Koxinga

Zheng Chenggong was born in 1624 in Hirado, Hizen Province, Japan, to Zheng Zhilong,[4] a Chinese merchant,[5] and a Japanese woman[6] known only by her surname "Tagawa,"[7] probably Tagawa Matsu.[8] He was raised there until the age of seven with the Japanese name Fukumatsu (福松)[9][10] and then moved to Fujian province of Ming dynasty China.[11]

In 1638, Zheng became a Xiucai (秀才, lit. "successful candidate") in the imperial examination and became one of the twelve Linshansheng (廩膳生) of Nan'an. In 1641, Koxinga married the niece of Dong Yangxian, an official who was a Jinshi from Hui'an. In 1644, Koxinga studied at the Guozijian (Imperial University), where he met the scholar Qian Qianyi and became his student.[12][13]

In 1644, following the fall of Beijing to rebels led by Li Zicheng, the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on a tree in modern-day Jingshan Park in Beijing. Manchu armies aided by Wu Sangui's forces defeated the rebels and took the city. The Ming remnant forces retreated to Nanjing where they put Prince Fu on the throne as the Hongguang Emperor in an attempt to continue the Ming dynasty in the south. The next year, the Manchu armies led by Dodo advanced south and conquered Yangzhou and Nanjing while the Ming leader defending Yangzhou, Shi Kefa, was killed and the Hongguang emperor was captured and executed.

In 1645, the Prince of Tang was installed on the throne of the Southern Ming as the Longwu Emperor with support from Zheng Zhilong and his family.[14] The Longwu Emperor established his court in Fuzhou, which was controlled by the Zhengs. In the later part of the year, Prince Lu proclaimed himself regent (監國) in Shaoxing and established his own court there. Although Prince Lu and Longwu's regimes stemmed from the same dynasty, each pursued different goals.

Owing to the natural defenses of Fujian and the military resources of the Zheng family, the emperor was able to remain safe for some time.[15] The Longwu Emperor granted Zheng Zhilong's son, Zheng Sen, a new given name, Chenggong (成功; Chénggōng; Sêng-kong; 'success'), and the title of Koxinga ("Lord of the Imperial Surname").[15] One of his cousins also had it.[16]

In 1646, Koxinga first led the Ming armies to resist the Manchu invaders and won the favor of the Longwu Emperor. The Longwu Emperor's reign in Fuzhou was brief, as Zheng Zhilong refused to support his plans for a counteroffensive against the rapidly expanding forces of the newly established Qing dynasty by the Manchus. Zheng Zhilong ordered the defending general of Xianxia Pass (仙霞關), Shi Fu (a.k.a. Shi Tianfu, a relative of Shi Lang), to retreat to Fuzhou even when Qing armies approached Fujian. For this reason, the Qing army faced little resistance when it conquered the north of the pass. In September 1646, Qing armies broke through the inadequately defended mountain passes and entered Fujian. Zheng Zhilong retreated to his coastal fortress and the Longwu Emperor faced the Qing armies alone. Longwu's forces were destroyed; he was captured and was executed in October 1646.[17]

The Qing forces sent envoys to meet Zheng Zhilong secretly and offered to appoint him as the governor of both Fujian and Guangdong provinces if he would surrender to the Qing. Zheng Zhilong agreed and ignored the objections of his family, surrendering himself to the Qing forces in Fuzhou on 21 November 1646.[18] Koxinga and his uncles were left as the successors to the leadership of Zheng Zhilong's military forces. Koxinga operated outside Xiamen and recruited many to join his cause in a few months. He used the superiority of his naval forces to launch amphibious raids on Manchu-occupied territory in Fujian and he managed to take Tong'an in Quanzhou prefecture in early 1647. However, Koxinga's forces lacked the ability to defend the newly occupied territory.[19]

Following the fall of Tong'an to Zheng, the Manchus launched a counterattack in the spring of 1647, during which they stormed the Zheng family's hometown of Anping. Koxinga's mother, Lady Tagawa, had come from Japan in 1645 to join her family in Fujian (Koxinga's younger brother, Tagawa Shichizaemon, remained in Japan).[20] She did not follow her husband to surrender to the Qing dynasty. She was caught by Manchu forces in Anping and committed suicide after refusal to submit to the enemy, according to traditional accounts.[21]

Zheng Chenggong statue in Xiamen, Fujian, China. The granite statue is 15.7 m tall and weighs 1617 tons.[22]

By 1650, Koxinga was strong enough to establish himself as the head of the Zheng family.[21] He pledged allegiance to the Yongli Emperor of Southern Ming, who created him Prince of Yanping (延平王).[23] The Yongli Emperor was fleeing from the Manchus with a motley court and hastily assembled army. Despite one fruitless attempt, Koxinga was unable to do anything to aid the last Ming emperor.[21] Instead, he decided to concentrate on securing his own position on the southeast coast.

