Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/121

Rh t'ai and besieged Chang-chou which was reduced to cannibalism. After a siege of about six months Chêng was eventually forced by the arrival of a Ch'ing relief army to give up the attack and withdraw to Hai-ch'êng. During the years 1654–56 both the Ch'ing and Ming courts repeatedly offered Chêng Ch'êng-kung titles and preferment. Although his father, forced by the Ch'ing court, brought pressure upon him to submit to Ch'ing offers, he steadfastly refused, at the same time declining the title, Prince of Yen-p'ing 延平王, conferred upon him in 1654 by Chu Yu-lang, on the ground that he had done little to assist the restoration of the Ming regime. Upon the arrival a year later of a second mission from the Ming court again offering the title, he was persuaded to accept. Early in 1655 Ch'êng-kung perfected his military and civil organization in Fukien by establishing seventy-two military stations (鎮) and six civil bureaus, patronized Ming officials and scholars, and foraged along the coast from Kwangtung to Shantung and up the Yangtze. In the same year a formidable Ch'ing army under the Manchu prince,, forced Chêng's troops to withdraw from Hui-an, Nan-an, T'ung-an, and Chang-chou and to concentrate at Ssŭ-ming (Amoy).

In order to free himself from the domination of Chu Yu-lang, accompanied by, fled (1656) to Yunnanfu where in the following year he conferred on Chêng Ch'êng-kung the title Prince of Ch'ao 潮王 and urged Chêng's co-operation in a campaign against the Manchus. In 1658 Chêng raised his largest army, estimated at from 100,000 to 170,000 men—even sending, unsuccessfully, an envoy to Japan to solicit support—and with as Chief of Staff (監軍) took a number of cities along the sea-coast of Chekiang. His boat having encountered a typhoon while sailing toward the Yangtze river, he retired temporarily (September 11, 1658) to Chusan, but resumed his military operations the following year, invading Kiangsu by sea. After taking Kua-chou (August 4, 1659) and Chinkiang (August 11, 1659), Chêng rejected the counsel of his generals and risked a great battle before Nanking. He was defeated on September 9, 1659, with heavy losses and was gradually forced hack to Amoy. On June 17, 1660, the Ch'ing troops under Ta-su 達素 (章佳氏) and attacked Amoy, but were repulsed. In the meantime Chêng availed himself of a certain Ho Pin 何斌 (or Ho T'ing-pin 何廷斌, the 'Pingua' of the Dutch accounts) who had been interpreter for the Dutch in Taiwan and had an intimate knowledge of their defenses. Ch'êng-kung also knew from correspondence with Chinese on the island that the Batavian fleet under Jan van der Laan, which had come to Taiwan in 1660, had departed leaving only a small garrison. On April 30, 1661, Chêng appeared before Castle Zeelandia 赤嵌城 at An-p'ing with a force estimated at 900 ships and 25,000 marines. He landed without resistance but later had several encounters, both on land and sea, with the Dutch who retired to the castle. After a siege of nine months the garrison finally capitulated. On February 1, 1662 a treaty was drawn up between "Lord Koxin" and Governor Frederick Coyett (揆一), and the Dutch withdrew to Batavia. Chêng-kung established his capital, instituted a civil and military organization, attempted to colonize his former soldiers and adherents on the island, and in the same year sent the Dominican missionary, Vittorio Ricci, to Manila to induce the Spanish to accept his suzerainty. At the suggestion of his former general,, who had surrendered to the Manchus, the Ch'ing government ordered the coastal inhabitants of Shantung, Kiangnan, Chekiang, Fukien, and Kwangtung, removed inland (1662) a distance of 30 to 50 li as a means of evading the depredations of Chêng Ch'êng-kung and in the hope of cutting off his source of supplies. The policy proved more disastrous to the people of the coast, especially those of Fukien where 88 hsien, and Kwangtung where 36 hsien, were affected, than to Chêng Ch'êng-kung, but it was only entirely abandoned after 1681. The accounts of his death vary. His father and brothers were executed in 1661 at Peking; his generals became disaffected and refused to carry out his orders to execute his son,, who had illegally consorted with a nurse; an envoy reported the failure of his mission and the massacre of the Chinese in Manila. Enraged by one or all of these incidents he is supposed to have committed suicide on June 23, 1662, at the age of 39 (sui). In 1875 he was given by Emperor Tê-tsung the posthumous name Chung-chieh 忠節.

[1/230/4a; M.36/10/11a; M.59/38/1a; 同安縣志 T'ung-an hsien-chih (1929) 27/3b; 廷平王戶官楊英從征實錄 Yang-ying's Records of the Campaigns of Koxinga (1931); Chu Hsi-tsu 朱希組, 鄭廷平王受明封爵考 in 國學季刊 Kuo-hsüeh chi-k'an, vol. III, no. 1, and 鄭廷 109