1.
Kingdom of Tungning
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The Kingdom of Tungning or Kingdom of Formosa was a government that ruled part of southwestern Taiwan between 1661 and 1683. It was founded by Koxinga as part of the loyalist movement to restore the Ming government in China after it was overthrown by the Manchu Qing dynasty. Koxinga hoped to recapture the Chinese mainland from the Manchus by using the island as a base of operations to settle, the Kingdom of Tungning is sometimes known as the Zheng dynasty, Zheng Family Kingdom or Kingdom of Yanping. Taiwan was referred to by Koxinga as Tungtu, in the West, it was known as the Kingdom of Taiwan, and the period of rule is sometimes referred to as the Koxinga dynasty. Zheng Zhilong, a Ming admiral and father of Koxinga, accepted the Qing offer, after learning of this whilst pursuing studies overseas, Koxinga pledged to assume his father’s position and control of his remaining forces in order to re-establish Ming control of China. In 1661, Koxingas fleet forced an entry to Lakjemuyse, in return, most Dutch officials, soldiers and civilians were allowed to leave with their personal belongings and supplies and return to Batavia, ending the 38 years of Dutch colonial rule on Taiwan. Koxinga did, however, detain some Dutch women, children and he then proceeded on a tour of inspection with a contingent of nearly 100,000 soldiers to see with his own eyes the extent and condition of his new domain. Replacing the Dutch system of government previously used in Taiwan, Koxinga instituted a Ming-style administration and this system of government was divided into six departments, civil service, revenue, rites, war, punishment, and public works. Formosa was also renamed by Koxinga as Tungtu, though this name was changed by his son, Zheng Jing. The most immediate problem Koxinga faced after the invasion of Taiwan was a severe shortage of food. To address the shortage, Koxinga instituted a tuntian policy in which soldiers served the dual role of farmer when not assigned active duty in a guard battalion. Following the death of Koxinga in 1662 due to malaria, his son Zheng Jing took over the Zheng regime and this to a large extent backfired and from 1662-4 six major waves of immigration occurred from these areas to Taiwan due to the severe hardships incurred from this relocation policy. About 1,000 previous Ming government officials moved to Taiwan fleeing Qing persecution, Zheng Jing also recruited his early tutor, Chen Yong-hua, and passed to him most official government affairs. Throughout its existence, Tungning was subject to the Qing sea ban, aside from the British, Zheng major trade occurred with the Japanese and Dutch, though evidence of trade with many Asian countries exists. Following the death of Zheng Jing in 1681, the lack of an heir meant rule of Taiwan would pass to his illegitimate son. This caused great division in the government and military powers, resulting in a destructive struggle for the succession. Seizing the advantage presented by the infighting, the Qing dispatched their navy with Shi Lang at its head, several Ming dynasty Princes had accompanied Koxinga to Taiwan including the Prince of Ningjing Zhu Shugui and Prince Zhu Hónghuán, son of Zhu Yihai. The Qing sent the 17 Ming princes still living on Taiwan back to mainland China where they spent the rest of their lives, Zheng Keshuang was rewarded by the Qing Emperor with the title Duke of Haicheng and he and his soldiers were inducted into the Eight Banners
2.
Nan'an, Fujian
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Nanan is a county-level city of southern Fujian province, Peoples Republic of China. It is under the administration of Quanzhou City and as of 2010, had a population of 1,500,000. More than 3,000,000 overseas Chinese trace their ancestry to Nanan, Nanan is located on the southeastern coast of Fujian province. It has been the centre of the 3 Wu Kingdoms, Nanan history dates back 1700 years. Nanan has been the economic and cultural centre for Minnan people, Nanan experiences subtropical monsoonal humid climate. It has a temperature of 20.9 °C. It has 349 days which is frost free, the city covers an area of 2,036 square kilometres. Nanan is situated below Anxi County, adjacent to Jinjiang to the east, Nanan is 97 kilometres from Xiamen. It is 30 kilometres from Quanzhou and 220 kilometres from the provincial capital, Nanan is fast developing into an economic and industrial hub for Quanzhou prefecture. Its close proximity to economic centres such as Xiamen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen makes it an important investment location for foreign investments, Nanan has very strong rail infrastructure and road links making it a gateway for tourism as well as commerce. Hong Chengchou Zheng Zhilong Liu Zaifu Koxinga Nanan Official Government Website
3.