Koxinga had a series of military successes in 1651 and 1652 that increased the Qing government's anxiety over the threat he posed.[24] Zheng Zhilong wrote a letter to his son from Beijing, presumably at the request of the Shunzhi Emperor and the Qing government, urging his son to negotiate with the Manchurians. The long series of negotiations between Koxinga and the Qing dynasty lasted until November 1654. The negotiations ultimately failed. The Qing government then appointed Prince Jidu (son of Jirgalang) to lead an attack on Koxinga's territory after this failure.[25]

On 9 May 1656, Jidu's armies attacked Kinmen (Quemoy), an island near Xiamen that Koxinga had been using to train his troops. Partly as a result of a major storm, the Manchus were defeated, and they lost most of their fleet in the battle.[26] Koxinga had sent one of his naval commanders to capture Zhoushan island prior to Jidu's attack,[27] and now that the Manchus were temporarily without an effective naval force in the Fujian area, Koxinga was free to send a huge army to Zhoushan, which he intended to use as a base to capture Nanjing.

Despite capturing many counties in his initial attack due to surprise and having the initiative, Koxinga announced the final battle in Nanjing ahead of time giving plenty of time for the Qing to prepare because he wanted a decisive, single grand showdown like his father successfully did against the Dutch at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, throwing away the surprise and initiative which led to its failure. Koxinga's attack on Qing held Nanjing which would interrupt the supply route of the Grand Canal leading to possible starvation in Beijing caused such fear that the Manchus considered returning to Manchuria and abandoning China according to a 1671 account by a French missionary.[28] The commoners and officials in Beijing and Nanjing were waiting to support whichever side won. An official from Qing Beijing sent letters to family and another official in Nanjing, telling them all communication and news from Nanjing to Beijing had been cut off, that the Qing were considering abandoning Beijing and moving their capital far away to a remote location for safety since Koxinga's iron troops were rumored to be invincible. The letter said it reflected the grim situation being felt in Qing Beijing. The official told his children in Nanjing to prepare to defect to Koxinga which he himself was preparing to do. Koxinga's forces intercepted these letters and after reading them Koxinga may have started to regret his deliberate delays allowing the Qing to prepare for a final massive battle instead of swiftly attacking Nanjing.[29]

Koxinga's Ming loyalists fought against a majority Han Chinese Bannermen Qing army when attacking Nanjing. The siege lasted almost three weeks, beginning on 24 August. Koxinga's forces were unable to maintain a complete encirclement, which enabled the city to obtain supplies and even reinforcements — though cavalry attacks by the city's forces were successful even before reinforcements arrived. Koxinga's forces were defeated and slipped back to the ships which had brought them.[30]

Image of Koxinga Temple in Tainan

Extent of territory held by Koxinga (red), sphere of influence (pink)

In 1661, Koxinga led his troops on a landing at Lakjemuyse[31] to attack the Dutch colonists in Dutch Formosa.[32][33] Koxinga said to the Dutch "Hitherto this island had always belonged to China, and the Dutch had doubtless been permitted to live there, seeing that the Chinese did not require it for themselves; but requiring it now, it was only fair that Dutch strangers, who came from far regions, should give way to the masters of the island."[34]

The Taiwanese Aboriginal tribes, who were previously allied with the Dutch against the Chinese during the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652, now turned against the Dutch during the Siege of Fort Zeelandia by defecting to Koxinga's Chinese forces.[35] The Aboriginals (Formosans) of Sincan defected to Koxinga after he offered them amnesty and proceeded to work for the Chinese, beheading Dutch people. The frontier Aboriginals in the mountains and plains also surrendered and defected to the Chinese on 17 May 1661, celebrating their freedom from compulsory education under Dutch rule by hunting down Dutch people and beheading them and by destroying Dutch Protestant school textbooks.[36]

