Chóuhǎi túbiān 籌海圖編
Illustrated Compendium for Sea Defense by 胡宗憲 (Hú Zōngxiàn, 1511–1565) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 13-juan late-Míng compendium on coastal defense and the wōkòu 倭寇 (Japanese pirate) crisis of the Jiājìng era — the foundational document of Míng coastal-defense doctrine and the principal source for the Jiājìng wōkòu wars. Compiled by Hú Zōngxiàn (1511–1565) during his tenure as Supreme Commander of ZhíZhèMǐn (Nánzhílì–Zhèjiāng–Fújiàn) coastal defense (1556–1562) at the height of the wōkòu crisis. The actual editorial labor was largely performed by his mùbīn Zhèng Ruòzēng 鄭若曾 (KR2k0082 author) and other Sūzhōu literati. Categories: comprehensive map, coastal sand-mountain map, embassy-to-Japan and Japanese-tribute records, Japanese geographic and ethnographic notes, the five coastal provinces (Guǎngdōng, Fújiàn, Zhèjiāng, Nánzhílì, DēngLáiShāndōng) prefectural-county maps, wō-attack maps, troop-strength tables, attack chronology, attack-route maps, victory-records, casualty records, strategic-management essays.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Hú Zōngxiàn 胡宗憲 of the Míng. Zōngxiàn, zì Rǔzhēn 汝貞, hào Méilín 梅林, of Jìxī 績溪. Jìnshì of Jiājìng wùxū (1538), rose to Bīngbù shàngshū, directed the suppression-army against the wō pirates; impeached by remonstrating officials; imprisoned, died in custody. In the early Wànlì he was rehabilitated to his original rank, posthumous title Xiāngmào 襄懋. His biography is in the Míngshǐ.
The book first records the comprehensive cartographic map and the coastal sand-and-mountain map. Next records the Wángguān shǐ Wō lüè (Royal-Officials Embassies-to-Japan Strategic-Outline), Wōguó rùgòng shìlüè (Japan’s Tributary Submission Strategic Outline), Wōguó shìlüè (Japan Strategic Outline). Next records the prefectural-county maps of the five coastal provinces — Guǎngdōng, Fújiàn, Zhèjiāng, Nánzhílì, DēngLáiShāndōng — and the Wōbiàn tú (Pirate Outbreak Maps). The Bīngfáng guānkǎo (Examination of Defense Officials) and Shìyí (Affairs Conventions). Next records the Wōhuàn zǒng biānnián biǎo (Synoptic Chronological Table of Pirate Calamities). Next records the Kòujì fēnhé túpǔ (Pirate-Trace Division-and-Combination Map-Atlas). Next records the Dàjié kǎo (Great-Victory Examination). Next records the Yùnán xùnjié kǎo (Met-Calamity Death-of-Honor Examination). Next records the Jīnglüè kǎo (Strategic Management Examination).
The Míngshǐ states: Zhào Wénhuá oversaw the Zhèjiāng military affairs, and Zōngxiàn deeply attached himself to him. Supreme Commander Zhāng Jīng broke the pirates at Wángjiāngjīng; Wénhuá entirely covered Jīng’s merit, attributing it to Zōngxiàn — Jīng was thereupon found guilty. He further entrapped Provincial Governor Lǐ Tiānchǒng. Wénhuá returned to court and forcefully recommended Zōngxiàn — he was thereupon promoted to high rank. Zōngxiàn further, through Wénhuá, attached himself to Yán Sōng, taking him as inner support. He delighted in gain and merit, valued cunning and trickery — truly as the appraisal in his biography says, “luxuriously lewd, taking-on-stain.”
In the book is the Wángjiāngjīng victory affairs recorded by Hú Sōng — exclusively narrating Zōngxiàn’s merit, not extending to Zhāng Jīng — agreeing with the standard biography. This is the substantive evidence of his merit-grasping. Yet other matters: the Jiājìng 34/5 (1555) Píngwàng victory, Lújīngbà victory, and 11th-month Hòutún victory, Qīngfēnglǐng victory; the 35th-year (1556) Xiānjū victory, 7th-month Zhàpǔ victory, 11th-month Kānshān victory, and the Jīntáng, HuáiYáng, NíngTāiWēn victories. He further records the suppression of Xú Hǎi and the capture of Wáng Zhí from beginning to end. The major points all accord with the Míngshǐ annals and biographies. Then Zōngxiàn’s protection of the southeast was indeed not without merit.
