Editor's Guide:
In May of the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1662 AD), Zheng Chenggong, who was hailed by posterity as a "national hero", unfortunately died of illness at the age of 39. The following year, his eldest son Zheng Jing, with the assistance of his courtier Chen Yonghua, cut off Zheng Xun (Zheng Chenggong's brother) and his henchmen in one fell swoop, quickly quelled the "Yanping Throne Dispute" that broke out between his uncles and nephews, and successfully regained his original right to rule. In the nearly two decades that followed, the central government of the Qing Dynasty did everything in its power to achieve the goal of eliminating the "Ming Zheng regime", but its method basically stayed in the extremely flexible strategy of appeasement and abduction (sometimes small-scale military conflicts broke out), and the fundamental reason was mainly limited to the lack of strength of its own water division and the lack of trustworthy and excellent water division generals, so that the relationship between the "Ming Zheng regime" and the Qing government was basically stagnant during zheng jing's reign.
Portrait of Zheng Chenggong
According to relevant historical records, during the reign of Zheng Jing, the number of peace negotiations (or solicitations) between the Qing government and the "Ming Zheng regime" was a total of 9 times, during which time, although the demands and sincerity of the qing and Zheng sides were different, the outcome ended in failure. To take the most obvious example: in the first few solicitations, the "final conditions" proposed by the Qing court were basically based on the requirement of "cutting hair", and the rest could be discussed separately, after this condition was repeatedly rejected by Zheng Jing, the Qing court simply gave up this condition, and when the Qing court gave up this condition, Zheng Bu did not think so, and a face of inching forward eventually led to the breakdown of negotiations again and again. Looking at the entire process of several negotiations between the Qing court and Zheng Jing, it is not difficult to find that they all developed according to this "routine", that is, when the Qing government promised the harsh conditions put forward by Zheng Bu, Zheng Jing once again proposed more stringent conditions. So what is the root cause of this outcome? Was it that the conditions put forward by the Qing government were not sincere, or did Zheng Jing, who was far away from the overseas, never think of negotiating peace with the Qing government? In this article, the author starts from this idea, and at the same time combines the assistance of some relevant historical materials to make a specific exploration of the real reasons for the repeated discussions and failures between the Qing Dynasty and the "Ming Zheng Regime".
The research content of this article:
01. Negotiation details (in chronological order)
The first time, between the first year of kangxi and the second year of kangxi.
At that time, the "Ming Zheng regime" was in the chaos of the "Yanping throne dispute", and the Manchu Qing rulers wanted to take this opportunity to launch offensive tactics against Zhengbu in an attempt to recover the Jin and Xia islands occupied by zheng. Therefore, the peace proposal proposed by the Qing side this time actually had no substantive effect, but only to provide tactical support for the armed seizure of Jinxia. Historical records record that the peace conference was not directly interfered with by the imperial court, to put it bluntly, the peace was completely proposed by the local officials in Fujian according to the war situation, so it was difficult for the Qing side to give any promises in terms of specific decision-making power, but only asked Zheng Jing to make a partial concession according to the conditions put forward in previous years (Xu Yizhang, Quan, Chao, Huisifu, landing). In the end, Zheng Jing gave his resignation on the grounds that "people landed on the shore and planted a difficult week".
The second time, in October of the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty.
When the combined forces of the Qing and the Dutch captured Jin and Xia, Zheng Jing led his troops to retreat to Tongshan in an all-round way. Geng Jimao, the king of Jingnan, and the governor of Fujian (a local official) again sent envoys to Tongshan to appease him, but eventually zheng jing refused to cut his hair and landed.
The third time, the sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1667 AD).
This time, the Qing court put forward three conditions for trade, the title of minister, and the sending of sons to Beijing, hoping that Zheng Jing could lead the people to surrender, but Zheng Jing refused on the grounds that "the policy of collegial discussion cannot last long, and the aspirations of the first king must not fall".
The fourth time, the ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1670 AD).
This time, the Qing court sent Nalan Mingzhu, who was then the Shangshu of the Punishment Department, to Taiwan to solicit caresses, and the two sides basically reached a consensus on the two major opinions of "Nagong as a vassal, Xu Qi's feudal title, and the world's defense of Taiwan", but there was a big disagreement on the issue of whether to "cut hair", so that the solicitation failed again. Historical records:
Zheng Jing said: "If you can follow the example of the DPRK, do not cut your hair, call the subject of tribute, and respect the meaning of the big thing, then you can do it."
