How to remember Koxinga

Contested legacy

Jul 27th 2012, 4:21 by The Economist | BEIJING and TOKYO

EARLIER this month China’s first aircraft-carrier set out from the port city of Dalian to begin her longest sea trial to date, one that is likely to include J-15 fighters performing take-off and landing exercises. While China’s state media still officially refer to the ship by its original Russian name, Varyag, it has long been rumoured that when the new carrier is finally commissioned she will acquire a new name: the Shi Lang.

It is an interesting choice, if not especially subtle. In 1683 Admiral Shi Lang led an invasion force across the Taiwan Straits to dislodge an independent kingdom that had been established by rebels who fled the mainland. They had chosen autonomy in favour of submission to a new regime.

Should the carrier be commissioned this year, it would be an equally significant choice of dates. In the contemporary calendar, 2012 marks the 350th anniversary since that breakaway kingdom was founded, by Zheng Chenggong, who is better known outside China as Koxinga.

He came from a storied family. Part merchant, part pirate, Koxinga’s father was the head of a sprawling maritime empire which stretched from Fujian to Japan. Koxinga was born into a world of busy commerce and conflict, where goods flowed among the ports of the western Pacific in a trade so lucrative it created its own economic centre of gravity. It pulled in silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru and investment and ships from as a far away as Lisbon, Madrid, Amsterdam and London.

Koxinga’s life changed when the Ming dynasty fell in 1644. His father at first supported the Ming cause against the Manchu invasion but soon turned coats, betraying his imperial patron to the new dynasty. Koxinga took his loyalties more seriously, and continued to resist the new rulers. (The name Koxinga actually comes from a southern Chinese pronunciation of a title, Lord of the Imperial Surname, given to him by a grateful Ming prince.) Forced off of the mainland in 1661, Koxinga and his fleet fled to Taiwan, which was then nominally under the control of the Dutch. His forces lay siege to their garrison for nearly a year, finally forcing the Dutch commander to surrender in February 1662.

At the time, Taiwan was an inhospitable place. It had never been under the administrative control of any mainland government, and its position at the heart of the Pacific trade routes made it a natural haven for smugglers, pirates, outlaws, foreign adventurers and a few hardy settlers from China’s coastal provinces. First the Portuguese and later the Dutch claimed the island for themselves, but only the bravest souls ventured inland. The island’s aboriginal inhabitants had already developed a fearsome reputation for hostility to outsiders. And even after Shi Lang’s eventual conquest, when Taiwan for the first time came under direct rule from the mainland, it remained a wild and lawless place and a difficult—often dangerous—posting for Chinese officials.

Koxinga remains a controversial figure not least because he is claimed as a “national hero” in three places: China, Taiwan and Japan.

Japan has always treated him as a native son. He was born in Nagasaki and his mother was the daughter of a Japanese lord. Just decades after Koxinga’s death, Chikamatsu Monazaemon, a master of the bunrakuform of puppet theatre, made him the subject of one his most famous works. In Chikamatsu’s play, Koxinga is a great warrior who used the martial spirit and courage endowed to him by his Japanese blood to fight battles on exotic Chinese shores. During the period when Japan occupied Taiwan, from 1895 to 1945, Koxinga’s mixed heritage was used in propaganda that sought to prove a deep connection between the people of Japan and Taiwan.

After the Chinese nationalists took their refuge in Taiwan, at the end of the civil war, Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China drew inspiration from stories of Koxinga’s resistance against hostile forces on the mainland—and his desire to reclaim lost territory across the straits. The Generalissimo Chiang himself was sometimes spoken of as a latter-day Koxinga, though clearly Taiwan would like to avoid the fate of the Zheng family.

Back in the People’s Republic of China, textbooks remember Koxinga as a patriotic Chinese hero who boldly “recovered Taiwan” from imperialist Dutch interlopers. His exploits are a key part of the “Patriotic History” narrative, which bolsters Koxinga’s anti-imperialist credentials while glossing over the condition of Taiwan before the Dutch arrived. To say nothing of his mixed parentage, or the fact that this Chinese hero was raised, in the words of Tonio Andrade, an historian, “with a samurai sword in his hand.”

In a recent article, Mr Andrade, who has written extensively on Taiwan and its colonial past, described the frustration he faced in trying to get his book, Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China’s First Great Victory over the West, translated and published on the mainland:

My erstwhile publisher asked whether I would acquiesce to omitting some “sensitive material” and changing some wording. It sounded like an innocuous request until I got to the details. Since Koxinga is considered a “positive figure in China,” my publisher informed me that the text would have to omit any discussion of torture by him and his soldiers. (Descriptions of Dutch atrocities were acceptable, though.) The book couldn’t refer to Koxinga as a “conqueror” or a “warlord,” and his “restoration of Taiwan” couldn’t be referred to as an invasion or an attack. Similarly, any mention of resistance by Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples (who, historical sources make clear, rose up and killed thousands of his soldiers), would also have to be excised, on the grounds that such episodes hint at “some sort of consciousness of Taiwanese independence”. The Chinese publisher said that if I refused to make such changes, the translation wouldn’t proceed. “Abridgement,” I was told, “is unavoidable.”

