Chinese people went to Southeast Asia to immigrate and live in the Southeast Asian region around the South China Sea for at least a thousand years, making great contributions to the economic and cultural prosperity of Southeast Asia.
Among them, in the 18th to 19th century, in today's Indonesian Kalimantan ( Borneo ) the Chinese community in the west has created a new stage of Chinese overseas society. They founded several of their own regime entities, including Lanfang Company, Dagang Company, Santiaogou Company, etc.
These companies have political, economic, military and diplomatic functions, and are actually equivalent to independent regimes. Some researchers at home and abroad call them countries. After the establishment of these regimes, they were constantly harassed and eroded by Western colonists, and were eventually destroyed one by one by Dutch .
770 to 1884, news of gold mines discovered in West Borneo came to China, and many people traveled across the ocean to dig gold in the southeast coast, especially in eastern Guangdong. Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Chinese people flocked to West Borneo. Chinese people from the same original area formed their own interest groups. Chinese companies emerged and entered their heyday. 819 Chinese workers and foremen of the West Borneo gold mine (Ticket of Leiden University, Netherlands) During this period, the output of gold and diamonds in West Borneo ranked first in Asia, with more than 30 Chinese companies with written records. Dongwanlu Lanfang Company is undoubtedly the representative of these companies. It has the longest history (108 years), has the most comprehensive written records, and has paid the most attention and research on it by later generations.
The members of Dongwanlu Lanfang Company are mainly from Jiayingzhou in northeastern Guangdong. Jiayingzhou has been a wilderness in Lingnan since ancient times, with relatively slow economic and social development. Due to the congestion of transportation and the lack of mountains and fields, it is difficult for people to make a living. Some people have long traveled across the ocean to Nanyang for development.
Luo Fangbo is one of the tens of thousands of Chinese who came to West Borneo who admired the name of "Golden Mountain". In 1777, he led a group of Jiayingzhou Hakka to establish Lanfang Company in Xinjinhu, Dongwanlu Mountain, more than a hundred miles north of Pontianak . In addition to digging gold mines, Lanfang Company also built shops and houses nearby, attracting many Chinese to reclaim land and plant. Dongwanlu quickly formed a town. In the following years, more Hakka people from Jiayingzhou gathered under Lanfang Company, and Lanfang Company's strength became increasingly strong.
The statue of Luo Fangbo (Author: Zhao Yong)
Luo Fangbo is skilled in martial arts and has strategy. Under his planning, Lanfang Company has gradually been built into an independent autonomous regime. By around 1794, Lanfang Company entered its heyday, with more than 20,000 Chinese and more than 100,000 submissions, with a territory of more than 15,000 square kilometers (similar to the eight counties and districts of Meizhou City today).
01 Luo Fangbo: Lan Fang The founder of the regime
Portrait of Luo Fangbo charcoal collected by the Luo family (painted by Li Qichang)
Luo Fangbo, original name Fangbo (Bo is a respectful title), was from Daling, Shisanbao, Jiayingzhou, Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty (now known as Nanxi Village, Shisan Town, Meixian District, Meizhou City). As early as the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, people in their hometown knew the story of him "founding a country and becoming king" in Borneo, Nanyang. The villagers said that he was " Pontianak ", and some people said that he was "the emperor of the outward dynasty".
"Jiayingzhou Chronicles" records that Luo Fangbo "has a strange spirit at a young age and is generous in nature." Xiao Zhaochuan's "Biography of Luo Fangbo" also added a few sentences such as "I especially like the knot, and I have a strong body, super strong arms, and learning literature and martial arts as the best of all children... I work hard when encountering things, and I call it in the village" to describe him as a young hero.
Legend has it that Luo Fangbo was brave and dared to move a Bodhisattva set up by his predecessors in Shisanmao Mountain (place name) back to the top of Aizhai Mountain (mountain name) in the village, and placed it, named it: Master Gongwang. Since then, Luo Fangbo went out to work in the morning every day, first cut a load of fish grass, then climbed to the low village mountain behind the house, and practiced a set of fists and feet on the top of the mountain. After practicing, sit in front of the Lord Prince’s Own, and there must be a cup of hot tea on the incense platform to wait for you. After drinking this cup of hot tea, Fang Bo carried the burden and went home. It is said that Luo Fangbo was the emperor who came down to earth to be reincarnated, and even the gods respected him three points.
It is said that Luo Fangbo once studied ancient Chinese and poetry for the imperial examination in his hometown. Unfortunately, he failed to get a fame and fortune. He flew away in anger and traveled across the ocean to Nanyang for development. After failing the imperial examinations one after another, Luo Fangbo came to West Borneo at the age of 35 in 1772. At first he worked as a miner in Jinhu, and later he went to Pontianak to teach. Because he was helpful and intelligent, he quickly united a group of farmers and miners from China, and hundreds of Chinese were gathered under his command.
