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The Kingdom of Tungning, also known as Tywan, was a dynastic maritime state that ruled part of southwestern Taiwan and the Penghu islands between 1662 and 1683. It is the first predominantly ethnic Han state in the history of Taiwan. At its zenith, the kingdom's maritime power dominated varying extents of coastal regions in southeastern China and controlled the major sea lanes across both China Seas, and its vast trade network stretched from Japan to Southeast Asia.
The kingdom was founded by Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a Southern Ming loyalist, who attacked the Dutch fortress in 1661 and expelled Dutch forces from Taiwan. He established the island as a military stronghold and aspired to restore the Ming dynasty in China, when the Ming remnants' rump state in southern China was progressively conquered by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. The Zheng dynasty used the island of Taiwan as a military base for their Ming loyalist movement which aimed to reclaim China proper from the Manchus. Under Zheng rule, Taiwan underwent a process of Sinicization in an effort to consolidate the last stronghold of Han Chinese's resistance against the invading Manchus. Until its annexation by the Qing dynasty in 1683, the kingdom was ruled by Koxinga's heirs, the House of Koxinga, and the period of rule is sometimes referred to as the Koxinga dynasty, the Zheng dynasty, or Tungning/Dongning.
In reference to its reigning House of Koxinga, the Kingdom of Tungning is sometimes known as the Zheng Dynasty (Chinese: 鄭氏王朝; pinyin: Zhèngshì Wángcháo; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tēⁿ – sī Ông-tiâu), Zheng clan Kingdom (鄭氏王國; Zhèngshì Wángguó; Tēⁿ – sī Ông-kok) or Yanping Kingdom (延平王國; Yánpíng Wángguó; Iân-pêng Ông-kok), named after Koxinga's hereditary title of "Prince of Yanping" (延平郡王; Yánpíng jùnwáng) that bestowed by the Yongli emperor of the Southern Ming.
Taiwan was initially referred to by Koxinga as Tungtu (東都; Dōngdū; Tang-to, literally "eastern capital"). In 1664, his son and successor Zheng Jing renamed it Tungning (東寧; Dōngníng; Tang-lêng, literally "Eastern Pacification"). This name change reflects Jing's intention to permanently settle his dominion in Taiwan rather than an unfulfillable ambition of making Taiwan a temporary capital in the East to receive Yongli Emperor, who was executed by the Qing forces two years earlier.
In contemporary English-language accounts, it was known as Tywan, named after the King's residence at the city of "Tywan" in present-day Tainan. The period of rule is sometimes referred to as the Koxinga dynasty.
The Kingdom of Tungning started out as a Ming dynasty loyalist movement led by Zheng Chenggong, known in Dutch sources as Koxinga, the son of a former pirate-turned-general, Zheng Zhilong. After reconciling with the Ming government, Zhilong moved his headquarters from Taiwan to Fujian. Although he did not sever ties with the 30,000 Fujianese he had previously helped settle in Taiwan with Ming approval, his move eased the passage for Dutch domination over Taiwan. Zhilong then controlled a large portion of Fujian, managing trade and collecting taxes in both Xiamen and Taiwan. By 1640, Zhilong had become military commander of Fujian Province. Chenggong spent the first seven years of his life in Japan with his mother, Tagawa Matsu, and then went to school in Fujian, obtaining a county-level licentiate at the age of 15. Afterwards he left for Nanjing to study at the Imperial Academy.
On mainland China, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty forces broke through Shanhai Pass in 1644 and rapidly overwhelmed the Ming. After Beijing fell in 1644 to rebels, Chenggong and his followers declared their loyalty to the Ming dynasty and he was bestowed the title Guoxingye, or Lord of the Imperial surname, pronounced "Kok seng ia" in southern Fujianese, from which Koxinga is derived. His father Zhilong aided the Longwu Emperor in a military expedition in 1646, but Longwu was captured and executed. The Qing offered several high-ranking Ming officials and military leaders positions in exchange for cessation of resistance activities. In November 1646, Zhilong declared his loyalty to the Qing and lived out the rest of his life under house arrest in Beijing.
