Zheng Zhilong also known as
Nicholas Iquan Gaspard was a 17th century
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, pirate and
admiralAdmiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above Vice Admiral and below Admiral of the Fleet/Fleet Admiral. It is usually abbreviated to "Adm." or "ADM"...
for the
Ming EmpireThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. He was the father of Zheng Chenggong (
KoxingaKoxinga is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of Zheng Chenggong . He was a Ming loyalist and military leader during of the Southern Ming Dynasty that opposed the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty...
), also a
military leader. Qing raised Zheng
CountA count is a nobleman in European countries; his wife is a countess. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The British equivalent is an earl...
of second class. His company was known as
Iquan's PartyIquan's Party was the pirate party led by Zheng Zhilong, who was also known by his baptismal name Nicholas Iquan Gaspard. It was one of the largest private companies in China near the end of Ming Dynasty....
.
- Name:
- Japanese Romaji: Tei Shiryuu
- Surname: 鄭 (ch: Zhèng; jp: Tei)
- Western Name: Nicholas Iquan Gaspard
- Baptismal name: Nicholas
- Other names: Jasper (in Portuguese Icoan)
He was born in
Fujian' is a province on the southeast coast of China. Fujian borders Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, the son of a mid-level financial official for the
QuanzhouQuanzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
government.
Zheng Zhilong also known as
Nicholas Iquan Gaspard was a 17th century
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, pirate and
admiralAdmiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above Vice Admiral and below Admiral of the Fleet/Fleet Admiral. It is usually abbreviated to "Adm." or "ADM"...
for the
Ming EmpireThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. He was the father of Zheng Chenggong (
KoxingaKoxinga is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of Zheng Chenggong . He was a Ming loyalist and military leader during of the Southern Ming Dynasty that opposed the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty...
), also a
military leader. Qing raised Zheng
CountA count is a nobleman in European countries; his wife is a countess. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The British equivalent is an earl...
of second class. His company was known as
Iquan's PartyIquan's Party was the pirate party led by Zheng Zhilong, who was also known by his baptismal name Nicholas Iquan Gaspard. It was one of the largest private companies in China near the end of Ming Dynasty....
.
Names
- Name:
- Japanese Romaji: Tei Shiryuu
- Surname: 鄭 (ch: Zhèng; jp: Tei)
- Western Name: Nicholas Iquan Gaspard
- Baptismal name: Nicholas
- Other names: Jasper (in Portuguese Icoan)
Early life
He was born in
Fujian' is a province on the southeast coast of China. Fujian borders Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, the son of a mid-level financial official for the
QuanzhouQuanzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
government. Once, when Zheng was a child, he wanted to eat a
longanThe longan The longan The longan in Chinese, Ash-fol (আঁশফল) in Bengali, lengkeng in Indonesia, mata kucing (literally...
fruit. Finding a tree, he threw a small stone toward tree in hopes of knocking some fruit loose. The mayor of Quanzhou, surnamed Tsai (蔡), was passing by, and his hat was knocked off by the stone Zheng had thrown. Due to the child's age, the mayor forgave Zheng and released him, but Zheng's father never forgave him for embarrassing the family, and forced him out of the family home at the age of 17.
Businessman and pirate
In 1628, Zheng Zhilong defeated the Ming Dynasty's fleet. Tsai, the mayor who had forgiven Zheng for de-hatting him so many years ago, came to Zheng and asked for a position in the Ming navy. Zheng granted this request.
Zheng studied business under his uncle in
MacauThe Macau Special Administrative Region , commonly known as Macau or Macao , is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong...
at the age of 18. He became
baptizedIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
as a
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
in Macao, receiving the Christian name
Nicholas Gaspard http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9023812. He later worked for Li Dan, a Chinese businessman in Nagasaki,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where Zheng married
Tagawa MatsuTagawa Matsu , or Weng-shi , was the mother of Koxinga, a Chinese national hero, and Tagawa Shichizaemon , a servant to a Japanese feudal lord. She was a Nagasaki Japanese who lived most of her life in the coastal town of Hirado, then later to China...
, a local woman. In 1622, when
DutchThe Dutch people are the dominant ethnic group of the Netherlands.Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities world wide, notably in Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States....
forces took over the
PescadoresThe Penghu islands are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait consisting of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers...
archipelago off the
Taiwan StraitThe Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast...
