Zheng Chenggong, in the eyes of Westerners, the surname of the country, the Prince of Yanping County granted by the Ming Dynasty, is a rare wizard in Chinese history, and a figure that cannot be forgotten in the history of Taiwan's development. Taiwanese people have always respected and missed him, and his contribution to Taiwan's economy and culture will always be remembered in history.
Zheng Chenggong, both civil and military, raised his army***
Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662), formerly known as Zheng Sen, with the courtesy name Mingyan and the nickname Damu. Zheng Chenggong's father was Zheng Zhilong and his mother was from Japan. The woman Tagawa Matsu was born in Japan in the fourth year of Tomorrow Kai (1624, the first year of Kanei in Japan).
His father, Zheng Zhilong, has been at sea for more than 10 years and has become a feared pirate leader in Southeast Asia and the largest international trader. It has hundreds of large merchant ships and tens of thousands of private armed forces. Later, he was recruited by the Ming Dynasty and became a senior naval officer in the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, 7-year-old Zheng Chenggong was brought back from Japan.
Zheng Zhilong attaches great importance to his eldest son, and when he was in Japan, he asked him to learn the "two-sword style" created by the Japanese martial arts sage Miyamoto Musashi. After returning to China, he spent a lot of money to hire first-class scholars and martial arts masters to teach him civil and military knowledge. Huang Zongxi, a great scholar of the Ming Dynasty, called him "his grace conceals his beauty and his brilliance dazzles others." In the process of receiving traditional Chinese education, he "liked the Spring and Autumn period and loved Sun Wu".
Zheng Chenggong entered Nan'an County as a "xiucai" at the age of 15. After passing the examination, he was one of the 20 "Linshan students" in Nan'an. Later, he became a scholar of Zhejiang Yushan, Qian Qianyi. division. Therefore, Zheng Chenggong was not only good at poetry and writing, but also good at calligraphy. At the same time, under the influence of his father's various military activities, he was very interested in dispatching troops and strategizing, and he was often surrounded by Zheng Zhilong's cronies who had experienced hardships at sea.
In 1645, Zheng Chenggong was favored by Emperor Longwu of the Southern Ming Dynasty. He was given the national surname Zhu of the Ming Dynasty and was granted the title of Uncle Zhongxiao. This is how he was commonly known as the national surname Ye. At the age of 22, he was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Army of Emperor Longwu of the Southern Ming Dynasty. In the third year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1646, the 2nd year of Longwu in the Southern Ming Dynasty), the Qing army conquered Fujian and Emperor Longwu of the Tang Dynasty was killed. With the support of Hong Chengchou, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong's father believed that the Ming Dynasty was exhausted, so he became single regardless of Zheng Chenggong's objections. He went north and surrendered to the Qing court. At this time, the Qing army looted the Zheng family. Zheng Chenggong's mother, Tian Chuan, committed suicide by committing seppuku in order to avoid being humiliated by the Qing soldiers.
Zheng Chenggong was so distraught after hearing the news that he hurried back to Anping to take care of his mother's funeral. Afterwards, he resolutely joined the army, and together with more than 90 people including Chen Hui and Hong Xu, they sent troops to Nan'ao to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.
After Zheng Chenggong raised his army, he immediately integrated his father's old troops and re-formed a huge force. Zheng Chenggong also became the largest international trader in Southeast Asia and occupied a monopoly position. His fleet reaches as far away as Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, and his trade volume accounts for more than 60% of China's entire foreign trade volume. This civilian armed force was good at learning and installing cannons and throwing gunpowder bottles.
In 1658, Zheng Chenggong was defeated by the Qing Dynasty in the Battle of Nanjing. Only a few coastal cities such as Kinmen and Xiamen are still in the hands. Zheng Chenggong set his sights on Taiwan Island. In 1661, the plan of *** was proposed.
On March 23 of this year, Zheng Chenggong personally led 25,000 soldiers and hundreds of warships, setting off from Liaoluo Bay in Kinmen, passing through Penghu, and unexpectedly landed at Luermen and Heliao Port. . First, they used their superior force to seize the weakly defended Chican City (in today's Tainan City) by the Dutch, and then laid siege to the well-defended capital of Taiwan City (in today's Anping District, Tainan City) for a long time.
After nine months of hard fighting, with the support of Japanese immigrants who had been assisted by their fathers in crossing the sea in the early years, they defeated the Dutch in 1662. On January 28, 1662 (the eighth day of December in the 15th year of the Yongli calendar in the Southern Ming Dynasty), the Dutch chief executive wrote a letter to Zheng Chenggong, expressing his agreement to "peace talks." After several negotiations, the Dutch authorities finally surrendered to Zheng Chenggong on February 9, 1662 (December 20, Yongli year 15, Southern Ming Dynasty) and withdrew from Taiwan, ending 38 years of Dutch colonial rule.