Koxinga continued the resistance against the Qing from Xiamen, which was named "Memorial Prefecture for the Ming" in 1654. In 1649, Koxinga gained control over Quanzhou but then lost it. Further attacks further afield resulted in even less success. In 1650 he planned a major northward offensive from Guangdong in conjunction with a Ming loyalist in Guangxi. The Qing deployed a large army to the area and Koxinga decided to take his chances by ferrying his army along the coast but a storm hindered his movements. The Qing launched a surprise attack on Xiamen, forcing him to return to protect it. From 1656 to 1658 he planned to take Nanjing. In the summer of 1658 he completed his preparations and set sail with his fleet but a storm turned him back. On July 7, 1659, Koxinga's fleet set sail again and his army encircled Nanjing on 24 August. Qing reinforcements arrived and broke Koxinga's army, forcing them to retreat to Xiamen with many of the veterans and thousands of soldiers killed or captured. In 1660 the Qing embarked on a coastal evacuation policy to starve Koxinga of his source of livelihood.
Koxinga had cordial relations with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) during most of the 1640s and early 1650s. However some of the rebels during the Guo Huaiyi rebellion had expected Koxinga to come to their aid. Some company officials believed that the rebellion had been incited by Koxinga. A Jesuit priest told the Dutch that Koxinga was looking at Taiwan as a new base of operations. In 1654, he sent a letter to Taiwan to have a Dutch surgeon sent to Xiamen for medical assistance.
In the spring of 1655, no silk junks arrived in Taiwan. Company officials suspected that this was caused by the Ming-Qing War, but others felt it was a deliberate plan by Koxinga to cause them harm. The company sent a junk to Penghu to see whether Koxinga was preparing forces there, but they found nothing. Defenses at Fort Zeelandia were nonetheless strengthened.
According to European and Chinese traders, Koxinga had 300,000 men and 3,000 junks. In 1655, the governor of Taiwan received a letter from Koxinga insulting the Dutch, calling them "more like animals than Christians," and referring to the Chinese in Taiwan as his subjects. He commanded them to stop trading with the Spanish. Koxinga sent a letter directly to the Chinese leaders in Taiwan, rather than Dutch authorities, stating that he would withhold his junks from trading in Taiwan if the Dutch would not guarantee his junks safety from Dutch depredations in Southeast Asia. To raise funds for his war effort, Koxinga had increased foreign trade by sending junks to Japan, Tonkin, Cambodia, Palembang, and Malaka. Batavia was wary of this competition and wrote that this would "undermine our profits."
Batavia sent a small fleet to Southeast Asian ports to intercept Koxinga's junks. One junk was captured and its cargo of peppers confiscated, but another junk managed to escape. The Dutch realized this would be received badly by Koxinga and thus offered an alliance with the Manchus in Beijing. However nothing came of the negotiations.
The Taiwanese trade slowed, and for several months in late 1655 and early 1656, not a single Chinese vessel arrived in Tayouan. Even low-cost goods grew scarce and as demand for them rose, the value of aboriginal products fell. Chinese merchants in Taiwan suffered because they could not take their products to China to sell. The system of selling the right to trade in aboriginal villages to Chinese merchants fell apart, as did many of the other revenue systems supporting the company's profits.
On 9 July 1656, a junk flying Koxinga's flag arrived at Fort Zeelandia. It carried an edict instructed to be handed over to the Chinese leaders of Taiwan. Koxinga wrote that he was angry with the Dutch but since Chinese people lived in Taiwan, he would allow them to trade on the Chinese coast for 100 days so long as only Taiwanese products were sold. The Dutch confiscated the letter but the damage had been done. Chinese merchants who depended on trade of foreign wares began leaving with their families. Koxinga made good on his edict and confiscated a Chinese junk from Tayouan trading pepper in Xiamen, causing Chinese merchants to abort their trade voyages. A Chinese official arrived in Tayouan carrying a document with Koxinga's seal demanding to inspect all the junks in Tayouan and their cargos. It referred to the Chinese in Taiwan as his subjects. Chinese merchants refused to buy the company's foreign wares and even sold their own foreign wares, causing prices to collapse. Soon, Tayouan was devoid of junks.
