| Kingdom of Tungning 東寧 |
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| Kingdom of Tungning on Taiwan | ||||
| Capital | Tungtu (present-day Tainan, Taiwan) | |||
| Language(s) | Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Formosan languages | |||
| Government | Monarchy | |||
| King of Tungning | ||||
| - 1662 - 1682 | Zheng Jing | |||
| - 1682 - 1683 | Zheng Keshuang | |||
| Historical era | Qing Dynasty | |||
| - Siege of Fort Zeelandia | February 1, 1662 1662 | |||
| - Battle of Penghu | 1683 1683 | |||
| Population | ||||
| - 1664 est. | 140,000 | |||
| - 1683 est. | 200,000 | |||
| Currency | Copper coin and silver tael issued by the kingdom | |||
| Warning: Value specified for "continent" does not comply | ||||
The Kingdom of Tungning (simplified Chinese: 东宁王国; traditional Chinese: 東寧王國; pinyin: Dōngníng Wángguó) was a government that ruled Taiwan between 1661 and 1683. A pro-Ming Dynasty state, it was founded by Koxinga (also known as Zheng Chenggong) (鄭成功) after the Ming government in mainland China was replaced by the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty. Koxinga hoped to use the island as a base of operations to train military forces and recapture the mainland from the Manchus.
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The Kingdom of Tungning was a state subordinate to the Ming Dynasty. The rank of the "kingdom" in this context is loosely equivalent to a "grand duchy" or "grand dukedom". Though the kingdom is claimed to be a continuation of the Ming Dynasty after it was defeated in Mainland China by the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty, it is sometimes known as the Zheng Family Dynasty (simplified Chinese: 郑氏王朝; traditional Chinese: 鄭氏王朝; pinyin: Zhèngshì Wángcháo), Zheng Family Kingdom (simplified Chinese: 郑氏王国; traditional Chinese: 鄭氏王國; pinyin: Zhèngshì Wángguó) or Kingdom of Tungning (simplified Chinese: 延平王国; traditional Chinese: 延平王國; pinyin: Yánpíng Wángguó). Taiwan was referred to by Koxinga as Tungtu (simplified Chinese: 东都; traditional Chinese: 東都; pinyin: Dōngdū). In the West, it was known as the Kingdom of Taiwan,[1] and the period of rule is sometimes referred to as the Koxinga Dynasty.[2]
| Part of a series on the | ||||||||
| History of Taiwan | ||||||||
| Prehistory 50,000 BC – AD 1624 | ||||||||
| Kingdom of Middag 1540 – 1732 | ||||||||
| Dutch rule, Formosa 1624 – 1662 | ||||||||
| Spanish rule, Formosa 1626 – 1642 | ||||||||
| Kingdom of Tungning 1662 – 1683 | ||||||||
| Qing Dynasty rule 1683 – 1895 | ||||||||
| Republic of Formosa 1895 | ||||||||
| Japanese rule 1895 – 1945 | ||||||||
| Republic of China rule 1945 – present | ||||||||
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Following the defeat of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu Qing offered several high ranking officials and military leaders of the Ming positions in the Qing court in exchange of cessation of resistance activities. Zheng Zhilong, a Ming admiral and father of Koxinga, accepted the Qing offer, but was later arrested and executed for not ceding control to the Qing cause of his military forces for which he was made the offer. After learning of this whilst pursuing studies overseas, Koxinga pledged to assume his father’s position and control of his remaining forces in order to re-establish Ming control of China.[3] With most of the mainland controlled by the Qing, Koxinga discovered the situational strategic advantages provided by a retreat and occupation of Taiwan from the translator Ho-Bin working for the Dutch East India Company. Supplied by Ho-Bin with maps of the island, Koxinga marshalled his forces estimated at 400 ships and 25,000 soldiers and seized the Pescadores (also known as Penghu Islands) so as to utilize them as a strategic staging point from which to invade Taiwan, at the time controlled by the Dutch.[3]
In 1661, Koxinga forced a landing on Luerhmen (simplified Chinese: 鹿耳门; traditional Chinese: 鹿耳門; pinyin: Lù'ěrmén), Taiwan. In less than a year, he captured Fort Provintia and besieged Fort Zeelandia; with no external help coming, Frederick Coyett, the Dutch governor negotiated a treaty,[4] where the Dutch surrendered the fortress and left all the goods and property of the Dutch East India Company behind. In return, all Dutch officials, soldiers and civilians left with their personal belongings and supplies back to Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia), ending the 38 years of Dutch colonial rule on Taiwan. Realising that developing his forces in Taiwan into a large enough threat to unseat the Qing would not be achieved in the short term, Koxinga began transforming Taiwan into a practically proper, albeit preferably temporary, seat of power for the southern Ming loyalist movement. Replacing the Dutch system of government previously used in Taiwan, Koxinga instituted a Ming-style administration, the first Chinese governance in Taiwan. This system of government was divided into six departments: civil service, revenue, rites, war, punishment, and public works.[3] Great care was taken to symbolise support for the Ming legitimacy, an example being the use of the termguan instead of bu to name departments, since the latter is reserved for central government, whereas rule Taiwan was to be a regional office of the rightful Ming rule of mainland China.[5] Formosa (Taiwan) was also renamed by Koxinga as Dong Du, the “Eastern Capital”, though this name was later changed by his song, Zheng Jing, to Dong Ning.[3]
