time for defensive measures. The
Japanese pirates prevented the creation of a Chinese navy in this period
by their continual threats to the coastal cities in which the shipyards
lay. Not until much later, at a time of unrest in Japan in 1467, was
there any peace from the Japanese pirates.

The Japanese attacks were especially embarrassing for the Chinese
government for one other reason. Large armies had to be kept all along
China's northern border, from Manchuria to Central Asia. Food supplies
could not be collected in north China which did not have enough
surplusses. Canal transportation from Central China was not reliable, as
the canals did not always have enough water and were often clogged by
hundreds of ships. And even if canals were used, grain still had to be
transported by land from the end of the canals to the frontier. The Ming
government therefore, had organized an overseas flotilla of grain ships
which brought grain from Central China directly to the front in
Liao-tung and Manchuria. And these ships, vitally important, were so
often attacked by the pirates, that this plan later had to be given up
again.

These activities along the coast led the Chinese to the belief that
basically all foreigners who came by ships were "barbarians"; when
towards the end of the Ming epoch the Japanese were replaced by
Europeans who did not behave much differently and were also
pirate-merchants, the nations of Western Europe, too, were regarded as
"barbarians" and were looked upon with great suspicion. On the other
side, continental powers, even if they were enemies, had long been
regarded as "states", sometimes even as equals. Therefore, when at a
much later time the Chinese came into contact with Russians, their
attitude towards them was similar to that which they had taken towards
other Asian continental powers.

3 _Social legislation within the existing order_

At the time when Chu Yuean-chang conquered Peking, in 1368, becoming the
recognized emperor of China (Ming dynasty), it seemed as though he would
remain a revolutionary in spite of everything. His first laws were
directed against the rich. Many of the rich were compelled to migrate to
the capital, Nanking, thus losing their land and the power based on it.
Land was redistributed among poor peasants; new land registers were also
compiled, in order to prevent the rich from evading taxation. The number
of monks living in idleness was cut down and precisely determin