Zheng Chenggong
- Died: 1662
- Other Names: 国性爺 (Coxinga/Koxinga, C: Guóxìngyé, J: Kokusen'ya), 和唐内、和藤内 (J: Watounai)
- Chinese/Japanese: 鄭成功 (Zhèng Chéng gōng / Tei Seikou)
Zheng Chenggong was a Ming loyalist and pirate based on Taiwan. He is often referred to in Western-language sources as Coxinga or Koxinga, a corruption of his epithet Guóxìngyé.
Life and Career
Born in Hirado to a Japanese mother, he sailed alongside his father, the pirate-lord Zheng Zhilong, in harassing the ships and bases of the Dutch East India Company, as well as wealthy Chinese merchants and Ming Dynasty governmental targets.
He inherited control of his father's network of maritime trade, pirate bands, and bases of operation, and after the fall of the Ming to Manchu invaders in 1644, put these to work rebelling against the new Qing Dynasty by attacking coastal shipping and other targets. The loyalists lost Fuzhou, their last foothold on the Chinese mainland, in 1646, but then worked to consolidate their position on Taiwan. That same year, Chenggong's father turned to support the Qing, and began working to convince Chenggong to give up the resistance.[1]
The Qing government attempted to blockade Taiwan in 1656, but were largely ineffective; the following year, they imposed a policy known as qianjie, forcing Chinese to retreat inland, emptying the coastal regions of southern China in order to deny Coxinga targets to attack. Suffering a considerable defeat by the Qing at Nanjing in 1659, Coxinga fell back to Taiwan.[2]
His father was executed in Beijing in 1661.[1] The following year, Chenggong solidified his position on Taiwan by seizing the Dutch fortress, and essentially driving the Dutch off the island. He died later that year,[2] but his successors managed to hold out against Qing forces until 1684.
Legacy
Zheng Chenggong is celebrated in numerous legends and stories. In Japan, the most prominent of these is Chikamatsu's 1715 ningyô jôruri (puppet theatre) play The Battles of Coxinga, the first puppet play to ever be adapted to the kabuki stage. In the play, the character of Coxinga is named Watônai, literally meaning "between Japan and China," a reference to Coxinga's birth.
Though regarded as an enemy of the state for over two centuries in Qing Dynasty China, he became honored by the Qing as a hero in 1875. This was probably done in response to the Japanese invasion of Taiwan the previous year, as part of discursive efforts to claim Taiwan, and its history, for China.[2]
References
- Matt Matsuda, Pacific Worlds, University of Cambridge Press (2012), 109.