The most immediate problem Koxinga faced after the successful invasion of Taiwan was a severe shortage of food. It is estimated that prior to Koxinga’s invasion the population of Taiwan was no greater than 100,000 people, yet the initial Zheng army with family and retainers that settled in Taiwan is estimated to be 30,000 at minimum.[3] To address this problem, Koxinga instituted a “military colony” policy in which soldiers served the dual role of farmer when not assigned active duty in a guard battalion. No effort was spared to ensure the successful implementation of this policy to develop Taiwan into a self-sufficient island, and a series of land and taxation policies were established to encourage the expansion and cultivation of fertile lands for increased food production capabilities.[5] Lands held by the Dutch were immediately reclaimed and ownership distributed amongst Koxinga’s trusted staff and relatives to be rented out to peasant farmers, whilst properly developing other farmlands in the south and the claiming, clearing, cultivating and of Aborigine lands to the east was also aggressively pursued.[3] To further encourage expansion into new farmlands, a policy of varying taxation was implemented wherein fertile land newly claimed for the Zheng regime would be taxed at a much lower rate than those reclaimed from the Dutch, considered “official land”.[6]
Following the death of Koxinga in 1662 due to malaria, his son Zheng Jing took over the Zheng regime in Taiwan, leading the remaining 7,000 Ming loyalist troops to Taiwan.[3] Differing from Koxinga, it seems Jing attempted to reconcile peacefully with the Qing by travelling to Peking and bidding for Taiwan to become an autonomous state, but refusing to accept the conditions of compulsory Manchu hair style and regular tributes of currency and soldiers.[5] In response to raids by Zheng Jing and in an effort to starve out the forces in Taiwan, the Qing decreed to relocate all of the southern coastal towns and ports that had been the targets of raids by the Zheng fleet and thus provided supplies for the resistance. This to a large extent backfired and from 1662-4 six major waves of immigration occurred from these areas to Taiwan due to the severe hardships incurred from this relocation policy.[5] In a move to take advantage of this Qing misstep, Zheng Jing promoted immigration to Taiwan by promising the opportunity for free eastern land cultivation and ownership for peasants in exchange for compulsory military service by all males in case the island should need to be defended against Qing invaders. Many previous Ming government officials, in total about 1,000 literati also moved to Taiwan, fleeing Qing persecution.[5]
Zheng Jing also recruited his early tutor, Chen Yong-hua, and passed to him most official government affairs. This saw the establishment of many important developmental policies for Taiwan in education, agriculture, trade, industry, and finance, in addition to a tax system almost as harsh as that of the Dutch colonials.[3] Taiwan soon saw the establishment of Chinese schools for both the Chinese and Indigenous populations and a concerted effort to break Dutch and Indigenous religious, language, and other cultural influences, and promotion of Chinese socio-cultural hegemony along with further expansion of towns and farmland into the south and east.[6] This was realised in the eventual closure of all European and therefore Christian schools and churches in Taiwan, the opening of Confucian temples and the institution of the Confucian civil service exams to coincide with the implemented Confucian education system.[5] Chen Yong-hua is credited for the introduction of new agricultural techniques, such as water-storage for annual dry periods and the deliberate cultivation of sugar cane as a cash crop for trade with the Europeans, in addition to the cooperative unit machinery for mass refining of sugar.[5] Credit is also attributed to Chen Yong-hua for the creation of mass salt drying in Taiwan by evaporation, creating much higher quality salt than by rock deposits which were found to be very rare in Taiwan.[5] The Dutch had previously maintained a monopoly of trade of certain goods with the Aboriginal tribes across Taiwan, and this monopoly of trade was not only maintained under the Zheng regime, but was actively turned into a quota-tribute system of exploitation of the native tribes to aid in international trade.[6] Trade with the British occurred from 1670 through until the end of the Zheng regime, though for the most part limited because of the Zheng monopoly on sugar cane and deer hide, as well as the inability of the British to match the price of East Asian goods for resale. Aside from the British, Zheng major trade occurred with the Japanese and Dutch, though evidence of trade with many Asian countries exists.[6]
Following death of Zheng Jing in 1681, the lack of an official heir meant rule of Taiwan would pass to his illegitimate son. This caused great division in the government and military powers, resulting in a exceptionally destructive struggle for succession. Seizing the advantage presented by the infighting, the Qing dispatched their navy with Shi Lang at the head, destroying the Zheng fleet at the Penghu Islands. In 1683 after the Battle of Penghu, Qing troops landed in Taiwan, Zheng Keshuang gave in to the Qing Dynasty's demand of surrender, and his kingdom was incorporated into the Qing Empire as part of Fujian province, ending two decades of rule by the Zheng family.[7]
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