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*''Other Names'': 国性爺 ''(Coxinga/Koxinga, C: Guóxìngyé, J: Kokusen'ya)'', 和唐内 ''(J: Watounai)''
*''Chinese/Japanese'': [[鄭]]成功 ''(Zhèng Chéng gōng / Tei Seikou)''
Zheng Chenggong was a [[Ming loyalist]] and [[wako|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 following his father's death, 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. 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.
Chenggong solidified his position on Taiwan in [[1662]] by seizing the Dutch fortress, and in total 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|Chikamatsu's]] [[1715]] ''[[ningyo joruri|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.
==References==
*Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', University of Cambridge Press (2012), 109.
[[Category:Criminals, Bandits, and Pirates]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]