Ningbo Massacre (1542)

The Ningbo Massacre of 1542 was a massacre of the Ming Dynasty military against the Portuguese settlement in Ningbo.

Massacre
After the Portuguese used coercion and bribed their way into obtaining a trade mission in Ningbo, they inflicted savage behaviour against the Chinese. In retaliation, in 1545 the entire Portuguese community of Ningbo were exterminated by Chinese forces. The Portuguese began trading in Ningbo around 1522. By 1542, the Portuguese had a sizable community in Ningbo (or, more likely, on nearby small islands). Portuguese activities from their Ningbo base included pillaging and attacking multiple Chinese port cities around Ningbo for plunder and spoil. They also enslaved people during their raids. The resulting complaints made it to the province's governor who commanded the settlement destroyed and the inhabitants wiped out. In 1542 the Portuguese settled here by permission and flourished, but their rapacity led to their expulsion in 1545, when a force of 60,000 Chinese troops descended on the community, 800 of the 1,200 Portuguese residents were massacred, and 25 Portuguese vessels and 42 junks were destroyed. (Original from the University of California) (Original from the New York Public Library)  (Original from Princeton University)  (Original from the New York Public Library) The Emperor ruled that all Portuguese encountered everywhere should be killed on the spot. The casualties in total, with the 800 dead Portuguese totaled 12,000 dead Christians. The result of this massacre in addition to another at Ch'uanchow resulted in the Portuguese survivors fleeing to Macao, where they were allowed by china to start a colony. The Portuguese were ultimately responsible for the massacre, since it was they who provoked the Chinese through "rapaciousness". The Portuguese considered it permissible to attack and pillage "Eastern peoples", and not treat them according to the law. The historian Kenneth Scott Latourette said that "the Portuguese had chiefly themselves to thank" for the massacres the Chinese committed against them. The Portuguese commander Albuquerque once stated "a Chinese junk man knew more about courtesy and humanity than a European knights". The Chinese had massacred them after the Portuguese engaged in pillaging and murder in Chinese villages. "A Lesson" was delivered to the Portuguese in this manner from the Chinese. The section of Macao they settled on was San Chuan island. They had to pay rent to China.

In 1564, Portugal commanded the trade of India, Japan, and China, though their pride was deeply shocked at the supreme indifference with which the Chinese treated them. Their atrocities at Ningpo and Macao, and their subsequent servility, had opened the eyes of the Celestials to their true character, and unfortunately for other European adventurers, they had come to the conclusion that all western nations were alike. The senate of Macao complained to the viceroy of Goa, of the contempt with which the Chinese authorities treated them, confessing however that, “it was owing more to the Portuguese themselves than to the Chinese.” The Chinese were obliged to restrict the commerce of Portugal to the port of Macao, in 1631. (Princeton University) The Mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction, Volume 7 (1845)

Zhejiand and Fujian Viceroy Yung Cheng created schools out of Churches and expelled to Macao Christian missionaries, in a series of anti Christian measures. He requested that the Imperial government enable him to go even further in these actions against Christians, stating they " sowed doubt and division among the people making it question the value of its own customs . . ." " condemning Chinese sages and ancestors as demons ..." and countenancing " manners which offended the accepted standards of behaviour."

The Chinese and Foreigners. The position and treaty rights of foreigners in China have hitherto been maintained by military force; and though Mr. Burlingame's mission appears to be especially directed to the abolishment of the " force policy," yet without force, that is, a show of military force for protection, the position of foreigners of every class would not be tenable in China a month. Foreigners have at different periods settled in China; but after remaining for a time, they have been massacred. For instance, Mohammedans and others settled at Canton in the ninth century; and in 889, it is said that 120,000 foreign settlers were massacred. Again in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese commenced trade and formed a settlement at Ningpo; Spaniards and other foreigners also settled here. But in 1542, the whole settlement, consisting of over 3,000 persons, was destroyed, most of the settlers being put to death. Also at Cha-pu, about seventy or eighty miles north of Ningpo, on the Hangchow bay, there was a settlement of foreigners for the purposes of trade, about two hundred years since, who at length were massacred. It is often reported among the people at Ningpo, and other places in China where there are foreigners residing, that they and all the natives connected with them are to be put to death. So rife was such a report at Ningpo, two years since, and the excitement began to be so great that the foreign consuls requested the native officials to issue proclamations to quiet the people, and threaten punishment to those circulating inflammatory reports. Original from the University of Wisconsin - Madison (eastern china mission - Letter from Mr. Kwolton) The Missionary magazine, Volume 49 (1869)