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Life of Zheng Cheng-gong Abstract The paper will trace the life of Chinas most controversial historical figure -- - Zheng Cheng-Gong as he battled his way from the newly dominated Qing Dynasty mainland China to the Dutch colony of Taiwan. This is an account of his constancy to the Ming Dynasty to whom he has sworn his undying allegiance and devotion. This is not only a chronicle of his military prowess and leadership aptitude and competence but also an account of his illustrious family as they rise from their humble beginnings to become one of the powerful and wealthy family in the Fujian province. Outline The Life of Zheng Cheng-Gong Family and Childhood Zheng in Hirado Political Affiliation and Career Zheng in the Fujian Province Zheng in Taiwan The Zheng Cheng-Gong Legacy To the Taiwanese To the Chinese To the East Asian Nation The life story of the boy, Zheng Sen, is an amalgam of struggle, loyalty, daring and fearlessness wrapped in the thin tales of fantasy and legend. When he started serving the imperial government of the Ming Dynasty and set forth to prove his worth, the Emperor, Long-Wu bestowed upon him the name of the royal family name, Zhu, and gave him the name Cheng-Gong.
Since then he shed the name he was born with and became known by the title Bearer of the Imperial Surname, Guo-Xing Ye (in Mandarin), Kok-seng-ia (in Hokkien) or the more popular one, Zheng Cheng-Gong or the variation, Cheng Cheng-kung. The western world christened him, Koxinga or Koxinga, a bastardization derived from the Hokkien pronunciation of his imperial title. In Japan, he is known as Tei Seiko, the Japanese pronunciation of his birth name and / or by a child hood name, Fukumatsu. Even if he was classed and catalogued with so many names, the boy Sen grew up to be one of the most colorful, mystifying and controversial figures in the history of the world. He was considered both a cultural hero and a popular deity by many Chinese in Taiwan.
Legendary tales about him have been passed around among the folks for generation after generation. There is even a temple dedicated to Koxinga and his mother in Tainan City, Taiwan. Family and Childhood Zheng Cheng-Gong is a son of a rich Fujian, Zheng Zhilong and a Japanese lady, Tagawa Matsu. The story of Zheng Cheng-Gongs climb to prominence is not only due to his natural competence and because of his strength of character but it is inherent in his heritage.
It has started from the humble beginnings of his father: Zheng Zhilong -- - a native of Annan in the Fujian Province; a man with a relatively modest beginning pictured by historical record as a lucky and charming man who used his cunning mind and adroitness to swiftly rose in a troubled society to a position of great power. Nicholas Iran, as the European called him, is a crafty manipulator who used all his resources to gain prominence and power not to mention wealth in the Imperial Army of the Ming Dynasty. The elder Zheng started as a sea merchant and was also known to be a scoundrel, a pirate and an occasional smuggler. He quickly rises to become the richest man in the southern Fujian province controlling the East Asian trade and one of the powerful chief commanders of the Fujian Navy under the Ming Dynasty. The European hates him for his shadowy deals and double-crosses but they continue doing business with him because of his extensive power and control over all trades and businesses going in and out of China in the middle of the seventeenth century. The bulk of his richness comes from his commissions (some people see it as extortion) from European merchants who want to peddle goods to and from China.
He was also said to be a linguist of doubtful ability conceivably because of his exposure to different languages as he plies the waters of the East and commence his business with the traders going in and out of China. Zheng Zhilong was part of the Sino-Japanese trade and a network of Chinese organizations that works beyond the control of the Ming Dynasty. He was in control of trading in Taiwan even before the Dutch established their control over it. In fact, he engineered the Dutch withdrawal from Penghu to the island of Taiwan so he and his group can arrange for and tax big shipments of Chinese goods to them. He also controlled several centers of fishing, raiding and trading on the Taiwan coast beyond the control of the Dutch while dispensing his duties as an admiral of the naval force of the Ming Dynasty.