Fujian
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Fujian, formerly romanised as Foken, Fouken, Fukien, and Hokkien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, the name Fujian came from the combination of Fuzhou and Jianzhou two cities in Fujian, during the Tang dynasty. While its population is chiefly of Han origin, it is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces in China, most of Fujian is administered by the Peoples Republic of China. However, the archipelagos of Kinmen and Matsu are under the control of the Republic of China, thus, there are two provinces, the Fujian Province administered by the PRC and the Fujian Province of the ROC. Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian had entered the Neolithic Age by the middle of the 6th millennium BC, the Tanshishan site in suburban Fuzhou spans the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age where semi-underground circular buildings were found in the lower level. The Huangtulun site, also in suburban Fuzhou, was of the Bronze Age in character, Fujian was also the place for the kingdom of Minyue. This is because the family of Yuè fled to Fujian after their kingdom was annexed by the State of Chu in 306 BC. Mǐn is also the name of the river in this area. Minyue was a de facto kingdom until the emperor of Qin dynasty, liu Bang was victorious and founded the Han dynasty, in 202 BC, he restored Minyues status as a tributary independent kingdom. Thus, Wuzhu was allowed to construct his fortified city in Fuzhou as well as a few locations in the Wuyi Mountains and his kingdom extended beyond the borders of contemporary Fujian into eastern Guangdong, eastern Jiangxi, and southern Zhejiang. The Han emperor eventually decided to get rid of the threat by sending a military campaign against Minyue. Large forces approached Minyue simultaneously from four directions via land and sea in 111 BC, the rulers in Fuzhou surrendered to avoid a futile fight and destruction, thus the first kingdom in Fujian history came to an abrupt end. The Han dynasty collapsed at the end of the 2nd century AD, sun Quan, the founder of the Kingdom of Wu, spent nearly twenty years subduing the Shan Yue people, the branch of the Yue living in mountains. These immigrants were primarily from eight families in central China, Lin, Huang, Chen, Zheng, Zhan, Qiu, He, the first four remain as the major surnames of modern Fujian. Population density in Fujian remained low compared to the rest of China, only two commanderies and sixteen counties were established by the Western Jin dynasty. Like other southern provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, the Southern Dynasties reigned south of the Yangtze River, including Fujian. During Sui and Tang eras a large influx of migrants came, the Tang dynasty oversaw the next golden age of China and culturally and economically benefited Fujian greatly, Fujians capital Fuzhous economic and cultural instions grew and developed. The later years of the Tang dynasty saw a number of upheavals in the Chinese heartland
4.
Ming dynasty
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The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
5.
