Echoes of the Ming-Qing conflict: Notes on the political role of the overseas Chinese in Nagasaki

The long transition from Ming to Qing had significant consequences on Japan, and specifically on Nagasaki. Many Ming loyalists took refuge in Nagasaki, attempting to raise a political movement among the overseas Chinese, and to obtain Tokugawa military support. The Ming sympathizers gathered around the Chinese Temples, the very core of Chinese life and activities, and gradually succeeded in attracting the Japanese intellectuals as well. The Tokugawa bakufu was well aware of the political activities carried on by the Ming refugees in Nagasaki as well as of the involvement of the Japanese intelligentsia, and intended to prevent disorders: the Japanese authorities provided the city with a very efficient structure of control and with an articulate system of government. Nevertheless, due to the long and complex Ming-Qing conflict, frequent appeals on behalf of Ming were reaching Japan, while more and more Ming loyalists were escaping to the archipelago, using the toøsen entering the port of Nagasaki: this was the case of the well known literati Huang Zongxi and Zhu Shunshui. The Edo bakufu had to take a more severe stance and put the overseas Chinese under a stricter control: in 1689 the To¯jin Yashiki took shape.