On 1 February 1662, the Dutch Governor of Formosa, Frederick Coyett, surrendered Fort Zeelandia to Koxinga. According to Frederick Coyett's own self-justifying account written after the siege, Koxinga's life was saved at the end of the siege by a certain Hans Jurgen Radis of Stockaert, a Dutch defector who strongly advised him against visiting the ramparts of the fort after he had taken it, which Radis knew would be blown up by the retreating Dutch forces.[37] This claim of a Dutch defector only appears in Coyett's account and Chinese records make no mention of any defector. In the peace treaty, Koxinga was styled "Lord Teibingh Tsiante Teysiancon Koxin" (simplified Chinese: 大明招讨大将军国姓; traditional Chinese: 大明招討大將軍國姓; pinyin: Dàmíng Zhāotǎo Dàjiāngjūn Guóxìng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāibêng Chiauthó Tāichiang-kun Kok-sìⁿ; lit. 'Great Ming Commander in Chief of the Punitive Expedition (Lord) Imperial-Surname').[38] This effectively ended 38 years of Dutch rule on Taiwan. Koxinga then devoted himself to transforming Taiwan into a military base for loyalists who wanted to restore the Ming dynasty.

Koxinga formulated a plan to give oxen and farming tools and teach farming techniques to the Taiwanese Aboriginals, giving them Ming gowns and caps and gifting tobacco to Aboriginals who were gathering in crowds to meet and welcome him as he visited their villages after he defeated the Dutch.[39]

In 1662, Koxinga's forces raided several towns in the Philippines. Koxinga's chief advisor was an Italian friar named Vittorio Riccio, whom he sent to Manila to demand tribute from the colonial government of the Spanish East Indies, threatening to expel the Spaniards if his demands were not met.[40] The Spanish refused to pay the tribute and reinforced the garrisons around Manila, but the planned attack never took place due to Koxinga's sudden death in that year after expelling the Dutch from Taiwan.[41]

Koxinga's threat to invade the islands and expel the Spanish was an important factor in the Spanish failure to conquer the Muslim Moro people in Mindanao. The threat of Chinese invasion forced the Spanish to withdraw their forces to Manila. They immediately evacuated their fort on Zamboanga in Mindanao following Koxinga's threats. They left some troops in Jolo and by Lake Lanao to engage the Moro in protracted conflict. They permanently abandoned their colony in the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) and withdraw their soldiers from there to Manila.

Tonio Andrade judged that Koxinga would most likely have been able to defeat the Spanish if the threatened invasion had taken place.[42]

Koxinga died of malaria in June 1662, only a few months after defeating the Dutch in Taiwan, at the age of 37. There were speculations that he died in a sudden fit of madness when his officers refused to carry out his orders to execute his son Zheng Jing. Zheng Jing had had an affair with his wet nurse and conceived a child with her.[43] Zheng Jing succeeded his father as the King of Tungning.

As he descended into death, Koxinga relented and agreed to let his son Zheng Jing succeed him. Koxinga died as he passed into delirium and madness and expressed his regrets to his family and father.[44]

• Dong You, Queen of Tungning (董友)
  • Zheng Jing ( 鄭經延平王; 25 October 1642 – 17 March 1681), Prince of Yanping, first son
  • Zheng Cong (輔政公 鄭聰), Duke Fu of Zheng, second son
  • Zheng Yu (鄭裕;1660–1737), seventh son
• Lady Chuang (莊氏)
  • Zheng Ming (鄭明), third son
  • Zheng Rui (鄭睿), fourth son
  • Zheng Zhi (鄭智;1660–1695), fifth son
• Lady Wen (溫氏)
  • Zheng Kuan (鄭寬), sixth son
  • Zheng Rou (鄭柔), ninth son
• Lady Shi (史氏)
  • Zheng Wen (鄭溫;1662–1704), eight son
• Lady Chai (蔡氏)
  • Zheng Fa (鄭發), tenth son
• Unknown:
  • four daughters

In 1661, during the Siege of Fort Zeelandia, Koxinga executed Dutch missionary Antonius Hambroek and took his teenage daughter as a concubine.[61][62] Other Dutch women were sold to Chinese soldiers to become their "wives".[63] In 1684 some of these Dutch wives were still captives of the Chinese.[64]

Koxinga was reputed to be mentally unstable: to have a vicious temper and a tendency towards ordering executions. While this might be explained by the trauma of his family being killed by the Qing army and his mother's reported suicide (in order to prevent capture by the Qing), it was also speculated that he suffered from syphilis, a suspicion held by a Dutch doctor, Christian Beyer, who treated him.[65]