Developing Taiwan’s economy and inheriting Chinese culture
Zheng Chenggong drove the Dutch back to Taiwan, managed Taiwan, and established administrative and land granting systems. His influence on the development of Taiwan can be said to be unprecedented in ancient times. have. The picture shows the statue of Zheng Chenggong enshrined in the Prince's Temple in Yanping County, Taiwan. (Internet picture)
In fact, during the bloody battle with the Dutch, Zheng Chenggong had already begun to build Taiwan. In addition to setting up official offices and checking land registrations, he also ordered farming, allowed officers and soldiers to enclose land and start families, and recruited people from the coast of the mainland Residents came to Taiwan to cultivate land. Therefore, although Zheng Chenggong died of illness on May 8, the 16th year of Yongli's reign, less than half a year after the Dutch's defeat, a communist social structure had clearly taken shape in Taiwan under his hard planning.
1. Agricultural development
Zheng Chenggong can be called a conductor who is both civilized and military, courageous and knowledgeable. He grew up in the nourishment of Chinese culture and is very familiar with China's historical events and cultural facts. Proficient and fully aware of the important role of agricultural production and food harvest in consolidating political power. He said: "When managing a country and a family, food is the first priority. If the Gou family has no food, even though they are as close as a father and son, it will be difficult to maintain harmony with the family. If the country and the land have no food, even if there are loyal and patriotic people, it will be difficult to govern the country."
Therefore, he implemented the "field farming" system in the army, allowing some soldiers to carry out reclamation operations in advance. Then, a comprehensive reclamation policy of "integrating troops into farmers" was formulated. Thanks to the efforts of the vast number of field soldiers, the area of ??land reclaimed in Taiwan is increasing day by day. In 1650, when the Dutch occupied the country, Taiwan's cultivated land area was only about 10,000 hectares. By 1680, Taiwan's cultivated land area reached about 180,000 hectares. With the rapid expansion of Taiwan's farmland area, the number of crops grown continues to increase, and the output of grains also increases year by year. The army soon became self-sufficient in food and supplies, creating a stable development situation in which it can advance to fight and retreat to defend.
While promoting land reclamation, Zheng Chenggong also changed the "king's land" during the Dutch occupation to "official land" and established "official land", "private land" and "camp field". Ownership. The renovated official land was provided with the means of production by the government and rented to farmers for farming, which enabled the rapid development of social productivity.
At that time, the way of life of the Gaoshan people in Taiwan was very primitive, and their production tools were extremely crude. Zheng Chenggong sent officials and farmers from across Taiwan to the Fanshe tribes in various places who had surrendered, and distributed iron plows and rakes to the Gaoshan people. , hoes, sickles, cattle and other agricultural tools, and also distributed seeds to teach them the skills and methods of sowing, cultivating and harvesting, which enabled them to quickly change their original backward and primitive farming methods. Changes in agricultural tools and farming methods have led to rapid development of agricultural production, increased crop yields, and greatly improved people's lives.
2. Teaching traditional Confucian culture
Zheng Chenggong has been influenced by traditional Confucian education since he was a child and is extremely fond of Chinese culture. After Zheng Chenggong returned to Taiwan, Ming ministers and elders came to Taiwan one after another. According to Lian Heng's "General History of Taiwan", about 800 people entered Taiwan. These scribes worked with Taiwan's original cultural circles to write books and engage in cultural activities in Taiwan. .
When Zheng Chenggong invaded Taiwan, he successively brought tens of thousands of mainlanders to Taiwan, including Taiwanese officers and soldiers and their families. Many of these people are scholars. They brought their local culture to Taiwan. They not only brought a good atmosphere of thirsting for cultural knowledge and attaching importance to learning, but also brought various Chinese cultural concepts, traditional cultural customs, and various cultural utensils. , allowing mainland religious culture, genealogy culture, architectural culture, entertainment culture, food culture, clothing culture, tea culture, wine culture, sacrificial culture, etc. to be transplanted to Taiwan.
Soon after Zheng Chenggong passed away, Chen Yonghua suggested building a Confucius temple and setting up a school. In the first month of 1666, the first Confucius Temple in Taiwan was finally completed. Since then, Taiwan's cultural and educational undertakings have flourished even more, and Chinese culture has spread more rapidly in Taiwan.
Zheng Chenggong’s huge contribution to Taiwan is unparalleled in the world, and the Taiwanese people extremely admire this national hero. In order to never forget Zheng Chenggong's achievements in recovering and developing Taiwan, the Taiwanese people built various temples throughout Taiwan to worship this hero.
Taiwan also names schools, roads, etc. after "success", such as: Chenggong University, Chenggong National School, Chenggong Road, Chenggong Bridge, Chenggong Market, etc. All these fully demonstrate Taiwan's respect and memory for Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong's contributions to Taiwan's economy and culture will forever be remembered in history.