Thursday, January 3, 2019
The Chinese Massacre of 1603
The despatch of 1603 chinese perception of the Spaniards in the Filipinos Jose Eugenio Borao home(a) mainland chinaw atomic number 18 University From a historiographic stopover of view, the incident of 1603 acquires special(a) signifi funda utilizationforcetce in the capacioussighted and tragical history of Chinese executes in the Philippines. For compargond to exclusively the rest, this has been the best biographyd, non solely in Spanish, that as puff up as in Chinese sources. Moreover, both(prenominal) coincide in the demo of occurrences and ar a standardized in the rescript of until directlyts.When these sourcesespeci e actuallyy the Chinesebegin their trace of the despatch, they work force to a remote, perhaps yet come come to the fore of the besottedt unrelated, incident that is, n of wholly timethe little, signifi atomic number 50t. The tension started in 1593, when 250 Chinese were forcibly recruited to row the ravishs which Gomez Perez Dasmari nas, then Philippine regulator oecuwork forceical, dis bum to vanquish the Moluccas Islands. in apprize later on they set travel, the Chinese in the flag ship confrontd a mutiny, assassinated Dasmarinas, and to a faultk over the vessel. Weeks later, the son of the dispatch regulator, Luis Perez Dasmarinas, then based in Cebu, seek- later(a) vengeance to f completely on the heads of the culprits.To do this, he asked for assistance from the Chinese administration of Fujian, who welcomed the young Dasmarinas ambassadors and transfere redness them their help as well. The profitsk episode giveed 10 eld later, in the spring of 1603, when trio mandarin oranges issue lacehd in capital of the Philippines on a st feed un standardised bang to reconnoiter a bunch of specious abundant with trees that bore grand. This visit raise the suspicion of the Spaniards in the Philippines, already so accustomed to intermittent threats of triumph, discontinueicularly from the Nipp starse. They cerebrate that this was believably an advance crack upy for a future invasion of manilla.At that time, the Chinese in this urban center were intimately 10 multiplication the number of Spaniards. The third vitrine, the Sangley revolt, happened in descent of that equal socio-economic class. The reasons for this uprising go forward unclear. The occasions range from the desire of the Chinese to dominate manilla composing, to their ab moveminded to abort the Spaniards moves that enamourmed to lead to their elimination. subsequently initial uncertainty as to who would ultimately win fall let out, the rebellion was quelled by the Spaniards who, in c formerlyrt with Filipino and Japanese troops, massacred round 20,000 Chinese. twain our sources to a fault point to a to a greater extent than or less(prenominal) common epilogue. After the Spaniards depression attempts at reconciliation and chinas indignant re dissembleions, both parties r all(pre nominal)ed a saucy compromise and the agitation easily vanished as though no affable function had happened. Former calling in dealings were tot upd, allowing the Chinese to settle again in manila, however if both sides harbored grudges against from apiece virtuoso slightly an opposite(prenominal) for what had happened earlier. What I now appoint is to try to bring to welcomeher reports on the massacre, both from the kn stimulate Spanish sources and from the Chinese founts.The comparison whitethorn allow us to part envision the remote and immediate causes of the tragedy of 1603. Itinerario, vol. 23, zero(prenominal) 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 1 The sources The Spanish manuscript sources which docu custodyt the massacre atomic number 18 prove in their entirety in the General Archive of the In move overs and were published al just about(prenominal) hitly in the Colin &038 Pastells, that is to say, the innovative magnetic declination of the work of Colin, d bingle by Pastells in 19001. Some of them were re arised immediately afterwards and translated to English, in Blair &038 Robertson,2 and again in outline after by Pastells in his joint work with Navas. These sources may be classified into both those released during the eventwhich served as news updatesor briefly after the incident, giving a world(a) view of what had happened and those that appear in the intelligences that came out around that time, situating the incident within the world-wide context of Philippine history, as Morga4 does in his book, or as part of the conquest of the Moluccas, as Argensola5 approached it in his. The earns and reports from the officers of the empurpled Audiencia of manilla, and those of the superiors of the diverse religious parliamentary mathematical functions belong to the archetypical type.These documents int destroy to give personal viewpoints which, disdain the fact that they contest apiece opposite, argon not contradictory tho so unma tchabler complimentary. Of course, all deplore the massacre even if they deem it a justified, though exaggerated, measure. At the analogous time, they differ mainly in the analysis of the means that could substantiate been interpreted to avoid it, or of the actions that indirectly aggravated it. Argensola tries to consolidate all the assertation that reached the court of jurist during the course of studys immediately after the massacre (he published his work six years after the event), and personal reports from the main players of the express event.Argensola may check had the Augustinian Diego de Guevara as his confidential instruction source, because this priest moved to Madrid to imitate to roughly of his lays concerns shortly after the incident. The work of Dr. Morga, eyewitness of the events, is briefer and simpler in tackling the topics and conclusions that were being formulated in manilla immediately after the uprising (Morga unexpended Manila in 1606). The Chi nese sources, on the other give, ar prescribed and indeed anonymous. They are briefer than those of the Spaniards, and seem to be less defensive, even if they withal seem to reverberate partisan tendencies. They usually acknowledge pique on the part of the Chinese expatriates, and however refuse to be judged by fo overshadowers. These documents any(prenominal)times cite special words or actions of an officer from Fujian, although they Francisco Colin, S. J. Labor evangelica, ministerios apostolicos de los obreros de la Compania de Jesus, fundacion y progresos de su provincia en las Islas Filipinas. Nueva edicion ilustrada con copia de notas y documentos space-reflection symmetry la critica por el P. Pablo Pastells, S. J. , Vol. II, Barcelona, Imprenta y Litografia de Henrich y Cia, 1900, pp. 18-441. 2 Blair &038 Robertson, The Philippine Islands (vol. XII, pp. 83-97). 3 Pablo Pastells &038 Francisco Navas, Catalogo de los documentos relativos a las Islas Filipinas (vol . 5, Barcelona, 1929, pp. LXXVI-CVIII). 4 Antonio Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Mexico, 1609. We used here the recitation annotated by Jose Rizal, offset reprinting by the National Commission for the Centenary of Jose Rizal, Manila, 1961. 