Given this legacy, it is little wonder that Chinese military officials should consider naming their new carrier the Shi Langand not the Zheng Chenggong. Koxinga may have claimed or reclaimed Taiwan, but there is too much disagreement still over who can lay claim to his complicated legacy.

(Picture credit: Statue of Koxinga in Tainan, Taiwan. Wikimedia Commons)

« Floods in Beijing: Under water and under fire

·         Recommended

·         24

Contested legacy

Aug 3rd 2012, 08:08

“The miracle of the discovery, that had never been seen, of the deserted aboriginal - which left for these grandiose mountain and river - shifts to the lost loyalist’s world belonging to former dynasty. The detailed adversity of the circumstances, that got him stretched less, of all-life surroundings - that were returned from personal sorrow to those sky and earth - turns to an all-advanced spiritualist.” - by Shen Bao-jen (1820-1879) of Qing dynasty’s Southern-Ocean Commercial Minister.

The above was written after Emperor Guanghsu’s permission in 1875 when Shen supervised the defense affair in Tainan, then capital of “Taiwan County” belonging to Fujian Province. Before then, Qing tended to hate Zheng’s separatism. Shen groaned the contemporary sufferings from European power’s insults at China, expressing thoughts of the ambition to have Han and Manchurian hug together.

For me, reciting this poem is the best way to remember Koxinga, the founder of first Chinese regime in Taiwan. In cross-strait China, Koxinga is a hero whose legacy must be taught to descendants owing to his maintaining Chinese dignity. In politics, there is no absolute question or answer. Therefore, making good use of the alteration of truth and explanation about this period, the present Beijing centre shows the political means of kind and smooth way to settle down Taiwan issue while holding attitude toward one-China policy.

For territorial integrity first, no other regime is legally allowed to be called China in any form. But, he brings Chinese civilization for Taiwan, full of Chinese nationalist awareness - although an isolated loneliness. Therefore, there is positive more than negative. In Taiwan’s history, all the recorded rulers comes from outside Taiwan except for Lee Tung-huee and Chen Shui-buan. The similar idea of critique from this to that is for Chen, who established the first real Chinese democracy. As dealing with the political affairs, too many paranoid or just peeping at the tiny - the halo effect - appears only to lose the original stand. Sometimes audiences feel the politics strange, but win-loss or say wax-wane cycle is ordinary phenomenon that politics is.

Zheng Cheng-gong (Aug. 1624-Jun.1662) was born in Japan. His father Zheng Zhi-long and Yen Hs-chi did piratical business in many East Asian nation. At age of 6, he studied in Fujian and Nanjing under Ming’s scholars after his father and the followings surrender to Ming. In 1644, Qing started in Beijing. After Shi Ke-fa failed to resist Qing’s military, in 1645, he accepted “Zhu”, Ming’s royalty name, as his afterward family name in Ming Emperor Longwu’s gift - the origin of Koxinga. Later, he rejected his father’s suggestion of surrender to Qing, organizing the rest of Ming’s affiliation and successfully forming the biggest navy in Asia. In 1649, the last Ming Emperor Yongli awarded him “King of Yengpin” - Taiwanese respectful request.

In 1658, he and Zhang Huang-yen had regained the territory near downstream Yangtze river but it lasted very shortly. After he failed to recover Nanjing, he depended on the strong navy army, figuring out another source of army for the sustainable base of resistance to Qing. In 1661 while ensuring the safety of Xiamen by annihilating almost of Qing’s navy, he listened to Ho Bing’s advice on the gain in Taiwan island. He took Fort Provintia easily. Although Holland’s chief executive, Frederik Coyett, resisted his military for several months with afterward reinforce from Jakarta’s East India Company, he forced Holland to relinquish Fort Zeelandia in Feb, 1662. He developed Taiwan’s territory from present Changhua to Pintung but, just after few months, he died owing to heat of the fever as hearing of Qing’s seriously sea-trade ban.

Zheng’s regime had a large group of trade ship and warship. He and his son, Zheng Zing who was supported by Chen Yung-hua, used the name “King of Yengpin” (interior China) or were called “Formosa King” (overseas) to keep their surviving regime. Since he began to war against Qing, his issuing visa for Chinese and foreigner was universally valid in Asia. For Qing, his regime threatened Beijing, finally ended by Shi Lang who left his military for Qing. In 1683, China returned to the unity state.