Koxinga
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Zheng Chenggong, better known in the West by his Hokkien honorific Koxinga or Coxinga was a Chinese-Japanese Ming loyalist who resisted the Qing conquest of Chinas southeastern coast. Conquering the Dutch outposts on Taiwan, he established a dynasty which ruled the island as the Kingdom of Tungning. Zheng Sen was born in 1624 in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, to Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese merchant and pirate, and a Japanese woman, recorded only by her surname Tagawa, or probably Tagawa Matsu. He was raised there until the age of seven with the Japanese name Fukumatsu, in 1638, Zheng became a Xiucai in the imperial examination and became one of the twelve Linshansheng of Nanan. In 1641, Koxinga married the niece of Dong Yangxian, an official who was a Jinshi from Huian, in 1644, Koxinga studied at the Imperial Nanking University, where he met and became a student of the scholar Qian Qianyi. In 1644, Beijing fell to rebels led by Li Zicheng, Manchu armies aided by Wu Sanguis forces defeated the rebels and took the city. The Ming remnant forces retreated to Nanjing where they put Prince Fu on the throne as the Hongguang Emperor in an attempt to continue the Ming dynasty in the south. The next year, the Manchu armies led by Dodo advanced south and conquered Yangzhou and Nanjing while the Ming leader defending Yangzhou, the Hongguang emperor was captured and executed. In 1645, Prince Tang was installed on the throne as the Longwu Emperor with support from Zheng Zhilong, the Longwu Emperor established his court in Fuzhou, which was controlled by the Zhengs. In the later part of the year, another Ming Prince Lu proclaimed himself as Regent in Shaoxing, although Prince Lu and Longwus regimes stemmed from the same dynasty, both of them pursued different goals. It was due to the defences of Fujian and the military resources of the Zheng family. The Longwu Emperor granted Zheng Zhilongs son, Zheng Sen, a new name, Chenggong. In 1646, Koxinga first led the Ming armies to resist the Manchu invaders, Zheng Zhilong ordered the defending general of Xianxia Pass, Shi Fu, to retreat to Fuzhou even when Qing armies approached Fujian. As such, the Qing army faced little resistance when it conquered the north of the pass, in September 1646, Qing armies broke through inadequately defended mountain passes and entered Fujian. Zheng Zhilong retreated to his fortress and the Longwu Emperor faced the Qing armies alone. Longwus forces were destroyed and he was captured and died shortly afterwards, the Qing forces sent envoys to meet Zheng Zhilong secretly and they offered to appoint him as the governor of both Fujian and Guangdong provinces if he would surrender to Qing. Zheng Zhilong agreed and ignored the objections of his family, surrendering himself to the Qing forces in Fuzhou on 21 November 1646, Koxinga and his uncles were left as the successors to the leadership of Zheng Zhilongs military forces. Koxinga operated outside Xiamen and recruited many to join his cause in a few months and he used the superiority of his naval forces to launch amphibious raids on Manchu-occupied territory in Fujian and he managed to take Tongan in Quanzhou prefecture in early 1647
6.
Chinese name
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Chinese personal names are names used by those from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora overseas. Prior to the 20th century, educated Chinese also utilized a courtesy name or style name called zi by which they were known among those outside of their family and closest friends. From at least the time of the Shang dynasty, the Han Chinese observed a number of naming taboos regulating who may or may not use a given name. In general, using the given name connoted the speakers authority, peers and younger relatives were barred from speaking it. Owing to this, many historical Chinese figures – particularly emperors – used a half-dozen or more different names in different contexts and those possessing names identical to the emperors were frequently forced to change them. Although some terms in the ancient Chinese naming system, such as xìng and míng, are used today, they were used in different. Commoners possessed only a name, and the modern concept of a surname or family name did not yet exist at any level of society.3 billion citizens. In fact, just the top three – Wang, Li, and Zhang – cover more than 20% of the population. This homogeneity results from the majority of Han family names having only one character. Chinese surnames arose from two separate traditions, the xìng and the shì. The original xìng were clans of royalty at the Shang court, the shì did not originate from families, but denoted fiefs, states, and titles granted or recognized by the Shang court. Apart from the Jiang and Yao families, the original xìng have nearly disappeared, xìng is now used to describe the shì surnames which replaced them, while shì is used to refer to maiden names. The enormous modern clans sometimes share ancestral halls with one another, nonetheless, however tenuous these bonds sometimes are, it remains a minor taboo to marry someone with the same family name. In modern mainland China, it is the norm that a woman keeps her name unchanged. A child usually inherits his/her fathers surname, though the law explicitly states that a child may use either parents or the grandparents. It is also possible, though far less common, for a child to both parents surnames. In the older generations, it was common for a married woman to prepend her husbands surname to her own. This practice is now almost extinct in mainland China, though there are a few such as the name change of Gu Kailai, but survives in some Hong Kong, Macau
7.