In the first few years after Luo Fangbo arrived in West Borneo, the number of gold mining sites located in the Sanfa River Basin gold mining area continued to increase. As more and more mines are developed, out of the need to compete for economic interests and protect their respective homes and property, West Borneo has gradually formed more than a dozen gangs composed of Fulao people from places such as Chaozhou , Jieyang and Hakka people from various counties.
These regional gangs brought the "companies" of rural clans in Fulao and the "public tasting" management methods of clans in Hakka to West Borneo, and each organized different forms of partnership companies to operate mining or agriculture. More than a dozen Chinese companies have gradually formed in Sanfa, Bangga, Talaolu and Pontianak in West Borneo.
Guangxu edition "Jiayingzhou Chronicles" Volume 23 "Biography of Luo Fangbo" Inside page
Luo Fangbo teaches in Pontianak while gathering like-minded brothers. His power and reputation quickly rose. According to the above annual book, "It was at that time, the people of Chaozhou were mostly disobedient and law-abiding the weak, and they liked to bully the weak with the strong. Jiayingzhou people were often abused by him. Luo Taige witnessed the difficulties of the times, and wanted to hold his wrists, and wanted to invite those who were in charge of the same country for a long time. Then there were 18 people who were united..." It seems that the conflicts and interests between Chinese people in various places were the initial driving force for Luo Fangbo to start his business, and these 108 people were the core of Luo Fangbo's founding of Lanfang Company.
777, Luo Fangbo seized the opportunity and led these 108 people to a Jinhu Lake, more than a hundred miles north of Pontianak. Luo Fangbo forced the mine advocate Acai to submit in this way. It seems to be a domineering act today, but it was common in West Borneo at that time. In order to compete for territory, there are often armed conflicts between Chinese companies in West Borneo, between Chinese companies and Malays and local kings, and between Chinese and Daya people. Under the leadership of Luo Fangbo, after five large-scale wars, Lanfang Company's territory continued to expand, and gold mines and other income continued to increase. By 1794, Lanfang Company entered its heyday, with a territory of more than 15,000 square kilometers.
In addition to operating the mine, the company also assumes social management functions. Tens of thousands of Chinese live and work in nine jurisdictions, and reproduce and reproduce. They also lived in peace with more than 100 Wandaya people in their jurisdiction, intermarried and helped each other, and some Daya people also joined the military operations of Lanfang Company. The society and economy of West Borneo have developed, and the Chinese and Dayans have gradually moved towards racial integration.
Luo Fangbo is the first leader of Lanfang Company elected by local Chinese. Within the Lanfang regime, they adopted the method of rural autonomy and democratic management, and the people had the right to elect and remove leaders. If a leader dies or commits dereliction of duty, the people have the right to elect a new leader to replace him. Under Luo Fangbo's rule, the people of West Borneo lived a peaceful and stable life.
02 Lanfang Company: "Once Upon a Republic"
How did Luo Fangbo initially founded Lanfang Company? How can it grow and grow later? What is its organizational structure, nature and political attitude? The "Lanfang Company Years of the Years" by Leiden University in the Netherlands and Li Xinxiang's " Research on the Luo Fangbo and Dongwanlu Lanfang's regime " are recorded.
engraved book "Lanfang Company's Years of the Years" inner page photo
1. The founding period of Lanfang Company
774 to 1775, Luo Fangbo planned to start a business in Pontianak. He contacted his fellow villagers everywhere, preparing to take an opportunity to start a business. The opportunity that had been waiting for a long time finally came. Luo Fangbo decided to occupy the Jinhu, Shanxin near Dongwanlu by force and use it as a base to make achievements.Dongwanlu Mountain Xinjin Lake ruins (photo taken by Xie Yongmao)
According to the "Lanfang Company Years of the Years", 108 people followed Luo Fangbo to carry out a night attack on the same day, departing from Peniti, north of Pontianak, and taking a boat to go up the river by water, and reaching Shanxinjin Lake at dawn. Shanxin Jinhu was jointly operated by Dapu people, and Dapu was under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture at that time. Although Dapu people also speak Hakka dialect and did not belong to the Jiayingzhou camp at first, this incident was roughly regarded as a dispute over interests between the two major groups of Chao and Jia.
However, this incident did not seem to cause forceful fights or casualties. Luo Fangbo took the means of comforting and stabilized the hearts of the people. Zhang Acai was also retained. Later, he became a general under Luo Fangbo and the treasury of Lan Fang Company (head of the finance department). Later, he also served as Kapitein.