Zheng Zhilong was later attributed to have played a vital role in repulsing the 1644 Qing's invasion of northern China. Together with other prominent loyal Ming commanders, he continued to fight and hold on to the southern part of China even with the fall of Beijing in the north. This evident constancy and allegiance to the Ming Dynasty seem to play a very strong influence in the life of his son. Legends, prophecies and portents accompany the tales surrounding the birth of Zheng Cheng-Gong. It was supposedly recorded that there was a fierce storm on the night before he was born. People living near the seashore of Senrigahama in Hirado reportedly saw on that same night a giant sea-creature with eyes glowing in the darkness rise and dance atop the feral waves while the storm roars and rages on.
Meanwhile, as the story goes, the very pregnant Tagawa woke up from a fitful dream about such a creature leaping from the sea into her breast. In the morning of the twenty-eight of August, 1624, when the storm finally calm down, she went for a walk along the beach but was unable to go back home when birth pains assailed her. Right there and then, in the middle of the beach, Tagawa Matsu gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Zheng Sen, the last loyal defender of the Ming Dynasty. Sailors from Admiral Zheng Zhilong's fleet were said to have seen golden lights in the sky over Hirado that early morning when he was born. The proud parents were drenched and saturated with happiness not only at the birth of their eldest son but also at the omens and signs of future greatness that seem to envelop it. Today, one can still see the relic called, the childbirth stone that marks the exact place where Tagawa Matsu gave birth to Zheng Cheng-Gong.
The Zheng family stayed in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan for the first seven years of the boys life. His mother raised him on her own thus, had great influence on the development of her sons personality. Then later Zheng Sen moved to his fathers native town of Annan in Quanzhou in the Fujian province of China in 1630. His father took him back to Annan for his education and because women were forbidden from leaving Japan, Tagawa was unable to accompany him. The move from Nagasaki to China was initiated so that Zheng Sen can receive his instructions and education at Nanjing Guozijian (Imperial Nanking University), the main Chinese University of the Ming Dynasty. He spent his youth acquiring skills, developing his strong point, honing dexterity and mastering military techniques in preparation for his career in service of the Ming Dynasty.
Zheng Zhilong engaged Confucian scholars to educate Zheng Chenggong, so that he might be able to pass the imperial examinations. The young Zheng passed the exam of Annan County at the age of fifteen and later got married at his 18 years. In May of 1645, when the Qing's soldiers captured Nanjing at exactly the same year, Prince Taiwan ascended the throne of Ming in Fuchou. In September, the emperor discussed the situation of the Ming Dynasty and the conqueror with the younger Zheng who was in his service.
Young Zheng proved his worth to the emperor and made him agree with his opinion. The emperor then proceeded to give Zheng the emperor's family name. Political Affiliation and Career Thirteen years from the time young Zheng came to live in China, Beijing fell to the hands of rebels led by Li Zheng; he was just twenty years old then. The thirty-three year old Emperor of Lofty Omens committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree at modern-day Jingshan Park in Beijing in the midst of the impending fall of Ming. The eventual fall of Ming came not as a surprise though it was expected that the ill-fated dynasty would fall into the hands of foreign invaders -- - the Manchu.
Unbeknownst to the last surviving generals of the Ming court, while they were busy defending the Great Wall, a new enemy composed of dissatisfied peasants and ambitious leaders struck from within. On New Years Day in 1644, the rebel Li Zheng declared the fall of the Dynasty of Brightness and the emergence of the Dynasty of Great Obedience. He declared himself emperor but was unfortunate to only reign for eighteen days. The allegiance of the three Chinese turncoats with the Manchurian invaders took advantaged of the confusion and discord brought about by the surprise attack by the rebels and the scurrying for power by some pretenders / contenders to the Ming throne.
The allied forces pressed on to Beijing and Li Zheng even though he tried to repulsed them have to fled back, defeated. The Manchus continued to advance, eliminating the last pockets of Ming resistance along the way. The invaders finally commenced the reign of the Qing (Ching) Dynasty. The last native Chinese Dynasty was doomed.
