During the Ming and Qing dynasties,Nan'ao Island,located at the crossroads of Fujian and Guangdong,with its superior marine military geographical location,had been trans-formed from a pirate stronghold to a major coastal defence point in Fujian and Guangdong.In the Ming dynasty,the coastal defence area in the charge of the Nan'ao Fuzongbing,or Vice Regional Commander of Nan'ao,spanned both Zhangzhou in Fujian and Chaozhou in Guangdong.The wa-ters surrounding Nan'ao Island were mainly defended by Nan'ao You and Zhelin Zai,while the land was defended by Fangwo Zhongshao,a unit defending against pirates,and Fuzuo Ying and Guangyou Ying.In the Qing dynasty,the Nan'ao military town was garrisoned by five divisions,including the Zuo Ying and You Ying,Chenghai Xie,Haimen Ying and Dahao Ying.Among them,only Zuo Ying belonged to Fujian,and the other four belonged to Guangdong.(You,Zai,Ying,and Xie are all divisions of the military system in Ming and Qing dynasties.)This paper studies in detail the internal and external boundaries of the coastal defence area in the charge of Nan'ao Zongbing,or Regional Commander of Nan'ao Town.It can be seen that the town-level sea defence area boundary overlapped with the Fu-level or prefecture-level administrative delimi-tation,but the Ying-level sea defence zone was not restricted by the Xian or county-level admin-istrative area.The clever mechanism that allowed town-level defence unit to have jurisdiction over nearby isles beyond the administrative boundary helped to clear a hidden danger in coastal defence brought about by the collusion between officials of Ying and corresponding prefectures and coun-ties.During the Ming and Qing dynasties,Nan'ao Island was transformed from an offshore island into a maritime defence zone,and eventually into a county-level administrative area.This exem-plifies how land surrounded by water is turned from the wild into a civilized place.
Vice Regional Commander of Nan'aoNao'ao TownCoastal Defence Area