Koxinga - Family

Family

Zheng Chenggong’s short but eventful career was characterised by family tension and conflicting loyalties. The title of Koxinga ("Lord of the Imperial Surname") was one that Zheng himself used during his lifetime to emphasize his status as an adopted son of the deposed imperial house, and hence it was also a declaration of ongoing support to the Ming dynasty. Despite his deliberate self-identification as the noble, loyal vassal of a vanquished master, Koxinga’s actual relationship with the Longwu Emperor lasted only twelve months or so, beginning in September 1645 and ending with the Emperor's death the following year. Although many secondary sources claim that the two men shared a "close bond of affection", there is an absence of any reliable contemporary evidence on Koxinga’s relationship with the Longwu Emperor.

In contrast, Koxinga’s father Zheng Zhilong left his Japanese wife not long after the birth of his son; Koxinga would be a boy of seven when he finally joined his father on the Fujianese coast. It seems that Zheng Zhilong recognised his son’s talent and encouraged him in his studies and the pursuit of a career as a scholar-official, which would legitimise the power the Zheng family had acquired using sometimes questionable means. Zheng Zhilong’s defection to the Qing must have seemed opportunistic and in stark contrast to Koxinga’s continued loyalty to the Ming. But it is difficult to deny that in refusing to submit to the Qing, Koxinga was risking the life of his father, and that the subsequent death of Zheng Zhilong could only be justified by claiming loyalty to the Ming. It has even been suggested that Koxinga’s fury at the incestuous relationship between his son, Zheng Jing, and a younger son’s wet nurse was due to the fact that strict Confucian morality had played such a crucial role in justifying his lack of filial behaviour.

The one possible exception to this may have been his relationship with his mother, which has generally been described as being extremely affectionate, particularly in Chinese and Japanese sources. Their time together, however, was apparently very short - despite frequent entreaties from Zheng Zhilong for her to join him in China, Koxinga’s mother would only be reunited with her son sometime in 1645, and a year later she would be killed when the Qing took Xiamen.