ABSTRACT
Xu Yihou 許儀後 was a Chinese civilian abducted by ‘wokou’ (J. ‘wakō’) pirates and sold as a slave. He served the house of Shimazu until, on learning of Hideyoshi’s plan to invade China in 1592, he became a spy for the Ming empire in Japan, sending intelligence reports that would make him famous throughout the region. Xu’s case is interesting both for his motivation – his apparently self-sacrificing patriotism – and as an example of how war made his otherwise peripheral voice valuable to those at the political centre. Xu’s worldview differed subtly from those of other contemporary Chinese writers, showing the influences both of his Chinese education and identity and of his time in Japan.