After establishing a "base", it has a career foundation, and the income from gold mining provides economic support. Luo Fangbo's reputation is increasing day by day, and he has established the headquarters of Dongwanlu Lanfang Company. The creation of the main hall means the construction of a new "ancestral hall". The Guandi God Card enshrined in it is a spiritual gathering for the company members to work together, and the company's senior management also has a place to discuss.
On this basis, Lanfang Company officially established a governance agency, and Luo Fangbo was elected as the eldest brother, and was called the general system to the outside world. Under his command are "Second Brother" (deputy), "Fin Brother" (grassroots leader) and "Boss" (elder). Luo Fangbo led everyone to set up houses and build shops on both sides of Dongwanlu Road, and soon a small town was formed. Hundreds of brothers worked together and were determined to expand their company's career.
Three years after its establishment, Lanfang Company expanded its territory twice, and the company's strength has been greatly enhanced. Looking back on the experience of traveling across the ocean to Borneo and the past of working as a coolie in Jinhu, Luo Fangbo wrote a beautiful article "Fu of Traveling to Jinshan". The prospering prospects of Lanfang's company also made him feel confident and wrote a famous song "Exiting Thoughts".
Luo Fangbo's "Exiting the Way"
2. Internal government affairs, external relations, external friendly countries
Since the founding of Lanfang Company, Luo Fangbo has gradually established the regime structure of Lanfang Company, established civil affairs, judicial, taxation, border management and other institutions, established leadership election system, civil servant salary system and armed militia system, opened schools to preserve and promote Chinese culture, encourage private land reclamation, open shops and businessmen to work, and enable the social economy of West Borneo to achieve rapid development.
According to the annual book, after Luo Fangbo founded Lanfang Company in Dongwanlu, he successively expanded his territory through force and diplomatic means, and set up local governments (deputy departments) on the newly opened land to manage civil affairs. Lanfang Company's administrative management organization is gradually improving.
West Borneo is located in the tropical region, with rivers and dense water networks, and crocodiles appear and hurt people from time to time. According to the "Lanfang Company's Years of the Years", Luo Fangbo often travels to Pontianak through water, and crocodiles cannibals often have incidents of people taking part. Because I recalled that when I was studying in my hometown, I read " crocodile sacrifice " written by Han Yu in Chaozhou, so I followed Han Yu's example and acted as a sacrifice to the gods and expelling crocodiles.
Han Yu (768-824)
According to legend, Luo Fangbo set up an altar in the new port of Pontianak to worship the gods and drive away crocodiles. The Chinese from Lanfang Company set up a platform by the river and prepared many fish, meat, other food, lime and earth-made gunpowder bombs. Luo Fangbo took the stage to burn incense and light candles. After worshiping the gods of heaven and earth, he read the "Crocodile Sacrifice" loudly. After reading it, he asked people to put fish, meat and other food into the water. When crocodiles saw food, they swam to compete for food. Fang Bo also asked people to throw lime and lit earth bombs into the water, killing many crocodiles. Since then, no crocodile injury occurred on the Pontianak River.
It is said that the local Malays and Daya people watching were extremely surprised. They all said that Luo Fangbo's divine power could reach the world and shock the giant crocodile and dolphin, so they called it the King of Pontianak. Since then, the Malays and Daya people living within the sphere of influence of Lanfang Company surrendered to Luo Fangbo and obeyed the governance of the Chinese company.
3. Lanfang Company entered a period of recession
795, 58-year-old Luo Fangbo died of illness. Lanfang Company held a grand funeral for him and buried his body on a hill on the right bank of the Dongwanlu River.Lanfang Company elected Jiang Wubo as the new leader. After Jiang Wubo's death, ninth generation leaders including Que Sibo, Song Caibo and Liu Tai succeeded to the throne. Before Liu Taier died in 1837, before Liu Taier passed away, he recommended Xie Guifang, a native of Jiayingzhou, who was born in Wu Xiucai, to take over, but the masses elected Gu Liubo as the Grandpa, and Xie Guifang was defeated. Gu Liubo was also from Jiayingzhou. He was loyal and had no courage. The following year after taking office, in 1838, when Wannadayan rebelled, Gu Liubo rashly launched an army to start a war.
Unexpectedly, the Chinese in Lanfang Company have enjoyed peace in the past few decades, and their combat effectiveness has declined seriously. He sent troops to consume a lot of money and food for several months, but was defeated by Daya people. Gu Liubo resigned due to his defeat and returned to Jiayingzhou, Tangshan to live to his old age. In 1843, the Lanfang Company elected Xie Guifang as Jiatai, but unfortunately Xie Guifang was old and sick, and died of only eight months in office.
From then on, Lanfang Company entered a period of ten years of recession.