This article in Analect is excellent when Taipei’s leader, Ma Ying-jeou, and Taiwanese gradually forgot the real truth of Taiwanese spirit. In my youth, the local prevailed spreading Zheng’s anything from head to toe. Twenty years on, continuing to do this is nonsense in Taiwan with poor economic growth (1.94% by Taiwan’s Academic Sinica) - just leave his relic in Tainan “Fuchun” (town in Chinese) alone. With global situation in consideration of China’s Communist Party’s resolution in 2008 - recovering Taiwan by 2016 - the new carrier should be named Shi-lang, for the reason that China coexists with the rest of the world with promotion to the advanced vision of majesty. And another reason is my advice to Beijing.

    Recommended

    11

    Report

    Permalink

筆者第一段為試作英譯，中文原文源自沈葆楨題台南「鄭成功祠」對聯，時任福建船政大臣沈氏在牡丹社事件後奉命來台籌防，為勵正風俗民心，在清同治十三年冬十月為鄭成功追諡建祠(即延平郡王祠)，並親題一對楹聯：「開萬古得未曾有之奇，洪荒留此山川，作移民世界；極一生無可如何之遇，缺憾還諸天地，是創格完人。」

正殿對聯「開萬古得未曾有之奇洪荒留此山川作遺民世界」同治甲戌冬月穀旦十三年

正殿對聯「極一生無可知何之遇缺憾還諸天地是刱格完人」巡臺使者沈葆楨敬書

（這兩張照片引用自http://rice98.pixnet.net/blog/post/4104078-%E6%B2%88%E8%91%86%E6%A5%A8%E5%A5%89%E6%97%A8%E5%89%B5%E5%BB%BA-%E5%BB%B6%E5%B9%B3%E9%83%A1%E7%8E%8B%E7%A5%A0）

(未完成)

*Britannica 2013 國姓爺鄭成功及其父鄭芝龍的小傳

Zheng Chenggong Add To Workspace Encyclopædia Britannica Article

Wade-Giles romanization  Cheng Ch'eng-kung , Western name  Koxinga , or  Coxinga 

Zheng Chenggong was born in a small Japanese coastal town to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father, Zheng Zhilong, a maritime adventurer who made a fortune through trade and piracy in the Taiwan Strait. Zheng Chenggong was raised by his mother in Japan until the age of seven, when his father, having been given an official position in maritime defense by the Ming dynasty, recalled him to the ancestral home in southern Fujian. There, separated from his mother, Zheng was given the conventional scholarly Confucian education, entering the Imperial Academy of Learning at Nanjing in 1644.

With the fall of the southern capital to the invading Manchu (Qing) troops the next year, young Zheng retired with his father to Fujian, where Zheng Zhilong's military power was the basis for setting up the prince of Tang as pretender to the Ming throne. It was at this juncture that, as a sign of special favour, the Ming prince conferred the imperial surname, Zhu, upon the youthful Zheng Chenggong. Thus originated his most commonly used title, Guoxingye (“Lord of the Imperial Surname”), corrupted by the Dutch into Koxinga.

When Manchu forces entered Fujian, his father succumbed to their offers of preferment under the new Qing (Manchu) dynasty and abandoned the fragile Ming court at Fuzhou. The prince of Tang was captured and killed; but Zheng Chenggong, resisting his father's orders to abandon a lost cause, vowed to restore the Ming dynasty and began to build up land and naval forces for that purpose.

Over the next 12 years the Manchu's preoccupation with larger Ming remnants in the southwest, plus Zheng's considerable strategic and organizational talents, allowed Zheng to build a strong position on the Fujian coast, centred on the islands of Xiamen (Amoy) and Jinmen (Quemoy). Although this region was in effect his personal kingdom, he continued to use Ming reign titles and to acknowledge the suzerainty of the last Ming pretender—the prince of Gui in southwestern China. He also consistently refused blandishments of rank and power from the Qing, even those supported by personal entreaties from his father.

In 1659 Zheng launched his most ambitious military campaign, a maritime expedition with more than 100,000 troops up the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). With large Qing forces still campaigning in the south, he achieved remarkable initial success, smashing through the lower Yangtze defenses to the gates of Nanjing. There, however, mistaken strategy and failure to heed his field commanders' advice led to a disastrous defeat.

Forced back to his original base of Xiamen, Zheng was still unbeatable at sea; but the collapse of Ming resistance in the southwest and the Qing's new policy of forced inland emigration of the coastal population put him in a dangerous position. In these circumstances he hit upon the plan of taking Taiwan from the Dutch as a secure rear base area.

In April 1661 he landed on Taiwan near the main Dutch stronghold at Anping (near present-day Tainan) with a force of more than 25,000 men. After a nine-month siege, the small Dutch garrison capitulated and were allowed to leave Tainan safely with their personal possessions. Zheng followed this military success by setting up an effective civil administration based on Taiwan and settling the island with his soldiers and with refugees brought from Fujian. His larger ambitions on the mainland and half-formed plans for ousting the Spaniards from the Philippines, however, were cut short by his premature death in June 1662.