The embargo imposed by Koxinga hurt the company's profits by ending the import of gold, which was the main item used to exchange for company goods in India. Chinese merchants in aboriginal villages ran out of goods to trade for aboriginal products. Chinese farmers also suffered due to the exodus of Chinese from Taiwan. They could not export their rice and sugar and their investments in fields and labor came to nothing. By the end of 1656, Chinese farmers were asking for relief from debts to the company and even requested help in the form of guaranteed prices for their goods.
Many Chinese could barely find food for themselves while students in mission schools ran short of Chinese paper. Some company officials believed the embargo to be a prelude to an invasion, while others thought it was to obtain favorable trading privileges with the company. The Chinese mostly thought it was due to Dutch depredations on Koxinga's junks and that the embargo would not last much longer since it also hurt Koxinga's profits. The Chinese sent presents and a letter to Koxinga urging him to reopen trade to Taiwan but no reply was received. The Dutch also sent letters to Koxinga through a Chinese intermediary named He Tingbin.
A man working for the VOC named He Bin fled to Koxinga's base in Xiamen and provided him with a map of Taiwan. On 23 March 1661, Koxinga's forces set sail from Kinmen (Quemoy) with a large fleet of 400 ships carrying around 25,000 soldiers and sailors aboard. They arrived at Penghu the next day and on 30 March, a small garrison was left at Penghu while the main body of the fleet arrived at Tayouan on 2 April. Koxinga's forces routed 240 Dutch soldiers at Baxemboy Island in the Bay of Taiwan. They landed at the bay of Luermen. Three Dutch ships attacked the Chinese junks and destroyed several until their main warship, the Hector, exploded due to a cannon firing near its gunpowder supply. The remaining two ships consisted of a yacht and a lesser warship, which were unable to keep Koxinga from controlling the waters around Taiwan. The landing forces defeated the Dutch.
On 4 April, Fort Provintia surrendered to the Zheng forces. On 7 April, Koxinga's army surrounded Fort Zeelandia and bombarded the fort with 28 cannons. An assault on the fort failed and many of Koxinga's best soldiers died, after which Koxinga decided to starve out the defenders. On 28 May, news of the siege reached Jakarta, and the company dispatched a fleet of 12 ships and 700 sailors to relieve the fort. The reinforcements met with bad weather and a shipwreck that had an entire crew captured by natives and sent to Koxinga's camp. Fighting between the Dutch and Zheng ships lasted from July to October when the Dutch ultimately failed to relieve the siege after losing several ships. They retreated with two ships sunk, three smaller ships captured, and 130 casualties. In January 1662, a German sergeant named Hans Jurgen Radis defected and informed the Zheng forces of a weakness in the fort's defenses. On 12 January, Koxinga's ships initiated a bombardment while the land forces prepared to assault. The Dutch surrendered. Frederick Coyett, the Dutch governor, negotiated a treaty, where the Dutch surrendered the fortress and left all the goods and property of the Company behind. In return, most Dutch officials, soldiers and civilians were allowed to leave with their personal belongings and supplies and return to Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia), ending 38 years of Dutch colonial rule on Taiwan. Koxinga did, however, detain some Dutch "women, children, and priests" as prisoners. On 9 February the remaining company personnel in Fort Zeelandia left Taiwan. Koxinga then proceeded on a tour of inspection to "see with his own eyes the extent and condition of his new domain."
The Taiwanese aboriginal tribes who were previously allied with the Dutch against the Chinese during the Guo Huaiyi rebellion in 1652 turned against the Dutch during the siege and defected to Koxinga's Chinese forces. The aboriginals of Sincan defected to Koxinga after he offered them amnesty. The Sincan aboriginals then proceeded to work for the Chinese and behead Dutch people in executions. The frontier aboriginals in the mountains and plains also surrendered and defected to the Chinese on 17 May 1661, celebrating their freedom from compulsory education under the Dutch rule by hunting down Dutch people and beheading them and trashing their Christian school textbooks.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Kingdom of Tungning”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.