Chinese surname
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Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames existed, namely xing or lineage names, and shi or clan names, Chinese family names are patrilineal, passed from father to children. Women do not normally change their surnames upon marriage, except in places with more Western influences such as Hong Kong, traditionally Chinese surnames have been exogamous. The colloquial expressions laobaixing and bǎixìng are used in Chinese to mean ordinary folks, prior to the Warring States period, only the ruling families and the aristocratic elite had surnames. Historically there was also a difference between clan names or xing and lineages names or shi, Xing were surnames held by the noble clans. They generally are composed of a nü radical which has taken by some as evidence they originated from matriarchal societies based on maternal lineages. Another hypothesis has been proposed by sinologist Léon Vandermeersch upon observation of the evolution of characters in oracular scripture from the Shang dynasty through the Zhou, the female radical seems to appear at the Zhou period next to Shang sinograms indicating an ethnic group or a tribe. This combination seems to designate specifically a female and could mean lady of such or such clan, prior to the Qin Dynasty China was largely a fengjian society. In this way, a nobleman would hold a shi and a xing, after the states of China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, surnames gradually spread to the lower classes and the difference between xing and shi blurred. Many shi surnames survive to the present day, according to Kiang Kang-Hu, there are 18 sources from which Chinese surnames may be derived, while others suggested at least 24. The following are some of the sources, Xing, These were usually reserved for the central lineage of the royal family. Of these xings, only Jiang and Yao have survived in their form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. Royal decree by the Emperor, such as Kuang, state name, Many nobles and commoners took the name of their state, either to show their continuing allegiance or as a matter of national and ethnic identity. These are some of the most common Chinese surnames, name of a fief or place of origin, Fiefdoms were often granted to collateral branches of the aristocracy and it was natural as part of the process of sub-surnaming for their names to be used. An example is Di, Marquis of Ouyangting, whose descendants took the surname Ouyang, there are some two hundred examples of this identified, often of two-character surnames, but few have survived to the present. Names of an ancestor, Like the previous example, this was also a common origin with close to 500 or 600 examples,200 of which are two-character surnames, often an ancestors courtesy name would be used. For example, Yuan Taotu took the character of his grandfathers courtesy name Boyuan as his surname. Sometimes titles granted to ancestors could also be taken as surnames, seniority within the family, In ancient usage, the characters of meng, zhong, shu and ji were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth eldest sons in a family
8.
Zheng (surname)
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Zhèng or Cheng is a Chinese surname and also the name of an ancient state in todays Henan province. It is written as 鄭 in traditional Chinese and 郑 in simplified Chinese, in 2006, Zheng ranked 21st in Chinas list of top 100 most common surnames. Zheng belongs to the major group of ten surnames which makes up more than 10% of the Chinese population. Zheng was a surname of the rich and powerful during Chinas Tang dynasty. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, the name is romanized as Cheng or Tcheng. It is commonly romanized as Cheng, Cheang and Teh in Malaysia, Tay in Singapore and Te in Indonesia, from the Hakka, Hokkien and it also pronounces Dâng in Hokchew. The surname also has taken form outside of Chinese societies, in Vietnamese as Trịnh, in Korean, the name is written 정 and transliterated as Chung, Jung, or Jeong. It is the fifth most common Korean surname, with about 4. 85% of the South Korean population having this name, the Zheng surname originated in Henan. In 806 BC, King Xuan, the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, enfeoffed his younger brother Prince You. Duke Huan was killed along with King You of Zhou when the Quanrong tribes sacked the Zhou capital Haojing in 771 BC. Duke Huan was succeeded by his son Duke Wu, who helped King Ping of Zhou establish the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Luoyang and his descendants and many people of the state later adopted Zheng as their surname. Moriya Mitsuo wrote a history of the Later Han-Tang period of the Taiyuan Wang, among the strongest families was the Taiyuan Wang. He was the son of Wang Chulian who in turn was the son of Wang Zhou, the marriages between the families were performed clandestinely after the prohibition was implemented on the seven families by Gaozong. Their status as Seven Great surnames became known during Gaozongs rule, there are over 400 Zhengs listed in the Whos Who in Chinese History. Yow Yit Seng,2006, Malaysia, 1st Edition, ISBN 967-978-927-6
9.