Vittorio Riccio, a Dominican missionary who knew Koxinga,[66] noted that Koxinga held samurai ideals on bravery, used "feigned and hearty laughter" to show anger, and adhered to bushido because of his samurai training and his Japanese upbringing.[67] One Spanish missionary proffered a personal opinion that his bad temper and reported propensity for violence was due to Japanese heritage; however, this same missionary's account of the number of executions attributed to Koxinga was greatly exaggerated.[68]

Koxinga suffered from "depressive insanity" and mental illness according to Dr. Li Yengyue.[69][70]

It is debated whether he was clean-shaven or wore a beard.[71]

Koxinga's legacy is treated similarly on each side of the Taiwan Strait. Koxinga is worshiped as a god in coastal China, especially Fujian, by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and in Taiwan.[72] There is a temple dedicated to Koxinga and his mother in Tainan City, Taiwan. The National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan, is named after him.

Koxinga's army also brought the Qinxi fraternal brotherhood into Taiwan, of which some of his army were members of the organization. In the present day, the Qinxi currently exists in Taiwan. The Hongmen are associated with them.[73]

Tokugawa Japan imported books from Qing China including works on the Zheng family. The Qing built a shrine to commemorate Koxinga to counteract the Japanese and French in Taiwan in the 19th century.[74] Zheng Juzhong's books Zheng Chenggong zhuan was imported to Japan and reprinted in 1771.[75][76]

Koxinga has received renewed attention since rumors began circulating that the People’s Liberation Army Navy were planning to name their newly acquired aircraft carrier, the ex-Soviet Varyag, the "Shi Lang". Admiral Shi Lang famously defeated Koxinga’s descendants in the 1683 Battle of Penghu, thus bringing Taiwan under Qing rule. However, the Chinese government denied all allegations that the vessel would be dedicated to the decorated Qing dynasty admiral.

Koxinga is regarded as a hero in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Japan, but historical narratives regarding Koxinga frequently differ in explaining his motives and affiliation. Japan treats him as a native son and emphasized his maternal link to Japan in propaganda during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.[77] The People's Republic of China considers Koxinga a national hero for driving the imperialist Dutch away from Taiwan and establishing ethnic Chinese rule over the island.[77] On mainland China, Koxinga is honoured as the "Conqueror of Taiwan, Great Rebel-Quelling General"[78] a military hero who brought Taiwan back within the Han Chinese sphere of influence through expanded economic, trade and cultural exchanges. In China, Koxinga is honoured without the religious overtones found in Taiwan.[79]

The Republic of China, which withdrew to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War, regards Koxinga as a patriot who also retreated to Taiwan and used it as a base to launch counterattacks against the Qing dynasty of mainland China. In Taiwan, Koxinga is honored as the island’s most respected saint for expelling the Dutch and seen as the original ancestor of a free Taiwan, and is known as Kaishan Shengwang, or "the Sage King who Opened up Taiwan"[79] and as "The Yanping Prince",[80] referring to the Kingdom of Tungning, which he established in modern-day Tainan.

In Taiwan, Koxinga is remembered and revered as a divine national hero with hundreds of temples, schools, tertiary educations, and other public centers named in his honor. Koxinga is accredited with replacing Dutch colonial rule with a more modern political system. Furthermore, Koxinga transformed Taiwan into an agrarian society through the introduction of new agricultural methods such as the proliferation of iron farming tools and new farming methods with cattle. For these reasons, Koxinga is often associated with "hints of [a] consciousness of Taiwanese independence,"[78] although Koxinga himself wanted Taiwan unified with the rest of China. Great care was taken to symbolize support for the Ming legitimacy, an example being the use of the term guan instead of bu to name departments, since the latter is reserved for central government, whereas Taiwan was to be a regional office of the rightful Ming rule of China.[81]

The play The Battles of Coxinga was written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon in Japan in the 18th century, first performed in Kyoto.[82][71] A 2001 film titled The Sino-Dutch War 1661 starred Vincent Zhao as Koxinga.[83] The film was renamed Kokusenya Kassen after the aforementioned play and released in Japan in 2002.

The historical novel Lord of Formosa by Dutch author Joyce Bergvelt uses Koxinga as the main character.[84]

• Zheng Chenggong appears as a Master in the 2023 Japanese video game Fate/Samurai Remnant, his Servant is the also Chinese general Zhou Yu.[85]