Turning bandits into ‘good citizens’: Coastal violence on the south coast of the Ming Empire in the fifteenth century

• Sander Molenaar ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Warwick

     University of Warwick

     Reino Unido

     
• Localización: International journal of maritime history, ISSN 0843-8714, Vol. 32, Nº. 3, 2020, págs. 681-696
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Banditry was a recurring problem on the mountainous, island-dotted south coast of the Ming Empire (1368–1644). Scholars mainly discuss banditry on the south coast in the context of growing international trade and focus on the sixteenth century while largely ignoring endemic forms of banditry. This article studies the interaction of bandit groups, coastal communities and Ming officials during the fifteenth century to show that banditry was an integral part of life on the south coast of the Ming Empire. Furthermore, it argues that the inability of Ming officials to understand how banditry was integrated in coastal society limited their capacity to secure long-term solutions.