I believe everyone is familiar with the name Zheng Chenggong. He regained the island of Taiwan from the Dutch colonists and made great achievements for the Chinese nation. As for Zheng Chenggong and his family, there have actually been many stories. This family is a rare family with a very international background in China during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. For example, Zheng Chenggong himself can be regarded as a Chinese-Japanese mixed race, and he has a younger brother who only has a Japanese name. Zheng Chenggong's family even became the bannermen of the Qing Dynasty, and his younger brother's family became completely Japanese. So what kind of story happened in this family at that time?
Zheng Zhilong with a complex background
Speaking of the international background of Zheng Chenggong’s family, of course, first of all, we must talk about Zheng Zhilong’s father, Zheng Zhilong. Because of the complex background of Zheng Zhilong, it can be said that even in modern times, it will exceed most people. Imagination.
Zheng Zhilong was born in Quanzhou, Fujian. His father Zheng Shibiao used to work as a small official in Quanzhou, but because of financial difficulties, when Zheng Zhilong was 17 years old, Zheng Shibiao asked him to take his two younger brothers to Macau to do business there. His uncle Huang Cheng. At that time, Macau was actually occupied by the Portuguese, so after arriving in Macau, Zheng Zhilong learned Portuguese to make a living. Moreover, in order to gain the trust of the Portuguese, he also entered the Catholic Church, and had a Portuguese Catholic name called Nicholas Iquan Gaspard (Nicholas Iquan Gaspard).
Zheng Zhilong portrayed by the Portuguese
During his stay in Macau, Zheng Zhilong met Li Dan, a sea merchant who lived in Japan at the time. Later, with the consent of his uncle Huang Cheng, Zheng Zhilong went to Japan Nagasaki became Li Dan's subordinate, and this year he was only 19 years old. After arriving in Japan, he soon married the daughter of a local overseas Chinese Emperor Weng Yi. However, although this girl was born in an overseas Chinese family, it was the daughter brought by the overseas Chinese’s Japanese wife when she remarried to the overseas Chinese. Therefore, the overseas Chinese’s daughter is actually Japanese, and her biological father is Tianchuan, so sometimes she also Known as the Tagawa clan.
So everyone knows here that Zheng Zhilong actually had a background in at least 3 countries before Zheng Chenggong was born. One year after Tagawa married him, Zheng Chenggong was born in Nagasaki, Japan. So Zheng Chenggong is indeed a Chinese-Japanese mixed-race born in Nagasaki, Japan. Two years later, Tian Chuan gave birth to Zheng Zhilong's second son, the younger brother of Zheng Chenggong.
Monument to the birthplace of Zheng Chenggong in Nagasaki, Japan
But before and after, Zheng Zhilong was first sent by Li Dan to the Dutch who invaded Taiwan to do translation, but he left soon after With the Dutch, he pulled up his team and started a career of both business and stealing at sea. By 1627 AD, Zheng Zhilong's fleet had grown to 700 ships, and he also harassed the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian from time to time, because it became a very headache for the Ming Dynasty. However, one year later, the governor of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, Xiong Wencan, contacted Zheng Zhilong and enlisted him to be safe, and Zheng Zhilong became a coastal defense guerrilla under Xiong Wencan.
The Zheng brothers separated the two countries
Zheng Zhilong, who became an official of the Ming Dynasty, quickly remembered his wife and children in Japan. In 1630, he first brought his eldest son Zheng Chenggong back to China, but his wife Tagawa was forbidden to go abroad by the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate, and his younger son was only 3 years old, so he stayed in Japan with his mother. At that time, the Tagawa clan and his biological father's family thought that Zheng Zhilong might not return to Japan, so they decided to adopt Zheng Chenggong's younger brother to the Tagawa family and named him Tagawa Jiro Saemon.
The image of Zheng Chenggong's mother and child in the Zheng Chenggong Ancestral Temple in Tainan, Taiwan, China
So Tianchuan and her second son have been living in Japan since then. But Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong have not forgotten the Tian Chuan family, so they have been trying to connect their mother and son to China. However, the efforts of the father and son did not make progress until 15 years later, when Zheng Zhilong obtained the Japanese shogunate's concession through some old relationships in Japan, and finally was able to receive the Tagawa clan in China. But this does not mean that the Zheng family can finally groupGathered, because although the Tokugawa shogunate allowed the Tagawa clan to go to China, it did not allow Zheng Chenggong’s younger brother Jirozaemon to go to China. Although the Tagawa clan tried to spend a lot of money to clear the shogunate, the shogunate knew that the Zheng Zhilong family was wealthy at the time, so he wanted his family to keep a hostage in Japan in order to obtain greater benefits in the future. Therefore, no matter how the Tagawa clan begged, the shogunate's attitude was always very determined, and Jirozaemon would never leave Japan.