The Dynasty of Brightness, the Ming, which has ruled the worlds largest nation for centuries, had lost its hold on power (Clements, 2004)... During this time, the elder Zheng, then the commander of the Imperial Navy Force, came to aid one of the Ming contenders to the throne. Like many anti-Manchurian in the southern areas of China, Zheng Zhilong wanted to restore descendant of the Ming Dynasty to the imperial throne when it fell into the hands of the invading Manchurian's. Zheng Zhilong together with Huang Daozhou did their best to help Prince Tang who was then living in the Fujian province gain power and establish the seat of Ming power in Fuzhou.
And since Prince Tang had no sons to succeed him, Zheng Zhilong arranged for Zheng Chenggong to serve him. Zheng Zhilong did not really put his heart and soul into helping Prince Tang resist the Qing, instead he used his position and achievements to throw his weight around. In 1645, but the Manchurian Qing Dynasty's forces attacked Fujian and soon capture the prince who was taken prisoner and died. Zheng Zhilong saw that the Southern Ming had no way of succeeding, and plan to surrender to the Qing court. Zheng Zhilong was also possibly lured by the Ching court with amnesty and power to him and his follower. He readily accepted the enemy's proposition and prepared for his and his mens surrender to the Qing Dynasty.
It was believed that the plan was to ask him to pledge fealty to the new dynasty in exchange for some rewards and position in the Manchurian Qing Dynasty. Koxinga, who was by then in his late 20 s, was in Zhangzhou recruiting soldiers and gathering supplies for the resistance fighters when he heard about his fathers decision to turn himself over to the invaders. He hurried to Quanzhou but his fathers mind is already made up, he was not able to influence him against his decision to surrender and go ver to the other side. Koxinga had argued long and hard with his father, but it was impossible to get him to change his opportunistic behavior, and in the end they parted company, each going his own way. As a capable military leader, Zheng Cheng-Gong continued his crusade against the Ching troops, launching massive attacks on the enemy troops in the area of Fujian and Guangdong while at the same time defending his stronghold in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. In the course of thirteen years, he was able to hold on his bulwark although the newly established Qing Dynasty already crushed and subjugated the entire Ming loyalist in the northern and central part of China.
Towards the end of the Yongli Period of the Ming Dynasty, between the year 1659 and 1660, Zheng Cheng-Gong was offered rank and power by the court of Qing; he refused the proposition and instead created an organized military campaign against the new dynasty. He took a large force from his base in Xiamen in the Fujian province up to the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) intending to wipe out the Ching's troops. There were initial victorious struggles but in the end, the battle was lost due to wrong strategies; his forces were no match for the Ching troops and he was forced to retreat to Nanjing. When the Qing troops eventually vanquished Quanzhou, it was reported that Tagawa Matsu died. After more than ten years of staying in Japan, she was able to go to China to visit her son but it was too late. The cause of death was not clear because there were two versions of it.
Either she killed herself out of her loyalty to the Ming Dynasty or she was raped and eventually murdered by the Qing troops when they came to plunder and conquer her town. Zheng Cheng-Gong heard about his mothers death and spurned by the rabid behavior of the enemies led his troops back to Quanzhou, forcibly pushing the Qing troops out of the place. Koxinga, the valiant warrior and the grieving son, was seen going in a Confucian temple right after he gave his mother a proper burial. Rumored has it that he burned his scholarly robes in protest of the situation he found himself in.
In his languishing state he was said to have prayed in tears while lamenting, In the past I was a good Confucian subject and a good son. Now I am an orphan without an emperor. I have no country and no home. I have sworn that I will fight the Qing army to the end, but my father has surrendered and my only choice is to be an undutiful and irreverent son. Please forgive me (the full article can be retrieve from the website < web >). Zheng Cheng-Gong made a moving vow after praying he swore his allegiance to the Ming in defiance of the Qing.
His resolve to fight the new dynasty become even more stronger and he proceeded to assemble a group of his remaining comrades-in-arms. Together, they carry through their fight against the Qing. The Qing troops on the other hand, made a extensive offensive campaign against the remaining Ming loyalists. A huge army was sent...
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