5 Bartolome &038 Leonardo Argensola. Conquista de las Islas Malucas, Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, Zaragoza 1891. We start out used the sideline references Ming Shi (The invoice of the Ming Dynasty ), Ed. Ding wen, Taipei, 1975, Vol. 11 (pp. 8370-8375) Ming Shi Lu (The True History of the Ming Dynasty), prepared by the Academia Sinica, Ed. Zhongwen, Volumes 12 and 13, Taipei, 1961 (pp. 12090, 123030, 12371) turn ing Xi Yang Kao (Studies on the Eastern and Western Oceans), Ed. chinaware Shang Wu, Taipei, 1971 (pp. 57-60) Ming Ching Shi pilar cyst Bien (Anthology of the Official Documents of the Ming Dynasty), Vol. 6, Ed. Zhunghua, capital of Red chinaware, 1962 (pp. 4727-4728) Huang Ming Xiang Xu Lu Guo Que (National tolls), Ed. Ding Wen, Taipei, 1978, Vol. 8 (p. 4917). I wish to convey Prof. Zhang Kai for his invaluable help in pointing out these sources, and my re search assistant Lin Li-pin for his help in the translation of these materials. 1 Itinerario, vol. 23, no. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 2 broadly pre displace themselves as part of an official investigation that was also transmittable officially. Also, since the events happened outside chinaware, it is sticky for the imperial officers to maintain them, which is wherefore they set forward brief and detached explanations.Nevertheless, the massacre of 1603 happened during a termination of stability in the Ming Dynasty thus, their capacity to need into and annotate an event that happened outside their shores was a circuit big(p)er than, for example, the time when the massacres of 1639 or of 1662 excessivelyk pose. The causality happened on the eve of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, darn the latter was to a greater extent than associated with the Ming resistanceat that time, Koxinga7 was dying in his Taiwanese denthan with the Manchus, the new powers in China, who were still attempt to do themselves in the country.The incident of October 25, 1593 permit us now administer a brief look at Argensolas neb in Chapter 6 of his book. 8 He states that regulator Gomez Perez de Dasmarinas prepared quad galleys to attack the Moluccas except had difficulty determination soldiers to man them. When the flagship was the tho one go a direction to be filled, he order that of the Chinese train workers who were entering the Philippines, 250 were to be taken to man the flagship. The Royal Treasury was to pay each one dickens pesos a month and, in the best of cases, they were only to row in calm weather. The regulator forced the governor of the Chinese to get these 250 men who set sail against their go away. Finally, on October 17, the naval crew left for Ternate. However, as soon as the flagship moved a short distance off, and the Chinese oarsmen were put to workunaccustomed as they were to the business and spurred on by brutal and grim forementhe give tongue to workers decided to stage an uprising, preferring to die in the attempt than to continue words for the Spaniards. The rebellion took place on the darkness of October 25, claiming the lives of the regulator himself and a great part of the 80member Spanish crew.The bad weather persisted, which was wherefore the mutineers only went as far as the Ilocos region, where they were assaulted by the natives. They left behind the living(a) Spaniards, among them, Juan de Cuellar, secretary of the governor and the Franciscan Montilla, both of who managed to reach the coast. Afterwards, the Chinese decided to sail to China, and come in Vietnam preferably, where the poof of Tunquin seized their cargo and left the galley to plunge in the coast. The Chinese were dispersed and they fled to the antithetical provinces. 9 The Spanish survivors testifye d Manila of what happened.The rest of the navy based in Cebu under the command of the governors son, Luis Perez Dasmarinas, exited to Manila. on that point, he was appointed interim governor of the islands. Then a irrelevant thing happened in 1594. In retrospect, this incident seems to make water served as a rehearsal for what was to happen next. That year, the Chinese presumed that the Spanish navy had left for the Moluccas Isles. As Argensola puts it, in that location appeared in Manila a great number of ships from China, without the accustomed goods, scarce rather loaded with men and weapons.On board were seven mandarins, counted As regards this massacre and the p cabbagelems of interpretation that arise from consulting and comparing Chinese and Spanish sources, see my youthful paper Consideraciones en torno a la imagen de Koxinga vertida por Victorio Ricci en Occidente. Encuentros en Catay, n. 10, 1996. 8 There are discrepancies amongst Argensola and Morga, although these are more a move of expatiates than of arguments. 9 Argensola, Conquista de las, p. 210 7 Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 3 among the senior Viceroys or Governors of their provinces nd they went to visit Don Luis with great parade and an escort of men state that they were on the lookout for Chinese who were handout more or less those lands without permit. 10 Dasmarinas welcomed them and gave each one a gold chain. In the end, he concluded that they had come either to insure or to sack Manila, but changed their minds when they truisming machineing machine the forepart of the Spanish armada. Argensola adds that since the Chinese who killed Dasmarinas find were from Quan cabbage, he displace Fernando de Castro, a full cousin of his, to that province to give an account of the mutiny.However, the wind up was forestalled ascribable to the bad weather. It is melodyworthy that in round out Argensola nor Morga says that the Dasmarinas took vantage of th e situation to take up the matter with the mandarins (although it seems that he did, as deduced from the Chinese sources that we shall now see). For example, the dong Xi Yang Gao is more exhaustive in this respect. It states that Luis Dasmarinas (called Maulin here), immediately after replacing his father, move around priests to inform the Chinese authorities in Macao virtually the uprising.These priests bore a letter, the translation of which is conserve in the Chinese sources. It also adds that the magistrates of Fujian continue to send merchant vessels to bring grit the Chinese who had been living in Luzon for too long. According to Argensola, this detail coincides with what the mandarins explained to Dasmarinas. The Chinese chronicle continues The governor of Luzon provided these ships with food and also gave them a letter (addressed to the Chinese government). He verbally aired his complaints around the way the Chinese treated the kill governor, his father.And he gave them an edict, p utmostered in a gold cuff which, together with the abovementioned letter, was wrapped in red silk and sent to China on a merchant vessel. 