846 The people of Lanfang Company re-elected Liu Ding (Qian Xing) as Jia Tai. After Liu Ding took office, he was very ambitious and soon launched an army to fight against the Wannadaya people. Unexpectedly, this battle repeated Gu Liubo's mistakes and Lan Fang's company was defeated. At this time, Lanfang Company had declined seriously, gold mine resources were exhausted, economic income was declining, and people had difficulty making a living. The main hall and the sub-districts in various places are old, the Chinese temples are abandoned and collapsed, local administrative personnel are ineffective in governing, management is loose and slack, people are seriously dispersed, and the masses have great opinions. In October 11884, the "Dongwanlu Incident" broke out in which the masses rose up to fight against the Netherlands, and Lanfang Company was banned by the Dutch-Indian colonial government. The Chinese armed forces resisted tenaciously for two or three years and were eventually eliminated by the Dutch army.
Tanshui Port Luofangbo Palace
03 Gao Yan: "The sweat of the Hakka people adds our wealth"
The famous European sinologist Gao Yan wrote the book "Borneo Chinese Company System" one year after the army eliminated Lanfang Company in 1885. He believes that after several other Chinese companies in West Borneo were eliminated by the Dutch, Lanfang Company was able to survive for more than 30 years, which has something to do with the fact that its leaders and people are both Hakka people's Congress. So he went to southern China to conduct a four-year field survey on the social characteristics of the Hakka and Fulao settlements.
Through social surveys of Hakka and Fulao settlements (Guangdong and Fujian), Gao Yan studied their folk customs characteristics and immigration background, as well as the impact of village and community systems in southern China and even the private secret society organizations on Borneo Chinese companies, etc., to discuss the nature of Borneo Chinese companies.
The famous Dutch sinologist Gao Yan (1854-1921)
In the book, Gao Yan calls the West Borneo Chinese Company "the once-existing Chinese Republic" in many places and uses the Dutch word "Republiekje". "In fact, whether Western scholars in the 19th century had a positive or negative attitude towards Chinese companies, they called the company the "Republic", which mainly refers to the company's independence and autonomy in West Borneo" (Yuan Bingling). The Malay Sultanate or other small kingdoms that exist in West Borneo at the same time as the Chinese company, Gao Yan called them the Malay monarchy or the Malay kingdom.
Gao Yan's view is: the Lanfang Company of East Wanlu and other Chinese companies in West Borneo "has unprecedented development of the gold mining industry in West Borneo, it has added millions of wealth to mankind, and turned this island into a desirable colony. Its contribution should be affirmed. Although Lanfang Company was dissolved by our government (referring to the Dutch East India Colonial Government), the existence of this free Chinese country is a special stage in the history of our colonial... Almost all Chinese immigrants from ordinary peasants were able to establish well-organized free countries, and the systems of those countries had the strictest republican spirit, order, discipline and policies.
They had independent legislation and currency system, and often had to deal with the conflict between the monarch and their own people. Just like state-to-state, they negotiated with the powerful Dutch East India colonial government, and armed the people for a long time to confront the Dutch and Indian army. Most of these immigrants were Hakka.They were in the hot equator, and they were working in the gold mine in the dark day after day in the dark, a kind of hard work that even the locals could not bear, and a work that no other nation could support under the same conditions. The degree of hardship could only be imagined by those who had seen it with their own eyes.
Today, it is these strong Hakka men who have opened the original forests and barren mountains and deserts of Sanfa, Pontianak and Nanbawa into fertile fields, sugarcane forests and orchards... Due to the hard work of the Hakka people, the development of the Bangka and Belitung tin mines has become a reality. Their sweat has added our wealth and made us a great colonial power..."
As a Westerner and an official of the Dutch East India Colonial Government, it is really rare for Gao Yan to make such a bold and fair evaluation of the historical status of the Chinese company in Borneo.
884, the Dutch East India Colonial Government took advantage of the death of Liu Asheng, the last leader of the Lanfang Company, to send troops to destroy the Lanfang Company headquarters and eliminate the last Chinese company in West Borneo.Gao Yan expressed shock after hearing the news in China. He started from protecting the interests of the Dutch colonial government and believed that these Chinese companies had contributed to the prosperity and development of West Borneo, brought a lot of wealth to the Dutch colonial government, and also brought protection and wealth to millions of Chinese. Why did the Dutch East India colonial government spend millions of military expenses to send troops to wipe them out? For the Malay Sultanate, they were careful to protect them everywhere. Malays were also immigrants, but they arrived earlier than the Chinese. For millions of creatures who were cruelly persecuted by war and death, who would understand, sympathize and record him We?
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Author: Li Xinxiang
A rare domestic system tells the special history of the establishment of a country in Southeast Asia. Subverts the traditional impression of Chinese people's overseas struggle and presents the brilliant and tragic epic of Chinese people in Southeast Asia, the collision of civilizations and the rejuvenation of nationality. Rare historical reviews.
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