And the pearl is: "Xu Qi's domain is sealed, and the world guards Taiwan." But "Korea is a foreign country that has never been owned, Zheng Jing is a Chinese person, and Taiwan is China's territory." If it is not easy to obey, it is difficult to return to sincerity, on what basis? ——"Historical Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties"
Zhengjing Temple
The fifth time, in April of the fifteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1676 AD).
This "expedition" was sent by the Qing court to send an envoy, Nai Kang Jieshu, and its end was still due to Zheng Jing's stubbornness in "not cutting hair" and ended in failure.
Sixth, in December of the same year.
The envoys were Zhang Zhongju, the prefect of Quanzhou, and Bian Yongyu, the prefect of Xinghua. This time, the Qing side said that as long as Zheng Bu ceded the coastal islands, it could agree to the original request of "following the Korean precedent", but Zheng Jing proposed:
"If you want to reassure the people, you must first stop the troops, and if you can do so, you must first pay the four provinces of the first domain, and each of them will guard the island, and the people will be at peace."
The peace talks failed.
The seventh time, in September of the seventeenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1678 AD).
Prior to this, the Qing army had captured Zhangzhou and Quan counties, but Haicheng was still occupied by Zheng's army, and in order to be able to reclaim Haicheng, the governor of Fujian, Yao Qisheng, sent people to negotiate peace, and finally zheng jing still refused on the grounds that "Haicheng was the gateway to Xiamen and refused to let it be returned".
Eighth time, in October of the same year.
Yao Qisheng, who was unwilling to accept the failure of the first negotiation, once again sent people to negotiate peace, but unfortunately its ending was still unsatisfactory.
The ninth time, May of the eighteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty.
The Qing side made only one request this time, that is, as long as Zheng Bu returned to Taiwan, he could only pay tribute and be a vassal without cutting his hair. However, after accepting these conditions, Zheng Fang added two harsh requirements of "Hai cheng as a public office" and "paying 60,000 taels of money for the east and the west" every year, and the negotiations eventually failed.
Portrait of Zheng Jing
02. Cause analysis
Based on the negotiation process of the first five times, it is not difficult to find that the two sides have acknowledged that the two points of the Zheng clan "allowing him to be feudal and the world to defend Taiwan" and the title of subject of The Nagamasa are actually not much dispute, mainly stuck on the issue of whether zheng bu "cuts his hair and changes his clothes". For the Manchu rulers, "haircutting" was an indication of whether they were on the same side. In short, this move seems to be a disagreement on the superficial issue of "hair cutting", but in fact it is a huge conflict in which both sides cannot compromise on their political positions, which is the root cause of the failure of the first five negotiations.
From the details of the last four discussions, it can also be carefully observed that the Qing side's position in the negotiation process and the degree of tightening of the conditions put forward changed in line with the situation of the "Ming Zheng regime" in the coastal areas, for example, when the Zheng army was tightly arranged along the coast, causing the Qing army to have no gap to take advantage of, the Qing side not only agreed to Zheng Jing's original request for "aiding the DPRK case", but also agreed to Zheng Bu's resolute statement of "not cutting hair and changing obedience". Obviously, this situation had achieved the purpose that Zheng Jing wanted in the early stage of the negotiations, but at this time, Zheng Jing was not willing to surrender, so much so that he put forward absurd conditions such as "exchanging the four provinces of Zhang, Quan, Hui, and Chao" or "using Hai cheng as the office for the two sides to travel", resulting in several negotiations ending in failure. From the facts mentioned above, it can also be indirectly inferred that in fact, Zheng Jing's heart is not willing to surrender at all, and the material conditions of enjoying lifelong wealth such as the so-called "Xu Qi's feudalism and the world's protection of Taiwan" may be really dismissive to him, and his real ideal is to inherit his father's aspirations and restore the Ming Dynasty! Of course, as for his thoughts in his later years (after the failure of the Western Expedition), it is difficult for us to speculate, but what I can be sure of is that his early ambitions were by no means as simple as "defending Taiwan in the world".
bibliography:
Historical Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Huang Yuzhai: "Zheng Chenggong and Taiwan"
Chen Kongli: Discussion on the Incident of the Surrender of Zheng's Officers and Soldiers
Chen Xin: "Zheng Jing Research" and so on