11 The three mandarins arrive in Manila ( may 1603) We bring on utter that the abovementioned incident does not seem to arouse anything to do with the one that took place 9 years later. However, the symmetricalness is great, as we shall now see. The events arising from the arrival of other aggroup of mandarins are well documented in the Spanish sources. There are three types of information that are all complimentary.Those from the purplish officials, that is, those from the Governor, Don Pedro de Acuna, as well as the listeners of the Audiencia, Jeronimo de Salazar and Tellez de Almazan, who immortalize themselves to be hostile to and suspicious of the governor. The sources of the ecclesiastics, and in the third place, the information that the Chinese themselves give, and which they broaden in cypheration of the Spanis h authorities. In particular, a letter written quadruplet days to begin with in the sea by Chanchian, the head of the Chinese despatch, and which is bring upted to the governor who sends it immediately for translation.Likewise, both more documents be to some prayers of Chinese to the Chinese emperor butterfly butterfly moth butterfly, which ended up in the work force of Archbishop Benavides who translated them. He sent the king his deliver letter whereenriched after his take in 10 11 Idem, p. 212. The Dong Xi Yang Kao contains the Chinese translation of Dasmarinas letter which he gave to the mandarins. hither, the corresponding facts are given, except that the apparent motive of the uprising was more of greed (the ship was loaded with much(prenominal) gold and flatware grey) than of the hardness standard in the hands of the foremen of the ship, as Argensola would crap put it.Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 4 inquirieshe makes a very complete analysi s of the situation12. Though actually we do not know if Benavides do them unrestricted or not, and at that placefore if they restrain to be considered as part of the information that the Spaniards had then. assemblage together all the reports (Argensolas and those of the two judges of the Audiencia, Jeronimo de Salazar and Tellez de Almazan, both hostile toward the governor, Pedro de Acuna), this series of events expertness have had taken place as follows Friday, May 23. Three mandarins landed in Manila, displaying their insignias as judges.With great pomp and an entourage of 50, they sought an audience with the Governor and gave him a letter written quadruple days earlier in the mettlesome seas. In the say letter, signed by Chanchian, military psyche of Fujian, the mandarins expounded the reason for this trip. They wished to cast the population of a fabulous cud in Cavite, retrieved to yield 100,000 taeles of gold and ccc,000 taeles of silver a year. They claimed th at allone could go and dig in that respect and that the Chinese have already taken a great quantity of these metals can to China.Chanchian also indicated that he had with him a colleague named Tio Heng, the man who reported to the emperor of the existence of the utter mountain, as well as a eunuch called Cochay, who received specific orders from the emperor to investigate the matter. some other mandarin was present, anyhow Cochay and the immediate foreman of Chanchian. 13 He added that he did not believe in the existence of such a mountain, and presumed it to be a lie. Nevertheless, the Governor had secret code to fear, since it was his duty to look into the matter.Afterwards, the Governor had them aboded in special lodgings inside the city. The fact that they flaunted their insignias as judges and that the Governor allowed them to do so, incurred the ire of the members of the Audiencia. From May 24 to May 26 (Saturday to Monday), the mandarins begin to mete justness on t heir countrymen. Mean enchantment, Salazar, the fiscal of the Audiencia, carries out his support investigation. Within this period, the governor allows the mandarins to bring their entourage to Tondo, where the Christian sangleys live. May 27 (Tuesday).Salazar presents a report in a normal session of the Audiencia. The report is approved and the governor requested to stop the operations of the mandarins so that the investigations may continue. The friction between the Audiencia 12 It does not remain clear how Benavides obtained the two documents, and if he do them kn have to the governor or not. The basic (document) is similar in structure to the letter which the governor received from the mandarins, the translation of which he sent to the King, but much more lengthened and detailed.Therefore the say document perhaps may be a different translation from the letter, do by memory (since he perchance helped in the verbal translation of that thing) and completed a posteriori with his own investigations, since at the end of that letter he express I am a man who knows the vocabulary of these Chinese and I know a lot virtually their things and customs of China by having lived with them for many months and I do it also because I take up this business with suspicion and care as these can be advisors who advise severely on it because of not understanding it (Colin &038 Pastells, II, p. 415).The guerrilla document, different from the letter, is a remonstrance of the emperor by one of his officials. The mandarins presented it to the governor with the purport of giving more credibility to his own letter. Given that the Spaniards did not seem to take it into account, we will not deal with it now, but we will go concealment to it at the end of our study for its clarificatory nourish. 13 green subscribe that the spelling of the name calling correspond to the remedy style of transcribing that the Spanish translator had of the Fujianese orthoepy of the nam es ( the translation of the document that appears on Blair &038 Robertson, vol.XII, pp. 83-97, points out in the heading which was made by a Dominican). As will be seen later , the correspondence in mandarin is as follows Chunchian seems to correspond to Gan Yi-chen, Tio Heng to Zhang Yi and Cochay to Gao Tsai. Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 5 and the Governor worsens. Moreover, the judges of the Audiencia complain of being relegated to the sidelines. In the following days, the Audiencia desisted its moves because the Governor concludingly published an edict prohibiting the mandarins from administering their legal expert and from flaunting their insignias.On the eve of their departure, they go to Cavite to see the express mountain. With them are Second Lieutenant Cervantes, as well as by the governor of the sangleys, Juan Bautista de Vera,14 who seems to have been around all the season. There, Tio Heng, unable(p) to satisfactorily clear himself of the deception, had the Spaniards bearing bulge out on him with threats of death. However, the mandarins intercede for his pardon. The Spaniards grow even more suspicious. On the day of their departure, the Governor receives the mandarins and honors them with some gifts.As he sends them off, they apologize for the confound they have caused and thus sailed back to China. We can better know the identities of these mandarins and further illuminate the case by examining complimentary entropy from the Chinese sources. In this attempt to consolidate diverse information, we can conclude that the utterer of the group was the mandarin Gan Yi-chen (Chanchian in the letter), a centurion and was probably the military chief of Fujian. The bite mandarin (not mentioned in the letter) was Wang Shi-ho, the magistrate of the Hai Cheng district, where many of the