The Maritime Defence of China

This edited volume explores the larger maritime and security environment during and beyond the time of Chinese military general Qi Jiguang-s enterprise. While serving as a historiography and biography of Qi Jiguang, the book also elaborates on the doctrinal applications of his ideas. Essays in this volume contribute to the field of China studies in light of the increased frequency of news relating to the maritime and military affairs in the region in the post-2000 period. It provides a specialist perspective to the uneven study of Qi Jiguang and maritime/military studies, while also satisfying the desire of the layman to understand the current political security situation in East Asia in the context of the longer term historical developments.

Teddy Sim is currently lecturing at the Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has published on specific involvements of the Portuguese in the East / Far East in the 18th century and 19th centuries. He is the author of Portuguese Enterprise in the East: Survival in the Years 1707-57 and editor of Piracy and surreptitious activities in the Malay Archipelago and adjacent seas 1600-1840. On the sea space and network extending from Macau and the southern coastal provinces of China, Teddy is also interested in the issues involving security and activities of Macanese and diaspora Chinese transpiring in the region.

Section 1: Historiography, biography and ideas of Qi Jiguang.- Chapter 1  Brief introduction to Qi Jiguang and discussion of issues relating to China's maritime defence and Qi's ideas.- Chapter 2  Qi Jiguang and Hu Zongxian's anti-wokou campaign.- Chapter 3  A terrible scourge: Chinese piracy, coastal defence in broad historical perspective.- Chapter 4  The martial arts in Qi Jiguang's military training.- Chapter 5  The arquebus volley technique in China, c. 1560: Evidence from the writings of Qi Jiguang.- Chapter 6  Zeng Guofan's application of Qi Jiguang's doctrines in the Taiping Uprising.- Chapter 7  The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy and the history of coastal defence.- Section 2: Maritime and security environment during Qi Jiguang's enterprise and beyond.- Chapter 8  Early Ming's skirmishes with the Portuguese as an indication of Ming military developments and the military dimension of Luso-Ming interactions.- Chapter 9  The retrogression of overseas geographical knowledge during the mid-Ming period.- Chapter 10: Cutting dwarf pirates down to size: Amphibious warfare in sixteenth-century East Asia.- Chapter 11  Rebel with a cause: Chinese merchant-pirates in Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century.- Chapter 12  Naval technology, state power and  the influence of Qi Jiguang in the late Ming.- Chapter 13  The rise of private maritime trading powers in Fujian and their inputs on the view of the sea during the Ming dynasty.- Chapter 14  The development of Ming-Qing coastal defence and navy.