Taiwanese Romanization System
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The Taiwanese Romanization System is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been promoted by Taiwans Ministry of Education. It is nearly identical to Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Romanization for Hakka apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters,7 digraphs and a trigraph. In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones, nn is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it has no capital letter. Palatalization occurs when J, S, Ts, Tsh followed by i, so Ji, Si, Tsi, of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, R is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels, while the others are only used in loanwords. O pronounced ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, ㄛ in Taipei, -nn forms the nasal vowels There is also syllabic m and ng. ing pronounced, ik pronounced. A hyphen links elements of a compound word, a double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi. 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan
10.
Courtesy name
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A courtesy name, also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to ones given name. This practice is a tradition in East Asian cultures, including China, Japan, Korea, formerly in China, the zi would replace a males given name when he turned twenty, as a symbol of adulthood and respect. It could be either by the parents or by the first personal teacher on the first day of family school. Females might substitute their given name for a zi upon marriage, one also may adopt a self-chosen courtesy name. In China the popularity of the custom has declined to some extent since the May Fourth Movement in 1919, a courtesy name is not to be confused with an art name, another frequently mentioned term for an alternative name in Asian culture-based context. An art name is associated with art and is more of a literary name or a pseudonym that is more spontaneous. The zì, sometimes called the biǎozì or courtesy name, is a name given to Chinese males at the age of 20. It was sometimes given to females upon marriage, the practice is no longer common in modern Chinese society. According to the Book of Rites, after a man reaches adulthood, it is disrespectful for others of the generation to address him by his given name. The zì is mostly disyllabic and is based on the meaning of the míng or given name. Yan Zhitui of the Northern Qi dynasty believed that while the purpose of the míng was to one person from another. The relation which exists between a persons zì and míng may be seen in the case of Chiang Kai-shek, whose ming was Zhōngzhèng. Thus he was also called 蔣中正（Chiang Chung-cheng）in some context, another way to form a zì is to use the homophonic character zǐ – a respectful title for a male – as the first character of the disyllabic zì. Thus, for example, Gongsun Qiaos zì was Zǐchǎn, and Du Fus and it is also common to construct a zì by using as the first character one which expresses the bearers birth order among male siblings in his family. Thus Confucius, whose name was Kǒng Qiū, was given the zì Zhòngní, the characters commonly used are bó for the first, zhòng for the second, shū for the third, and jì typically for the youngest, if the family consists of more than three sons. General Sun Jians four sons, for instance, were Sun Ce, Sun Quan, Sun Yi, the use of zì began during the Shang dynasty, and slowly developed into a system which became most widespread during the succeeding Zhou dynasty. During this period, women were also given zì, the zì given to a woman was generally composed of a character indicating her birth order among female siblings and her surname. For example, Mèng Jiāng was the eldest daughter in the Jiāng family, prior to the twentieth century, sinicized Koreans, Vietnamese, and Japanese were also referred to by their zì
11.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
12.