His son, Zheng Jing, used the Taiwan base to sustain the anti-Qing struggle for another 20 years. But after his death in 1681, the Zheng kingdom on Taiwan fell to a Qing invasion fleet in 1683. This defeat ended the longest lived of the Ming restorationist movements.

Thus Zheng's plans ultimately failed, but his posthumous reputation has grown to remarkable proportions. In Japan the famous 18th-century playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Kokusenya kassen (1715; The Battles of Coxinga made Zheng as well known to Japanese audiences as Othello is to the English. In Europe, lurid Dutch accounts of the fall of Formosa (Taiwan) established Zheng as one of the few Chinese historical figures to bear a Latinized name. In his own country he soon became a popular deity and cultural hero to the early Chinese settlers of Taiwan—Kaishan Shengwang (“Sage King Who Settled the Country”). On the official level, in 1875 the Qing court recognized its old antagonist as a paragon of loyalty and established an official temple to him on Taiwan.

The development of modern Chinese nationalism in the 20th century put Zheng Chenggong in the front ranks of China's historical heroes. To the anti-Qing revolutionaries of the early 1900s he was a natural forebear. To Republican-period nationalists he was a symbol of resistance against foreign invaders. Later, he continued to receive the accolade of “national hero” from both the Nationalists on Taiwan for his determination to restore proper Chinese rule and from the communists on the mainland mainly for his great victory over Western (Dutch) imperialism.

In his own day a martyr to a lost cause, Zheng Chenggong became a hero to all sides in modern Chinese politics, although to each for a different reason.

Additional Reading

Earl Swisher, "Chêng Ch'êng-kung," in A.W. Hummel (ed.), Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, 1644–1912, vol. 1, pp. 108–110 (1943, reprinted 1970), is a brief but reliable biography. W. Campbell, Formosa Under the Dutch (1903, reprinted 1992); and Jonathan Clements, Pirate King: Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty (2004), are detailed English-language accounts of the Zheng regime on Taiwan.

MLA Style:   "Zheng Chenggong." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.

Zheng Zhilong Add To Workspace Encyclopædia Britannica Article

Wade-Giles romanization   Cheng Chih-lung , original name  Zheng Yiguan , also called  Iquan 

As a boy, Zheng found employment with the Europeans in the Portuguese settlement at Macau, where he was baptized and given the Christian name of Nicholas Gaspard. After leaving Macau, he joined a pirate band that preyed on Dutch and Chinese trade. In 1628 he was induced by the government to help defend the coast against both the Dutch and the pirates. He soon acquired great wealth and power.

When the capital of the Ming dynasty at Beijing was captured in 1644 by the Manchu of Manchuria (who founded the Qing dynasty), Zheng set up the Prince of Tang, or Zhu Yujian, in Fujian province in South China as the claimant to the Ming throne. Two years later, when the Manchu army achieved a sweeping victory in central China, Zheng again changed sides and was given titles and high office by the Qing government. But Zheng's son, Zheng Chenggong (also known as Koxinga), the famous pirate leader who controlled the island of Formosa (Taiwan), refused to surrender to Qing forces. As a result, Zheng was imprisoned and stripped of all rank in 1655. He was executed in 1661 for his son's stubborn refusal to surrender.

*Encarta Student 版 2009年的國姓爺鄭成功的小傳

Cheng Ch’eng-kung or Koxinga (1624-1662), pirate, naval strategist, and Ming loyalist who resisted the Qing dynasty and established a power base on Taiwan. Known to Westerners as Koxinga, Cheng was born into a powerful seafaring family. His mother was Japanese and his father was Chinese. From their base in Fujian province on China’s southeastern coast, the Cheng family amassed great wealth through a trade and piracy network that encompassed China, Taiwan, and southern Japan. Cheng’s father served the Ming dynasty in their struggle against invading Manchus, but in 1646 he changed his allegiance to the victorious Qing, the name the Manchus gave to their new dynasty in China. Cheng Ch’eng-kung, however, did not follow his father’s lead and remained loyal to the Ming. Throughout the 1650s Cheng’s fleets fought Qing forces along China’s eastern coast, suffering defeat only when they attempted to attack the inland city of Nanjing. Cheng retreated to Taiwan, where his troops laid siege to the Dutch fortress of Zeelandia and eventually forced the Dutch to relinquish their claim to the island in 1662. Cheng Ch’eng-kung died that same year, but it was not until 1683 that the Qing defeated the last of Cheng’s forces and brought Taiwan under Manchu control.

Microsoft R Encarta R 2009. c 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.