, Lee Dan sent Zheng to Pescadores to work with the Dutch as a
translatorTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
. The Dutch, wishing to control and monopolize commerce routes to Japan, collaborated with Chinese
piratesPiracy is a war-like act committed by private parties that engaged in acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the...
; Zheng was one of the collaborators, engaging in robberies along coastal China. After Lee died, Zheng acquired his fleet of ships in 1623. Zheng's son,
Zheng ChenggongKoxinga is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of Zheng Chenggong . He was a Ming loyalist and military leader during of the Southern Ming Dynasty that opposed the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty...
, was born in Nagasaki in 1624. In the same year, due to the
feudalFeudalism is a decentralized sociopolitical structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands of the realm through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders...
nature of Japan during the
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
, Zheng relocated his enterprise to
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
. He built ten outposts in the island's southwestern coastal region, between
TainanTainan County is located in southern Taiwan. The name "Tainan" means "Southern Taiwan". Currently administered as a county of Taiwan Province of the Republic of China, Tainan County will merge with Tainan City by the end of 2010 to form a single direct-controlled municipality.- Administration...
and
ChiayiChiayi County is a county in southwestern Taiwan surrounding but not including Chiayi City. Its historical name in Taiwanese Hokkien derives from Tsirosen in the Formosan languages...
, but was evicted shortly after when the Dutch
arrived on the islandDutch Formosa refers to the period of colonial Dutch government on Formosa , lasting from 1624 to 1662. In the context of the Age of Discovery the Dutch East India Company established its presence on Taiwan to trade with China and Japan, and also to interdict Portuguese and Spanish trade and...
.
Shibazhi challenges the Ming fleet
Shibazhi (十八芝) were a pirate organization of 18 well-known Chinese pirates, founded in 1625 by Zheng Zhilong. Members included
Shi LangShi Lang was a Ming-Qing admiral who had extensive experience in southeastern China. He was commander-in-chief of the Manchu fleets which destroyed the power of the Zheng family and conquered Taiwan in 1681....
's father Shi Dashan (施大瑄). They began to challenge the Ming fleet and won a series of victories. The
Ming DynastyThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
's southern fleet surrendered to Shibazhi, and Zheng Zhilong was appointed
major generalMajor General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General...
in 1628.
The Ming and the Dutch
After joining the Ming navy, Zheng and his wife resettled on an island off the coast of Fujian, where he operated a large armed pirate fleet of over 800 ships along the coast from Japan to
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
. He was appointed by the Chinese Imperial family as "Admiral of the Coastal Seas", and defeated
Dutch East India CompanyThe Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock...
vessels on October 22, 1633. Zheng would continue to serve the Ming dynasty after the fall of Peking (
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
) in June 1644. After the capture of
Nanjing' , abbreviated in Chinese as Ning , is the capital of China's Jiangsu Province, and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture...
in 1645, Zhilong accepted an offer to serve as commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces and was ordered to defend the newly established capital in
Fuzhou' is the capital and the largest municipality of Fujian province, People's Republic of China.The city is also referred to as Rongcheng ' ' onMouseout='HidePop("8400")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Zhu_Yujian,_Prince_of_Tang">Prince of Tang
This article is based on a translation from the Chinese Wikipedia.The Emperor Longwu of the Southern Ming dynasty reigned from 1645 to 1646. His era name means "Plentiful and martial". His personal name was Zhu Yujian . He was a descendant of the first Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang...
.
He defeated the Dutch and pirates, a combined force of more than 100,000. The spoils of this victory made him fabulously wealthy. He bought up a large amount of land, as much as 60% of
Fujian' is a province on the southeast coast of China. Fujian borders Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, and became a very powerful landlord.
Surrender to Qing
In 1646, Zheng decided to defect to the Manchus leaving the passes of
ZhejiangZhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
unguarded, allowing Manchu forces to capture Fuzhou. As a result of the Manchu victory, Zhilong was greatly rewarded and retired very wealthy. However, he would later be executed by the
Qing governmentThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
in 1661, as a result of his son's continued resistance against the Qing regime.