Zheng Zhilong
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Zheng Zhilong, also known as Nicholas Iquan Gaspard, was a Chinese merchant, pirate and military leader in the late Ming dynasty who later defected to the Qing dynasty. He was the father of Zheng Chenggong, the founder of the pro-Ming Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan. After his defection, he was enfeoffed as a Count of the Second Rank by the Qing government, Zheng was born in Nanan, Fujian, the son of Zheng Shaozu, a mid-level financial official for the Quanzhou government, and Zheng Shaozus wife Lady Huang. Contemporary biographies tell an apocryphal story of how when Zheng was a child, he. They found a tree in an enclosed courtyard but whose branches hung over the top of the wall into the street. They threw stones in the hope of knocking some of the fruit clusters loose and it happened to be the courtyard of the governor of Quanzhou City, and he was struck by the stones. The boys ran but were caught and hauled before the governor, due to the childs age and apparent charisma, the governor forgave Zheng and released him, saying This is the face of one destined for wealth and nobility. The story may or may not be true, but it encapsulated the character of Zheng, he ran wild, grasped at low hanging fruit, got in trouble, Zheng left home as a teenager, jumping aboard a merchant ship. Sources vary on why he left home, some saying he slipped his hand up his stepmothers skirt, Zheng went to Macau where his mothers brother lived. He was baptized as a Catholic in Macau, receiving the Christian name Nicholas Gaspard. His uncle asked him to some cargo to Nagasaki, Japan, where he met a rich old Min man named Li Dan, also known as Captain China. Li Dan had close ties with the Europeans and he arranged for Zheng to work as an interpreter for the Dutch. In 1622, when Dutch forces took over the Pescadores archipelago off the Taiwan Strait, before leaving Japan he met and married a local woman named Tagawa Matsu. He impregnated her with Zheng Chenggong, leaving Japan before she gave birth in 1624, after Li died in 1623, Zheng acquired his fleet of ships. The Dutch, wishing to control and monopolize commerce routes to Japan, Zheng initially worked as a translator but soon became a highly successful pirate under the tutelage of the Dutch, who provided ships and weapons in exchange for a cut of the loot. Zheng prospered and by 1627 he was leading four hundred junks and he built ten outposts on Taiwans southwestern coastal region, between Tainan and Chiayi, but was evicted shortly after when the Dutch arrived on the island. Shibazhi were an organization of 18 well-known Chinese pirates, founded in 1625 by Zheng Zhilong. Members included Shi Langs father Shi Daxuan and they began to challenge the Ming fleet and won a series of victories
13.
Siege of Fort Zeelandia
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The Siege of Fort Zeelandia, which took place in 1661 and 1662, ended the Dutch East India Companys rule over Taiwan and began the Kingdom of Tungnings rule over the island. Taiwanese scholar Lu Chien-jung described this event as a war that determined the fate of Taiwan in the four hundred years that follow. The Dutch had been defeated in a war over the Pescadores from 1623–1624, and again at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay where the Chinese were led by Zheng Zhilong, the father of Koxinga. By 1632, the Dutch had established a post on a peninsula named Tayoan, the Dutch fortification consisted of two forts around the bay. The first was the multiple-walled Fort Zeelandia situated at the entrance to the bay, the second was Fort Provintia, a walled administrative office located at the bay, which was smaller in size. Frederick Coyett, the governor of Taiwan for the company, was stationed in Fort Zeelandia with 1,800 men, his subordinate, Valentyn, was in charge of Fort Provintia, on March 23,1661 Koxingas fleet set sail from Kinmen. His fleet consisted of hundreds of junks of various sizes, with roughly 25,000 soldiers and sailors aboard and they arrived in the Pescadores the next day, left a garrison there. On March 30 they left the Pescadores, on April 2 the fleet arrived at Tayoan. After passing through a shallow waterway unknown to the Dutch, they landed at the bay of Lakjemuyse, Koxinga was abundantly provided with cannons and ammunition in addition to two companies of former Dutch slaves of African descent who had learned to use small arms. They caused much harm to the Dutch during the war and his troops wore iron scale armor and either used two handed swords, swords and shields, or bows and arrows. Swordsmen were intended to cause fearful massacre amongst the fugitives after enemy lines were smashed through by shield bearers, on April 4 Valentyn surrendered to Koxingas army after it laid siege to Fort Provintia. The rapid assault had caught Valentyn unprepared since he had believed the fort was protected by Fort Zeelandia, on April 7, Koxingas troop surrounded Fort Zeelandia and demanded the garrisons surrender by sending the captured Dutch priest Antonius Hambroek as emissary to persuade the garrison to surrender. Hambroek, however, urged the garrison to resist instead of surrender, Koxinga ordered his artillery to advance and used 28 cannon to bombard the fort. Koxingas fleet then began massive bombardment, and troops on the ground attempted to storm the fort, Koxinga then changed his tactics and laid siege to the fort. On May 28, news of the siege reached Jakarta, on July 5 the relief force arrived and engaged in some small scale confrontations with Koxingas fleet. On July 23 the two sides gave battle as the Dutch fleet attempted to break Koxingas blockade, after a brief engagement, the Dutch fleet was forced to retreat with two ships sunk, three smaller vessels captured, and 130 casualties. In October the Dutch attempted to break the siege again but were repulsed back by the besieging army, in December Koxinga decided to launch another assault, based on news of low morale among the garrison from deserted German mercenaries, which ended unsuccessful. Koxinga followed his advice and the Dutch redoubt fell a day later, on January 12 Koxingas fleet began another bombardment, while the ground force prepare to assault the fort
14.
