10 ISLAND IN THE STREAM I.The Era of Global Navigation 2 concern than what was happening on Formosa,which had been eliminating ports of refuge and supplies for pirates or Ming left to the Dutch.The Manchus in the northeast were expanding loyalists.Soon,there were few places on the mainland coast where their influence and threatening the very existence of the Ming. Koxinga and his pirates could take refuge except for Kinmen Seeking both military and capital support,the Ming regime called (Quemoy)and the Amoy Islands.It was there that Koxinga met upon the pirate leader Zheng Zhi-long for help.Zhi-long had been Ho-Bin a translator who had been working for the Dutch based in Hirato,Japan and had taken a Japanese wife,Tagawa. East India Company.Ho-Bin told him of the advantages of the Zhi-long,who operated both as an opportunistic trader and pirate, island of Formosa was also a mercenary leader with a strong army of followers.The Formosa,the Ming Invasion Manchus began their conquest of China in earnest in 1646.They sought to conquer by using both force and enticement.The high Armed with maps of Formosa supplied by Ho-Bin,Koxinga set officials of the Ming court who had fled south were offered similar out with a fleet of 400 ships and 25,000 men to take the island. positions in the Qing court if they ceased resistance.Zhi-long who Penghu (the Pescadores)was their first stop.They quickly posed a military threat was also offered the opportunity to switch occupied Penghu and made plans to invade Formosa where the sides for a court appointment.Zhi-long's family suspiciously Chinese immigrants who had just suffered defeat in the rebellion opposed this exchange,but Zhi-long decided to go for the bait and of Guo Huai-i were sympathetic to a savior. received a comfortable place in Beijing.When Zhi-long later Upon landing Koxinga first seized food supplies for his troops. failed to bring his forces along with him,the Manchus placed him Then he attacked Fort Provintia because it had fewer defenses. under house arrest.Zhi-long's wife Tagawa then committed Finally he laid siege to Fort Zeelandia.The Dutch were put in a suicide. predicament.They were outnumbered and supplies began to run Koxinga(成功)，Zhi-long'sson(b.1624)by Tagawa was away low.They cried to the governor in Batavia for assistance and to the pursuing studies when news of this reached him.He abandoned his aborigines,but the distances were too great for sufficient help from studies and having inherited the pirate enterprise from his father he Batavia and the aborigines could not muster a strong enough force became a scourge to the coastal cities on the east.Koxinga pledged to break the siege.Eventually after a siege of nine months,they himself to try to re-establish the Ming rule in China,despite the surrendered in 1662.The Dutch had ruled Formosa for 38 years. fact that by not joining his father Zhi-long,he would hasten Zhi- After driving out the Dutch,Zheng Cheng-gong or Koxinga as long's execution in 1661. he is called in the West began to plan administrative districts. In 1660,the Manchus ordered all inhabitants of China's east Though the Dutch had made some divisions of territory,this is the coastal region to move inland 1.728 kilometers,in effect first time that a Chinese system of administration was applied to
12 ISLAND IN THE STREAM I.The Era of Global Navigation 13 the island.Koxinga deliberately chose names to reflect his Koxinga's Death relationship to the Ming regime. Formosa was called Dongdu(柬都)，that is the eastern capital Less than a year after the taking of Formosa,Koxinga died in of the Ming Regime.Zeelandia was destroyed and the area re- 1662.He had not realized his goals but a shrine was erected to him named Anping.The surrounding region(now Tainan)was called by the Chinese immigrants;he was deified and many myths about Cheng Tianfu(承天府)，which means a government connecting his life soon developed and spread throughout East Asia.In 1664, God to his people.To the north,the land was called Tianxing feeling pressure from the Manchu people and the Dutch who still 興縣，flourishing)County,.and to the south,Wannian(蒿年縣， traded with China,Zheng Jing(鄭經)，the eldest son of Koxinga long life)County.A defense bureau named“Anfu”(安撫司， who had been left in charge of Amoy,led seven thousand soldiers placating)was established in the Pescadore Islands.Koxinga had and their families to Formosa.This marked the Zheng forces used names that reflected the Ming regime's extension. complete abandonment of the mainland. An immediate problem that Koxinga had faced was Zheng Jing then proceeded to change and improve the insufficient food.The population of Formosa during the Dutch administrative districts set up by his father.He changed"Dongdu" rule was one hundred thousand people;Koxinga had brought an to“Dongning”(束寧，peaceful east);and the two counties became additional thirty thousand including the soldiers and their families. "Tianxing Prefecture'”and“Wannian Prefecture..”He further This rapid increase of population strained the food supply.To established two more“An-f”groups on Formosa.“Zheng resolve this,Koxinga confiscated all of the land previously Tianfu"was divided into four streets and twenty-four units that possessed by the Dutch East India Company and transferred it to were called the“Street Unit System.”(坊里制)With this street unit his regime.These lands were divided among his trusted staff and system,Zheng Jing established a census register,which would relatives;and in addition the development of farmland in southern become the basis of the "Bao-jia System,”(保甲制度)a system Formosa was aggressively pursued.Koxinga unwisely invaded the used for keeping local security.This system is still in use today. land that belonged to the aborigines and destroyed any oppo- Government affairs were given to Chen Yong-hua(陳永華)， rtunities of peaceful co-existence with them.With the develop- the father in law of Zheng Jing's elder son.Yong-hua established ment of the land divided among his staff and relatives,the private many policies for farmland development,education and finance, land system that has existed into the present was introduced and but he also developed a severe tax system that would make the Koxinga influence expanded from the sea to the land. people feel they were no better off than under the Dutch