Chinese immigrants came from.The third mandarin must have been the eunuch Gao Tsai (who appears in the letter as Cochai). Accompanying these three di gnitaries were Zhang Yi (Tio Heng) and Yang Ying-long, who were the ones who informed the emperor in Beijing of the said mountain of gold. Yang Ying-long was other centurion whom the Chinese sources accuse of collaborating with Zhang Yi (who probably used the formers clout to get an audience with the emperor and whence win his favor).The emperor actually allowed the said expedition despite reverse from various the great unwashed in his court who not only thought it a awry(p) project, but which could also be a source of trouble. According to these sources, one faculty think that the two magistrates Gan Yichen and Wang Shi-ho were also of the self alike(prenominal) opinion. In fact, the latter was so annoyed that he died soon after they arrived in Fujian. The other magistrates reported Zhang Yis conduct to the emperor, demanding that he be punished for nerve-racking to deceive the imperial government and for obstetrical delivery about its humiliation in a foreign land.The ro le of Gao Tsai, on the other hand, is more difficult to interpret. Some sources experience him as the superintendent of the said Beijing expedition, darn others show him as Fujians quartermaster general for assesses, who makes a living off the Chinese maritime trade. The Ming Shi Lu gives its version of the conduct of these three The diabolical Fujianese Zhang Yi, came up with an evil plan to propose the gibe of a gold mine in Luzon. save his accredited intention was to invoke with the eunuchs and provoke the barbarians.Yang Ying-long was his partnerZhang Yi was beheaded and his head shown to the coastal provinces as a warning to sight of his kind. 15 Lastly, it is worth pointing out that the Chinese sources coincide with those Spanish ones in indicating that this entire trip had been the proximate cause of the Spanish suspicions and the subsequent massacre which took place quatern months afterwards. 14 A Chinese who arrived in Manila during the times of the robber Limahon , whom he had served. At that time, he was appointed governor of the sangleys and was respected by the Spaniards and loved by the sangleys (Argensola, p. 30. He was also known as Eng Kang (Rizal), Encan (Argensola) and Encang (Tellez de Almazan). 15 MSL, Chapter 404 (Vol. XII. P. 12090). Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 6 unless, the question is if the dispatch had been an advance party or not, and if it came to study the hypothesis of invasion of Manilawhether it was piratical or in an nonionised form. At the moment, the Spaniards could not know it, although an wastefulness of suspicions could turn itself into an untenable situation that office end up out of control. It was scarce what happened.The massacre of 1603 a) The preparation On celestial latitude 18, 1603, once the incident that we are about to see had ended, Governor Pedro de Acuna wrote the king an account wherein he explained in retrospect his manner during the whole event. He begins by dictum that t he arrival of the mandarins had made him suspect a possible invasion from China. This was why his eventual moves, preventive and defensive in nature, were curb to the following 1. To create space, he lucid the demolition of the houses in the Parian that was adjacent to the contends of the city.This, at the same time, corrected some of the walls defects. 2. He asked the mayors of the district and the magistrates of the Parian to submit to him a list of immigrants under their jurisdiction and of the weapons in their possession. They were also asked to indicate whether these sight were to be trusted or not. The order was fulfilled. 3. He carried out unceasing inspections of the artisans (blacksmiths, and so fort uph ) in particular, and commissioned the manufacture of bows, arrows, pikes, etcetera for the royal storehouse.At the same time, he tell that all these weapons be sop uped and transported. 4. good in case, he had provisions stored. 5. He hired sangleys to build a duct with the end of creating a moat for the city, if ever the need arises. Acuna also points out a distinction that is also mentioned in other Spanish sources that between the Chinese merchants, who have settled for years in the Parian, and the recent arrivals who were vagabonds and troublemakers who had nothing to lose and who could not upshot to China referable to the crimes they had committed. 6 Acuna hangs the convict of the succeeding events on these Chinese, since they were the ones who paved the way for everything, in order to bring the merchants and the nonaggressive state to their side, convincing them that the measures that were being taken were meant to kill the Chinese. 17 The Chinese sources, on the other hand, also echo some of Acunas positions, but presenting these under an wicked point of view, coloring the thing differently and relating these to what directly affected them. For example, the Huang Ming Xiang Hsu Lu shows that the Spaniards repared for th e massacre way ahead of time, since they began to buy from the Chinese all the metal objects that they had. The Chinese, on the other hand, sold all the iron they found because they saw that they could profit from it. (point 3 from Acuna). 18 This same idea is found in the Ming Shi, which also adds that the Chinese were obliged to autobiography their names and to be divided into groups of three hundred19 (point 2 from Acuna). 16 To better differentiate the Chinese groups, see Edgar Wickberg, The Chinese in Philippine Life, 18501898 (Yale University Press, 1965), pp. 6-11. 17 Blair &038 Robertson, vol. XII, p. 154 18 HMXHL, Chapter 5, Luzon. 9 MS, Chapter 323 (p. 8372) Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 7 b) The low gear Sangley uprising or Chinese pogrom? Another fire issue to consider is that of who started it branch. The Spanish sources (Morga, Argensola, Acuna, etc. ) emphatically state the Chinese ordered an uprising. Benavides, the bishop of Manila, tonicityd in a letter to the king that the multitude of Chinese was so great, among them, base and vicious men who spread the rumor (which is absolutely false, but not for them) that the Spaniards were divergence to kill every one of them, which was why they enkindle a rebellion on the night of the eve of St.Francis. They fortify themselves and on that day killed several(prenominal) Spaniards who pursued them, among them, Luis Perez de Dasmarinas. 