Koxinga

Who was Koxinga?

Koxinga or Zheng Chenggong was a Chinese military leader who was born in Hirado, Japan to the Chinese merchant/pirate Zheng Zhilong and his Japanese wife, and died on the Island of Taiwan.

A Ming loyalist and the chief commander of the Ming troops on the maritime front for the later emperors of the withering dynasty, Koxinga devoted the last 16 years of his life to resisting the conquest of China by the Manchus. Upon defeating the forces of the Dutch East India Company on Formosa in his last campaign in 1661–1662, Koxinga took over the island in order to support his grand campaign against the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty. After Koxinga's death, his son and successor, Zheng Jing, gradually became the ruler of an independent Kingdom of Tungning, the first Chinese state to rule the island.