Xiamen
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Xiamen, formerly romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts, Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tongan, Haicang, altogether, these cover an area of 1,699.39 square kilometers with a population of 3,531,347 as of 2010. The urbanized area of the city has spread from its original island to include parts of all six of its districts and this area connects to Quanzhou in the north and Zhangzhou in the west, making up a metropolis of more than five million people. The Jinmen or Kinmen Islands administered by the Republic of China lie less than 6 kilometers away, Xiamen Island was considered to possess one of the worlds great natural harbors in Yundang Bay, but Fujians international trade was long restricted to Quanzhou or to Guangzhou in Guangdong. Due to the siltification of Quanzhous harbor, the British insisted that Xiamen be opened to trade in the treaty that ended the First Opium War in 1842. The overseas Chinese continue to support Xiamens educational and cultural institutions, as part of Chinas Opening Up Policy under Deng Xiaoping, Xiamen became one of the original four special economic zones opened to foreign investment and trade in the early 1980s. Its former harbor was enclosed using land excavated during the citys expansion, the city is known for its mild climate, Hokkien culture and colonial architecture, as well as its relatively low pollution. In 2006, Xiamen was ranked as Chinas 2nd-most suitable city for living, the area around Xiamen Bay appears as Tongan in some Han records. Xiamen Island was described as Jiahe Islet c. 976 and it received its present name from the Xiamen Castle erected on the island by Zhou Dexing in 1387 during the Ming. The name was written using the Chinese characters meaning Lower Gate. When its port prospered under the Qing, the name was considered unrefined and changed to homophonous characters meaning Mansion Gate, Xiamen is the atonal pinyin romanization of the characters pronunciation in Mandarin. It has also been romanized as Hiamen, the former English name Amoy was based on the same names pronunciation in the Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien, Ē-mûi. Xiamen was also named Siming for a few years during its occupation by the loyalist Southern Ming forces of Koxinga, the Qing restored the former name upon their conquest of the area, but Koxingas name was in turn restored after the Xinhai Revolution that inaugurated the republic in 1912. The name Xiamen was later restored again but Siming continues to be used as the name of one of its districts, Xiamen is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian whose urban core grew up from the port of Xiamen on southern Xiamen Island, now located within Siming District. It now also includes Gulangyu Island and the rugged coast of the mainland from the northeast bank of the Jiulong River in the west to the islands of Xiangan in the east, Xiamen Island lies about one degree north of the Tropic of Cancer. It is divided between Huli District in the north and Siming District in the south and its mainland territory is divided among Haicang, Jimei, Tongan, and Xiangan districts. In the 19th century, Xiamens harbor on Yundang Bay was considered one of the great natural harbors. Land reclamation has since used to fill in the mouth of this inlet
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Kinmen
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It is one of two counties under the streamlined Fujian Province of the Republic of China. Due to the issue of the political status of Taiwan. Kinmen was given its name in 1387 when the Hongwu Emperor of Chinas Ming dynasty appointed an officer to administer the island. The name is pronounced Jīnmén in the official Standard Chinese but some of the names used in English for the islands derive from other Chinese varieties. Quemoy is the name for the island in English and in many European languages and it likely began as a Portuguese transcription of the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation of the name, Kim-mûi. This form of the name was used almost exclusively in English until the late 20th century and is still used widely in current English-language contexts that involve historical coverage. For example, current works that deal with the First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises when the islands received prominent worldwide news coverage as Quemoy still use this form, in addition, the former National Kinmen Institute of Technology was renamed National Quemoy University in 2010. Kinmen scholar Wei Jian-feng advocates the use of Quemoy to better connect the island to international society or achieve more