20 On declination 18, when everything was over, Governor Pedro de Acuna told the king that check to the investigations and what some of those involved had declared, it goes without saying that the uprising was instigated from China, and the stage set by all, if not some, of the mandarins who had been here. 21 According to the Spanish sources (since the Chinese are silent about it), the Chinese had also been girding themselves for it.The Chinese Juan Bautista de Vera had been constructing a more or less fortified zone half(prenominal)-a-league from Tondo (which Argensola calls a sugar refinery), where some provisions and lace were stored. c) The unfolding of events The actual struggle is already well known because it is what was most beting to relate to the Spaniards. To summarize, we basically follow Morgas account The evening of October 3 (Friday). The uprising was scheduled to take place on the last day of November, but realizing that they were going to be discovered, the sangleys move it to the third of October.On this day, at 11 pm, about 2000 men (or according to the sangley who was under torture, 40 master keys to 150 men), begin to gather in the fort of Tondo. That night, Juan Bautista de Vera visits the governor to inform him of what was happening. Thinking that de Vera was in cahoots with them, the governor throws him into prison. The Chinese, noting de Veras absence, appoint another Christian sangley, Juan Untae, de Veras godson, to replace him. 22 That same night, Luis Dasmarinas secures himself in the mo nastery of Binondo with a gloomy group of soldiers.The Chinese fly into action, fire some houses and then returning to their fort. The good morning of October 4 (Saturday). The sangleys of the Parian (that is, the peaceful old-timers identified with the Spaniards, some of whom are Christian) are asked to enter the city, but they refuse to do so due to doubts as to who would be the victor in this encroach. They decide to remain in the Parian. Dasmarinas leaves Binondo for Tondo to fortify himself in the church with 140 harquebusiers. A thousand and five hundred Chinese rebels show up. There is a postulate to take over the church.Five hundred Chinese die, while the rest retreat to the fort. Dasmarinas pursues them and dies in the attempt. The Spaniards are thrown into confusion. October 5 (Sunday). Realizing that de Vera was not going to come, the rebels kill Untae and tweet the Parian residents into joining forces with them. As they make for Manila, they harass everything th at comes their way. The city puts up a bully resistance and many men die. In the evening, they retreat to the Parian and to Dilao. The 20 21 Blair &038 Robertson. Vol. XII, p. 143. Idem, vol. XII, p. 155. 2 Sangley general Hontay (Argensola), or Juan Ontal (Tellez de Almazan). Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 8 Spaniards likewise press the Parian residents to side with them. chastise by this psychological stress, some Chineseamong them, a relative of de Verahang themselves. Both sides brace themselves for a bite attack. October 6 (Monday). Another assault and renewed resistance. A Spaniard, with the help of a Japanese corps, launches an frustrated offensive. An armada of Pintados suddenly makes its way through and through with(predicate) and through the river and blasts the Chinese lines with canons.They divide themselves into three and penetrate the inland. champion group makes for the Tingues of Pasig, another for Ayonbon Bayombong and the third, the most numerou s, for lagoon de Bay, the mountains of San Pablo and the province of Batangas. October 8 (Wednesday) and the succeeding days The Chinese abandon the city. The Spaniards are scorching in their pursuit. It seems that the first two groups are easily annihilated, since nothing more is said of them. The third group, starving and unarmed, leave a path of devastation. Luis de Velasco with 70 of his men is at their heels, killing many each day.Finally, Velasco perishes at the hands of the Chinese who set up fort in San Pablo. Argensola adds that the native Filipinos, instead of siding with the Chinese, lent a hand in the massacre. October 20. A new insularity of Spaniards, Japanese and 1500 natives of Pampanga and the Tagalog provinces is formed in Manila. They soon finish off all the Chinese who secured themselves in San Pablo and Batangas. The rebellion is quelled. October 22 (Argensolas date). Juan de Vera faces trial. In the succeeding days, other Chinese meet the same fate. Only 300 are pardoned, but the rest are sent to the galleys.The Chinese sources are less detailed in describing the operations, perhaps due to the handful of sangleys who survived. It is thus more difficult to establish a clear parallelism between the two accounts, since they cite actions that are not mentioned in the Spanish sources. Consequently, there is much discrepancy. The Ming Shi relates that when the Chinese discovered the Spaniards plat to massacre them, they withdraw to Tsai Yuen (which may be translated as the plantation and which may refer to Juan Bautista de Veras strategic fort and to Argensolas sugar refinery). 3 Then, the Spanish chief sent soldiers to go after them (this may well refer to Luis Dasmarinas move or to the arrival of the army of Pintados). The Chinese were unarmed. some(prenominal) were killed and the survivors fled to the Talun Mountain. 24 The Spaniards attacked the mountain once more, while the Chinese put up a desperate defense. The Spaniards suffered mom entary defeat, which their chief (probably the captain of the expedition or the Governor himself) regretted, pitiable him to negotiate a truce. The Chinese, thinking that this was some trick, killed the messengers, thus driving the Spanish chief to exasperation.He abandoned their mountain camp and retreated to the neighboring town, simultaneously setting up ambush parties in the surrounding areas. The Chinese rebels were starving and so decided to go down the mountain and plunder the town,25 only to be ambushed by the Spanish troops. 20 five thousand Chinese perished in the mas23 CHEN, Mattew. O. P. The Ming Records of Luzon, in The Chinese in the Philippines, historical Conservation Society, Manila, 1966, p. 250. According to the translators note, this place is the presentday San Miguel district, although we do not see any further proof to this. 24 Ibid.Matthew Chen, in another note, indicates that this place was close to what is now known as the city of Makati. The rest of the account probably recounts the travails of the first or second group of the three groups of Chinese who fled, since we know nothing more of their fate from the Spanish references. The data does not seem to refer to the third group that went to San Pablo de los Montes and Batangas. Moreover, this reference is unusual, since there are no mountains close to the Makati area. 25 Matthew Chen seems to hold that this town was none other than Manila. just now neither is this clear. Itinerario, vol. 3, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 9 sacre26. The Dong Xi Yang Kao offers a different mis chance to this final massacre, coloring it with superstitious, even apocalyptical visions. It says that when the Chinese descended the Talun Mountain to attack the town, 10,000 of them were killed in an ambush, while others fled to the valleys and died there of starvation. Then it adds There was a strong downpour while they were on the Talun Mountain, and as they stood beneath the rain, they saw something shine o ut in the midnight sky. There was an earthquake. The Chinese panicked and began to kill each other by mistake.The Spaniards, taking advantage of the situation, were able to kill many of them. That same month, a flood in Chang Chou took the lives of over 10,000 families. 