In the end, the Tagawa clan had no choice but to come to China by himself in 1645 and reunited with Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong, while Jirozaemon was left in Japan. According to some historical records, before the Tagawa clan left Japan to board the ship, he cried and said to Jirozaemon:
Er Don’t forget your father and your brother, and don’t forget where your mother went China.
So later Tagawa Jirozaemon lived alone in Japan, and later he changed his name to Tagawa Nanazaemon. However, although his parents and elder brothers returned to China, they did not lose contact. Because the Japanese shogunate kept him in Japan for the sake of doing more business with the Zheng family in the future, it did not stop the correspondence between their family. At that time, it was a time when the Ming and Qing Dynasties changed. In 1644, the Ming Dynasty perished. After that, Zheng Zhilong, Huang Daozhou and others supported the Ming Dynasty clan king Zhu Yujian and proclaimed himself emperor in Fuzhou and established the Nanming Longwu regime. Because of his support, Zheng Zhilong's power was overwhelmed for a while, and his family's existing business grew more and more.
Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong’s father and son like
So Zheng Zhilong let his second son Tagawa Nanazaemon serve as the general representative of his family in Japan and manage the trade in Japan for himself Affairs, Nanazaemon also accumulated a lot of wealth during this period and became an important figure in Japan. But this situation did not last long. In 1646, the Qing army went south and asked Zheng Zhilong's Quanzhou fellow township Hong Chengchou to persuade Zheng Zhilong to surrender. In December of that year, Zheng Zhilong surrendered to Qing. However, Zheng Chenggong refused to surrender, and then led the army to resist.
Less than a year later, Anping, Fujian where the Tian Chuan was located, was captured by the Qing army, and the Tian Chuan killed himself in order to avoid being abused. Therefore, Zheng Chenggong and the Qing army had an enmity for killing his mother since then. Some scholars believe that Zheng Chenggong's swearing to the death afterwards has a lot to do with this matter. After being believed by his mother, Nanakaemon also made up his mind to support Zheng Chenggong to fight against the Qing Dynasty. Later when Zheng Chenggong was in the process of regaining Taiwan, the Dutch colonists huddled in Chihkan City after losing the first battle in an attempt to resist for a long time. According to some records, Qizaemon, who was very successful in doing business in Japan at that time, also sent dozens to Zheng Chenggong. Ship materials and money helped Zheng Chenggong to finally surrender the Dutch through a long siege and successfully regain Taiwan.
The different destinies of the offspring of the Zheng brothers
However, later, the descendants of the two brothers Zheng Chenggong and Tianchuan Qizaemon have experienced vicissitudes of life with the changes of the times. First, shortly after Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan, Japan's Tokugawa Shogunate began to implement a maritime prohibition policy, and the connection between the Zheng family and the Tagawa family was gradually interrupted. In 1683, the Qing Dynasty launched a battle to unify Taiwan. In the Penghu naval battle, the Qing army defeated the Zheng's army. Then Zheng Chenggong's grandson Zheng Keyun (shuǎng) led his family to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Afterwards, the Zheng family was moved to Beijing, and was incorporated into the Zhenghuang Banner among the Eight Banners of the Han Army in the Qing Dynasty. Zheng Keyuan himself was named Han Jun Gong. After that, the descendants of the Zheng family have been serving as the assistant leader under Zhenghuang.
Portrait of Zheng Ke塽
During the Yongzheng period, the Zheng family was adjusted from Zhenghuangqi to Zhenghongqi during the reorganization of the Eight Banners. The descendants have always been hereditary leaders until the end of the Qing Dynasty. In 1920, the Zheng Yi and Zheng Ze brothers, considered to be the ninth grandson of Zheng Chenggong, also rebuilt the Zheng family tree. In 1930, Zheng Ze also donated a portrait of Zheng Chenggong to the predecessor of the Chinese History Museum, but there has been no news about the family since then.
But after the ban of the Sea of Japan, the Tagawa family gradually became Japanese and became Japanese. Later, in Nagasaki, where the Tagawa family was located, a Chinese family surnamed Zheng also existed for a long time, and they were thought to be descendants of Tagawa Nanazaemon. At the end of the 19th century, this family had a man named Zheng Yongbang who became a JapaneseBen's diplomat, in the negotiations after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, he also served as the interpreter for the Japanese negotiator Hirobumi Ito. A few years later, he even served as the Japanese consul in Tianjin. The family was later changed to the Japanese surname Fuzhu. In recent years, some people have been to Quanzhou to participate in activities to commemorate Zheng Chenggong.
So the Zheng family is indeed a family with very diverse ancestors and descendants. But Taohuashi's miscellaneous talk believes that to evaluate a person's historical status, what he has done is definitely to overshadow his family background and background. Although Zheng Chenggong’s family background is very complicated, he expelled Dutch colonists during his lifetime and regained Taiwan, the treasure island invaded by Western colonists for the Chinese nation. There is no dispute about this historical event, so his historical achievements are under all circumstances. It should be remembered.
