Everything about Koxinga totally explained
Koxinga (;
Pe̍h-oē-jī: Kok-sèng-iâ/Kok-sìⁿ-iâ;
Lord with the Imperial Surname) is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of
Zheng Chenggong (;
Pe̍h-oē-jī: Tēⁿ Sêng-kong) (
1624 -
1662), who was a
military leader at the end of the
Chinese Ming Dynasty. He was a prominent leader of the
anti-Qing movement opposing the
Qing Dynasty, and a general who defeated the
Dutch to claim
Taiwan in
1662.
Childhood
Koxinga was born to
Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese merchant and
pirate, and
Tagawa Matsu, a Japanese woman, in 1624 in
Hirado,
Nagasaki Prefecture,
Japan. He was raised there until seven and moved to
Quanzhou, in the
Fujian province of China. He studied at
Nanjing Guozijian (Imperial Nanking University - the main Chinese university of Ming Dynasty) when he was young. He is still known in Japan by the Japanese pronunciation of his birth name as Tei Seikō, or by his popular name as Kokusen'ya.
Loyalty to the Ming Empire
Beijing fell in
1644 to rebels led by
Li Zicheng, and the last emperor
Chongzhen hanged himself on a tree at modern-day
Jingshan Park in Beijing. Aided by
Wu Sangui, Manchurian armies easily defeated the rebels and took the city. In the areas south of the
Yangtze River, though, there were many anti-Manchu people of principle and ambition who wanted to restore descendants of the Ming Dynasty to the imperial throne. One of these descendants, Prince Tang, was aided to gain power in
Fuzhou by
Huang Daozhou and Zheng Zhilong, Koxinga's father. When the Manchurian Qing Dynasty's forces captured Prince Tang, Koxinga was in
Zhangzhou raising soldiers and supplies. He heard the news that his father was preparing to surrender to the Qing court (it is also possible that the Qing Court promised amnesty to him and his followers as a lure) and hurried to Quanzhou to persuade him against this plan, but his father refused to listen and turned himself in.
Death of his mother
Not long afterwards the Qing army captured Quanzhou, and Koxinga's mother either committed suicide out of loyalty to the Ming Dynasty or was raped and killed by Qing troops (like many other aspects of Koxinga's life the facts seem to have been obscured by conflicting legends). When Koxinga heard this news he led an army to attack Quanzhou, forcing the Qing troops back. After giving his mother a proper burial Koxinga went directly to the
Confucian temple outside the city. Legend has it that he then burned his scholarly robes in protest. There he's rumored to have prayed in tears, saying, "In the past I was a good Confucian subject and a good son. Now I'm an orphan without an emperor. I've no country and no home. I've sworn that I'll fight the Qing army to the end, but my father has surrendered and my only choice is to be an unfilial son. Please forgive me."
He left the Confucian temple and proceeded to assemble a group of comrades with the same goal who together swore an allegiance to the Ming in defiance of the Qing.
Fighting the Qing
He sent forces to attack the Qing forces in the area of Fujian and
Guangdong. While defending Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, he once fought all the way to the walls of the city of
Nanjing. But in the end, his forces were no match for the Qing. The Qing court sent a huge army to attack him and many of Koxinga's generals had died in battle, which left him no option but retreat.
Taiwanese landing
In
1661, Koxinga led his troops to a
landing at
Lu'ermen to attack Taiwan. On February 1, 1662 the
Dutch Governor of
Taiwan,
Frederik Coyett, surrendered
Fort Zeelandia to Koxinga. This effectively ended 38 years of Dutch rule. Koxinga then devoted himself to making Taiwan into an effective base for anti-Qing sympathizers who wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty to power.
At the age of 38, Koxinga died of
malaria, although speculations said that he died in a sudden fit of madness when his officers refused to carry out his orders to execute his son
Zheng Jing upon learning that Zheng Jing had an affair with a nurse and even had a child from it. Zheng Jing succeeded as the
King of Taiwan.
Legacy
There is a temple dedicated to Koxinga and his mother in
Tainan City, Taiwan. The play
The Battles of Coxinga (
Kokusen'ya Kassen, 国姓爺合戦; formerly 國姓爺合戰) was written by
Chikamatsu Monzaemon in Japan in the
18th century, first performed in
Kyoto. A movie about his life starred actor
Zhao Wenzhuo, who played the villain in
Jet Li's
The Legend, as Koxinga and was called
Zheng Chenggong 1661 (鄭成功 1661) (2001). Its English title was the
Sino-Dutch War 1661.
(External Link
) The film was renamed Kokusenya Kassen after the aforementioned play and released in Japan in
2002.
In politics, Koxinga is an interesting figure because several opposing political forces have invoked him as a hero. For this reason, historical narratives regarding Koxinga frequently differ in explaining his motives and affiliation.
He has been considered a national hero in
Mainland China because he expelled the Dutch from Taiwan and established Chinese rule over the island.
During the
Japanese control of Taiwan, Koxinga was honored as a bridge between Taiwan and Japan for his maternal linkage to Japan.
The
Chinese Nationalist Party regarded Koxinga as a patriot who retreated to Taiwan and used it as base to launch counterattacks against the
Qing Dynasty government on the Mainland. As such, the Nationalists have frequently compared Koxinga to their own leader,
Chiang Kai-shek.
Supporters of
Taiwan independence have historically held mixed feelings toward Koxinga. But recent Taiwanese Independence supporters have presented him in a positive light, portraying him as a native Taiwanese hero seeking to keep Taiwan independent from a mainland Chinese government.
A biography of Koxinga has been written by
Jonathan Clements.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Koxinga'.
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