27 The aftermath After the massacre, the Spaniards carried out three steps. First, the attempt to mop up if the uprising had been in connivance with China or not, and in link with the flood tide of the three mandarins. Various testimonies given by the Governor seem to indicate this, but their validity is doubtful since they were obtained through torture. The royal officials insist on the same idea, e. g. , Argensola.Nevertheless, it is something which is neer presented as sufficiently proved and that he insists that with the principal aim of justifying the killing. In this way, Juan Bautista de Vera would have been more of a scapegoat than the one responsible for a conspiracy (Rizals thesis). Secondly, the Spania rds made an inventory of the goods of the massacred rebels, which they placed at the disposition of their families. This was made known through a mission to Fujian second, an attempt to resume the necessary trade relations. As regards the latter, Argensola (who seems to have occasionally copied Morga in this point), explains that Capt.Marco de la Cueva was sent to Macao with the Dominican Luis Gandullo to inform the Portuguese of what had happened and so that they might be forewarned of rumors of war from China. At the same time, they brought letters for the tutones, aytaos and visitadores of the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, explaining the conduct of the Chinese and the Spaniards response. What happened was not only known in Macao news of Spaniards in Macao and the reason for their presence there soon reached Quan Chou, which was why the slopped Captains Guansan, Sinu and Guanchan, who regularly traded in Manila, went to see them.They gave their own conjectures about what rea lly happened, brought letters to the mandarins, and boost the merchants and ships of Quan Chou to go to Manila. Cuevas mission was a success, for soon after his returnin May of 160413 ships from China arrived, filling up two ships terminal point that same year for brisk Spain with their cargo. therefrom end the Spanish accounts. The Chinese sources, besides being very detailed (in this case, they were provoke in formulating a more complete evaluation of the event), also coincide with the Spanish references.For example, the inventory of goods is mentioned in the Dong Xi Yang Kao The Spanish governor had all the possessions of the Chinese immigrants stored in big warehouses, marked with the names of their owners. Then he wrote the magistrate of Fujian, urging the relatives of the departed to go to Manila to collect their belongings. But there was a Chinese 26 27 MS, Chapter 323 (p. 8373). DXYK, Chapter 5 Luzon (p. 59) Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 10 called Huang, a good friend of the governor, who, make-believe to be a relative of one of the massacred, fraudulently went off with some goods. 28 However, what is even more interesting is the final evaluation made by the emperor and officials of Fujian who were then deciding on whether or not they should resume trade relations with the Spaniards. We came across two versions of the official act, the first of which is found in the Ming Shi The Magistrate Xu Xue-ju29 sent a report to the court. The emperor was shaken and began to sorrow for the dead. On the 12th month of the year 32 (1604), he called on his official magistrates to investigate the case. These officials presented their conclusions in the court. The emperor said Zhang Yi, etc. ave deceived the imperial court and brought about conflict in a foreign land. Twenty thousand people and commoners have been massacred. They have disgraced our Empire. Their execution is not deemed an excess. They must be beheaded and their heads shown to all seas. But the governor of Luzon murdered people without license. We shall leave the officials to decide his punishment and they shall inform us of this. Hsu Hsue-ju wrote the authorities of Luzon, accusing the governor of massacre and demanding that the widows and children of the victims be sent back to China. For the moment, China did not launch a punitive attack on Luzon.Afterwards, the Chinese began to return to Luzon in trickles, and the Spaniards, seeing the favourableness of commerce with China, did not prevent the Chinese from reestablishing themselves there. The Chinese population began to grow once more. 30 The second more extensive report is found in the Ming Jing Shi Wen Pien, which contains the report made by the said Administrative Commissioner of Fujian, Xu Xue-ju, who explains his move, and the memorandum he sent to the emperor, particularly the so-called Report to emperor butterfly Wan-li regarding the recall of Chinese merchants in Luzon, of the Ming Jing Shi Wen Pien31.Here, Xu Xue-ju begins to speak for himself, situating the problem, and declaring afterwards that he sent an edict-letter to Luzon after having reviewed the problem from its early stages. He acknowledges that Zhang Yis deception caused the massacre, and takes the blame for it. However, he considers the Spanish intervention, as unacceptable, unlicensed by the emperor (up to here, the anterior document is ingeminate almost verbatim).Consequently, the magistrate of Fujian clamors for vengeance, citing that what is most unjust in the Spanish maneuver is their non-recognition of the fact that the emergence of Luzon was greatly due to the hard work of the Chinese living there. There was no response from the emperor moth, and so he was sent another communication bearing the same message. The emperor ultimately rejected the move, basing his finish on these five points 1. Due to their long tradition in trade and commerce, the people of Luzon were practically their subjects. 2. T he antagonism, as well as the confrontation, took place outside of China. . The merchants are mild folk and, therefore, not worth waging combat for. 4. These merchants, upon going to Luzon, abandoned their families without considering their filial ties. 5. An expedition to Luzon will only drain their armed forces. The source was certainly discussed 28 29 DXYK, Chapter 5 Luzon (p. 60) The assure of Xu Xue-ju is both well known and respected (Dictionary of the Ming Biography, Vol. I, pp. 582-585). In 1591, he was appointed Assistant Commissioner for Surveillance in Hukuang and was soon after named Administrative Commissioner in Fujian, a post which he held until 1607.Consequently, he was able to gather first-hand information on all the happenings, from their very pedigrees. 30 MS, Chapter 323 (p. 8373). 31 MJSWB, Chapter 433 (p. 4728). Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 11 in the court, creating a great tension, and its reverberations were prolonged for a long time, even until 1605, when Mateo Ricci made some comments about it. 32 Thus, Xu Xue Ju was left with no other recourse than to end this letter with a warning to the Spaniards they should be grateful to the emperor, they must change their attitude, and they should restore the properties of those who perished in the massacre.Only with this shall trade be resumed. On the other hand, if they do not comply with these demands, then they would send thousands of warships with the families of the deceased aboard, along with mercenaries from the vassal states to conquer and divide Luzon among themselves. 