The Jīnglüè kǎo in 3 juan — covering scout-rotation, neighbor-aid, pacification-and-attraction, city-defense, bǎojiǎ mutual-responsibility, proclamation-and-decree, espionage, tributary route, mutual market — and all sea-vessels, weapons, military implements, fire-arms — none not exhaustive in its detailing. As to Táng Shùnzhī, Zhāng Shíchè, Yú Dàyóu, Máo Kūn, Qī Jìguāng’s various propositions — the book also has them all. For Míng-era coastal defense, it may also be called full and complete. Although his person was not pure, his talent was indeed of the age’s heroes.
Abstract
The Chóuhǎi túbiān is the foundational document of Míng coastal-defense doctrine and the principal documentary archive of the Jiājìng-era wōkòu crisis. Its nominal author Hú Zōngxiàn (1511–1565, zì Rǔzhēn, hào Méilín; CBDB id 68363; jìnshì 1538) was Supreme Commander of ZhíZhèMǐn coastal defense 1556–1562 — a tenure made possible by his political alignment with Zhào Wénhuá and (through Zhào) with the Grand Secretary Yán Sōng. Hú directed the principal late-Jiājìng wōkòu suppression campaigns, including the strategic captures of Xú Hǎi (1556) and Wáng Zhí (1557). On the fall of the Yán Sōng faction (1562) he was impeached and died in custody (1565); rehabilitated in early Wànlì.
The actual editorial labor of the Chóuhǎi túbiān was largely performed by Hú’s mùbīn circle at his Zhèjiāng headquarters, principally by Zhèng Ruòzēng 鄭若曾 (1503–1570; the author of KR2k0082 Zhèng Kāiyáng zázhù) and the prose-stylist Máo Kūn 茅坤. Modern scholarship (notably Ho Yi-Tien 何義天 and Kawagoe Yasuhiro 川越泰博) has demonstrated that Zhèng Ruòzēng was the principal compiler; the work is more accurately credited to Zhèng with Hú as patron. The Sìkù attribution to Hú Zōngxiàn follows the original woodblock title-page convention.
The 13-juan structure is foundational for all subsequent MíngQīng coastal-defense literature: comprehensive cartography, ethnographic-historical documentation of Japan, prefectural-coastal cartography, wōkòu-attack chronology and route-mapping, victory-and-loss documentation, and strategic-management essays. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 584.1) and in numerous MíngQīng commercial impressions including the 1561, 1574, and Qiánlóng-era reprints.
Translations and research
The standard English-language study is Kwan-wai So, Japanese Piracy in Ming China during the 16th Century (Michigan State, 1975), with extensive use of the Chóu-hǎi tú-biān; James E. Lewis, The American Union and the Problem of Neighborhood (UNC, 1998), §1 (comparative — wōkòu and Mediterranean piracy). The principal modern Chinese critical edition is Lǐ Zhì-zhōng 李致忠, Chóu-hǎi tú-biān jiào-zhù (Zhōnghuá, 2007). Japanese standard: Kawagoe Yasuhiro 川越泰博, Mindai Wakō shi no kenkyū 明代倭寇史の研究 (Yoshikawa, 1995). For Hú Zōngxiàn’s biography see DMB s.v. Hu Tsung-hsien.
Other points of interest
The Chóuhǎi túbiān is one of the best-documented examples of late-Míng mùbīn (private-secretariat) editorial production: the ostensibly single-authored work was in fact compiled by Hú Zōngxiàn’s editorial circle at his Zhèjiāng headquarters, with Zhèng Ruòzēng as principal zhuàn and contributions from Máo Kūn and others. The Sìkù tíyào — for institutional reasons (the original title-page) — credits Hú Zōngxiàn alone; modern scholarly attribution recognizes Zhèng Ruòzēng’s principal authorship.