate boats. Yet, in some cases, local governments could only take limited measures and even failed to intervene in piracy incidents. The strong firepower of the pirates, the wide networks of the smuggling business, and the vast water space for the fugitives to hide had posed significant challenges to the government's investigation. Moreover, while both police boats and pirate boats were armed with ammunition and kept suspicious of other boats, many boats misrecognized each other and the cases of mistaken identity happened in the vast water space.

The cases of mistaken identity, as well as the blurred boundary between bandits and soldiers, were not uncommon in late imperial and modern China. As David Robinson argues, during the sixteenth century the “patronage network” of violence had been built between imperial court and local society. As Philip Kuhn also noted, the “parallel hierarchies of militarization” had become an apparent trend throughout the late Qing period in which “the same kinds of linkages and the same levels of organization would be visible within both the orthodox, gentry-dominated Confucian culture and the various heterodox, secret-society–dominated sectarian subcultures.” Similarly, in the practice of piracy and smuggling, as Robert J. Antony points out, "there appear no firm distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate in the actions of what we and others label pirates and smugglers. It is better to think in terms of a continuum, with activities that are completely legal on one end, those that are completely illegal on the other end, and most activities somewhere in between." "[T]he aid that pirates and smugglers received from coastal residents, including fishermen, sailors, merchants, soldiers, and officials, factored significantly in their success."

In May 1906, a merchant boat filled with iced yellow croakers passed by Wenzhou’s port. The Smuggling Prevention Corps was waiting there, already aiming to capture salt smuggling boats. When they saw the merchant boat sailing in the nighttime, loaded down with heavy cargo, they thought that the boat was shipping smuggled goods. The Corps then turned off their lights, paused their telegram signals, and followed the boat. When they failed to catch the boat in time, they opened fire in a threatening manner. Their subsequent attack made the merchant boat believe that the Corps was actually a bandit boat. The merchant boat was heavily armed with weapons, so it fired back aggressively at the Corps’ boat. In the end, one Corps member was killed and one was injured. No one on the merchant boat was killed.

According to a news report in Shen Bao, November 1923, many merchant boats encountered pirates on their routes between Wenzhou and Shanghai. Partly due to poor harvest and famine, many coastal residents, as well as retired policemen, joined the pirates around Taizhou and Jiangsu. These pirates looted, killed, and kidnapped ordinary people. Some of them stole the merchant boats and sailed with the boats they stole, pretending that they were merchants or fishermen and luring other boats into their trap. In October 1938, the water police also noticed that four pirate boats heading to Wenzhou had disguised as police boats by hanging the flags of water police. The Ningbo Defense Command quickly informed the defence corps along the coast to pay close attention as the fake police boats may rob and disturb other boats on the sea.

Faking or modifying markers not only appeared in the switch of boats and the flags but also occurred in the articulation of clothing and the look. In September 1930, a steamer, Yongling, sailed from Wenzhou to Ningbo and was robbed near the Shitang region of the Wenzhou water. Four pirates disguised as passengers and signaled to a nearby sailboat where over a hundred of pirates were waiting for the steamer. The flooding pirates soon opened fire to the sailors and the passengers. Four sailors in uniform were immediately shot dead. Four other sailors who were not in their uniform due to the change of shift dropped their weapons and fled away. A wealthy merchant, who was reportedly the main target of the pirates, took off his silk cloth and ran into the engine room of the boat. There he used coal to paint his face, acting like a coal trimmer of the boat. The pirates could not find him, so they kidnapped those with valuable luggage and other boat staff.

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