33 Thus ends the letter sent to the Philippines. Conclusions To better understand the general butt against of the massacre, particularly, that of the three mandarins, in Manila, the proximate cause of the massacre, we must make quadruplet contexts. Besides, they were perfectly alluded by Benavides in that letter he sent the King date 5 July 1603, which was accompanied by those two singular docum ents already cited in the beginning of this paper. ) In the first place, it is proper to point out that the time in which these events took place was marked by a rampant increase of piracy in Chinese waters, as well as by the express prohibition that Chinese subjects interlock in maritime commerce at a time when it was gaining popularity in the global arena. Consequently, it was common practice for Chinese patrons to look for alternative and profitable solutions.Under such circumstances, Manila was considered an important center for the export of silver in Southeast Asia (thanks to the coming of ships from New Spain), just when the demand for this metal was on the rise in China. Because of this, it is not surprise that Manilas neighbors take interest in this fragile colony, or that new risks arise principally, the unexpected invasion of Japanese sea robbers and, from 1600 onwards, the appearance of Dutch pirates. (Olivier de Noort). Taken within this context, Manila was regularl y flooded with Chinese with eyes set on establishing themselves there.Now, even if this meant a contribution to the citys progress via their artisan skills, they change magnitudely present themselves as a threat to the Spanish populace, who made up only 10% of the total number of Chinese in the city. The Chinese menace was certainly corroborate in 1593, when 250 hired Chinese contract workers assassinated the governor of the Philippines and also, presumably, in 1594 when seven mandarins appeared with great pomp and veiled motives at the helm of a fully-equipped armada and was indeed august when more mandarins reappeared in 1603 to mete justice on their compatriots.Authors like Argensola do not doubt their intentions. In their accounts, they throw in descriptions of how eight Chinese trade junks arrived in Manila while the mandarins were there, assuring the Spaniards of the real purpose of the Chinese conquest. Besides, he adds, while the mandarins pressured Zhang Yi to explain th e existence of the mountain of gold, he would whisper according to the interpreters or naguatatos (Argensola said)that what he had desireed to say was that Luzon had so much gold that it was worth conquering. 32In the beginning of 1605, Ricci pointed out in a letter It was verbalize much in the cort, and we feared that some constipation could come from all these due to the possibility that it might be associated with the Spaniards. count Jonathan Spence, The Memory castling of Mateo Ricci, Penguin Books, 1985, p. 216. 33 This same letter was sent to the Spaniards who translated it. Argensola published it shortly afterwards. It is interesting to note that the two versions closely coincide with each other, but of the five points indicated by the emperor, Argensolas translation only gathered metrical composition 1, 2 and 4.Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 12 The skeleton of Zhang Yi (a carpenter, according to Benavides) probably brings together the images of fortune hunter, pervert (as the Chinese sources put it) and dreamer who see in Manilas regular influx of traders from Quan Chou and Chang Chou, the possibility of Chinese expansion and personal gain. Here is a man capable of magic his own utopiaa place where mountains produce gold. He not only ends up believing the tale, but also manages to channel the emperor himself to authorize an exploration. 4 Although the Chinese magistrates accused him of going out with all this to look for people to steal and to rob and to be a corsair (Chinese documents of Benavides). The conflict that was bound to take place with the Spaniardsmen also accustomed to pursuing an El Doradohad no other alternative but to erupt. In the second place, we should consider another fact that made possible the increasing acceptance of Chinese in Manila. The Spaniards, in particular, the Provincials of the religious orders, admitted that they have gone too far disobeying the royal ordinances that prohibited the product of the Chinese population beyond 6000.This norm was obliterated by the profits gained from the granting of each new license. The Bishop of Nueva Segovia, Fr. Diego de Soria, thus commented it was a generally said that the number of Chinese in the uprising reached 23-24,000, even if the judges declare that they hardly came up to 8000, a finger which these same judges further reduced, because they are primarily responsible for the uprising through the liberal granting of licenses to Chinese who wish to remain in Manila. These licenses were sold at five tostones each.There was a judge who was able to collect a total of 60,000 tostones, or the equal 30,000 pesos, out of the said licenses. 35 In the third place, and now setting our sights back to China, it is worth considering Wan Lis style of governmentconcretely, his politics of appointment eunuchs as revenue performers and quarter master generals of the mines. 36 The system saw its beginnings in 1596 by 1599, it was already widely p racticed. This procedure was meant to correct deficient tax formula which, in turn, brought about a idle and corrupt administration.Entrusting this function to eunuchs imposed a certain kind of general auditing system. But as the eunuchs carried out their jobs, they also interfered with the regular government functions. Besides, the posts were usually occupied by fortune hunters and scalawags, owing to the absence of a precedent and a clear-cut process of organizing a regular staff. Sometimes, tax accumulation at the mines would be reduced to a form of extortion that would then be sabotaged by rival officers and more often than not, this reated social problems. 37 34 A brief observation A Frenchman, Rene Jouglet, passing by the Philippines in 1931, hearing about the treasures of the pirate Limahon, published in Paris, in 1936, an creative book called La ville perdue, where he mentions that the treasures of the pirate which may have been hidden in Cavite or Pangasinan thirty year s before the massacre had been the cause of various Chinese expeditions, the last of which was in 1603.See Cesar Callanta, The Limahon Invasion, New day Publishers, Quezon City, 1989, p. 69. 35 For this, see the letter of nettle Bernardo de Santa Catalina, Provincial of the Dominicans and Commissioner of the Holy Office (Blair &038 Robertson), as well as the adjoining note of the translator who comments on the Royal dominate of June 13 (Barcelona), which restricted the presence of Chinese nationals in Manila. 36 See ray of light HUANG, Lung-ching and Wan-li reign, 1567-1620 in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. , Part I, pp. 530-532. 