recognition in the world, Kinmen is a more recent transcription based on the general rules of the postal romanization system. With some exceptions, this form is used in most current English-language contexts on Kinmen, entities such as the county government, the islands airport, and the national park use this spelling. Chin-men is the Wade–Giles romanization form of the name and appears on some maps using that as their standard. Jinmen is the Hanyu Pinyin form of the name used especially in sources from the Peoples Republic of China. People began settling down in Kinmen during the Tang Dynasty, changing the name from Wuzhou to Kinmen. During the Ming Dynasty, more came to settle down in Kinmen. Koxinga used Kinmen as a base to liberate Kinmen and Penghu from the Dutch and he cut down trees to build his navy, resulting in massive deforestation that made Kinmen vulnerable to soil erosion. The Prince of Lu, a member of the Southern Ming Dynasty, in 1651, he fled to Kinmen, which the Qing dynasty took in 1663. Although Taiwan and Penghu had been ceded to Japan in 1895 via the Treaty of Shimonoseki, after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Kinmen became part of Fukien Province. Japan did however occupy Kinmen during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, after the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in October 1949, it was later claimed by both the ROC and PRC. The Peoples Liberation Army extensively shelled the island during the First, in 1954, the United States considered responding by using nuclear weapons against the PRC
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Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
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Kangxi Emperor
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The Kangxi Emperors reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning emperor in Chinese history and one of the longest-reigning rulers in the world. However, since he ascended the throne at the age of seven, actual power was held for six years by four regents and his grandmother, the Kangxi Emperor is considered one of Chinas greatest emperors. The Kangxi Emperors reign brought about stability and relative wealth after years of war. He initiated the period known as the Prosperous Era of Kangxi and Qianlong or High Qing and his court also accomplished such literary feats as the compilation of the Kangxi Dictionary. Born on 4 May 1654 to the Shunzhi Emperor and Empress Xiaokangzhang in Jingren Palace, the Forbidden City, Beijing and he was enthroned at the age of seven, on 7 February 1661. His era name Kangxi, however, only started to be used on 18 February 1662, large bright eyes lighted up his face, which was pitted with smallpox. Before the Kangxi Emperor came to the throne, Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang had appointed the powerful men Sonin, Suksaha, Ebilun, Sonin died after his granddaughter became Empress Xiaochengren, leaving Suksaha at odds with Oboi in politics. In a fierce struggle, Oboi had Suksaha put to death. The Kangxi Emperor and the rest of the imperial court acquiesced in this arrangement, in 1669, the Kangxi Emperor had Oboi arrested with the help of his grandmother Grand Dowager Empress Xiaozhuang, who had raised him. And began taking control of the empire. He listed three issues of concern, flood control of the Yellow River, repair of the Grand Canal, the Grand Empress Dowager influenced him greatly and he took care of her himself in the months leading up to her death in 1688. The main army of the Qing Empire, the Eight Banners Army, was in decline under the Kangxi Emperor. It was smaller than it had been at its peak under Hong Taiji and in the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor, however. In addition, the Green Standard Army was still powerful with generals such as Tuhai, Fei Yanggu, Zhang Yong, Zhou Peigong, Shi Lang, Mu Zhan, Shun Shike and Wang Jingbao. The main reason for decline was a change in system between the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors reigns. The Kangxi Emperor continued using the military system implemented by his predecessors. According to the system, a commander who returned from a battle alone would be put to death and this was meant to motivate both commanders and soldiers alike to fight valiantly in war because there was no benefit for the sole survivor in a battle. By the Qianlong Emperors reign, military commanders had become lax and this was because commanders statuses had become hereditary, a general gained his position based on the contributions of his forefathers
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Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
