#241 - Ming 28: Wokou! Wokou! A Pirate's Life For Me!

The History of China

Chris Stewart

History

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

We're rascals and scoundrels, we're villains and knaves. We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs. We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads, Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads, Stand up me hearties, yo ho! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me! Time Period Covered: ca. 1521-1550 CE Sources Cited: Andrade, Tonio and Xing Hang. “Introduction: The East Asian Maritime Realm in Global History: 1500-1700” in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1500-1700. Chin, James K. “Merchants, Smugglers, and Pirates: Multinational Clandestine Trade on the South China Coast, 1520-50” in Elusive pirates, pervasive smugglers: violence and clandestine trade in the Greater China Seas. Geiss, James. “The Chia-ching reign, 1522-1566” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part I. Laver, Michael. “Neither Here nor There: Trade, Piracy, and the ‘Space Between’ in Early Modern East Asia” in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1500-1700. Petrucci, Maria Grazia. “Pirates, Gunpowder, and Christianity in Late Sixteenth-Century Japan” in Elusive pirates, pervasive smugglers: violence and clandestine trade in the Greater China Seas. Wills, John E. “Maritime China from Wang Chih to Shih Lang: Themes In Peripheral History” in From Ming to Ch’ing: Conquest, Region, and Continuity in Seventeenth-Century China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
0:30.9	Hello and welcome to the history of China.
0:38.1	Episode 241.
0:40.6	Wo-ko wo-ko. A pirate's life for me.
0:45.8	Piracy. Now, commerce without his folly swaddles, just as God made it. Ambrose beers.
0:55.1	Piracy often reflects market failures on the part of producers rather than moral failures
0:59.9	on the part of consumers. Henry Jenkins.
1:04.7	Heaven is vast and the Emperor is far away. Old Chinese proverb.
1:12.8	Face it, if crime didn't pay, there would be very few criminals.
1:18.6	Lotton Lewis Birdock from Shadows of the Empire. Pirate was ever there a name,
1:27.6	a term that evokes more romantic, adventurous, and free-spirited imagery.
1:33.4	From classic tales, like those such as Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island,
1:37.5	and its peg-legged rogue, Long John Silver. Two Disney's boat ride turned mega movie franchise,
1:43.0	Pirates of the Caribbean, and the always memorable Jack Sparrow.
1:46.7	Captain Jack Sparrow. Yes, sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow.
1:52.3	Two HBO's, recent 4A's, into the real-life Blackbeard story with our flag means death.
1:57.9	And even its fantastical turn in Westeros, with its recent episodes in House of the Dragon,
2:02.4	and the war against the Lord crab theater and the stepstones by the Iron Throne.
2:06.6	Pirates are everywhere in popular culture. And who can blame us? They're inherently romantic.
2:13.5	They're awesome. The affable villain, always ready with a quip, or a dashing side-long grin,
2:18.5	or a flintlock pistol when the going gets tough. Robbing from the rich and giving to the…
2:24.0	Well, okay, mostly giving to themselves, but… anyways, past the room.
	...

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