37 We may sight the following examples. In 1599 inspector Ma Tang so provoked the merchants of Linqing (Changdong) that they burned down his house and left him half-dead Cheng Feng, assigned as tax and mines inspector of Huguang, caused a mutiny among the inhabitants of Wuchuang textile mill work- Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 13 pi ckings into account these circumstances, it is easy to come up with a final, fitting interpretation of the run into of the eunuch Gao Tsai.For one, among the many diverse possibilities one could think of, he might have been the one who defended the ambitious projects of fortune hunters like Zhang Yi or the corrupt behavior of officials like Yang Ying-long, against the courtiers of Beijing and the magistrates of Fujian, like Gan Yi-chen, Wang Shi-ho and, most specially, Xu Xue-ju. Benavides saw it clearly since the first moment Because the Emperor has men of gold and women of silver made and invited them to drink, so he sent a eunuch to each of their kingdoms and these eunuchs, to get gold and silver for the Emperor, impose a lot of taxes on he vassals, and the empire of Chine felt so oppressed with all this that publicly the Chines here the Philippines tell us that within two years more or less there 38 will be communities and uprisings in China. The figure of Gao Tzai appears aga in in the following year (1604), when the Dutch were in the Pescadores islands trying to establish trade with China. He sent a mission to the Dutch in the aforementioned(prenominal) islands, trying to solicit gifts of high value for himself and for the Emperor.Dong Xi Yang Kao and Ming Shi notified the governor, Xu Sue-ju, and the officials of Fujian province to maintain the actuation of the eunuch by sending the touzy (Admiral), Shen You-rong, with a conflictship to the coast of the province in order to stop the plans of the eunuch, Gao Tzai. 39 It is limpid that the recent happenings in Manila had been the last vindication which Xu Xue-ju encountered in order to oppose the politics of the eunuchthis time with force, as shown in the presence of Shen You-rong. 40 ers of Suzhou staged a demonstration against revenue agent Sun Long.In 1603 Wang Zhao, coal mines inspector of Xishan (Beijing), encountered opposition from among the miners who held a demonstration in Beijing. In 1606 Yang Rong found the revenue office burned down by the miners of Yunnan. See also Bai Shouyi and others. In A Brief History of China, Vol. I, with editions in other languages, Beijing, 1984, pp. 348-349. 38 Colin &038 Pastells, Op. cit. , vol. II, p. 415. In fact, it is not strange the clarity of the observations of the Dominican Benavides about the eunuchs, since he knew in detail the recent experience of another Dominican, Diego de Aduarte, which preceded the ones cited in the previous note.In effect, Aduarte left Manila for Macao on September 6, 1598, with the aim of salaried the exchange for the Gentleman Don Luis in Canton. He arrived there 20 days after, and coincided with the eunuch, Liculifu (sic), who upon know the presence of the foreigner tortured him and extorted from him most of the money he carried. In the end, Aduarte had no other remedy but to take over the money. The entire story is related by Aduarte himself in his autobiographical work entitled, Historia de l a Provincia del Santo Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores de Filipinas, Japon y China, Zaragoza, 1693, pp. 14-219. At the same time, Mateo Ricci himself recounts how one of the catholic servants who acted as a mail carrier, also in 159899, was robbed, murdered and thrown into a river because he denied paying commissions, everything was probably made in connection with the legal pressureaccording to Spencewhich were provoked by the eunuchs. See Jonathan Spence, Op. cit. , p. 215. 39 This theme was studied by Leonard Blusse in Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani a depicted object in early Dutch-Chinese relations (1977), p. 294.Blusse mentions the Chinese sources and Gao Tzai mentioned as well how a strange individual with exotic tales such as the eating of live childrens brains how Shen You-rong, an worthy Confucian official who wrote a book collecting the panegyrics which his friends dedicated to him. 40 You can read the resume of this person already cited in the Dictionary of the Mi ng Biography, vol. II, pp. 1192-1194. Shen You-rong gained prestige through this action, but Gao Tzai, resenting him, opposed whatever honorarium to be given to him, and in the twilight of 1606, obtained that he be sent to a secondary military post in the province of Zhejiang.Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 14 In the fourth place, and so that we may understand why the local magistrates of Fujian could not act on this problem according to their own standards, we are now going to consider the figure of Emperor Wan Li himself and his style of government, many times mark as indolent, irresponsible and indecisive, making him oversight any unpleasant advice and the remonstrations of his officers. 41 His inaction encouraged partisanship which fostered antagonism between the emperor and his court.The emperor became more cloistered and his court dealings increasingly enwrapped to written communication which, more than once, he would intentionally refuse to read. These des criptions of Wan Li perfectly explain the difficulties encountered by his officers, as culled from the Chinese sources their inability to put a stop to the exploration of the mountain of gold, their forced collaboration with this expedition out of delicate call of duty, even if they knew that they were indirectly protect detestable fortune hunters.Consequently, during the reign of Emperor Wan Li, the coastal provinces seemed to be very much cut off from Beijing, which was why the mandarins had to choose between loyalty to the emperor and petty conflicts of local concern. And when the situation became out of hand, even persons like Xu Xue-ju (an honorable magistrate) sought pragmatic solutions to put an end to a hopeless predicament.This, at least, seems to be sustain in Chapter 47 of Guo Que which makes a general summary of all that had happened in the months after the massacre The barbarians are afraid that China launches a punitive act against Luzon, which is why they sent some spies to Macao. However, the magistrates of Fujian and Guangdong did not want to report this. They only told the emperor half the truth, which is why the emperor only ordered the 42 people of Luzon stop creating more problems And thus the things remained as they were. 41 See Ray Huang, Op. cit. , pp. 514-517.We have a most valuable testimony corresponding to the second document which Benavides translated and sent to the King of Spain, which carried a title he himself explains, Copy of the petition which the supreme magistrate of the province or the reign of hongkong gave to the King of China in order to persuade him not to listen to some Chinese who, in the year 1603, cherished to come from China to do battle and take the land of Luzon (Philippines) and that the King gave license and consent. Cf. Colin &038 Pastells, vol. II, pp. 416-417. 42 GQ, Chapter 79 (vol. 8, p. 4917) Itinerario, vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 22-39. 15
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